2016 Mystery Trip to New York City

Greetings friends! As you may, or may not know, my employer does an annual Mystery Trip to reward us employees for our hard work and dedication to the cause. This year was my first time attending the Mystery Trip as I am new to the company. The trips in the past have been to such awesome places as Chicago, Boston, DC, Mackinaw Island, Vermont, South Carolina, Reynolds Plantation in Georgia and Minneapolis among others. This year the trip was to New York City. The Island of Manhattan to be exact. The day started out with us having no real clue where we were going. Sure we all had our guesses, in fact four of us from the office correctly guessed NYC. Others guessed cities such as St. Louis, Chicago, Orlando or Philly. I was quite sure in my guess based on the clues that we were given by the owner of the company. Here's the funny thing about the clues... Everyone was convinced that they were right about the city they guessed based on the clues. I was sure that I was right because I made the clues work to New York City. However, those that guessed Chicago made the clues work for Chicago. Those that guessed Philly did the same as did those that guessed St. Louis. We all met at Gerald R Ford International Airport in beautiful Grand Rapids to meet Max to find out where we were going. We were handed our itinerary and opened it to find we were indeed going to NYC! We were all, 38 of us total, very excited to be headed anywhere, let alone NYC. Most of us had never been, including Holly and me. The plane left right on time at 9:55 and in less than two hours we were on the ground at Newark International. Once we were on the ground and had our luggage we boarded a luxury motor coach and headed for Brookfield Place in Manhattan for lunch. Brookfield Place is an upscale mall with an upscale food court. I decided to take my chances on pizza, thinking it would be awesome to experience actual New York Pizza and not just the kind from Pizza Hut. Well, it was good, but it wasn't anything to write home about. Bummer!! After lunch we walked across the street to the National September 11 Memorial Museum

The museum was incredible and very moving. Reliving those moments from that day was quite powerful. To see the remains of the twin towers and hear the stories of survival were quite overwhelming. From the reflecting pools to the remains of Engine 3 it was an incredible tour that I won't soon forget.

After this tour we were taken to our hotel in the heart of Manhattan and then set free to explore the city on our own until we had to meet for dinner! Holly and I took advantage of this time to relax and get some rest in our room. Dinner... Oh my goodness, let's talk about Friday night dinner! We made the 15 block walk from our hotel to China Grill. This place was amazing. We started out with some fantastic appetizers. The Confucius Chicken Salad is one of the yummiest things I've ever eaten. The appetizers were followed by three different entree's and desserts. We all left China Grill stuffed beyond belief and were again set free in the city! A group of us were off to Times Square to take in the sights and see the lights. Although it was sprinkling rain, it did not dampen our spirits and Times Square did not disappoint.

Well that's enough for today. Come back next time and we'll talk about Saturday!!