Cruisin'

Sunday Bryant and I "had the opportunity" to speak in our cute little Bushwick 1st Branch. The 80 or so people are really quite awesome. After the meeting I had two sets of missionary couples come up to me and say, "We're fellow Aggies!" or "We're originally from Logan! We miss it!" 

There was a couple from Idaho Falls visiting their son who is also going to NYU. After my talk the guy walks up to me and says, "As soon as I heard you were from Weston I turned to my wife and said 'I need to go tell her I'll be in Preston on Tuesday!'" They were super sweet and all the ensuing talk of Weston/Preston/Logan made me a tiny bit homesick. (Not much...but I do miss the mountains and the standard grid system for roads.)

Another tiny little Filipino woman started talking to us after Sunday school and told us about the first time she attended the Bushwick Branch. She said she had been picturing what church is like in Utah but she was surprised to find a tiny branch with lots of different people. My favorite quote from her was, "When I came and saw, I say, I pray: 'Oh Lord! I ask for diversity! You give me DIVERSITY. Oh Lord!'"

After the mile walk back to our apartment (according to other branch members, a mile away is REALLY close. Everyone else either drives or has to catch the bus.) we changed and went into the city to go on a "Sunset Cruise" with the NYU Law group.

At Chelsea Piers

Our lovely boat. "The Spirit of New York"

We got there a little early so we had to hang out on the deck for quite a while.

(They threatened that the boat was leaving at exactly 6:30 with or without you, then it left at 6:50. Standard Mormon Time.)

The bartender asked where I was from and how long I'd been in the city while I was getting our cokes.
When I went back about an hour later he said, "UTAH! What's goin' on! Lemme get yo cokes."
I guess when it's an open bar and we're the only two people drinking soda, it's pretty easy to remember us.

The boat left from Chelsea Pier 61

Bry was really eyeing down this driving range.

He was also calculating how many clubs he was going to bring with him when he comes back because (naturally) he wouldn't bring his whole bag...

Lower Manhattan

To the left is New Jersey, to the right is Manhattan

Me-ow!

It was SUCH a beautiful night!

This is what my hair was doing the entire time. It was one big knot when we returned.
(A 'knot'. Haha! Get it? Cause we're on a boat...ok, you get it.)

Beautiful sunset looking back at the Statue of Liberty!

Governors Island

(Which I learned that the 203 acres were under military command from the 1700s through 1996, making it the oldest continuously operated military post in U.S. history.)

Looking towards the Brooklyn Bridge with the Williamsburg Bridge just beyond that.

My beloved Brooklyn

Kind of hard to see, but that's the Empire State Building in the distance.