1,067 Miles

I am so excited to blog this adventure. This will be terribly long and have a ridiculous amount of pictures, so be prepared. I have so many things to talk about and stories to tell. I will start with a little intro about my buddy Erica.

A friend of mine told me about a group she had heard of called I Run 4 Michael. It is basically a nonprofit that matches runners with children who are sick/ have special needs, etc. Once paired up, as a runner I dedicate all my miles ran, races and running to my buddy. I run for someone who can't. I talk to her and her mom weekly through Facebook. I send her all my race goodies and send lots of love and hugs and prayers! Erica is my buddy. She is 12 years old. She lives in Russell, Massachusetts. She has quite an extensive list of diseases she suffers from. But the worst is mastocytosis. She is essentially allergic to everything. She never knows when it's going to hit or what will cause a reaction. Smelling bleach and alcohol are always a dead trigger though. She also has epilepsy, narcolepsy, Juvenile Parkinson, chrons disease and tourette syndrome. She is an an amazing little girl with a strong will to live! She undergoes weekly infusions of special meds to treat her mastocytosis. They are painful and uncomfortable, but it's better than the monthly treks to Boston she used to have to take to receive the meds 2 hours away.

You can read more about Erica here:
http://thehawkinsfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/i-run-4.html

Now, back to the trip. I was matched with Erica in December of 2013. I decided in February 2014 to virtually run to my awesome buddies house. As you know I live in Georgia. 1,067 miles away to be exact. She liked the idea of me running to her so we started the challenge. It took me over a year, but I finally made it! It was important to me to run my last to Erica's house. I really wanted to meet her and her family (I have grown very close to them in the last year). So I thought this would be the perfect time. (I re-thought the timing of the trip later while running through feet of snow...) As I began to look at flights and plan my trip, I thought about how Erica would really like to meet the girls and how she would enjoy hanging out with them.. after all I am still an old 'momma' and not much fun for a 12 year old So I decided to take the trip for winter break. After talking with Kolleen, Erica's mom, she mentioned seeing some other sites while we were there. So I had the idea to take the girls into New York before heading to meet Erica. 

New York Day 1: We dropped off Kennedy at Mema's house Thursday morning and took an 11:45 flight to New York. When we arrived at Laguardia and got the luggage we noticed an entire wheel was broken off and there was a huge hole in the bottom of my bag! Keep in mind we just got here and still have to haul this suitcase all over Manhattan and then to Connecticut and then to Massachusetts and BACK to Connecticut and then back to Atlanta. .!I was a little stressed out, but we took the bag to the Delta claim office and they offered me and new bag similar to mine (but not nearly large enough) or to have it fixed when we returned home. My only option was to take my broken bag and worry about fixing it later. So, off we went. We used MTA (the city's mass transit) to go from place to place. This cost us a total of 30 bucks. Saved me a fortune. I'm not scared of buses or subways. The girls found them very exciting! We made it to the hotel around 4:00. We unloaded our stuff and put on several layers of clothes. The temperature was about 15 degrees. With 25 mph winds. Cold was an understatement. You could only see our eyes when we left our hotel room and we could barely move for all the long Johns and sweatshirts. It was hilarious. We spent Thursday night shopping in Time Square. We went to Toysrus, The Disney Store, the Hershey store, the M&M store, and I can't even remember the rest!

PEEPS!

M&M Store

Hershey Store

The girls finally got hungry and we stopped and had a nice dinner at the Olive Garden. Like everything else in the big apple, Olive Garden was huge too. We walked at least 1/4 mile to our table.. 3 stories up. When we left Olive Garden it was getting insanely cold. I think it was like 10 degrees by this point. The wind chill was -10 or so. We hurried back towards our hotel. We made a stop at the famous Justin's for cheesecake to go.

Justin's Famous Cheesecake

We decided to tour Madame Tuesads wax museum before heading back to our hotel. We had the best. time. ever. at the wax museum. 9 floors of the most amazing famous people! They finally had to kick us out since it was closing time. We selfies with almost every figure in the place. Jennifer Aniston, President Obama, the Beatles. .. Taylor Swift, Katniss.. you name it! They looked so real it was creepy at first. But I wasn't long before we were hugging them and kissing them and sitting on their laps.. We finally made it back to hotel to rest up for our big day touring the city.

Katniss

Steven Spieldburg

Albert Einstein

Abe

The Obama's

Elton John

Pele

Yao Ming

Rhianna

New York Day 2: I made the girls get up early. We had a lot to see and not a lot of time to see it in. We started the day off at Macy's. 9 floors of madness. Luckily, it's right beside the Empire State building so we grabbed a quick picture and went inside. The girls both found a beautiful formal dress for the next cruise. They were very excited. We joked about them trying the dresses on. It would have taken them all day to get all those layers of clothes off they had put on if they tried them on in the dressing room! So we just best guessed the right size. 

Empire State Building

9 Floors!

The original wooden escalators

After Macy's we took the subway to the World Trade Center memorial site. It was windy and cold, but the girls were glad to have seen it. We stopped by Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty. The girls said they didn't want to go to Ellis Island for up close views, they were happy with seeing her from a distance. Fine by me

World Trade Center Site Reflection Pool

Flowers in the names on the memorial

Statue of Liberty

Battery Park

We got back on the subway and made our way to Chinatown. This was what the girls had been looking forward to most. We browsed canal street and made our way to our lunch spot. The New York Noodletown. This is a very famous local restaurant in the heart of Chinatown. It did not disappoint! The girls had shrimp fried rice, I had roasted duck and fried rice (carved right off the stick of ducks hanging in the window) and of course we had to try the noodles! They served us delicious hot green tea too. I loved this experience and the food was amazing! As we made our way back to the subway station we strolled Mott Street and visited a local grocery store. The girls bought some Chinese treats that we couldn't pronounce. Some of them were good. Some not so much. Jada bought a cute purse with some of her money. 

NY Noodle Company

Hanging roasted meat, kinda strange

Vegetable noodles we shared. Yum!

Roasted duck fried rice!

Rice cakes

Jada's strange candy from the market in Chinatown

We headed to Central Park after Chinatown. The girls and I had never ice skated before and I thought this would be after great place to try it out! Center Park looked different. It was covered in snow! I had never been to New York in the winter and didn't realize everything was white! The girls were still impressed with Central Park and it's size, despite the lack of greenery, which to me is what makes Central Park so awesome. We found our way to Wollman Rink. We rented skates and laced up. We all three love, love, love to roller skate, so I was hoping we wouldn't be too terrible at ice skating. I was nervous as we approached the ice. Jada took off fast as can be, very confident that she would be a pro. And she was. We all were! We were zipping around the rink in no time! We had a ball spinning and turning and trying tricks. We skated an hour, until the Zamboni break. The girls insisted on watching and being the FIRST ones on the smooth rink. So we waited. And Jada was proudly the first one out on the ice and the first one to make a full lap. We skated about 3 hours. We didn't want to leave! But we still had 5th Ave to explore. 

Exploring Central Park, which was covered in snow.

Wollman Rink, where we ice skated.

We went to FAO Schwartz and picked out all the stuffed animals we wanted. Among our favorites the $800 elephant and $700 baby giraffe. We decided to pass on the animals seeing how they probably wouldn't fit on the plane. We strolled 5th Ave with stops at the Apple store and Tiffany's. I just HAD to show them the little blue boxes and million dollar necklaces. We stopped in the Momofuka ' Milk bar for cereal milk and cookies. This was a highlight for sure. The girls were obsessed with the cereal flavored milk. We finished up our shopping at the massive American Girl store. Four floors of things to see. Jada spent the rest of her money here. She has been wanting a pet washing station for a while, so that is what she bought. We stopped in a beautiful Episcopalian church and by Rockefeller Center. We used the subway to get back to Time Square to where we were staying (the Westin ). 

FAO Schwartz, Jada climbed the lego tower.

Pigs at FAO Schwartz

Eating cookies from the milk bar

Cereal Milk

Momofuka's Milk Bar

Rockefeller Center

Visiting the church

American Girl

Every doll of the year!

But before we made it back to the hotel the girls INSISTED on one more stop in the Toysrus Time Square. If you have ever been in this store you will know why. If not , just imagine 4 floors of toys, Willy Wonka candy land, and a FERRIS WHEEL for Pete's sake. In the store. So, yeah. They needed to revisit that before we left the next morning. We rode the ferris wheel and browsed all 4 levels. Again. For at least an hour if not more. We picked out Erica a prize and Maggie finally spent her money on a pizza shaped pillow and batman headphones. We also bought Kevin, Carter and Kennedy something special too. We left the toy store beyond tired. Like, stupid tired. But it was only 5:00. We still had dinner and the rest of our night! 

Riding the ferris wheel!

So what did we do? We stopped by the Imax and watched the new SpongeBob movie in 3D. I must say that was the low part of the trip for me. I was miserable. But the girls said it was the best movie ever and laughed hysterically so that made it worth while in my book. We ate soft pretzels, popcorn and 120oz. slushies during the movie, so of course no one was super hungry. We had big plans to go across town and eat at S'mac (famous for their all mac and cheese menu)... but we decided to stay close and try some good ole' New York pizza pie! We ate at Famous Famiglia's. You pick your pizza piece (uncooked) and they fire it right up for you while you wait. It was delicious. I had fresh tomato, basil and mozzarella. The girls had meat lovers and cheese. It was 10:00 by this point and I don't even think we were really awake heading up the elevator to our room. We were exhausted! I made everyone shower (to get the yucky city off) and then we passed out.

Watching Sponge Bob

Day 3: Meeting Erica 
We got up bright and early! We were needing to make the 9 am train from Grand Central. I spent an hour trying to shove all the things back into the broken suitcase. The only problem was now we had MORE things to try and put in the broken suitcase. Not fun. But I somehow managed to shove it all in. I had to jump, sit and push on it, but I got it shut. We quickly stopped for breakfast at a pastry shop. I got a Bare Naked juice and the girls got two "go cups" of cereal and a milk to share. $16 . I kid you not. Big city, big stores, big PRICES. We hurried to Grand Central, well as fast as one can hurry rolling luggage with a hole and missing a wheel.. But we made it in plenty of time. Found the ticket machine and got on the 2 hour train to New Haven, Connecticut. The girls were so exhausted they slept almost the whole time. I dozed off and on. I enjoyed seeing the city's we passed. A winter wonderland. White as far as the eye could see.

Erica's wonderful mother Kolleen picked us up from the train station. This was about an hour and a half from her home. We drove all the way through Connecticut, through the capital Hartford and into the snow drenched state of Massachusetts. I have never in my life seen so much snow. I can't even describe it. It's and whole different world there. They operate so differently than we do in the south during winter. I just stared out the window in awe as we approached her house. Every roof, covered in feet of snow. Every street sign barely visible. The side of every road piled up with feet of snow! When we finally arrived, we headed up the stairs and I finally got to meet my buddy! Erica is a beautiful, red headed 12 year old. She immediately gave me a big hug and started talking away! She was just as excited to meet us as we were her. We met everyone in the house, including Flower the hedgehog, Lucid the cat and Neko the dog. We met her teenage sisters Morgan and Taylor.We spent the afternoon chit chatting, crazy looming, and playing in the snow. A couple of hours after we arrived it began to snow. It actually snowed all afternoon and all evening. I think 5 or 6 inches fell that night. So before it got too nasty out I decided to run my last mile! Kolleen told me where to run and I got dressed and hit the road. It was cold, and snowing. I thought about the last year and how much I loved this family and how I wish I could take away all the health problems that sweet, precious little girl has. I prayed for healing and for her family. As I came back up the street I could see them all waiting for me at the end of her driveway. It was so awesome! As I turned in the driveway the girls all had big buckets of snow they dumped on me to congratulate that last mile. It was awesome!

Right after we arrived!

She hangs the medals and race bibs I send her on her wall!

Crazy Loom!

Flower the hedgehog

Bracelets I have sent her from races.

After running my last mile!

My view on the run.

Running in the snow!

Frozen River

Selfies!

Erica's guinea pig, Coco

Later that night, we walked down the street and pushed glow sticks in the snow so the piles would glow! We loved being outside at night in the dark playing in the snow. We went to bed fairly early Saturday night, since we were so tired. But not before having an amazing dinner that Kolleen and Bob cooked for us including roasted chicken, home mashed potatoes, biscuits, green beans and gravy. Delicious! After dinner, Erica's grandparents came over and brought an ice cream party with them. The girls were heaven.

Day 4:  Hanging out with Erica

Sunday morning, we tried something new for breakfast. Kolleen made us cinnamon rolls in the waffle maker. They were so yummy and easy to make.  We spent the day at Erica's grandparents house. We played in the snow all day. We built a huge snowman taller than Maggie. It was so fun! We also got to meet Coco, Erica's guinea pig. The girls fell in love with her, and of course they want a guinea pig now. And a hedge hog.. Before lunch, Kolleen took me out in the car and let me try to drive in the snow. I was petrified. I didn't drive very fast, but I managed to make it down the street. I also got the opportunity to shovel snow. I thought it was fun, but I'm sure it gets old quick... ;) The girls fought over the snow shoveling! After building our massive snowman we had delicious local pizza for lunch, and for dessert the girls scooped up cups of snow and covered them in kool-aid. 

Driving in the snow.

4+ feet icicles!

Walking to Erica's grandparents. Luckily everyone keeps the sidewalks clear of the snow!

Kolleen and the kids in a snowball fight!

Building our snowman!

Tah-dah!

The girls were obsessed with playing in the snow

Cartwheels in the snow

Snow-icee's

Our flight left around 6 pm, so we had to pack up and head to the airport around 4 that afternoon. We had such a wonderful time on our short winter break. I am blessed beyond measure to have such a great family and to have been matched with Erica. Her family is truly like my own, and their hospitality exceeded my highest expectations! We can not WAIT to go back and visit during the summer!