After wrapping up at Clicker Expo and loading Pearl back up we headed to a dear friend’s who had moved from here in Oregon to just outside of NYC last May. Kristen is one of my girl gang, we have met once a month for girls nights for years. So this was my first time seeing her since she moved and we made a plan for me to drive to her place and take the train into the city so she could show me around. I grew up on the east coast and had been to NYC quite a few times but never as an adult and was super excited to go back!

Leo never ceases to amaze me with his adaptability and go with the flow nature! I never intended to get him to be a service dog, but boy was he just made for it. He is just so rock solid and unflappable and to see all of his training hold up in all these environments was wonderful. As we were waiting for the train, and I was so excited to be catching up with my bestie, Leo started to alert, it was funny because it’s the first time this happened while I was super distracted and talking to someone. He alerted a couple times and I literally just ignore it and kept talking to my friend. He squished himself between us alerting, finally I was like ohhhh. I told her he might be alerting and I started telling her what his alert looked like as he was doing it. oh. So I pulled out my meds. So very grateful for him! That saved my bacon and kept my pain level to a 3 which is super manageable and let me enjoy the day without having to bail.

It was a rainy day, but luckily not too cold and mostly just a light misting not a downpour.

It was so great having my pal Kristen to show us around and navigate the subways and trains so we could see a lot in a short amount of time. From Grand Central Station we walked over and all around Times Square. Bought some cannolis of course! Then hopped onto the subway over to catch the Staten Island Ferry, which is a very cool way to get a great look at the city from the water and of course to pass by the Statue of Liberty

After the Ferry we walked over to Wall Street to grab the bull by the balls 🤣

The line of people touching the Bulls brass balls for good luck 😂, and yes we did that too.

Leo was quite certain I lost my mind and said this is not in his job description

After Wall Street we walked over to the 9/11 memorial

Impossible to capture on photo the gravity of the space.

By now we were more than ready for something to eat and there really was only one option

Leo: So Lame, they didn’t give me any pizza….

After eating we were ready to head back to Grand Central to catch the train. Not really thinking about the fact we were heading back right at rush hour for the folks who commute to and from the city for work. So we had to cram onto a busy full train after navigating a busy Grand Central

Clicker Expo Part 3- The Big Apple

Clicker Expo Part 2- Clicker Expo!