We arrived at JFK late Wed. night. We took taxi to the hotel which is an experience in itself. We we saw the city up ahead I was SO HAPPY! We stayed in Manhattan close to the Rockefeller Center. When we arrived at the hotel, we checked in and the lady told Michael there was a package for him at the concierge desk. We went by the desk on the way up to our room, but he was already gone for the night. Michael figured it was something for his ortho conference starting on Friday morning. We stashed our suitcases and walked over to Times Square! We ate at Ray's pizza- really good, greasy pizza! We walked around a little after that but it was midnight by that time so we headed back to the hotel.
Thursday morning we headed out about 10am. We took the subway (I LOVE the subway, its so fun!) downtown to the World Trade Center site. We walked by the Trade center and then headed down by the water to Battery Park. We walked along the water and saw the Statue of Liberty. We walked all over downtown. All the buildings are beautiful to me! I love the architecture, I love to be surrounded by them. The weather was beautiful, about 72 degrees. Then we jumped back on the subway to head over to Greenwich Village. We went to Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street. SO good. The chocolate frosting is to die for and really messy cause you have to lick it off of everything to make sure you didn't miss any! :)Even Michael liked them and he is not a cupcake fan. We walked a little in the village- its really pretty down there with the tree-lined streets. We ate lunch at a little sidewalk cafe. Then we took the subway back to our hotel to freshen up- then we were going to head over to the Gershwin Theatre to try and get standby tickets to Wicked. I REALLY wanted to see it, but we didn't get tickets in time.
Did I mention I love the subway? :) Here's why- I love the smell. I know, that's a little sick. But the smell of the subway is New York to me. I love that there is always something interesting going on in the subway. So many performers, interesting people. I love that it goes really fast- kinda like a roller coaster! I love the huge mix of people you find in the subway. I love that its really loud- I don't know why. And I think the subway system is amazing! Its like an underground city with so many levels and trains going EVERYWHERE. So cool!
We got back to our hotel and stopped by the concierge desk. She pulled out a card and gave it to Michael. He took it and said thanks - I wasn't really paying attention. The concierge said, "Wait, aren't you even going to open it?" She took it back from him and opened it to reveal an envelope with MY name on it. I was so confused, my heart sped up. What was going on? He still had the card and took out two tickets- TO WICKED!!! My aunts, Debbie, Diane and Susan, and my grandma surprised me for my birthday and got us tickets for the Friday night show! I was SO shocked because I wasn't expecting anything and so excited I started crying! THANK YOU SO MUCH to my grandma and my aunts! This was also exciting because now we didn't have to go wait in line to get tickets. Thank goodness we checked with the concierge BEFORE we went out again! So we took a half hour nap. Then we jumped on the subway again to head over to Central Park. It is amazing to me that they have this beautiful park right in the middle of Manhattan! I love all the greenery and trees and ponds and lakes and then looking up in the background and seeing all the buildings. WOW.
My cousin, Kelly put together a fabulous list of restaurants and things to do in New York (thanks Kelly!) which helped a ton in figuring out where to go eat. She lived in the city for awhile (I'm jealous). So we ate at the highly reccommend B Bar and Grill- REALLY really good. Great atmosphere and we got to eat outside in this little garden area. We had this huge bowl of yummy guacamole with homemade chips. Michael ate fish tacos which he thought were really good and I ate the New York Strip and garlic mashed potatoes with spinach. I am a meat eater- It was GOOD. Can you tell I like food? I talk about it a lot. We went to FAO Schwartz next. I'd never been there before. There are so many cool things! And we went a little crazy buying things for the kids. Then we went over to the Rockefeller Center and went to The Top of The Rock. AMAZING. Love it up there. We walked back to the hotel. Past the St. Patrick's Cathedral. Beautiful. I think we walked about 10 miles that day. We slept well.
Friday morning Michael started his conference at 8am. I had grand plans to leave at 8 am also, to go to the Rockefeller center and see The Today Show. Well I couldn't get out of bed- I was drugged on cough medicine after being up all night hacking up a lung. I turned on the T.V at 9 am in time to see Chris Brown performing right there. Shoot! I got ready and went shopping at H&M and then I went to the American Girl store and got the girls some cute things. It was another beautiful day. Then I met Michael for lunch at some cafe. After lunch I took the subway (all by myself!:) uptown to the Frick Collection Museum. Its in a mansion. Very cool. I enjoyed it even though I didn't really know much about any of the things I was looking at! I walked along central park and just enjoyed being in my city and people watching. I took the subway back to midtown and did some more shopping. Then I went back to the hotel to wait for Michael and get ready for the show! We took the subway over to Union Square and ate at The Coffee Shop. We had a chicken quesadilla first and then split the meatloaf and mashed potatoes. It was delicious! (Thanks Kelly). We went over to Times Square and shopped at the Quiksilver store then we walked over to the Gershwin. We LOVED the show. I could have listened to Elphaba (sp?) sing FOREVER. I'm SO glad we got to go! On the way back to the hotel we stopped by the Bar Americain which is Bobby Flay's restaurant. He is a chef there but we thought the odds of him actually being there probably weren't very good. We were seated and realized he was sitting at a table right behind us wearing his chef uniform. So that was kind of cool. We ordered dessert-Michael had lemon-orange crepes and I had a deep dish chocolate pie. Yeah, it was goooooooood. I wanted to get a picture with Bobby, he was standing right next to us talking for a little while. But I was too shy.
This is going to take me 6 hours to write because my darling children keep interrupting.
Saturday Michael left early again. I slept in and then I could barely get out of bed. I was so sore from all the walking! My calves, shins and back were screaming at me. Wimpy, I know. So I relaxed. I got ready and walked around by the hotel and ate a bagel at a sidewalk cafe. I shopped a little more. It was HOT. Record heat. 95 degrees and it felt like 120 with the humidity. I know how to deal with dry heat. The humidity about killed us. Michael got done at 12:30 and we took the subway to Little Italy. We ate at a really good restaurant that I ate at in October. But I can't remember the name. It was good. But So hot! We walked to China Town and got some purses but we didn't stay long. We went back to the hotel and just stayed inside for awhile. Michael wanted to find a store called Steve and Barry's. It turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment- and there was nothing in his size. I found a cute shirt though! Everything there is $8.98 or less. We decided to try and get in to eat at Serendipity. Luckily there was no wait! For a Saturday night at 7:30, I was really surprised. It was great- I've had dessert there but not dinner. I ate some Chicken fettucine alfredo and Michael got a meat skillet thing. Michael wasn't even interested in trying the frozen hot chocolate and I really wanted apple pie so I got that and hogged it down by myself. Next time I WILL have the frozen hot chocolate. :) We walked back to the hotel in the heat. All those buildings really keep the heat in!
Sunday morning we woke up and went to Church. I woke up sad, knowing I was going home. I kept getting tears in my eyes because I knew I had to leave. It is weird how much I love it. I kept trying to figure out how I could get Michael to move there. Its such an amazing place. I love to be around so many people. I love all the excitement. All the things to do. I sit in my home in Sahuarita and sometimes don't talk to anyone for days. How cool is it to have so much going on all the time! But really I know deep down it isn't a great place to raise kids.
I really missed the kids, so knowing that I was going to get to see them helped. But I wished I could stay, and have them shipped. :)
The church building was neat. We recently had a family move into our ward from nyc. Can you imagine moving from nyc to Sahuartia, AZ? Anyway we ended up at their ward by accident! The people there were very nice. The theme of the meeting- Sarah, these are the reason you can't move your family to NYC. A 14 year old girl spoke about being the only member of the church in her entire catholic school. The other two speakers hinted about some of the hardships of living in the city. Ok, Ok I'll try to push it out of my head. But I did look online at places to buy. :) We went and ate at the Grey Dog Cafe. Very trendy little place with really good brunch. It was jam packed full of students. Me and Michael were probably the oldest ones there! But it was very good. We took the subway to the Museum of Natural History. Well we kind of got lost but we didn't mind since the subways were air conditioned! After we were done we went to Central park again but it was just too hot so we headed for the airport. :(
I cried leaving the city- I really don't usually cry so much. It was a fantastic trip- I loved every minute, even the heat. I'll be back...soon.
If you made it this far- wow. We didn't take many pictures. Here are a few. They are not so great. Michael took tons of video but they are mostly just extreme close ups of my face. Maybe I will post a few clips later if I can.
Why am I making such funny faces?
The subway!
Sidewalk cafe in Greenwich village
