Empire State of Mind...

The time has come for me to tell of my recent trip to the Big Apple. Back in October I was getting ready one morning and I thought, I should call Mandy and see if she wants to take a little girls trip to NYC. Luckily she thought it was a great idea, and last weekend we made our dream a reality. We decided to just fly out of our own towns (we live 5 hours apart) and just meet in NYC. Other than my flight getting there about 2 hours late everything worked out great. We spent Day 1, just roaming around midtown, doing a little window shopping, going to the top of Rockefeller (which i think is way better than the Empire State Building..the view is just as good and NO LINE!), and taking the NBC studio tour (this was definitely cool but not a must do thing).

Day 2, we visited with a friend from CofC that is living and working in New York. It was fun and relaxing to spend some time with her sipping coffee and chatting. After that we ate lunch at Benash Deli...right across from the Carnegie Deli. It was AWFUL. $23 for a sandwich (which we obviously decided to split) and it was definitely average. And they had all of these deserts that looked really yummy but were actually gross...I don't even know how you make sugar and butter taste bad. Anyway, that's what we get for being hungry and cold and taking the first available option. However, the day was totally redeemed when we went to see the Jimmy Fallon show. It was AMAZING. Snoop Dog was the guest and we pretty much got a private Snoop concert. I think even non-Snoop fans would have enjoyed this. Definitely this was both of ours favorite part of the trip. Then we went straight from Snoop to see Mary Poppins on Broadway (yes I see the irony of this and find it quite comical).

Mary Poppins was great....I highly recommend it. We did get a little unlucky in that we had "those people" behind us that think it is ok to arrive 15 minutes late to a Broadway show and make tons of noise while trying to get settled in their seats. It was seriously a family of like 15. Once they got settled, the Grandma proceeded to rummage through her purse for 20 minutes and one of the kids decided to eat a bag of chips at the slowest pace known to man. Literally, I had a kid crunching in my ear for 30 minutes. As we approached intermission the family seemed to settle in and quiet down. Unfortunately just as intermission was starting, a high school girl sitting in the row across from us, leaned across the aisle and barfed up her entire pasta dinner. This totally freaked out the loud grandma behind us. Once the second half was getting started and the barfing high school girl was back in her seat, the grandma declared loudly multiple times that she thought the girl looked tipsy and if she threw up again she was gonna call "security." Mandy and I have seen Mary Poppins a million times but I guess in our young age we didn't really pay attention to the message of the film, which is that family should come first. Luckily, the message was not lost on the grandma sitting behind us because she "Amen'd" and "Uh-huh'd" and "You go Mary" the entire second half as if she was listening to a great sermon. Then at the end when Bert and Mary hugged she said, "Uh-oh, Bert wanna tap that." All that to say, it was a truely cultural experience that we will not be forgetting soon.

Day 3, we roamed around Soho mostly and did a little shopping. I LOVED every second of it. We ate lunch at one of my fave restaraunts in New York, the Noho Star. We also took an evening carriage ride around Central Park and we ended the day at the Wine and Chocolate Bar next to our hotel.....can't remember the name but it was wonderful! Day 4, a little more shopping and brunch in the am. Then it was time to head home. :(

We stayed at the Herald Square Hotel. It is a boutique hotel right near Herald Square (as if that was not obvious). Our room was tiny but clean and pretty cheap. I would definitely recommend staying there...the location and price are great. We only had 2 little issues during our stay. The first happened on our last night there. The hotel is located in the old Life Magazine building, which was really cool. However, it was old and used radiator heat so you couldn't adjust the temp in your room. The temp in the room was fine the whole time until our last night. We woke up at 1am and it felt like we were sleeping inside a sauna. It was awful! It was the kind of heat that with every second that past, you felt more certain that you would indeed suffocate and die. Luckily, the staff at the hotel was great and came up and turned it off for us. However, we still had to sleep with our window open all night b/c it had gotten so hot.

The second issue came when it was time to leave. The hotel had told us that they call cabs for you and have them there at the time you need to leave. So, we were told that the cab would be there at 1pm to get us to the Laguardia on time for our 3pm flights. Well 1:30 rolls around, still no cab (even though they kept promising it was one block away). So we hailed our own cab. The cab driver really didn't want to drive us all the way to Laguardia but we told him we were desperate and that we would give him a really good tip if he could get us there fast. Apparently that is very motivating for cab drivers because I have NEVER been in a car with someone driving like that. Cab rides are often interesting but this was truly unbelievable. We got to Laguardia in 20 minutes from W 31st on a Sunday afternoon in 20 minutes. It was more fun but scarier than any rollercoaster ride I have ever been on. We tried to stay relaxed by reminding ourselves that you never hear of anyone dying due to cab accidents.

Unfortunately, after the stress of trying to get to the airport on time and tipping the cab driver almost 50% for getting us there so quickly....my flight was delayed for several hours. And to top it off, I got home to have my luggage lost...for 3 days. Thankfully, they found it and my families Christmas presents are now wrapped under our tree. I guess the point of this post is to say that if you want to have a good time....go to NYC with Mandy and I. Also, I want to say a BIG thanks to our husbands for being so willing to let us leave them and our kids for 4 days and to our mother-in-laws for keeping our precious children. We love you guys....thanks for letting us take a trip that we will never forget!