My 40th was fast approaching and I had asked Todd for a few things....some new Yurbud replacement pieces and some Cheetos. And maybe a BlendTec blender. No party. No big deal. Wasn't really in the mood.
On Wednesday, September 26th, I was making dinner and Todd and Abby came into the kitchen and told me to come into the piano room. I went in and sat down and Abby handed me a card. I opened it up and inside was quite a few $100 bills with instructions to use it for only clothes. There was also a folded piece of paper with reservations to the 9/11 Memorial.
"What is this? Are we going to NY?"
I cried.
Todd had made arrangements for Dawn Clarke to come stay with the kids and we were set to leave on Thursday, October 4th at 9:30am.
Thursday, October 4th:
Thursday, October 4th:
I woke up at 4am to get myself ready, packed, the kids ready, lunches made, and notes to Dawn prepared. To top it off, I wasn't feeling well at all and I kept praying that I would feel better.
Dawn came over at 6:45am so she could take Abby to the bus stop and we coordinated w/Sam's school to drop him off at 7:15am. I hoped and continued to pray I wouldn't barf.
We got parked at the airport and took the shuttle and got thru security and to our gate pretty quickly. It helped for me to keep moving. They started pre-boarding and called 1st Class and Todd said let's go. What? I don't fly 1st Class!
We got settled and were on our way. There was a bit of a delay in landing at La Guardia and we were in a holding pattern but landed, got our luggage and went to our waiting car, a Mercedes no less. It was so amazing to see the city for the first time. It was hard to watch out the windows and try and see all the buildings and people and traffic! I must say that I would NEVER drive in NYC.
We got to our hotel, The Hudson, a trendy boutique hotel near Central Park. The bellhops were these hot guys wearing skinny jeans and ear pieces. So NYC. We couldn't check in yet so we dropped off our stuff and headed out to wander the city a bit. It was so overwhelming and hard to take everything in! The lights, the people, the taxis, the honking, the smoking, everything! We headed down Broadway and went to Times Square. Ah.Maz.Ing!! I just stood there and tried to take it all in. We didn't know where to go or what to see so we just kept walking. We walked past the Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, theaters, ABC News, stores and restaurants. We then headed back to the hotel to get checked in. The Hudson is just ok, old and kind of renovated but mostly with paint. Our room was small but the bathroom was teeny! It made no difference, the location was great but it was expensive! We got settled a bit then went back out to go get our tickets for David Letterman. We made it to the theater, got in line, got our tickets and instructions then left for about 1 hour to eat then back to the theater.
We found a vegetarian place and shared a meal (probably the worst one of the trip) then back to The Ed Sullivan Theater to get in another line to get into another line and wait. I was hoping and praying that I wouldn't pass out. We finally got into our seats and proceeded to watch a taping. David Letterman is still funny and the guests were Billy Crystal and the Wallflowers. It was a fun evening. We walked back toward the hotel, stopping at a little market to get some snacks. We were exhausted so we watched some tv and went to bed.
Not much sleep was had in the "city that never sleeps". Our first stop of the morning was the pharmacy to get earplugs.
The priority for the day was to go to the Apple Store. This is the only 24 hour store and it is really cool. It's a big glass cube and you take an elevator or stairs and go beneath street level. Really neat! It was also really packed!
We then headed down 5th Avenue and checked out all the high-end stores. We really didn't go into many but saw some famous ones. We walked to the Empire State Bldg (passing the cool Astor Library that was in Ghost Busters) and got in line to go to the top. It was a long & expensive process but we finally made it and enjoyed the view from the top. And no, we did not drop any pennies.
We proceeded back toward Times Square where we got a bagel at Times Square Bagels and a cupcake at Crumbs! We made it back to the hotel in time to rest a bit before we got prettied up for Wicked. It was fun to get dressed up and head out on the town. We walked down to the Gershwin Theater, got our tickets and wandered around the theater a bit. They opened the doors and we went to our seats...2nd row orchestra no less. Todd was a bit concerned that they were too close to the stage but it was an amazing seat! The play was amazing and it was like Elphaba was floating right above us. So cool!
After the show we walked up to a restaurant called Seraphina. We waited for an outside table and finally got seated around midnight. We enjoyed a yummy Italian dinner, conversation and people watching. Since the city never sleeps and neither does the Apple store, Todd wanted to go back again so we walked up there one more time. I thought my shoes would be filled with blood by the time I got back.
Heels + walking in NYC = pain!
We got back to our hotel at 2:30am. An amazing day!
The priority for the day was to go to the Apple Store. This is the only 24 hour store and it is really cool. It's a big glass cube and you take an elevator or stairs and go beneath street level. Really neat! It was also really packed!
We then headed down 5th Avenue and checked out all the high-end stores. We really didn't go into many but saw some famous ones. We walked to the Empire State Bldg (passing the cool Astor Library that was in Ghost Busters) and got in line to go to the top. It was a long & expensive process but we finally made it and enjoyed the view from the top. And no, we did not drop any pennies.
We proceeded back toward Times Square where we got a bagel at Times Square Bagels and a cupcake at Crumbs! We made it back to the hotel in time to rest a bit before we got prettied up for Wicked. It was fun to get dressed up and head out on the town. We walked down to the Gershwin Theater, got our tickets and wandered around the theater a bit. They opened the doors and we went to our seats...2nd row orchestra no less. Todd was a bit concerned that they were too close to the stage but it was an amazing seat! The play was amazing and it was like Elphaba was floating right above us. So cool!
After the show we walked up to a restaurant called Seraphina. We waited for an outside table and finally got seated around midnight. We enjoyed a yummy Italian dinner, conversation and people watching. Since the city never sleeps and neither does the Apple store, Todd wanted to go back again so we walked up there one more time. I thought my shoes would be filled with blood by the time I got back.
Heels + walking in NYC = pain!
We got back to our hotel at 2:30am. An amazing day!
Saturday, October 6th:
Another beautiful day in NY. We packed our bags as we were headed to our 2nd hotel of the trip. We had some time to kill before check in so we walked around Central Park. I had no idea the park was so big so we saw just a sliver of it. It was amazing and so much to see! Artists, musicians, weddings, dancers, etc. You name it, it is in Central Park. We walked to Strawberry Fields, saw where John Lennon lived/died, had brunch at the Boathouse, Todd got pulled into a street act...your typical day at the park. We ended up at 5th Avenue again and since we were there, Todd had to go into Apple one more time...he was secretly hoping to get an iphone 5 but no such luck. We hit a few stores, I bought some cool Uggs, and also visited the Harley Davidson store. No bikes were purchased.
We then got back to the hotel, got our bags and took a taxi ride (scary) to our new hotel, Thompson Lower East Side. It was so much nicer than the Hudson. We relaxed, charged our phones then started wandering that area of NYC. We set out to find China Town but found Little Italy instead and it was crazy! You've never seen so many Italian restaurants in your life! We stopped in one and had a great dinner then grabbed some pastries (so-so) and gelato (yum). We walked back to the hotel, it took longer than we expected but we made it back. We were greeted with some champagne on ice and some chocolates.
Side note: Todd couldn't find his new ipad and it turns out that he left it in the other hotel. I called, it had been found and was waiting for us. Phew!
Sunday, October 7th:
Today was probably my favorite day, and not because it was my actual birthday but because of our awesome day. It was rainy and much cooler but we bundled up, wore our rain gear and took at taxi to the 9/11 Memorial. We had tickets for 11am but was able to go through early. It was very somber, of course, and you could tell that everyone felt the same; that this was a sacred place.
It's so hard to believe what happened on that day and that so many lives were gone in an instant. We read so many names, saw the size of the building's footprint, listened to the waterfalls, admired the Survivor's Tree, and was just in awe of this place. Life goes on and new buildings are going up and we'll never forget.
We wandered through Wall Street and the Financial District then grabbed a hot cocoa at Starbuck's. We were in search of a good place to eat and ended up at Seaport-Pier 17 where there was a huge Indian Mele (festival) going on. We wandered through that, saw dancing, heard music and enjoyed the festivities. We walked through the mall then found a cute farmer's market where we tried some awesome food! It was so fun and so neat and we were so happy we didn't just find some sort of restaurant to dine in.
We took our food and walked along the water, took our picture in front of the Brooklyn Bridge, stopped in a fire station and visited with one of the firefighters and took some photos. We continued our walk toward the Staten Island Ferry and took that across and saw the Statue of Liberty. So very cool! It seems smaller than I thought it would be. We had missed the last ferry out to Ellis Island so I guess we'll have to go back.
We took a cab back to the hotel and relaxed just a bit then walked to dinner at Schiller's. It was good but way too much food! We walked back to the hotel and made the decision to attempt the subway to go back to the Hudson to pick up Todd's ipad. It was a fun adventure! We picked up the orphaned ipad then decided to go to the Apple store again! When I say "we" I mean Todd.
As were were looking at "i" products, I googled the restaurant Serendipity. I had heard about their amazing frozen hot chocolate but had also heard about their hours-long wait times. We were about 6 blocks away so we decided to give it a shot. We found it, put our name on the list and was given an hour wait time. We had a table within 15 minutes. I ordered the frozen hot chocolate and Todd ordered the carrot cake. Both lived up to the hype but it was so much that there was no way we could finish it...and mainly because we had just eaten dinner! Who's counting calories?
We took the subway back to the hotel and made it back by midnight. A super fun day and a fantastic way to spend my 40th!
Monday, October 8th:
I had a sore throat most of the night so I didn't sleep well but we had a few hours before we had to leave for the airport so we took advantage and continued our "walkabout." We found a cute little bagel place, "Heaven's Bagels" (run by Asians-go figure) and got some breakfast then started walking to a fire station in the hopes Todd could trade a Marietta Fire Dept. t-shirt for a NYC one. We ended up with 4 t-shirts and a hat from 2 different stations. It was awesome.
We headed back to the hotel to finish packing. Todd really wanted some NY pizza but I wasn't feeling well enough to go so I finished up packing and stayed on the couch. I was dizzy, nauseated had a headache and sore throat. Bummer! We checked out and since we couldn't really go anywhere, we took a cab to the airport and were just going to wait there. We were lucky enough to get on an earlier flight which was great.
We were sad to leave but have high hopes that we can go back someday and see even more of NYC. It truly was a magical weekend and Todd did such an amazing job of planning and preparing for this trip. Thanks honey!
Today was probably my favorite day, and not because it was my actual birthday but because of our awesome day. It was rainy and much cooler but we bundled up, wore our rain gear and took at taxi to the 9/11 Memorial. We had tickets for 11am but was able to go through early. It was very somber, of course, and you could tell that everyone felt the same; that this was a sacred place.
It's so hard to believe what happened on that day and that so many lives were gone in an instant. We read so many names, saw the size of the building's footprint, listened to the waterfalls, admired the Survivor's Tree, and was just in awe of this place. Life goes on and new buildings are going up and we'll never forget.
We wandered through Wall Street and the Financial District then grabbed a hot cocoa at Starbuck's. We were in search of a good place to eat and ended up at Seaport-Pier 17 where there was a huge Indian Mele (festival) going on. We wandered through that, saw dancing, heard music and enjoyed the festivities. We walked through the mall then found a cute farmer's market where we tried some awesome food! It was so fun and so neat and we were so happy we didn't just find some sort of restaurant to dine in.
We took our food and walked along the water, took our picture in front of the Brooklyn Bridge, stopped in a fire station and visited with one of the firefighters and took some photos. We continued our walk toward the Staten Island Ferry and took that across and saw the Statue of Liberty. So very cool! It seems smaller than I thought it would be. We had missed the last ferry out to Ellis Island so I guess we'll have to go back.
We took a cab back to the hotel and relaxed just a bit then walked to dinner at Schiller's. It was good but way too much food! We walked back to the hotel and made the decision to attempt the subway to go back to the Hudson to pick up Todd's ipad. It was a fun adventure! We picked up the orphaned ipad then decided to go to the Apple store again! When I say "we" I mean Todd.
As were were looking at "i" products, I googled the restaurant Serendipity. I had heard about their amazing frozen hot chocolate but had also heard about their hours-long wait times. We were about 6 blocks away so we decided to give it a shot. We found it, put our name on the list and was given an hour wait time. We had a table within 15 minutes. I ordered the frozen hot chocolate and Todd ordered the carrot cake. Both lived up to the hype but it was so much that there was no way we could finish it...and mainly because we had just eaten dinner! Who's counting calories?
We took the subway back to the hotel and made it back by midnight. A super fun day and a fantastic way to spend my 40th!
Monday, October 8th:
I had a sore throat most of the night so I didn't sleep well but we had a few hours before we had to leave for the airport so we took advantage and continued our "walkabout." We found a cute little bagel place, "Heaven's Bagels" (run by Asians-go figure) and got some breakfast then started walking to a fire station in the hopes Todd could trade a Marietta Fire Dept. t-shirt for a NYC one. We ended up with 4 t-shirts and a hat from 2 different stations. It was awesome.
We headed back to the hotel to finish packing. Todd really wanted some NY pizza but I wasn't feeling well enough to go so I finished up packing and stayed on the couch. I was dizzy, nauseated had a headache and sore throat. Bummer! We checked out and since we couldn't really go anywhere, we took a cab to the airport and were just going to wait there. We were lucky enough to get on an earlier flight which was great.
We were sad to leave but have high hopes that we can go back someday and see even more of NYC. It truly was a magical weekend and Todd did such an amazing job of planning and preparing for this trip. Thanks honey!
