I LOVE NEW YORK

 

 Last week Dan and I and Melissa and Chip, jetted off to New York for five days! Dan and I visited New York a couple of years ago and we thought that going back a second time we would have plenty of time to do all the things we wanted to; however we were surely mistaken. Five days went way to fast and I wasn't ready to come home. (The good news for me is that I get the opportunity to go back in a couple of months with the girls and it will be an entirely different experience!)

We arrived in New York around 6:00 am after taking the red eye, my brilliant husband decided to book our tickets into New Jersey because it supposedly was closer than JFK. Melissa and Chip flew into JFK, so instead of sharing a cab fare, we each booked our own and guess whose cab fare was more money? Ours of course and I will never let Dan hear the end of it. (It gave us a few laughs during the trip)

I can say our trip was full of food! We ate all the time and then we ate some more, always trying someplace new. I have to thank Bill Perry for giving us some helpful tips on where to eat, it was great knowing someone recommended half of the places because there is so much to choose from in New York.

The entire time we were in New York, Dan kept telling us how he wanted "Dunkin Donuts". I would tell him, you are the only one that wants "Dunkin Donuts" and we are not going there for breakfast. I also commented that I thought the street vendors doughnuts were probably better, as a joke. Well on the last day of our trip, we ran right into a Dunkin Donuts shop in the subway terminal. I told Dan that this was his opportunity and he shouldn't give it up. By this time he was kind of over it; however he still purchased the Doughnuts, because he couldn't go all this time talking about it and then not buy them when he had his chance. He was so excited (as you can tell from the pictures); however they were a big let down. We all tried one and they were stale, not a good purchase. I do not recommend it. We had a good laugh regardless.

We started out our trip by seeing an Off-Broadway production called the "Altar Boys!" The story was about a struggling Christian boys band, trying to spread a message of good will. While they mocked boy bands and were a little sac-religious, I thought it was hilarious. We used several one-liners from this production all week. The best part about this production was seeing Neil Haskell from the 3rd season of So You Think You Can Dance! (He was always my favorite)

The same evening we ventured down to Little Italy for dinner. The ambiance and atmosphere was amazing! There must have been 50 restaurants within 3 blocks, all with outdoor seating and lighting. It made for a real relaxing evening. The food was also fantastic, until Melissa found a hair in her lasagna. This kind of spoiled the eating frenzy, so what the heck we finished up our meal with some Gelato.

Canal Street happens to be right at the end of Little Italy, so or course Melissa and I took advantage of finding a nice, new, stylish purse. The craziest thing was we went into a basement of a store and after our purchase, the employee of the store had to radio someone upstairs to let us out. The door was wired shut with all sorts of electronic devices. (Gotta love New York)

On Sunday we went to the Yankees Game. The game was sold out (because it is the last year in at the stadium) so we purchased tickets from a scalper! He called them "Jeter" seats because they were right behind home plate. It was a fun experience, even though the Yankees lost. A-Rod did get a home run, which was exciting.

After the game we rented bicycles and road through Central Park. The jogging loop is about six miles. This was a fabulous way to see the park. I highly recommend it. The only problem for me was about half way through the park I got extremely sick (it was probably the stomach flu), my stomach was in knots and I couldn't move. I became pale and clammy. I couldn't move and after about 45 minutes I realized it wasn't getting any better and that I couldn't ride my bike back. Dan walked me out to a cab and poor Melissa and Chip walked both sets of bikes back to the entrance of the park. I was out the rest of the night!

On Monday we headed off to the US Open. We watched a very exciting match between Rafael Nadal and Sam Querrey. The group of people in our section of the stadium were huge Sam fans and very enthusiastic. We got involved with the chanting and routing for "Sammy Samuri!" He was the American player and also the under dog in the match. We had such a good time, that we purchased tickets for the following day as well.

On Tuesday we had the privilege of watching both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer play in two different matches. Both of these dominant players struggled a little and the matches went to five sets. Because of this we were at the open for about eight hours. After sitting in these hard seats in the sun for that long, we were all ready to move around and see some other sites of New York. (For the record I loved watching Roger play, he is my favorite player and he went on to win the open title.)

Wednesday morning my parents joined us and we all went out for breakfast. We spent the morning walking around Times Square and Fifth Avenue and eventually made it over to the Rockefeller Center. We rode the elevator to the 67th floor/ Top of the Rock! What a view, I thought it was better than the Empire State Building because you got the view of Central Park as well, which is the heart of New York. We also went back to Central Park and spent some time walking through the park, this time around was a better experience for me. It is absolutely breathtaking, especially in the middle of all the cement New York has to offer. What an amazing commodity they have, it's no wonder it draws so many people there each day. After the park, we finished our trip by seeing Legally Blonde! This was exactly how I wanted to complete our vacation, with a fun, energetic Broadway production. The staging of this production was remarkable and entire cast was phenomenal.

I can't wait to go back. The girls trip is going to be full of shopping (something you cant do a lot of with the guys)