Thursday, July 8, 2010

NYC Recap

Remember when I said I went to NYC, but didn't recap it yet, yeah I'm a little behind.  But it's a good day to play catch-up.  I thought I would do a recap.  It's definitely long and there are tons of photos (you've been warned)!

Friday
We got up Friday morning and headed to the Today show.  I was really excited but was rather disappointed when we got there.  I thought that we would be able to see the hosts, but we only saw Matt once.  Apparently everyone else was in different cities for the episode.  James Taylor and Carole King sang 2 songs for the summer concert series.


 


 Following the show, we stopped by Rockefellar center which is just across the street.  We went in the NBC store and they have some great shirts in there that we thought were funny.


 We headed down 5th Avenue to the Apple store and the FAO Schwartz where we enjoyed many of the displays that they had in there.  I could spend hours in there looking at everything.



(This guy is made out of M&M's!)

We then headed to Central Park.  We walked around and took lots of pictures and took everything in.  There were a couple of different areas where we saw people outside taping for something, not sure what.   We would walk for a while and then find a bench and sit down and just enjoy the weather and the surroundings.  It was warm but quite comfortable for the most part.





We got some great pictures of the NY skyline



Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of the 2 of us and it's really dark.  I haven't been able to lighten it up and make it look nice.  My photo skills need work!


 After we left Central Park, we stopped by St. Patrick's Cathedral, which reminds me a lot of the Cathedral where KC and I got married.  It was gorgeous!


 Afterwards we headed back to our hotel for a bit of a rest, but not before a walk through Times Square.  Our hotel was a block and a half away, so we walked through Times Square a lot!


After a short rest it was time to head to the ballpark.  Yankees and Mets were playing at 7:05!!   The new stadium was great, but the Yanks lost.  :-(  We decided to grab some dinner here  We did see some interesting fights in the outfield where we were sitting.  Of course they won when we weren't there.  Oh well, such is life.


After a fun-filled day we were exhausted and headed home to bed. 

Saturday:
We were tired from the night before (we got up early to go to the show too), so we slept in a little bit later than anticipated, but who cares, we were on vacation!

We started off the day with some pizza and watching some soccer at a place near Times Square.

We took a walk to the Macy's on 34th.  We visited every floor (but bought nothing).  It was fun and would be awesome to see when it's all decorated for Christmas I think.

Afterwards we started walking to the Chelsea market.  Checking out stores and places along the way.


We walked around the Chelsea Marketplace, checked out some of the stores and got a delicious Oreo cupcake!
(I love this picture of KC, cracks me up!)

After the Marketplace we headed down to the WTC site.


The financial district where everyone wanted their picture with the bull,

We walked by the Empire State building and the soccer player Jack Dempsey's bar.


Then we headed to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty.  We decided not go on a ferry ride though because we were meeting up with my cousin and her husband for dinner.




 We enjoyed dinner at a great sushi place called Amber Sushi in the Upper East side with my cousin and her husband.  We went down the street a little and sat at a nice little bar and had a few bars.  It was great to catch up with them.

Sunday
We got up and headed to Times Square to wait in the TKTS line for tickets to a show.  I was hoping to see The Lion King but those tickets never go on sale, so we decided that there were plenty of others we wanted to see anyways.  I waited in line while KC went to the McDonalds to grab us a quick breakfast.  While he was inside and covered, I stood outside and go soaked by the rain shower that rolled through briefly.  We got tickets to see Rock of Ages. 

We wandered around Times Square some more, taking pictures.

Headed into the M&M store where we got some M&Ms.  Including the pretzel ones, which were awesome!


 Then we headed to the Toys R Us and walked around.  You'd think we were kids or something but the toy stores were so much fun to walk through.






 After the stores we headed to the show.  We saw Rock of Ages with Constantine, the guy from American Idol.  We had so much fun.  Unfortunately no pictures in the theatre, but it was a great stage.  They were walking down the aisles selling beer in the middle of the show.  Lots of 80's music and fake 'lighters' to wave in the air during some songs, but for a fun afternoon.  I would recommend it to anyone who goes.  We sat about 9 rows back for about $140 total give you an idea of the benefit of the TKTS booth, vs. regular price.

After the show we headed down the Intrepid and through the Hell's Kitchen district.  Once there we sat at a table and just enjoyed the weather and then River.  It was quite nice.




Afterwards, we walked back through Hells Kitchen and found a restaurant through the Yelp App called Becco.  It was a super cute little restaurant and we almost walked right by it.  It is definitely on my list of places to go to if/when we go back to NYC.  The food and the service was great!

Monday
We got up and packed our bags.  Checked out and dropped our bags at the concierge service.  We had a few hours before our flight (or so we thought) so we were going to go to Top of the Rock.  We sat in the park and enjoyed breakfast and figured out my mistake.  Then we headed to Top of the Rock and enjoyed it, it was really cool.  The view was fantastic!
Central Park

Empire State Building

Times Square

Statue of Liberty

All around the city!



 KC wanted to see the Brooklyn Bridge so we decided to head there and to the South Seaport area.  Unfortunately I had been planning for an afternoon in an airport/on the plane so I was wearing jeans and that was not comfortable for all the walking.  We wanted to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge but I knew that it was just too hot for me.  We walked around and checked out a few shops and the seaport as well.




After walking around we decided to go sit in one of the restaurants for a drink and a snack and to watch one of the World Cup games. 

We decided to head back to the hotel a little earlier then needed before our flight but at that point we were exhausted.  We made it to the hotel to get our bags and then went to the airport. 

For transportation around the city we either walked or hit up the Subway.  Once we finally found a map it was a breeze.  We were quite successful navigating the subway with only one mistake (we went in a stairwell for a train that went one way and we wanted to go the other).  It was easy to get from the airport to the hotel and back which I was very nervous about.  And if you have an iPhone, there's an App called HopStop that will help you get where ever you want to go, walking, subway or bus.

Besides my flight blunder, it was a great trip and we enjoyed every minute of it.  The summer is so busy for us that sometimes it feels like we don't spend much time just the two of us, so this was a good trip to start the summer off for us. 

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm going to Blogher in August and I'll have one day to myself -- I'm so looking forward to doing a lot of the things you mentioned! Glad I clicked over for the recap1

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  2. I've never been to NYC and this recap just makes me want to go even more :)

    ReplyDelete

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