Merry Christmas to me in May!! Spen gave me a 4 day trip to NYC for Christmas and it was amazing. It was a lot of fun and so great to get to spend time alone with him. Our kids were well taking care of by loving grandparents and an aunt. They had a ball. When I would call, all Ethan cared about was whether or not I had met Spiderman yet. (the black spiderman)
Day 1Long Day! We left home at 6:30 am and arrived at our hotel in Manhatten at 7:30 pm. I know, long day of traveling! It was such a huge contrast to the room we were in last week, but it was perfect.
We were on 53rd and Lexington and it was walking distance to everywhere we wanted to go, and close to the subway when it wasn't! After getting settled we set out and went to find dinner and to see Time Square. It had changed so much since my dad took me there 14 years ago! It was such an amazing sight to see and such a great city. I was awestruck!
Day 2We got up super early and ran to the Manhatten LDS Temple to try to make the 7:45 am session. We missed it, but they had us do sealings instead. It was incredible. I cried the whole time. I also passed out a bit too! It was embarrassing, but I was OK and still was able to finish the session.
We walked around Central Park and watched a 5K race run downtown. We ate Pastrami on Rye and New York Cheesecake at Carnagie Deli, then we rushed to the theater to see the Matinee of 'Wicked.' We got our seats at the box office this morning and sat on Row D (about the 7th row) in the Center Orchestra. It was so great! I have heard so much about this show and it was all true!! Loved it.
Afterwards we caught the subway to Canal Street to explore Chinatown. I asked a lady if she had Fendi bags and we were wisked away into a strange secret backroom that she had to open with a screwdriver! That's where they keep the good stuff apparently! It was awesome! That night we walked FOREVER to 60th street to enjoy a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity. It was good, but you know how something is built up to be so fantastic and then how can anything live up to the standard that has been set for it? Still good though. Tired from so much walking.
Day 3We decided not to get up quite so early to get out the door, but we didn't doddle away our time either! We went straight to Soho and walked around a big Vendor/Flee Market that was set up on Broadway. It was so fun to be the first ones there! We shopped a little and set off walking just to walk and see the city. It was so beautiful and diverse. We walked through parks and over to NYU.
We took the subway back to the financial district to see Ground Zero. It's been long enough that really all that we could see was a big construction site. It was crazy to be where it all happened. There were huge gates blocking the site for blasting and constructionthat made it difficult to see anything. It was encouraging to see that they are in full motion to complete the new buildings by 2010. We spent a lot of time walking and seeing.
We happened upon a Bejing Olymics rally. We were the only 'whities' there! It was soo cool to see all of the excitement for the Olympics. Spencer got a flag and kept having people ask if they could take his picture! (Did anyone see him on CNN?) It was a 'no riots, no politics, just Olympics' rally.
After leaving that fun behind, we walked and ended up in China town once again and went into the back room looking for purses again. It didn't seem as dangerous or as secret as it was yesterday. I did walk away with 2 Gucci purses that I'm pretty happy about! We ate lunch in Little Italy at a great local pizza place. It really started to warm up and as we walked we ended up at the same Flee Market where we started! Full Circle you may say!
That night we went to another Broadway Show. This was the show that Spen got tickets for before our trip... Great tickets! We were 3rd row center for 'Mary Poppins.' I went into the show expecting something similar to the movie, but it was NOTHING like the movie! We both LOVED it! It was such a spectacular show. The $6 soda was pretty fantastic too! We ate at Olive Garden in Time Square. That was pretty fun too, Olive garden -- but in Times Square!
Day 4Last Day. Sad. We had no real agenda for today, but it all worked out to be so great. We tried and tried to find my friend that lives here, but that didn't work out. We went and stood in line to visit the Statue of Liberty, but decided that the 2 hour wait to get on the ferry wasn't worth it today. We'll plan ahead next time. We did more walking and more seeing. We went up to the observation deck at Rockafellar Center for a long time. It was beautiful.
Today was the first non-cloudy/foggy day we had. It was perfect. We went to Marcilla's Pizzaria on 60th street. It just so happened to be Oprah's favorite pizzaria! It was really good. I mean REALLY good! We got whipped raspberry white chocolate truffle cheesecake to take and eat on the plane, then it was the subway ride to the airport.
There was always something interesting to see when we were riding the subway! This time especially. They had the heaters on for some reason and a lady put her bag in front of the heat to deflect it from her legs, only to light her bag on fire! It was so funny once it was taken care of. I couldn't believe that Spencer didn't even notice!
Spencer is my very best friend and I love him so much. The very best thing about our trip was that we got to be with each other like we used to be, you know, before real responsibility set in! We really had one of our best vacations together ever!
