NYC

Well, Jason finally made one of my dreams come true and took me to NYC for my birthday during Christmas time.  We have a few things we wanted to do but the rest of the time was just taking the city in and enjoying the sites.  I had major, I mean MAJOR anxiety about flying and leaving Drew.  We got there on a Thursday and went and ate lunch at the Time Warner building at Landmac after we checked in.  Leaving lunch, Jason saw David Hough, from Dancing with the Stars.  I just saw the back of him.  Jason didn't know who he was at the time just kept saying "you know the blonde guy on one of your reality shows you watch."  I couldn't think of anybody and I don't watch Dancing with the Stars all that much.  Maybe he does and I don't know it!  After googling blonde reality show guys he figured it out.  We walked across the street to Central Park which was having a little Christmas market.  They sale little odds and ends but it was fun to just look around.  We walked over to FAO Swartz to get little man something and then  headed back to our hotel and got ready for the Nutcracker!  It was hard to find a taxi at that time of day so we had a guy on a bicycle with a back seat take us to our destination (these guys are everywhere).  The Nutcracker was amazing as expected.  After the show we headed to dinner and came across a quaint Italian place.  I kept telling Jason that locals were eating here so it must be good and it was!  My main goal was to just walk up to places and eat on this trip.  We did get some recommendations but as always where we were and where the restaurants were, were no where close :(  So, we just guessed!  It was kind of fun!

Friday, we woke up and headed downtown to 34th street....MACY'S!  I heard to go there early and see Santa Land.  We walked right up and walked right throught with no trouble.  I did hear others say how crazy it gets and long lines.  Not for us!  We did see Santa and he did ask what we wanted.  I told him what Drew wanted and that he better take care of that.  To our surprise, he did!  Santa's great!  After Santa Land, we shopped around on all 9 floors.  Crazy!  We left Macy's and headed towards SPIN NYC. This is an indoor ping pong place. This was my surprise to Jason because I knew most of the things on this trip were for me but I wanted to do something for him. I told him on the subway where we were going and I think it threw him off guard. We got there a little early so we hung out at a Starbucks (these are EVERYWHERE). I skyped my class and showed them all the tall buildings, traffic, buses, taxi's, entry way to the subway, ect. I couldn't see them but I kept hearing them say "whoa".  We had recently talked about Rural, Urban, and Suburban areas.  I wanted to show them real life what Urban is.  They enjoyed it...I think!  We then grabbed lunch around the corner at a burger place and then headed across the street to get a Crumbs cupcake.  I wanted to do this last time we were there and ran out of time :(  Of course, we were full so we saved them for later!  We then took a subway all the way to the Bronx...long ride to the botanical gardens.  We took the wrong train and walked thru the Bronx a ways.  That was a little scary but thank goodness it was during the day.  At the botanical gardens they have some amazing sculptures of NYC and buildings around town in wood, flowers, ect.  It was really neat.  We then took the right train back!  We headed to our hotel to get ready for the Rockettes.  I wanted to walk 6th street, as told to see all the lights.  We also wanted to grab some pizza before the show, another thing we didn't do last time but wanted to (NYC pizza).  We stopped at a hole in the wall place but it was good.  We saw the Rockettes, which I have seen twice here, and I have to say of course they are 10 times better in New York.  We then walked around to see more lights.  We went to Rockafeller center and came across a light show on a building and it was really neat. 

Saturday,  we woke up and started downtown at Century 21.  This is like a TJ MAXX, Ross, Marshals, ect. but all name brand things.  It was huge, well organized, and a great place to shop.  I will be returning there next time.  Jason got a few things, I got some Hudson jeans, and of course little man got some camo house shoes that he loves.  We then slowly started heading uptown and stopped in NOLITA.  This is a neighborhood next to Little Italy and much nicer.  Quiet and upscale shopping.  We stopped in Tory Burch and I got to get a little something.  :)  We then came across what they proclaim as the first Pizza restaurant in NYC...maybe ever,  I can't remember.  Anyways, it was good...the sauce was a little different but still good.  There was a line so we knew it must be something to try!  We walked around NOLITA and over to SOHO.  We came across DASH.  They only allow 20 people in the store at a time.  We didn't go in.  I've heard it's expensive and I knew the Kardashians weren't in there by what the people around were saying.  Plus, there would've be a ton of security there.  We walked up to Washington Square Park and just took in the scenery.  We then headed back to the hotel to rest (a lot of walking going on).  We then headed to Central Park to rent some bikes.  I wanted to see a few things that I had seen in movies in the park so we rode around looking at all of them.  It was so pretty and fun.  I would recommend others to do this.  You can go anywhere and fast...well faster then walking for sure.  You are also giving your FEET a break!  We then went back to our hotel to rest before it got dark....I wanted to see the rest of the city at night so we waited.  We then started again at 34th street Macy's to see all the lights.  We had a plan (path up to Times Square) that I had written out.  We walked by the Empire State Building, Bloomingdales, stopped and did some shopping, and then over to Times Square.  This place was CRAZY.  We went into Toys R Us, M&M store, and then found some Chinese food.  Random but I smelt it in the airport and it just sounded good.  It was!  We then headed over to Dylan's Candy Shop (Ralph Lauren's daughter's store) it as a fun store and cute!  We bought a few things and walked a few blocks to Serendipity.  Well, I forgot to call ahead at at this time it was 10:00pm.  The guy said it was a 2.5hr to 3 hr. wait.  We did it.  We waited.  I told Jason that I have to keep moving or I will go to sleep.  We walked to city.  We ran into Peter Strauss and Jason got a picture with him.  He was really nice.   We stopped in Starbucks to rest our feet until we needed to head back.  We got to Serendipity at 12am and had dessert.  We both got Hot Fudge Sundaes and they were good!  We will go back again.  This too was another place I meant to go to last time and ran out of time. 

 

Here are a few pics from this amazing trip.  I can't wait to go back...Jason can.  :)