WOW! I cannot believe how fast that trip went. Literally every day we'd suddenly look at the time and it'd be like 8 p.m. and we'd be like, what the hell??! When did it become 8:00?!
First, I love New York!! There isn't one thing I disliked about the entire trip. Everything exceeded my expectations and was completely positive. I did not run into any 'typical' New Yorkers being all negative like I assumed I would. Everyone was very nice and helpful. I didn't feel crowded and overwhelmed by the amount of people. I never felt unsafe at any moment in time (although let me interject that obviously we were in touristy places that were well lit and as it is with any city, wandering down dark deserted alleys is likely going to get you in trouble). It was just so awesome all around and if I can make it happen, I will be a frequent visitor to New York City! I absolutely loved it. I would love to see New York in the fall, and at Christmas, and New Years :) So, I need to start saving again! My other big unexpected realization-- it's really green in New York. Yes I'm coming from the desert so my view might be a little skewed when compared to someone coming from a green place...but yeah, there were parks everywhere, lost of trees, etc. I was surprised.
Ok, so we landed Friday around 3:30 and met up with my friend Stephanie who flew in from Canada. So great to see her!! Ivan's brother lives on Long Island so he came and picked us up from the airport, along with Ivan's niece Lauren. Arnold basically gave us a huge overview tour and drove us around everywhere. We had dinner in Harlem at this placed called Amy Ruth's. Which is a soul food restaurant (YUMMY!). Since we were in Harlem, we asked Arnold to drive us by Bill Clinton's office (YAY!). So anyway, we got back to the hotel and collapsed when our other friend, Heather (from Scotland, traveling the world right now, on her U.S. stop) showed up! YAY! So we were all exhausted, aside from Ivan. He went to have a drink and us girls just sat and talked for a few hours catching up on life since Africa.
By the way, I couldn't have gotten more lucky when booking the hotel. I looked on Expedia.com at reviews and ended up choosing the Hampton Inn-Times Square North. This was the best location-- and reasonably priced. We were 2 blocks from Times Square/Broadway, about 4 blocks from Central Park, 3 blocks from the subway, 1 block from where the bus tour started & stopped, 3 blocks from 5th Avenue (shopping!), just walking distance to nearly everything-- CBS, NBC, Rockefeller Center...not to mention, there were tons of bars & restaurants on our street, although I think this is everywhere in Manhattan.
On Saturday we went on a double-decker bus tour. If you just sat on the bus the whole time the tour would take about 2 hours but you can get off at different stops and then get back on, a bus comes every 10 minutes. So we covered all of Manhattan on this bus. We drove through Times Square, by Carnegie Hall, Macy's (yes, Miracle on 34th street, it's really on 34th street), Madison Square Garden, Wall Street, Ground Zero, the Brooklyn Bridge, United Nations, Rockefeller Center, and many many many more places! We got off the bus at the Brooklyn Bridge which was cool because you hear so much about it and everything. And we got off at Rockefeller Center. Here we took a tour of NBC studios, so we sat on the sets of Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and even got to do some interactive stuff-- Ivan volunteered without knowing what he was doing. Turned out he was going to be a weather man! So he got to stand in front of the green screen and see how to do the map thing, and read from the teleprompter. I think he's got a future ahead of him :) It was pretty cool. At some of the stands around Rockefeller Center they were selling all these NY landscape pictures, which I'm a sucker for. I bought this black & white one of the Brooklyn Bridge, one that had a bunch of famous street signs, and these 4 that showed scenes from Central Park in every season--the picture is the famous tree-lined path that you see in pretty much every movie :) Pretty cool.
That night we went out to this club, the 40/40 club which is owned by the rapper Jay-Z. It was different-- upstairs there was this room with all these couches everywhere & a pool table where they had all the sporting events on which is where we were seated. Outside of that room there was kind of a balcony area with some couches, and downstairs there were these like hanging chairs. There wasn't any real designated dance floor but I think once the place gets packed people just dance wherever they are. Anyway, it was good, drinks were good, we managed to rack up a $272 tab which isn't hard in NYC.
On Sunday we took our first trip on the subway, which happens to be incredibly easy to use. I was worried it would be all complicated. But once again, people were helpful and everywhere we needed to go was easy to get to, quick, and safe. So we took the subway to the Bronx for the Yankee-Phillie game. That day I got a major sunburn!! It was a good time, and it was Stephanie & Heather's first professional game, Heather's first game ever :0
After the game when we got off the subway there was a big street fair going on do we wandered around there buying purses, eating lamb kabobs, and stopping at a palm reader... ready for this? I'll be engaged by the end of the year... :) haha To be fair, I told Ivan to hold my ring before we walked up to her because I didn't want her to know so I guess if you're going to believe in these people you have to be honest with them. Anyway, she did say "The one you're with is the one for you, stop questioning it, he's telling me he's your soulmate, etc" and she went on to say she sees a wedding next year (wow, me too!) and kids soon after that (hmm...) She sees twin boys, and another child. Which I have always wanted twins and have 4 sets in my family so I think I'll hold onto that and choose to believe her ;) haha
From here we wandered into Central Park...at which point I fell in love. I don't know what it is, it's just a park when you cut through the crap, but I loved it. We just sat there for a couple hours sitting in the grass talking, and Ivan took a nap. I just loved it. I don't know what else to say about it other than I loved it.
That night we took it easy and went out to eat at a pub down the street, which turned into hours of talking. Wandering back down the street to the Cosmic Diner for a late night cheesecake stop, and more talking. That was the best part of the whole trip though, just all the talking we did. Obviously it was great to catch up with each other, but also just to have conversations anything and everything, deep ones, shallow ones, about similarities and differences, etc.
On Monday, Memorial Day, we went to Ground Zero. Which as I've been told many times, is just a construction site at this point. True. It's so weird, and a little amazing, to think that almost 8 years later it's just a pile of rubble. We wandered a bit more and into St. Paul's Cathedral, which turned out to be a huge 9/11 Memorial. This is where all the rescue workers who were working after the towers fell would come to eat, rest, refuel, and get back out there. This place was a bit too much for me. I could look at certain things, and then there were several different displays that showed pictures of people who died in 9/11 and I just couldn't look at them. I tried for a minute and knew if I stayed I'd be a balling mess. So I kept on moving. After Ground Zero we wandered around Wall Street some more.
Then it was time to get back to the hotel because Ivan was flying out that day, he had to get back to work. We grabbed some pizza (gigantic slices!) and he took off. So the girls and I headed back to our new 2nd home...Central Park! We decided to take a tour with this poor Italian man pulling us around on his bike :) "Charlie" (his name turned out to be Marco but he went with Charlie), rode us around the park for an hour pointing out famous places; some buildings surrounding the park where the Kennedy's lived, Marilyn Monroe, and where people currently live-- Celine Dion, Al Pacino to name a few that I can actually remember! And, where John Lennon was shot, and Yoko Ono still lives. We went to the "Friends" fountain, and even got in it for some pictures, the walkway I was talking about earlier, tons of places. And of course we then found ourselves laying under a tree for awhile. Then we wandered from bench to bench before landing on a rock...well I call it a rock but it was actually this HUGE rock that has been there for like 800 million years or something ridiculous. And when I say rock please understand hundreds of people could sit on this 'rock.'
That night we grabbed some Mexican food, talked for more hours, and then wandered around Times Square, went to the M&M store, and the Hershey store. YUM.
Tuesday we slept in (finally). That afternoon we went down to Chelsie Piers for our helicopter tour of Manhattan. This was pretty neat. And it was kind cool to do it later in the trip because as things were pointed out we could recognize them and stuff from seeing them on land. After that we grabbed a cab and headed to Battery Park, where you catch the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty. We took the ferry out to Ellis Island and went through the museum there--which is the actual building that immigrants would pass through when coming to America. It was all really neat.
At the end of Tuesday we were exhausted, and starving! We went into the first restaurant we saw and stuffed our faces :) Then passed out!
Wednesday we went on a Sex & the City Tour! This was super cool. The tour was 3.5 hours long and took you all over Manhattan pointing out where things were filmed and telling what the scenes were. The tour started at The Plaza hotel (also where Kate Hudson & Anne Hathaway were having their weddings in Bride Wars-- "June at The Plaza!!", amongst many other things) Directly across the street is where they shot the opening when Carrie trips, and the Paris theatre where Carrie goes on her date night with the City; cruising along 5th Ave, we see Bergdorf & Goodman, where Charlotte & Trey register for their wedding, and Tiffany's where Trey re-proposes to Charlotte, another store where Carrie announces she's "taking a lover" while looking at perfumes... We saw the alley where Carrie got mugged, the bar where Samantha threw a dirty martini in the 'dirty bastard' Richard's face, the park where Miranda was with the baby when meeting Steve's new girl for the first time and she tripped and fell, the "Pleasure Chest" sex shop where the girls took Charlotte and got her the rabbit :) We drove through the Meat Packing District and saw the shops where Miranda did the math for Carrie on how much money she's spent on shoes, the building where Samantha was suppose to live, Miranda's gym, Big's apartment, this awesome little bakery where Carrie & Miranda were sitting in front of when Carrie was eating a cupcake and told Miranda about Aiden for the first time. We got some of these cupcakes-- might be the most fabulous cupcakes EVER! We also went to Steve & Aiden's bar, and.....had a cosmo! Very cool. The tour ended by the NYC Public Library, where Carrie & Big were to be married, on the street where Carrie beat him up with the flowers. The really cool thing about the tour was that the guide was called a "Sexpert" and she was young, cute, and hip. And, after we'd see a building or something, they'd show the scene from the show or movie that correlated with it. So cool. I have this whole new love & appreciation for Sex & The City now. I want re-watch everything, I've fell in love all over again.
After the tour we did some shopping on 5th Ave--this is home to Louis Vitton, Tiffany, Kenneth Cole, etc etc etc. And in between all of them are stores we could actually afford :) But it was cool just to be there. That night we had a nice dinner at this Italian restaurant. Which by the way, in the window was a letter from Oprah thanking the owner for a wonderful meal when she had eaten there ;) After that, we headed to Broadway for Mamma Mia! It was of course a great show, and great to actually see on Broadway. I could have seen a show everyday if we had the time and money. I love that stuff ;)
So after that it was time to pack up. Thursday morning I headed home. In the cab on the way to the airport I get the voicemail that my flight had been cancelled! Luckily it was very easily fixed and I made it back to Phoenix only a half hour later than planned.
Anyway.....it was a great trip, I loved New York, can't wait to go again, want to head back specifically for shopping and Broadway, and loved seeing the girls.
Oh, and I forgot to mention it was Fleet Week. This is when the naval ships dock and the sailors are ALL over the city. For the Sex & The City fans you'll remember this :)
Talk soon!
