Crown

I know these all word posts are obnoxious but I am hoping this one will have pictures!!

One of out favorite things we did in New York was visit the Statue if Liberty and make the climb all the way up to the crown!

Here are some snap shots of that ...


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Happy Sunday! I hope this picture goes through...


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All Good Things Must Come to an End- Day 6

This morning, just like all the others, we got up super early and went to a charming little restaurant called Georgios Country Grill for breakfast. This was another one of our awesome Yelp finds!! I had the Hawaiian shake- frozen yogurt, raspberries, pineapple and coconut milk (absolutely deliscious!!) with probably the best French toast I have ever had. I highly recommend this place! It's in the Hells Kitchen district on a little corner that was a few short blocks from our hotel... Very quaint. :o)

Sadly, right after we rushed to our hotel, grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. We flew to Minnesota and then to Santa Ana where we found out my luggage had decided it wasn't ready to come home and took a later flight and has yet to grace is with it's presence... The airport has assured me they will deliver it to me tonight... Keeping my fingers crossed!!

It's Raining, It's Pouring...-Day 5

Yup you guessed it, more rain... And today it came down in buckets!

We got up, got ready and headed over to the Statan Island Ferry. When we came up from the subway we walked right into filming of the show White Collar, at least that's what I think it was... It was pretty cool seeing all the cameras and the actors doing the same scene over and over again... Haha.

Onto the Statue of Liberty! There was a light sprinkle when we left the hotel this morning so I brought my umbrella... When we got to the ferry the rain had started coming down a lot harder but still nothing terrible. We got to the statue around 945 am and it was awesome! I finally felt like I was in NYC, not that I didn't before it's just this made it even more complete! Brian was awesome and made reservations for us to climb to the crown more than 3 months in advance! They only allow 300 people up it a day so we felt pretty special. When we climbed the 300+ stairs we were happy to be the only tourists in the crown at the time. We had it all to ourselves! Unfortunately once we got up there the first downpour happened... It was pouring so hard that we couldn't even see out the windows... Luckily right before we were going to descend it stopped... Just long enough for us to stick our heads out of the windows and get a picture.

Afterwards we headed to Ellis Island where we walked around and took in all the exhibits and history. We spent time looking up Brians ancestors and my ancestor only to learn that there are a lot of things we don't know about out own heritage... Need to break put the genealogy and start learning.

Once we were finished there we went outside to get on the ferry back to NYC... That's when the heavens opened up and Mother Nature decided we needed another shower... Lucky us... Now there are a couple huge bummers about this... 1-we were not wearing proper clothing... Brian had a sweatshirt and jeans and I had leggings and my sweater Ugg boots oh and a winter coat that is definitely NOT water resistant. 2- it was still super early in the day so we weren't going home for a long while and last but not least 3-I had accidentally left our umbrella back with miss liberty (second one I lost this trip, the first was at the Yankee/Red Socks game...) so we got soaked!! My shoes are literally sopping wet, my dress and leggings drenched and my jacket gained 10 lbs of water weight from being held over my head... Super!! AND if this wasn't enough we went from the dock straight over to Little Italy and China town for about 5 seconds... Not counting the 35
minute dinner we had at a little place called Da Nico. I had the Spaghetti alla Carbonera, not my fav but still yummy and Brian got a
seafood pasta that I can't remember the name of but it was Delish! Sadly our time in that part of town was cut super short because my boots
were digging into my heels making it super difficult to walk and Brians sweatshirt was soaked and making him freeze...

We made it back just in time before another downpour but were stuck indoors for a couple hours unable to see the rest of what was on our agenda for our last full day... :o( Around 1030pm we made our last attempt to see Time Square again, do a tiny bit of shopping and get our last look at NYC.

Rain Rain Go Away! - Day 4

Today we got up bright and early hoping to go to the Top of the Rock, unfortunately though it was raining and cloudy making it impossible to see anything... We checked back with the workers every couple hours and heard the same mumbo jumbo each time, "There is Zero visibility, it's not worth going up." Booo!! 

Between checking in for the same bad news we managed to keep ourselves busy.  First on the agenda was the NBC tour.  We got to see the sets for Dr. Oz, MSNBC and Saturday Night Live.  It was awesome to see the SNL set because we watch it every week! This week they are prepping for the season finally with Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga. When we saw the set the crew was prepping for his photo shoot for the show. I wish we could have seen him!! 

After the tour we ran over to Radio City to the Radio City Rockette tour. That was really cool too! Circ du Soliel has signed on to do a two year show that hasn't even premiered yet and we got to see them practicing!! It was from a very high and far away distance and only for a few minutes but so fun! 

I forgot to mention that earlier in the day we for stand by tickets for Jimmie Fallon! Sweet right? Yeah well after standing in line, ok only for 5 minutes, then coming back for the first check in and then the second we were told they had full attendance and wouldn't be taking any standby... Another swing and a miss! 

We were so bummed so we went outside to regroup and look for a place to eat when we saw Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell and the guy from Kate and Leopold, he played Meg Ryans brother... But back to Zach (I can't remember his real name) he is so much better looking in person! He even looked at me!! Regrettably I didn't get a picture and I am kicking myself because I had the perfect opportunity!! Haha.

For dinner we stopped at another Yelp find: Empenada Mama in Hells Kitchen. We ordered 6 different kinds of empanadas and they were all mouthwatering!! We had the Cuban, Spicy Chicken, cheesesteak, one I can't remember, Viagra (yes that was an empanada made with shrimp, oyster and crab, sooo good!) oh and did I mention dessert?! Brian  and I each got an empanada with Belgium Chocolate and bananas and I got one without bananas... They were amazing!

We visited the Hershey store and the M&M store and a few other little shops.

Tomorrow is our last full day and we still have so much to see! Pray for clear skies!!

Foggy, Cloudy, Rainy and Chilly- Day 3

This morning we woke up lovely fog and mist outside our window. Today we were scheduled to visit the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center but when we got to the Empire State Building they told us it was 0 visibility and pointless to even go up. Bummer!!! We decided to swap tomorrows schedule with today's and wound up at Ground Zero instead. When we got there we just happened to see Major Bloomberg talking with some construction workers and surrounded by secret service! So fun!

We took a little tour, unfortunately there are no tours on the actual grounds because they are working to have some new monuments ready for the 10 year anniversary. The tour we took was put on by the families of those who were murdered on September 11th. One of our tour guides was a woman who lost her husband on flight 97, the 2nd plane to hit the towers. She told us how her and her husband had just moved so her husband could work from home and she could teach at a school. He only had to travel once a month and only for a few short days at a time. On September 11 she dropped him off at the airport, kissed him goodbye and he told her it would be a quick trip and he would see her on Thursday. She then went to the school she was teaching at and started that days lesson. At 9:00 AM she got a call from her mother in law who told her that Brian's plane had been hijacked and that he left her, his wife a message on their voicemail. The mother in law told her to go home and then come to her house. She went home, not knowing what was going on and checked the answering machine. He left a message something like this... "Hey Jules, the planes been hijacked, take care of yourself, be strong and move on. I love you so much and I'll see you when you get here. Bye." Needless to say, it was a very moving story. After being there and seeing the land where the towers once stood I can finally grasp in the slightest degree what happened that day.

After our tour and on the way to the subway we walked right past Julie from this seasons Survivor!! Brian tapped her as we past and told her we liked watching her on the show. We had no idea the season finally wa tapped here yesterday, because clearly we weren't home to watch it, so now we have our eyes peeled for any of the other people from the show.

Ever since seeing the movie Serendipity I have wanted to go to that little Serendipity restaurant featured where Kate Beckinsdale and Molly Shannon shared a Frozen Hot Chocolate... And today we went! I got the drink and Brian got a banana split... Soooo good!! It was such a small little place but so fun to visit.

Right on the corner next to Serendipity is Dylans Candy Bar... This place is three floors of sugary goodness!! I remembered seeing it on the Food Network so we had to go in! There was so much candy and sugar that Brian and I left empty handed... Way too many choices!

Tonight we went to Time Square and saw the famous Naked Cowboy and saw ourselves on the Forever 21 billboard screen! We had dinner at a food stand I found on Yelp called Halal... It was delicious!!! We both got the combo plate that had rice, chicken, lamb and lettuce... It was so yummy!!

The only bummer about today was the blasted weather! It never actually rained, it just misted heavily and blew all over the place. I had an umbrella but it was pretty much useless because the mist/rain was coming at all directions! Another round of lovely photos!!

Day 2 Holy Humidity

For the duration of our trip the weather is going to be a whopping 66-69 degrees. Surprisingly, it doesn't feel like it, it feels warmer... The oh the humidity! Did I mention it is supposed to rain every day as well?? I prepped for this... Sort of... I bought the strongest hold hair spray under $5 can buy, I'm pretty sure that was my problem, but still my hair goes into ultra frizz ultra ugly mode... Nice. All of my lovely pictures are going to be that much more fun to look at. ;)

On to today, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.... One word to describe it...MASSIVE. This place is huge and crowded. We got there around eleven and by the time we left, about 3 it was a mad house. We saw some amazing art and some amazing wardrobes of fellow museum goers. I love checking out all the styles, believe me, there are all kinds of little art pieces walking around.

On out way to the museum we had to walk through Central Park. It was beautiful! Today is the annual Walk for AIDS and let me tell you, that crowd put the Rowe vs. Wade march we saw in DC to shame! There were thousands of people there! We had to cross through the madness to get to the museum and now we can say we participated... Sort of. Ha!

On the way home we had to get off in Grand Central Station. So cool! We got some great pictures if only I could figure out how to upload them from my iTouch. Oh and I forgot, we also took a stroll down Madison Ave where we saw Rosie Popes store!! For those of you that don't know who she is you should check out the show on Bravo called Pregnant in Heels... It's the store from the show... So cute but sooo small!

Our room was upgraded for free today! We were on the 3rd floor with a view of air conditioning units and now we are on the 23rd floor in a corner suite with two views of the city!! It's so cool!!

After we got our upgrade and switched rooms we headed to the game. We got tickets to the Yankee vs. Red Socks. We aren't really a fan of either but we love baseball and wanted to check put the new Yankee stadium, it was awesome! Yankee fans are super intense and are
die hard fans. The stadium is huge and we loved it! For dinner Brian found a recommendation online that lead us to a yummy little stand that makes mouth watering prime rib sandwiches on yummy garlic herb and pepper buns from Lobels! Delicious!!! Our seats where quite high but still a good view. We even saw a few celebrities! Steve Martin, Loren Michaels, Michael myers, and Andy Samborg! We are big SNL fans so it was fun to see some people from the show. It was a great game! The Yankees lost by 2 and there were a couple fights in the stands that the NYPD had to break up... Entertaining!!

We a dead tired and can't wait for another jam packed day of fun tomorrow!!

New York, New York Day 1

We have arrived!! Yesterday we landed in the great city of New York! All I can say us that this city is busy! 
Our room is two short blocks from Time Square and it's beautiful! Within the first thirty minutes of being here we grabbed some delicious New York pizza, probably the biggest slice of pizza heaven I have ever eaten and while we were stuffing our faces who walked by?? Mr. Big from Sex and the City himself! I never got into the show but I knew who he was and it was so cool to see him just out and about in NYC! 

Time square was a mad house! There were thousands of people out and about. There was a commercial shoot for a new Range Rover going on and we might be in it! It was a time lapse so more than likely it won't show any one person in-particular but still fun. And of course we had check out the Disney store, probably the coolest screen signage I have ever seen!

We caught our first Broadway show, Mary Poppins last night and It was so good! I was fascinated with all the intricate set designs, the theatre and singing! The show is actually coming to OC in July and I definitely recommend it. Brian said he even enjoyed it. 
I loved that when the show ended, at 11:00 pm, it still looked bright outside! There are so many lights that it literally does not get dark at night time.

On an unrelated note: Anyone else have trouble with BlogPress? I can't upload any pictures!