I LOVE New York :)

Here it is a week later and I am still working on this post......... Life has been crazy but here it is finally. It's long (very long) but it's done.

What an amazing trip! I had so much fun I don't even know where to begin. Tara and I took the all nighter on Thursday night (which almost didn't happen due to Tara having a flu bug) and landed in the morning in the middle of a winter storm and much snow in New York. As we walked out of the terminal I recognized the old TWA terminal and then saw the sign and had to snap a picture. Oh, the memories of times past.

Because of the snow we thought it would be quicker to take the subway into Manhattan instead of a taxi and did pretty well except for the fact that the first decision we made got us going in slightly the wrong direction - something about down town instead of up town. Once we figured out where we were and where we may have gone wrong and what stop we needed to get off we managed to sit through our stop. We ended up getting off the subway and taking a taxi to Kathryn's house which was an experience in and of itself - can you say washing machine, at least that is what if felt like we were in as he took his foot on and off the gas pedal (we ended up riding in many cabs that drove that way). We barley took a breath, changed our clothes, refreshed our make-up and we were off and running for the rest of the day. It was such a haze but Oh, so much fun! Poor Tara (recovering from the flu) was such a trouper and kept on going the whole day even though all she wanted to do was sleep.

Our first stop was an awesome brunch spot where the food was great and the servings were large (I loved Kathryn's blueberry pancakes best). Yummy!

From there we went to see if we could get tickets to Wicked (which is a sold out show) and stood in line waiting for people to turn in there tickets so we could snap them up. 

We noticed that there were 2 women (who looked trust worthy) trying to sell her tickets (Ok, maybe they approached the whole line) and we jumped at the chance. I had enough cash for two of them and Katharyn went running to the nearest ATM all the while someone else had apparently gone to get money too. The woman selling the tickets said she would take the money from the first one back. My heart was beating in my throat with the excitement and although we saw her go to the box office to pick up her tickets I still was nervous that they would be fake and nearly had a heart attack when after purchasing the tickets with MUCH excitement we went and got in line to go into the show but when they were scanned the scanner made a funny noise - when the ticket person said "These tickets are for tonight girls" WHEW! Sigh of releif for sure! We left the theatre with giddy laughter thrilled that the the tickets were indeed good. (I must admit though, throughout the day I often thought about the possibility of the tickets not working for the evening performance either) Lucky for us they worked and we got to see the evening show which was AMAZING! Loved it, Loved the music! Thank you Kathryn for being willing to see it for the third time! What a highlight of our trip for sure. (took the pictures from Kathryn's blog)

I absolutely LOVED the show, even now I find myself humming some of the music!

Before going to the show we grabbed a bite to eat (again, I think I ate my way through Manhattan) and then headed to Ground Zero. The one thing (although quite sobering) I wanted to do before we left. It just didn't seam right to leave the city without going there. Im not sure I can put into words how it felt to be there. Sobering for sure. It was hard for me to imagine the fun I had had on a previous trip to the city (many years earlier) where I had gone up the speedy elevator to the top and looked out the windows at the beauty of the city below and even ascended to the very top of the building where the view took my breath away and where I learned that I had a slight fear of heights. I didn't take any pictures of the gaping hole - I just couldn't bring myself to do it. From there we went into the 911 museum that is next door to the fire station. It was emotionally hard to see all the faces from the color copies of the missing posters to the pictures and notes and personal items from the memorial. There were two particular notes from children to their "Daddy's" one wanting to know when he will be home the other knowing he was safe in Heaven. Needless to say they sent me over the edge and the tears fell no matter how hard I tried not to cry. There were even personal items and pieces of the airplane as well as steal from the building. Humbling to say the least. 

On our way back to see Wicked (did I say that it was sold out and that it was an awesome show) we stopped by the ABC studio and accepted our Oscar's.

This case showed the process of how they make the Oscar with the last three processes being nickle plated, silver plated and then lastly gold plated.

These are some of the other highlights of our trip in pictures

The view from Time Square

an old church among the sky scrapers

This is the guy who was playing "buckets" that I tried to get a video of and every time I did he would stop playing. Tara put some money in his bucket but it wasn't enough - he is pointing to his sign that said "$5 for photos". The guy with the backpack and the brown pants even got into the act and every time I tried to take video he would stand in my way. Apparently Tara didn't put in enough money

 

Sunday started off relaxing with a late breakfast and then a short walk to a park where there was a dog park. I think we watched the dogs in the small dog park for more than 20 minutes - they were funny and very entertaining. I wish I had taken some pictures but I don't think they would convey just how funny these dogs were. 

Kathryn and Mike had a previous engagement for the afternoon so Tara and I had a couple of hours to kill on our own. We took another taxi (aka - a washing machine) to Central Park near The Plaza Hotel. We wanted to walk into the lobby of The Plaza but on the taxi ride there we found out it was closed so we just took in the atmosphere around us and got super excited about the HUGE Apple store with the cool elevator down to it. We had to go in but there were so many people in it you could barley move.

We walked along 5th Ave and had a hot dog from a street vendor (something Tara wanted to do but turned out to be yummy) and then made a mad dash back to the apartment to change and take another washing machine, I mean Taxi to the airport. It was a whirlwind trip. I was exhausted when I got home but worth every moment I had to prepare for the Oscar Party before I left and for the chaos of my life when I got home. Tara and her sister are so much fun and I am so lucky to have a friend who would invite me along on her trip and even luckier still for my friend to have such a great sister who didn't mind that I tagged along (not to mention got to meet and now I am happy to call her my friend too!) Thanks Tara and Kathryn! And thanks to Mike for lending us your wife for the weekend.

Good Bye New York