The Big Apple

I know I'm a bit behind on posting this. Thanks Amber W. for the reminder! My schedule has been so backwards and I've had a ton of stuff to do since I've been home so I haven't had a chance to post this My mom, sis and I had a blast in NY! I debated before I left as to whether or not I should bring my good camera to NY with me. I knew that we would be riding the subway and walking a lot. The thing weighs about 15 lbs. so I wasn't sure I wanted to be toting it around. I'm kinda regretting my decision to leave it home, but I'm sure that my shoulders aren't!! Besides the fact that knowing my luck, I would have ended up getting mugged. Day One- We woke up EARLY to catch our 6AM flight. Our flight was uneventful. When we got there, we took at taxi from the airport to our hotel. When we got into the taxi, from the taxi line at the airport, one of the other taxi driver's told us that our taxi driver had a PhD in taxi driving.... and boy did he. He made what should have been an hour drive with traffic into a 30 minute drive. My mom was on the edge of her seat the entire time!! He was driving down the side of the freeway that wasn't even a lane. What a way to break us into fast paced NY. When we arrived, we checked into our hotel. One of Brooke's friends was able to hook us up with a friends and family discount at the Marriott right in Times Square. It was fantastic! Here's the view from our hotel room on the 25th floor.

Once we got settled in, we decided to walk around in Times Square. It was lots of fun. Then we decided to brave the subway. We purchased an unlimited subway pass and were on our way. After heading uptown instead of down town, and then passing out stop once, we had mastered the subway. We grabbed dinner at a place called the Stardust Dinner. So fun! All of the waiters were wanna-be broadway stars with amazing voices. They had a karaoke set up and they would sing songs from the 50s in between waiting tables. Then we decided to head to the Empire State Building. What a view! It cracks me up that your ears pop on the way up in the elevator. We hung out at the top for a bit and then decided to head to a few shops that we'd spotted on our way there. They had an H & M and a Forever 21 that were 3 stories high. Can you say Heaven on earth? After a little shopping we decided to head to the hotel and get to bed. We had to get up super early. Then next day we were headed to the Today Show.

Day Two- This day brought even more excitement. First, we got up at 5AM NY time, which is 2AM AZ time. Man was that rough! We walked over to Rockafellar Plaza to see the Today Show. We knew that Friday would be part of the Summer Concert Series. Only the week before, did we realize that we would be seeing the New Kids on the Block.

WooHoo! Ummm not really. It was fun to be there, they did sing Hangin' Tough. However, I would have much preferred No Doubt, who was there the week before, or Taylor Swift who is coming in a few weeks. Get this, there were people that camped out for the New Kids for 5 days. So basically by the time that we got there early that morning, we had no chance of getting very close. It was an entertaining concert and the Jabbawockeez, a dance group opened for them. I think that I enjoyed them more. My mom was also considered for a mom's day makeover. They said that they really wanted to use us, but there wasn't anything that they could do to improve my mom. Which means that my mom's still got IT! Afterwards when we were talking, we decided that we should have gone without makeup in our PJs that morning just so that we could have been picked. How fun would that have been! My sis and I were able to shake Meredith's hand as she ran by. She the one in the red in this picture.

Next, we decided to head up to Canal Street. I've always heard about it, but never been. That was an interesting experience. When you get there, you're basically mobbed by people shouting name brands at you. We found a lady that had a shop and we went in to shop. All of the sudden a secret door opened and she took us down to this basement with all kinds of stuff that she didn't have upstairs. It was definitely an interesting experience. Fun to say that we've done it. We got lots of fun handbags.

That evening we went to see The Lion King. AMAZING! It was so moving and incredible. The costumes were beautiful. The music was so inspiring. We had great seats on the lower level. I really can't say enough about it. We had so much fun, that we decided that we wanted to go and see another show the next night.

Day Three- By the third day, we were wiped out! We slept in and it was great! After that, we had a late breakfast at a place called Junior's in Times Square. Great food! Then, we headed back down to Canal Street. My mom and sis had some buyer's remorse in the opposite way that it usually comes. They both regretted not buying more purses the day before, so we made one more trip back. After that, we headed over and took the Staten Island Ferry out and got a close up view of the Statue of Liberty. Pretty neat!

Afterward, we walked around Battery Park and watched some street performers called the Positive Brothers. They did cool tricks and picked me out of the audience along with about 4 other girls. they had us bend over and touch our toes standing next to each other and one of them did a front flip over all of us. My sis got an action shot. I'll have to post it if I get those pics from her... hint hint! While in the area, we decided to walk by Ground Zero. They are now building a new building there, but it still looks like they have quite a ways to go. It was crazy to think that so many innocent people died there.

While in NY, we had many entertaining experiences on the Subway. I think it's part of the appeal of NY. First, we ran into a girl from America's Next Top Model. Here's a pic for anybody that watches that show. She was so nice and talked for quite a while with us on the subway about her experience. We also got onto a train just as two ladies started screaming at each other. We missed the beginning of the confrontation but first the subway officers and eventually police officers were called. Apparently a woman slapped her son and another woman got in her face and told her that she would call the police if she did it again. well, it turned into a huge and uncomfortable argument between races, as one lady was black and the other was white. We were just spectators as all of the black people on the train stood up for the lady that smacked her child and told the white woman to mind her own business, and while the white lady stuck her nose up in the air and caused a scene. At one point the black lady looked toward all of the white people on the bus and proceeded to tell us that we don't discipline our children correctly and that is why white kids throw themselves on the floor and throw tantrums. It was an interesting situation to observe. Ya don't get much of that in good ol' AZ. That night we went to see the new broadway show 9 to 5. It was based upon the movie from the 80's with Dolly Parton in it. It was great! The three lead characters were played by two women that have been Glinda and Elpheba in Wicked on Broadway and Lily Tomlin's character was played by Allison Janey. It was full of great songs and fun dances, we loved it.

Day Four-For Mother's Day we spent the day taking it easy. We went to Central Park and walked around. It is so beautiful there! There were lots of street performers singing or dancing, so we stopped to watch. We also went to the biggest toy store ever FAO Schwarts. I really missed my kids that day, especially at the toy store. They had all kinds of fun interactive stuff that they would have loved. Someday!! We made reservations and had dinner at Serendipity 3's. That place is so awesome. I had a Curried Chicken Almondine Casserole. It was so good, and of course we had Frrrrrozen Hot Chocolate for dessert.

Day Five- This was our last day to be in NY. We decided the week before we left that we would get up early that morning and attempt to get standby tickets to Regis and Kelly. We got up at 5AM NY time. Got to the line by 5:45. When we arrived we were 7, 8 and 9th in line We thought for sure we would get in. We had to wait for the lady to hand out the stand by tickets at 8AM. It was a chilly morning, and we froze in that line. At around 7:45 the lady that was #3 in line had 4 people join her and cut in the line. The lady that came to cut actually asked us if we minded if she did. We told her that we did mind since we'd been freezing all morning and they'd been able to sleep in, etc. When the lady came to hand out the numbers a bunch of us in line told the lady that those 4 had cut in line and she just ignored us and handed out the tickets to them anyways. Turns out that they only had room for 10 stand by tickets that day!! We were numbers 11, 12 and 13 one those 4 people cut. ANNOYING! I was so upset with them, but what do you do. We were able to see Regis as he crossed the street from his apartment with a body guard. Joan Rivers was also on and we were able to see her. Man is she ever plastic looking! My sister had those pics. We went by a place called Rice to Riches, they make any type of rice pudding that you could imagine. I got strawberries and cream. MMMMmmm! We went on our trip to NY with Dustin and Bridget a few years ago. At the airport on the way home, we also saw Scottie Pippen. My step-dad Garrett didn't believe that we would recognize who he was, but he's definitely not one to blend into the crowd. All in all it was such a fantastic trip! It was probably the most memorable trip that I've taken with my mom and sister in my life. It was so fun to hang with you guys for 5 days! Thanks so much mom!