NYC Day 5

Our Friday in the Big Apple was a pretty low key one. Our initial plans to go into the Empire State Building got postponed until the next day because of the long wait, so we had some time to just walk around the city before we went to Central Park or visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

 

By this time in the week, we were pretty much Mass Transit Pros. Brad was the master at navigating the different subway lines and stops. During our whole time there, we only got lost once. (We hopped on the Eastbound train instead of the Westbound, and ended up confused in Queens.) Not too bad for some small town, Southern, first-timers!

 

We didn't intend to walk past Macy's on Black Friday, but it was on our path from the subway stop to the Empire State Building, which was still our original plan that morning. There were literally thousands of people on the street waiting to get into the World's Largest Store. It was the only time during our visit that I clung to Brad's hand so we wouldn't get separated in the crowd. Black Friday shoppers are crazy!

 

 

When we finally made our way through the sea of people to our destination, we immediately realized that the wait was going to be too long to enjoy the truly experience before we had to leave and be at our next scheduled stop. So instead, we decided to wait until tomorrow for that and just did some sight seeing. It was cool to see Seventh Avenue (aka Fashion Avenue) in person. And the NYC Post office is seriously huge! It reminded me of the Parthenon replica we have her in Nashville. We walked by Madison Square Garden, and even though Taylor Swift was performing there that night (and the next), we didn't get to go to the concert. Bummer. (But we did see many girls in obvious TSwift concert attire on the subways!)

Right outside of Central Park, which was our next stop, is The Plaza. As in "Eloise at The Plaza," or as I better know it, the place that Kevin McCallister stays in "Home Alone 2: Lost In New York." It is grand, for sure. We walked past the valet and bellhops into the lobby to take look around. It is so fancy and beautiful. I can definitely see why it has been the setting for some movies.

 

 

We were right on time to participate in our walking tour of Central Park that focused on TV and movie locations. The tour guide told our group where specific scenes had been filmed, as well as a lot about the history and details of the massive park in general. It was so pretty there, especially in the fall as the leaves were changing colors. Of course we had to take a picture kissing in front of "the kissing bridge." Apparently, this bridge is the most proposed location in the whole city. How romantic.

 

The most personally exciting places that we got to see the spot were where Kevin first meets the Pigeon Lady in "Home Alone," the fountain that Giselle dances in front of in "Enchanted," and walk the Promenade, which is not only the solitary straight pathway in the whole park, but it's also the most filmed area in Central Park with scenes in "When Harry Met Sally," "Serendipity," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," and "Big Daddy," among others. 

 

Our tour took a little break to allow us to ride the park's historical carousel. It was so old fashioned that the music was even created by the circular motion of the horses, and you could see the antique instruments working in the center of the circle. Back in the way old days, the carousel was powered by mules underneath that would walk in laps at a speed determined by the number of knocks the conductor would do on the floor: one for a gallop, two for a trot, three to slow down, and four to stop and so on. It has since been motorized, thank goodness.

 

After a few hours of touring (just a small portion of) Central Park, Bradley and I enjoyed The.Best.Burger.Ever. Like ever. Shake Shack is compared to the In-N-Out Burger of the West, or the Whataburger or Five Guys of the South. But let me tell you, this place blows all of those other regions' burger joints out of the greasy kitchen! Hands down, this was the best burger and fries combo I have ever experienced. On more than one occasion, Brad and I have considered flying to NYC just to eat here. It's that good.

 

The line was out the door and down the street, and once you finally arrived in the building, you were herded through a winding amusement park style line before you could place your order. It was pretty much standing room early, and believe me, people were standing and eating. Luckily, I spotted two empty seats near the window for the hubs and me. All we had to do was share the table with an Asian family of three. Hey, you've gotta do what you've gotta do! And the meal was more than worth it.

 

When we were all filled up (and wanting more but not willing to wait in line a second time), we made our way back to Times Square for the third occasion that week. This time, we were visiting Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Of all the many things we did during our visit, I think we probably had the most fun here.

 

There were life size, life-like wax figures of hundreds of celebrities, musicians, politicians, and a number of any historical figures mingling around the place just waiting for you to approach. Brad was able to flirt with Bette Midler and prove that he's just as smoldering hot as Edward Cullen and Johnny Depp. And I was able to show off my JLo booty and finally get my hands on Justin Timberlake. (Humina, humina.)

 

I listened to Woody Allen talk about the city and helped Lucy bake dinner while Brad chilled with Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali and tried out to be one of the Rockettes. (He didn't get in.)

 

 

As if the entire museum wasn't one big photo op, they had a few places set up specifically for picture posing. We could finally stand on the bridge that was merely in the background of our Central Park picture, and Brad had the opportunity to fully "embrace" the Oval Office. Yikes. There's a reason we aren't into politics!

 

We rocked out with some legends with the likes of Elton John, Tina Turner, and Bono, and I performed some height comparisons along the line. I was just barely taller than horse jockey Willie Shoemaker, but I couldn't even touch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's head on my tip toes! 

 

We couldn't resist some 90's boy band / girl band photo bombing, and I got a second opportunity to fawn all over JT. Also, that bottom right image is of a random wax woman taking a picture. She's not real, people. There's no need to very patiently wait behind her to snap the picture she's trying to get. She's not a real person taking a real picture. You can just walk on past her. Because she's not real. Just fyi...

 

Within Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, there was a special 4-D showing of "The Polar Express"!! Eee!! That's my very favorite Christmas movie! And since Santa waved at me at the end of the parade the day before(!!!), it was officially Christmastime! The showed an abbreviated version of the film that lasted about 45 minutes but still adequately captured all of the magic.

 

And if you're wondering, the fourth dimension catered to our other non-visual senses. Snow fell from the ceiling when the boy walked outside in his pj's; wind gushed over our faces when the train came to a stop in front of his house; something poked us in the back when they were falling into Santa's big gift bag; and it literally smelled like Christmas in the theater when they were gathered around the tree at the end! It was awesome!!

 

As soon as the film was over, we came to the Main Event. I finally got to meet Wax Figure Taylor Swift!! It was magical! They even had her sparkly guitar in a case nearby. My was museum goals were officially complete. Success.

 

 

I'm not exactly sure why we had so much fun at that silly museum full of wax figures, but Brad and I truly enjoyed our evening goofing around with fake famous people. That combined with our amazing time at the beautiful Central Park and the best meal in all the land made our penultimate day in the city pretty great.

 

If you're interested in how the rest of the week went, you can check out Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and Day 6.

[Entire NYC Day 5 Photo Album]

NYC Day 4 - Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in New York City is the best Thanksgiving ever, ever! And Day 4 was (in my opinion) the pinnacle of our week there. I had been waiting for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade all year long, and it was finally here!

Random picture we took in front of a pretty wall in Rockefeller Center

 

Even though we were exhausted from our late Broadway show the night before, Brad and I woke up at 5:00 in the morning (brrr!!) and made our way to Midtown in an effort to secure a great spot along the parade route. And boy did we ever! Somehow we stumbled upon the best location in the whole city! We sat on top of some scaffolding outside of the back of Carnegie Hall on the corner of 57th and 7th. It was perfect because the scaffolding allowed us to sit down instead of stand the whole time; I was raised high enough to see above the people in front of me; and we were only a couple blocks down from Central Park, so we got to watch the parade turn the corner. It was always a surprise to see what was next, but we still had a couple blocks' worth of viewing/picture/enjoyment time before they passed us! Like I said, it was the best location in the city.

 

When we procured our spot, with a boost from my hubs to make it on top of the platform, it was still dark and relatively vacant. But as the sun rose as the parade time drew nearer, the people crowded in. Every hour that went by, I was more grateful for our pristine spot that was reasonably excluded from the masses.

 

 

Kicking off the parade was Macy's Great American Marching Band. With the sound of those drums, my heart about beat right out of my chest with excitement!

 

 

I knew the balloons would be big from watching them on tv all those years. And I knew they would be even larger than I expected after witnessing some being inflated the day before. But I had no idea how ginormous they would really be floating down the street overhead, between the skyscrapers. As they approached where we were, I literally could not fit them in their entirety within my camera view! It was awesome.

 

By the way, little fun fact, NYC has prepared for hosting this annual parade by installing rotating stoplight posts that pivot on the spot allowing them to stand parallel to the sidewalks of the secondary streets, thereby removing them from interfering with the parade route. I never thought about how all of those strings attached to the balloons that people walk down the road would get caught on street lights. Very clever, NYC.

 

As soon as I spotted Snoopy being inflated the day before, I knew that  he was the one that I wanted a picture taken with. We anxiously awaited his arrival the whole parade, and when we saw him soar around the corner, I made sure that Brad had a good shot of us with him. Success.

 

Also, here you can see our feet dangling over the ledge of our little wall with all of the confetti decorating the ground. (And if you're wondering, yes, Brad frequently reminded me to move my legs to keep the circulation going while they hung there. And if you're also wondering whether or not that worked / I adhered his advice, no. When I finally got down for the first time in 5 1/2 hours, I about collapsed, and my legs tingled the whole shaky way back to the subway.)

 

The only person I anticipated coming my way more than Snoopy was Santa himself. I had been waiting for months to see Mr. and Mrs. Claus and their eight reindeer fly by me. With the sound of his "Ho, Ho, Ho!!" ringing in my ears, I couldn't do anything but cry. And smile like an idiot. It was so surreal, and I was so overcome with happiness. Then, once he moved on to other people down the street, marking  the official end of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (and the beginning of Christmas Season), I cried anew because it was all over! But I didn't have time to wallow in my misery. Brad kissed my face and reminded me that we had a massive crowd to beat to the subway! (On wobbly legs.) But I was absolutely looking forward to going back to our hotel and crashing for a couple of hours, so I tried to keep pace.

 

The Parade was 100% worth travelling for Thanksgiving. 100%. But it was still a little sad to be away from our families as we celebrated the holiday with a special dinner. We didn't just want to have random diner food for our big meal, so we took part in a Thanksgiving Dinner Cruise. It wasn't our traditional menu, and you could tell they were accommodating a variety of cultures, but it was still special and fun.

 

We had the perfect backdrop to our holiday meal as we floated underneath the Brooklyn Bridge and watched the sun set over the New York City skyline. I think this nearly made up for the lack of green bean casserole.

 

Between the main and dessert courses, Brad and I headed to the exterior of the boat. It was perfect timing, because we had reached our destination. As we approached and then floated stationary near the Statue of Liberty for a while, the majority of the dinner guests came to the top and enjoyed the magnificent scenery while a variety of patriotic music was playing in the background. It was romantic, and sweet, and moving, and patriotic, and a moment I'll never forget. We had much to give thanks for, indeed.

 

Following our dinner cruise, we went to Rockefeller Center. It was absolutely beautiful. I was super disappointed that the giant Christmas tree wasn't lit up yet, but they don't do that until the week following Thanksgiving. (Boo.) It was still cool to see its enormity there with scaffolding assembled to provide the capabilities of decorating. Bradley and I had every intention of ice skating in Rockefeller Center's iconic rink, but when it finally came our turn in line, we realized they were asking over $30 per person to skate. Yikes! It is the one and only event throughout the whole week that we removed from our schedule strictly because of the high price. We're not that cheap, but we're too cheap to spend over $60 to ice skate! Regardless, it was completely awesome to be there and see it in real life. We actually purchased a puzzle of this scene for our Christmas puzzle of the year.

 

So instead of ice skating, we journeyed to the Top of the Rock(effeler), which is the second largest building in the city. We chose to do this one in the evening, so we could capture the Empire State Building in our night view of the city. It was breathtaking.

 

That was technically the final event on our schedule for Thanksgiving Day, but the hubs and I were still all jazzed from the events of the day (and our lengthy afternoon nap), so we headed back to our favorite place in the city, Times Square. We seriously love that place. We climbed to the top of the Red Steps and marvelled at the best view of Times Square possible.

 

Once we had soaked in enough of the buzz just looking at Times Square gives you, we just walked around and checked out all of the nearby stores, especially the chocolate ones!  We couldn't help but go on into the M&M store. The walls were lined with the chocolate candies in dispensers as high as the ceiling. Talk about Mmmm...  

So that was our Thanksgiving of 2011. I still can't believe I got to be at the Macy's Parade and see Santa in person! Or gaze upon the Statue of Liberty amidst our holiday dinner. What an amazing experience it all was. (I'm not sure I'll ever go without traditional food again, though. Jussayin.)

 

Here are recaps of our other days in the city: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 5, and Day 6.

 

[Entire Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Album]

[Entire NYC Day 4 Photo Album]

NYC Day 3

Wednesday, Day 3 of our New York City Extravaganza, was a busy one that included visiting two museums, witnessing the parade balloon inflation, our first New York pizza, and Brad's very favorite event of the trip, Wicked on Broadway!

But the whole day started off with a quick move. We were able to get a great deal on a fancy schmancy hotel in Midtown for the first two days, but then transferred to a cheaper (bigger!) hotel in SOHO for the rest of the week. We actually liked this one better than the boutique hotel, even though it was just a Holiday Inn. It had much more space, was conveniently located near a Subway Station, and still had a great view of the city outside of our window. The hotel switch did, however, require our first cab ride. I was actually very nervous. (Too many crime shows have put the fear in me. You willingly jump into the back of a car in a city you know nothing about and trust the driver to take you where you ask instead of dumping your body in a back alley??) Even though I was spooked, Bradley handled it like a champ.

Once we settled into our hotel, we headed toward our first intellectual museum experiences at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Let me just be honest with you here, this was a little too sophisticated for our liking. We spent the better part of our morning walking around and trying to hide our faces of confusion. We would come upon something that other people clearly found fascinating, and just look at each other and stealthily go, "Huh?? I don't get it... What is that even supposed to be??" Finally, when we got up on about the fourth floor they did have some Vincent van Gogh displays, and we both found those legitimately interesting. But after that, we decided to drop the hoity toity facade and call that museum a bust. We subsequently dropped the Metropolitan Museum of Art unceremoniously from our schedule for the day. At least Brad and I both felt the same way. Good riddance to "art" we just don't get. It was time to move on to more fun things.

 

Did you know that the day before the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, you can go watch them inflate all of the balloons?? I was like a little kid walking around the block surrounding the Museum of Natural History (our next stop) and trying to figure out what each float was going to be before it had fully taken its form. If we couldn't tell, we just consulted the sign that accompanied each one indicating its name and the year of its first flight alongside a photo. Even only partially inflated, I could already tell they were going to be larger than I realized from tv!  Dispersed within the balloons were semi trucks hauling giant tanks of helium. It was awesome.

 

By then, the Dunkin' Donuts we ate in the subway that morning (there is an entire city underground!) had worn off, and we were starving. So for lunch, we tasted our very first authentic New York Style Pizza at Patsy's Pizzeria! Patsy's claims to be the city's very first pizzeria, opening in 1933. I don't know if the legend is true, but I do know that the pizza was delicious!

 

 

Once our bellies were filled, we headed to Museum Numero Deux for the day, The Natural History Museum. This bit of learning was much more our cup of tea. The majority of the museum was like a zoo of every kind of animal in the history of the whole world. I especially enjoyed the life size elephants that you could go right up to. But our favorite part of the whole place was the dinosaur exhibit, with fossil skeletons as big as an entire room!

When we walked back outside, we re-entered Balloon Inflation territory. Not only had the floats grown in size, but so had the crowd! It was now an official, organized tour around the block. It was so cool to be experiencing a tradition with native New Yorkers who participate in this activity every year! Not as cool, however, was walking against the huge crowd to make it to the Subway entrance we needed...

 

But fight the crowd we did, because we had a schedule to follow! We rushed back to our hotel room to change clothes for our Broadway Musical! I even exchanged my comfy tennies for some fancy heeled boots! (You better believe my feet were screaming after two museums, but I figured we'd be sitting most of the evening, and it was worth it. You can't dress like a hoodlum for such a classy event.)

 

Ohmygoodness, you guys! Wicked was soooo good! Brad and took great care to not let the show get spoiled for us beforehand. We knew nothing about the story and had heard none of the songs prior arriving on the scene. We wanted it all to be brand new and enjoy it with fresh eyes. We each ordered a novelty cocktail in souvenir cups (Brad chose the Ozmopolitan, and I drank the Flying Monkey Punch.), and then we took our seat right in the center of the Gershwin Theatre. It was overwhelming and amazing. My skin broke out in goosebumps when the lights went down, and I'm not ashamed to admit that a couple tears fell out of my eyes during the "Defying Gravity" number. I've never experienced anything like it in my whole life. We must go back and soak up as much Broadway as we can stand ASAP! (Because of this one performance, the Broadway-focused trip to NYC is already in the works for May, 2013.)

 

Brad touts that Wicked was easily the highlight of his entire week in the city. But mine didn't come until the following morning, bright and early. I have a feeling you can guess what it was. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

 

Check out the rest of our days in NYC!

Day 1, Day 2, Day 4, Day 5, and Day 6

 

[Entire NYC Day 3 Photo Album]

NYC Day 2

So remember a year ago when Brad and I took a week long trip to New York City for Thanksgiving? And remember how I began but never ever finished blogging about it even though it was the best time ever, ever?? Well, I got a little bit of fire lit under my rear since Thanksgiving 2012 is less than a week away, and I can't let an entire year lapse. So, without further adieu, let's move on to NYC Day 2!! 

 

 

On Day 2 in the Big Apple, our schedule consisted of consuming as much of the Downtown portion of the city as possible. (Did you know that in NYC, Downtown is called such because it's literally the bottom of the island? Then there is Midtown in the middle and Uptown at he top. Neat. I bet that's where it all started...) We woke up before the sun in order to make it onto the very first ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty in an effort to beat the crowd and squeeze as much into the day as possible. It was a cold and dreary day, but we made the best of it!

 

The Statue of Liberty was AWESOME! We had considered not actually sailing out to the island, and just seeing it from the shore instead, but I'm so glad that we did the whole thing. We felt incredibly patriotic as we drew closer to the monument, imagining how so many immigrants felt after weeks or months at sea coming to America, and finaly seeing Lady Liberty's glowing torch as a symbol of their long awaited freedom. It was much more moving than I anticipated, and we weren't even there yet!

 

We expected the Statue of Liberty to be pretty standardly cool, since it's a main tourist attraction, but we had no idea just how amazing it really would be. (Or how large it is up close!) We rocked some headsets as we simultaneously participated in a self-guided audio tour of the island that explained every aspect of the statue's history, symbolism, and implications for our country. By the time we made it around to the front to get a good, square view, I had tears in my eyes. What an experience. I was pleased to see that even visitors from other countries that were listening to the audio tour in their native languages were equally touched by the heart behind the Statue of Liberty. It made me realize how much of an honor it truly is to live here.

 

We hopped back on the ferry and rode it to the nearby Ellis Island, where all of those immigrants who passed the statue a century ago officially docked on American soil. We were in the immigration museum for hours and hours learning about the stories of so many people who chose the United States as their home. 

Once we got back on the mainland, we grabbed a couple hot dogs from a cart and ventured over to the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial sites. There are two giant fountains in the places where the twin towers once stood, both with water flowing down the four walls into a pool which then dropped down farther, letting the water fall out of sight. Names of people killed as a result of the 2001 terrorist attacks were engraved in the stone all along the entire edge lines of both fountains. It was incredibly humbling to see name after name as far as you could see. And even more humbling to see people out there honoring those who died, even in the rain. So many names were commemorated by loved ones with flowers perched into the carved space created by the letters. So far, Tuesday had proved to be a pretty emotional day.

While we were downtown, we walked over to the Financial District. Brad's a kind of financial guru, so he was totally geeking out to literally be strolling down on Wall Street and to stand outside of the New York Stock Exchange. He couldn't resist posing for a picture with the Charging Bull, even though it was fenced off because of those pesky Occupy Wall Street protesters.

 

Brad and I were so tired from the early morning and chilled to the bone from walking in the cold drizzle for so long (and we were ahead of schedule), that we decided to spend a little while napping back at our hotel. We finally crawled back out of our warm cave to visit Little Italy for our only preplanned, nice dinner of the week. The authentic Italian restaurant that I can't remember the name of now was amazing. It was so authentic, in fact, that Brad and I were absolutely certain that it was run by the mob, and that they had a hidden room in the back with one light bulb dangling ominously from the ceiling where they threateningly interrogated people on a regular basis. Our very kind, very Italian speaking server, who we think was the owner, made strong suggestions for our menu items, and we willingly agreed with him simply because we wanted to leave our dinner with all ten fingers still intact. We didn't regret it; the pastas were delicious!

 

From Little Italy, we had a pretty long walk in the rain back to the nearest Subway Station. (The rain didn't hinder me from talking Bradley into posing near a gigantic nutcracker for a photo op. A tourist is a tourist no matter the weather!) By this time, I was all but whining about my sore, soggy feet hurting so badly. Who knew you would walk so much when you visit the city?? Even though I had ditched my cuter tennis shoes from the day before for my straight-up running shoes in an effort to have more comfort, it was still pretty brutal. Brad estimates that we walked an averaged of at least five miles every day we were there. Ow.

 

So my sweet hubs had the bright idea to walk into some random massage parlor to take advantage of their advertised special for a back and foot massage. Good idea. Except it was torture! Turns out they specialized in deep tissue massages, and we both thought we were gunna die! I think each of us let out cries of pain at one point or another during the 20 minutes. When we got out of there, we both tried to play it cool until Brad finally admitted that it was super painful, and I laughed and let go of my pride to agree that it was some of the worst pain I've ever willingly allowed to happen to my body! We both just laughed as we limped the rest of the way back to the Subway Station.

And with that, NYC Day 2 was officially complete! It was rainy and dreary and emotional on a few levels, but it was absolutely wonderful! I will never forget the first time that we got to see some of the most iconic landmarks of the city (as well as the nation), or the time we cried and then laughed because we were crying and then laughed until we cried again about our painful first massage experience. :)

 

Stay tuned for NYC Days 3, 4, 5, and 6! And if you want a recap, here's NYC Day 1 that I actually posted in a timely manner a year ago.

[Entire NYC Day 2 Photo Album]