New York, New York

Okay, so I went again.

To the fabulous NYC! It has been almost two weeks ago that we got home, but I have been s-l-o-w about posting pics about it. I went with two of the same girls as last time, Jana and Melanie, and one new girl, Elise. Visiting NY for the second time, I felt a lot less like a tourist. I didn't get overwhelmed with the same touristic fascination that I was riding in a NYC taxi. I can already feel myself becoming a more seasoned traveller.

This time round I mostly went to New York to be with friends and to see Broadway plays. I didn't feel the need to rush around to all the sites (which I felt we covered most last time we were there). We stayed on the 36th floor of the Marriott Marquee which was right on Broadway in Time Square. It was a great location (we stayed there last time, too, and I just love it).

We arrived about noon, and decided to hit Soho first. We went to a couple stores, ended up purchases some things at a local NY favorite little boutique, Gap (I know, real exotic), eating a really yummy sandwich from Dean & Deluca's, and running off to see the Radio Music Hall Christmas Spectacular (you know, the one with the Rockettes). It was a pretty good show, and put me in the mood for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, when we pulled up to our hotel, the first thing I saw was a big billboard for White Christmas, the Broadway musical. HELLO! For a girl who has performed many a "Sister's" routine in public, this was exciting. I had no idea it was on Broadway, but all I knew was that I wanted to go see it. We asked how much the tickets were and the response, $120, was not really an option for us. Bummer. But then the ticket agent mentioned that they do a lottery an hour before the show, we said, 'Yes, please!" So the next day, we went to Union Square for breakfast, stopped by the American Girl Doll store for a quick visit (I know I am an adult, but I was with some girls who are a little passionate about AGDs), and then went to put our names in the drawing for a ticket to White Christmas. The way that the lottery worked was that each person could put in one name for a chance at two tickets for each name. They had 22 tickets to give. If your name was drawn, you could purchase two tickets for 26 bucks a piece.

Now, I never win anything (except, once I won a stuffed Aflac duck) so I was desperately nervous. I wanted those tickets BAD! They drew several names, and I was started to get a knot in my stomach. And then they called my name- ME! I started jumping up and down yelling "that's me, that's me!" (yeah, I took it pretty cool-like). It ended up that all of us got tickets (actually there were only two people who didn't get a ticket at all). The tickets were front row, right dab in the center. Excellent! The play was awesome, with several song and dance numbers added that weren't in the movie and most of the favorites! Being drawn was probably the most exciting part of our whole trip!

Sorry, I spent a long time on that, but it was AWESOME.

After the show, we ran uptown to a really good little pizza place called Patsy's. So good. Then we hustled back down to time square to make it to another show, "In the Heights'. It was also AWESOME (I hope that my frequent use of awesome doesn't diminish the meaning, because I mean it in all the sense of the word). It had an urban Latin vibe and it was funny and very well done.

Afterwards we went to Cafe Lalo. It is the same little cafe that Meg Ryan waits for her blind date in You've Got Mail. The desert was good, but I mostly liked the atmosphere.

You still with me. I know, long and boring, but I have to get it all down for the sake of thoroughness and longwindedness.

The next day we met up with our friend Kim (who accompanied us on our last NY trip) for breakfast at Norma's, where I ate a crunchy french toast that I will never forget. Afterwards we went to FAO Schwartz (the toy store from Big), walked down 5th Avenue, went to the top of the Rockefeller, and saw Kim off at Grand Central Station.

On the last day, we visited Ground Zero, Century 21 (a store, not the real estate agency), rode the Staten Island Ferry and then we divided into two groups- one headed for the Doughnut Plant, the other headed to the hotel to check out and get at taxi. Well, everything took longer than planned, I underestimated the length of the taxi ride to the airport and we ended up making a mad dash to the airport. We barely made it- it ended up with Melanie running through the terminal in just her socks, and the rest of us running behind with our bags and boxes of doughnuts, with "Run, Run, Rudolph" in our heads. We BARELY made it.

We made it the rest of the way home without incident. It was great to be home to see Cody and the kids again. I missed them terribly. A special shout-out to Cody for watching the kids so I could go away for the weekend and have some great girl time with my friends. It really was an awesome trip!