A lot has happened around me in the past year. New job challenges, new friends, the move of a good friend to South Africa, travel with work, and news of engagements, weddings, and new babies all around me. Lots to be thankful for. (However, in the past year I am probably most thankful for about four things: the movie Argo, the shows Homeland and Girls, Instagram, and getting an iPad....we know where my loyalties are - these few things made 2012 pretty fun).
So anyway, why did I blog now? Only for one reason my friends. Holly and I went on our annual trip. I have written about all of them since I began this blog and I didn't want to stop now. I am not sure if we meant for the trips to become an annual thing, they just kind of did. We are four for four so far: 2009 - Greece, 2010 - Hawaii, 2011 - Chicago, 2012 - New York City. (And technically this went into 2013. Poor Holly has been so busy with Sweets and Spurs that I told her NYC could count for two years if it needed too since we were there through New Years. However she is hell bent on not having that be the case, so I told her I would bring it for 2013!)
The trip planning started when I found out I would get to go to NYC for work. I needed to be there January 3rd. This was just perfect because Holly would have the store closed for a week between Christmas and New Years. I was so excited - we would make our annual trip happen with two days to spare!!! See below for all of the details of Holly's first (it was my second - who could forget Fleet Week in 2002 with my high school friends!) trip to NYC.
December 30th -
If you know either of us, Holly and I's trips normally begin with the luggage situation. She always calls me and asks me how many bags I am bringing and then we discuss weight. I'll admit that there has been more than one time when one of us has had to shift something from one bag to the other so that neither of us are over the 50 pound limit (that's true friendship people). Holly had come in the night before on December 29th and we had compared luggage, outfits, and the like. The last time I had been to NYC was in high school in the summer so I wasn't quite prepared for how cold it would be. We both made sure to pack leggings, scarfs, and Holly had just gotten quite the puff coat that I would become rather jealous of.
We made it to the airport in plenty of time and thankfully with my travel status (go AA Gold) I got to check both of our bags for free. And on the plane we got to really catch up with each other. That is what is so good about our trips. We might spend a while a part from each other but on our trips we always get that "special" time, as we refer to it. Just time to get to chat with each other face to face and really catch up. It always brings a smile to my face. As you can see below we were two really excited girls!
After we landed at LaGuardia, we hopped in our cab and made it over to the hotel. We were staying in Midtown not too far from Times Square. Being the good tourists that we are, we dropped our bags off, bundled up and headed out to tackle the Square. Let me tell you, it was out of control. There were people everywhere, most not speaking English. I remember the first time I went to New York I was just absolutely mesmerized by Times Square. This time it was more just overwhelming....maybe just because I am older, but just a ton of tourists and people trying to sell you fake Prada and Kate Spade purses. I totally ate that up when I was 17, now at 27 I just wanted to get away from it all. But, we made it worthwhile and took some good photo-ops. The one good thing about Times Square was that we didn't have to worry about people judging us for taking pictures. We weren't wearing a camera around a neck with an I Heart NY shirt on and 2013 NYE Sunglasses so we didn't stick out too much. Here are some good self-portraits we got with the iPad (it was so nifty to have on the trip - it fit in my purse and took some really good pictures).
Not sure what the heck is going on here. All of these people were in a line for something, but we could never figure out what. This was the day before NYE, so the Ryan Seacrest's people were setting up his stage....we never saw him though.
One of our better self portraits. Sometimes they are good and sometimes they are not. However, we have found over the years that we take better pictures than the bystanders who offer to take your picture. So we just go with it until we get a good one.
While we chose not to spend actual NYE in Times Square - we did get to see them practicing the countdown. If you look close you can see the 2013 sign.
Me in front of the NYC EY office. I still find it humorous our office is here. Very expensive real estate for an accounting firm to be in the middle of Times Square. I mean MTV and the other entertainment channels I get, but EY? Regardless I wanted a picture.
So after about 45 minutes of this we were done. It's one of those things that you need to do once. Any other time you need to go through Midtown you take any street but 7th/Broadway. But for your first time it is a must. After our Times Square fun, we stumbled onto a good pizza place for lunch, which just happened to be by David Letterman's theatre. After pizza, we noticed that on the Theatre door they were taking names for the David Letterman taping. Why not? We went inside to check it out. Inside were about 4-5 Theatre pages, all wearing blue and yellow Letterman jackets (how cute). We found out that they would be filming on January 2nd, our last day in NYC before Holly would leave. They told us that the ticketing system was a "lottery", so all we had to do was put our name on the list and they would call us if seats were available on January 2nd. It was funny, while we were in there we had to talk to several people. Each person would say "Oh you need to meet Tom! Hey Tom, this is Holly and Emily and they are here from Texas and Oklahoma. What are you all doing in New York..." Then we had to talk to Tom and say we liked Dave, etc. This went on with about 4 people and then they finally let us go. As we left I asked Holly her thoughts, and she agreed with me. We were definitely being interviewed to be in the audience. I found this funny and told her we would just have to see if they thought we were cool enough to make the cut on January 2nd. (We were told that they could call as late as 2 hours before the show, so we had to "be ready"). Ready for Dave? Anytime! We both for some reason love him.
After the Dave debacle we decided to wander around and stumbled across Bryant Park, which was one of my favorite parts of this trip. Bryant park is sooooo cute. There is a skating rink as well as tons of little square shops with gifts, hot chocolate, candy, anything you could think of. There was also a cool restaurant called Celsius (love that) that was right next to the rink. One thing about New York and Christmas time.....the ice skating rink lines are really really long. So we decided to pass on the ice skating and had some macaron's instead. With Holly now owning her own bakery we find it absolutely imperative to try sweets everywhere we go.
After the Dave debacle we decided to wander around and stumbled across Bryant Park, which was one of my favorite parts of this trip. Bryant park is sooooo cute. There is a skating rink as well as tons of little square shops with gifts, hot chocolate, candy, anything you could think of. There was also a cool restaurant called Celsius (love that) that was right next to the rink. One thing about New York and Christmas time.....the ice skating rink lines are really really long. So we decided to pass on the ice skating and had some macaron's instead. With Holly now owning her own bakery we find it absolutely imperative to try sweets everywhere we go.
I am having the pink champagne and not sure what Holly is having but they were good!
The Bryant Park tree was really pretty. I liked that it was all blue.
As we left Bryant Park we walked by the NY Public Library - it was closed, but looked really pretty. Then we headed over to Rockefeller Center. Talk about a cluster. You could barely stir all of the people that were there. I know we went at the absolute worst time, but I was just shocked at how crowded it was.....and how small the tree looked. I guess you just have it so built up in your head about how big the ice skating rink and tree are and then you get there and you are like - this is it? Kind of like if you were to see Tom Cruise in person and realize he really is only 5'6". Regardless, it was very pretty and I am very glad I got to see it (probably would have enjoyed it a bit more without all of the crazy tourists around me).
The Rockefeller Tree. I must say - we are seeing it at the end of the season and it was a little droopy. Maybe I would have been more impressed if it was around Thanksgiving?
Us in front of the tree (and all of the people). I purchased and lost these ear-muffs within 24 hours of taking this picture.
This picture actually makes it look like it wasn't all that crowded, but the line to get into the rink went around the block. We decided we didn't need to pay money to fall (especially because we were in jeans and not windpants like my mom used to make me and Amy wear growing up and going ice skating at the Galleria).
We then went inside because we had heard that there was a pretty good Antrho in Rockefeller center. We both love Anthro and like to check it out wherever we go. Unfortunately Anthro was closed for the night so we would have to come back later. However as we were leaving we realized we were also right by the Today Show window. When me and my high school friends went to NYC 10 years ago we went to the Today show and got to be on TV (I do still have the tape, but unfortunately no more VCR to play it anymore). So with that memory I didn't feel an overly strong need to need to get up early and go see the people filling in for Matt, Savannah, Al, and Natalie since it was a holiday week. I was happy to see the set up close though since there was no barricade around the window since it was late at night.
Love that I start every morning with this set across my TV screen!
The NBC News sign above the Today show set.
After our Rockefeller and Bryant Park adventures we were pretty cold so we decided to go inside. We did a loop inside of Macy's, Saks 5th Avenue, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. The window displays inside the department stores were absolutely amazing! Each window had a different theme from NYE parties to Ice Skating, to the Thanksgiving day parade. All very enjoyable.
Finally, we made our way to dinner. If you cannot tell, this had been a very long day. We had dinner at a little place my friend Nicole recommended, Joe Allen's. It was a cute place with exposed brick and full of locals, very enjoyable. We had a very good apple pie (again we must try sweets everywhere we go - research for the store, you know).
After dinner, we decided we were ready for one more adventure: The Empire State Building. We knew it was open late and thought it would be cool to see the city at night so we made our way over. Now, I knew that a lot of people go to see the Empire State Building. I envisioned that you went, purchased a ticket, and rode the elevator up to the observation deck, maybe waited in line for a bit once you were up there, and then you were good to go. Oh no my friend. This was like purchasing a ticket for a Six Flags ride. From the time we got in line, to the time we went up the escalators, to the the elevators, through another line where we bought a ticket and then had to wait in an airport-like security line, it had been over an hour (some good people watching though). We were then rushed through the security line by an over zealous security worker with a thick Jersey accent who threatened to make people go to the back of the line if they didn't have their belts and shoes off. Let's just say the process was a little stressful. Much different than when Meg Ryan rushes up to the top on Valentine's Day in Sleepless in Seattle (funny, that movie shows no lines whatsoever). We finally made it to the top only to realize that it was about zero degrees and very windy up there. However, we had made it this far, we weren't turning back!!! We did a loop around and got some good pictures. We tried to stick to the warm side of the building though - one side was about 10 degrees colder than the other, or as Holly referred to it as the "cold side". The cold side was not our friend tonight.
The Empire State Building was all lit up for Christmas. Loved the red and green.
The view from the top. You can see the Chrysler building in the distance.
Us bearing the brunt of "the cold side".
Finally, after all of this, we were ready to call it a day. Talk about go big or go home. We both slept like babies that night.
December 31 -
Day two started with Holly and I sleeping in for a bit. With the day we had before, and the fact that it was New Year's Eve, we most definitely wanted to be well rested for what laid ahead. I had every intention of going for a run but my feet hurt so bad from the night before and it was so incredibly cold, we decided to watch Millionaire Matchmaker while we got ready instead (time well spent for sure). We left around 10:30 AM for our first adventure on the subway. Thankfully I had downloaded the NYC Subway App on my phone the night before so we were ready to go.
Now, coming from a city that doesn't have mass transit always takes some getting used to. You have to be on someone else's time and not your own, which we all know I am not good with. However, I must say that 10 years ago when I came to New York we didn't have any smart phones so you had to stand and look at the map at the subway station until you figured it out. Now, the subway app tells you exactly what to do. It works very similar to the maps that you have on your phone already. You type in your address and it pops up with what Subway line you need to get on and when to switch lines or hop off. It is also color-coded which was another plus.
Using the Subway App, we ended up at our destination on the Upper West Side, Cafe Lalo, which was a restaurant recommended to me by my friend Nicole. I don't know why we were in such a Meg Ryan mode - but we were. This restaurant was in a scene from You've Got Mail (which Holly hadn't seen, but that is another story - I think she thought it was going to be a sequel to Sleepless in Seattle which I informed her was not true. I informed her that they both just happened to star Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and they both happened to take place in NYC - and that she most definitely needed to watch it). This was one of my favorite meals of the trip. We both had veggie sandwiches and french fries. Yum! This was also one of those little hole in the wall places with not much standing room and the tables were very close together. I could have easily accidentally drank out of the guy's water glass next to me thinking it was my own. Coming from Texas where "bigger" is better, I appreciated the quaintness of most of the restaurants, stores, etc. Everything was quite charming: "boutique" if you will.
After lunch we were on a mission. To find some crack cake. Yes I said crack cake. Holly had done a little research and there is a famous bakery that sells a kind of toffee cake that they call "crack cake". Momofuku Milk Bar (http://milkbarstore.com/) was the bakery and it had a location not too far from our lunch stop. That is one thing about being on vacation - it is appropriate to eat at any time of day and it is ok to have a mini-meal after having just eaten a regular meal. So we indulged - Holly had the crack cake and I had a peanut butter pretzel cake - yum! Unfortunately the only pictures were on Holly's phone which didn't get sent to me just yet. Just know that it was good and totally worth the calorie equivalent of a day's worth of meals.
Since we were on the Upper West Side we thought we would go on over and check out Central Park. We made it to the entrance in about 15 minutes and were on a mission to get a carriage ride. Unfortunately we were bombarded with a million pedicab drivers that wanted to give us a ride. I told Holly that I wouldn't settle. I wanted to do a real carriage ride with a real horse, and finally persistence paid off. We finally found the carriage ride drop off after about another 10 minutes (the Central Park entrance takes up about two blocks so there are lots of various ways to enter the park). We met Frank, who would be our carriage ride cabbie for the afternoon and his horse Alice - don't you just love that name for a carriage ride horse? I immediately asked for a picture, and frank was happy to oblige.
Our carriage ride lasted about 30 minutes and we saw maybe about 1/4 of the park. To be honest, you could walk it and see more, but there was something charming about being in a carriage riding through the park. We saw the ice skating rink, John Lennon's house, the Hotel from Home Alone - all of the high points. It was totally worth the $50 and Frank told us his whole life story. All of the carriage drivers are independent and own their own horses which I thought was really neat. He also gave us the lowdown on the most expensive hotel in NYC that has Central Park views - it is so expensive that most "normal" people have never heard of it, he said. He told us the name - and we of course had never heard of it. For all I know he could have been lying to us about everything, but when you are a tourist you believe about anything you hear, so we just went with it.
By the time our carriage ride was over it was around 3:30 PM. We wanted to get a museum outing in since the Metropolitan Museum of Art sits within Central Park. So we rushed through the park and made it to the MET around 4:00 PM only to find out it was closing at 5:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM as the hours online had stated. Everything was shutting down early since it was NYE and every area of town was setting up for some sort of special activity. However, we were already committed and decided to stay. I must say there is nothing more stressful than being in a large museum with only about 45 minutes to look around. And I don't know about anyone else, but I always find museum maps hard to read/navigate. I wish museums were more like Ikea where there were arrows or something on the floor to guide you to the exhibits in the order that you should view them. I hate to admit that as that would make museums lose their charm, but I just don't do well roaming. I need to be guided at so that I don't miss anything. This is why I am an accountant. I digress, moving on....
We got lucky at the MET and stumbled across one exhibit that we got to view the whole way through. There was an Andy Warhol exhibit of all original Warhol prints. We go to see everything from Jackie O to Marilyn to Elvis. All very bright colors and enjoyable. Right as we finished this tour the clock struck 5 PM and we were immediately rushed out of the museum by the exhibit workers. They most definitely had places to be because they were not joking when it was time to leave. We were literally shooed out of there within 5 minutes.
We decided to roam the Upper East Side on our way home to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We window shopped and I was on the lookout for Chuck Bass. When it was getting dark and I hadn't found him we decided to hop in a cab and get home to prepare for our big NYE celebrations. Below is a picture of us before the evening started.
New Year's Eve was the most stressful thing to plan for this trip. I had several groups of friends telling me a million different things to do. We had thought about doing the Times Square thing but decided against it when I found out a few things. First of all - if you are going to be outside in the pit area you have to get there at like noon and literally stand there all day. And I have been told that there aren't any bathrooms and you can't go inside restaurants/bars without a ticket. Well, that just sounded miserable to me. Yes I could have seen Carson Daly (love) and Ryan Seacrest (indifferent), but we both just decided it wasn't worth it to us to waste all day standing there in a large crowd with no champagne and no bathroom. Also - the only restaurant/bar tickets for Times Square I could find were for Ruby Tuesday's and cost $200. No thank you. So, I did a little investigatory research and found a champagne bar that sounded fun. It was also a set price all you can drink so Holly and I thought that would be a good option for us for the evening. I ran the bar and location suggestion by a friend of mine who used to live in NYC and she said that it sounded like a good option for us. We were most definitely looking forward to it.
We got ready and went to dinner first at a fun pizza place my friend Nicole had recommended called Co. (pronounced Company). It was fabulous. Again very quaint, but had a great atmosphere and great pizza. We had good conversation and good people watching, and enough wine for us to be ready for a NYE celebration. We then headed over to the Champagne lounge, Flute. On the way we passed by the Times Square roped off area and found out that Times Square gets roped off for about 5 blocks in every direction. Only very discreet looking cars were making it through - I tried to look inside some and didn't see anyone famous - Beyonce must have been ducking down real low.
One thing I noticed on the way over to Flute was that other people headed out to NYE parties didn't seam to care about the fact that it was cold. Holly and I both had on tights, jeans, multiple layers of tops, jackets, scarfs, the whole nine yards. Walking to the bar, we noticed that girls were standing outside with no coats, no tights, and most of them had on the Herve Leger dresses that are really just too tight and short to be wearing in under 30 degree weather. I'm not their mother but I just wanted to tell them to put on some clothes!
We made it to Flute about 10:30 PM, 30 minutes after the all-inclusive party was supposed to get started. After about 10 minutes of taking off all of our extra layers at the coat check we were ready to check out the "party". Come to find out the DJ was nowhere to be found, the music being played wasn't all that great, and the place was a mix of couples and an older crowd of people that we later found out had several shares in the Hamptons (allegedly - they could have been lying - who knows). They were interested to hear we were from Texas but didn't quite give us an invite for the summer timeshare. However, we were ok with that as we weren't sure who all was with who and if we were being hit on by one of the older gentlemen from the group.
We were really disappointed that we found out the party was not going to be all that fun and considered walking back to Times Square, but then the champagne fairy kicked in. I would compare it to a wedding - when the waiters keep filling your glasses for you throughout the night so you don't have to go back to the bar. I would say this is a good and bad thing - you don't have to ask for another drink, but then you lose count of what drink you are on. Thankfully, we were not having to drive later that night.
Then Holly found what I would like to call, her boyfriend. We will just ignore the fact that he came with a date, but he was totally Holly's type - tall and kind of looked like the Rock. At one point they were close enough where I got a good picture of them "together", see below:
Now, coming from a city that doesn't have mass transit always takes some getting used to. You have to be on someone else's time and not your own, which we all know I am not good with. However, I must say that 10 years ago when I came to New York we didn't have any smart phones so you had to stand and look at the map at the subway station until you figured it out. Now, the subway app tells you exactly what to do. It works very similar to the maps that you have on your phone already. You type in your address and it pops up with what Subway line you need to get on and when to switch lines or hop off. It is also color-coded which was another plus.
Using the Subway App, we ended up at our destination on the Upper West Side, Cafe Lalo, which was a restaurant recommended to me by my friend Nicole. I don't know why we were in such a Meg Ryan mode - but we were. This restaurant was in a scene from You've Got Mail (which Holly hadn't seen, but that is another story - I think she thought it was going to be a sequel to Sleepless in Seattle which I informed her was not true. I informed her that they both just happened to star Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and they both happened to take place in NYC - and that she most definitely needed to watch it). This was one of my favorite meals of the trip. We both had veggie sandwiches and french fries. Yum! This was also one of those little hole in the wall places with not much standing room and the tables were very close together. I could have easily accidentally drank out of the guy's water glass next to me thinking it was my own. Coming from Texas where "bigger" is better, I appreciated the quaintness of most of the restaurants, stores, etc. Everything was quite charming: "boutique" if you will.
After lunch we were on a mission. To find some crack cake. Yes I said crack cake. Holly had done a little research and there is a famous bakery that sells a kind of toffee cake that they call "crack cake". Momofuku Milk Bar (http://milkbarstore.com/) was the bakery and it had a location not too far from our lunch stop. That is one thing about being on vacation - it is appropriate to eat at any time of day and it is ok to have a mini-meal after having just eaten a regular meal. So we indulged - Holly had the crack cake and I had a peanut butter pretzel cake - yum! Unfortunately the only pictures were on Holly's phone which didn't get sent to me just yet. Just know that it was good and totally worth the calorie equivalent of a day's worth of meals.
Since we were on the Upper West Side we thought we would go on over and check out Central Park. We made it to the entrance in about 15 minutes and were on a mission to get a carriage ride. Unfortunately we were bombarded with a million pedicab drivers that wanted to give us a ride. I told Holly that I wouldn't settle. I wanted to do a real carriage ride with a real horse, and finally persistence paid off. We finally found the carriage ride drop off after about another 10 minutes (the Central Park entrance takes up about two blocks so there are lots of various ways to enter the park). We met Frank, who would be our carriage ride cabbie for the afternoon and his horse Alice - don't you just love that name for a carriage ride horse? I immediately asked for a picture, and frank was happy to oblige.
We were very happy to be in a real carriage and not a pedicab at this moment!
Us and our new friend, miss Alice.
Our carriage ride lasted about 30 minutes and we saw maybe about 1/4 of the park. To be honest, you could walk it and see more, but there was something charming about being in a carriage riding through the park. We saw the ice skating rink, John Lennon's house, the Hotel from Home Alone - all of the high points. It was totally worth the $50 and Frank told us his whole life story. All of the carriage drivers are independent and own their own horses which I thought was really neat. He also gave us the lowdown on the most expensive hotel in NYC that has Central Park views - it is so expensive that most "normal" people have never heard of it, he said. He told us the name - and we of course had never heard of it. For all I know he could have been lying to us about everything, but when you are a tourist you believe about anything you hear, so we just went with it.
By the time our carriage ride was over it was around 3:30 PM. We wanted to get a museum outing in since the Metropolitan Museum of Art sits within Central Park. So we rushed through the park and made it to the MET around 4:00 PM only to find out it was closing at 5:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM as the hours online had stated. Everything was shutting down early since it was NYE and every area of town was setting up for some sort of special activity. However, we were already committed and decided to stay. I must say there is nothing more stressful than being in a large museum with only about 45 minutes to look around. And I don't know about anyone else, but I always find museum maps hard to read/navigate. I wish museums were more like Ikea where there were arrows or something on the floor to guide you to the exhibits in the order that you should view them. I hate to admit that as that would make museums lose their charm, but I just don't do well roaming. I need to be guided at so that I don't miss anything. This is why I am an accountant. I digress, moving on....
We got lucky at the MET and stumbled across one exhibit that we got to view the whole way through. There was an Andy Warhol exhibit of all original Warhol prints. We go to see everything from Jackie O to Marilyn to Elvis. All very bright colors and enjoyable. Right as we finished this tour the clock struck 5 PM and we were immediately rushed out of the museum by the exhibit workers. They most definitely had places to be because they were not joking when it was time to leave. We were literally shooed out of there within 5 minutes.
We decided to roam the Upper East Side on our way home to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We window shopped and I was on the lookout for Chuck Bass. When it was getting dark and I hadn't found him we decided to hop in a cab and get home to prepare for our big NYE celebrations. Below is a picture of us before the evening started.
Ready for NYE in NYC!
New Year's Eve was the most stressful thing to plan for this trip. I had several groups of friends telling me a million different things to do. We had thought about doing the Times Square thing but decided against it when I found out a few things. First of all - if you are going to be outside in the pit area you have to get there at like noon and literally stand there all day. And I have been told that there aren't any bathrooms and you can't go inside restaurants/bars without a ticket. Well, that just sounded miserable to me. Yes I could have seen Carson Daly (love) and Ryan Seacrest (indifferent), but we both just decided it wasn't worth it to us to waste all day standing there in a large crowd with no champagne and no bathroom. Also - the only restaurant/bar tickets for Times Square I could find were for Ruby Tuesday's and cost $200. No thank you. So, I did a little investigatory research and found a champagne bar that sounded fun. It was also a set price all you can drink so Holly and I thought that would be a good option for us for the evening. I ran the bar and location suggestion by a friend of mine who used to live in NYC and she said that it sounded like a good option for us. We were most definitely looking forward to it.
We got ready and went to dinner first at a fun pizza place my friend Nicole had recommended called Co. (pronounced Company). It was fabulous. Again very quaint, but had a great atmosphere and great pizza. We had good conversation and good people watching, and enough wine for us to be ready for a NYE celebration. We then headed over to the Champagne lounge, Flute. On the way we passed by the Times Square roped off area and found out that Times Square gets roped off for about 5 blocks in every direction. Only very discreet looking cars were making it through - I tried to look inside some and didn't see anyone famous - Beyonce must have been ducking down real low.
One thing I noticed on the way over to Flute was that other people headed out to NYE parties didn't seam to care about the fact that it was cold. Holly and I both had on tights, jeans, multiple layers of tops, jackets, scarfs, the whole nine yards. Walking to the bar, we noticed that girls were standing outside with no coats, no tights, and most of them had on the Herve Leger dresses that are really just too tight and short to be wearing in under 30 degree weather. I'm not their mother but I just wanted to tell them to put on some clothes!
We made it to Flute about 10:30 PM, 30 minutes after the all-inclusive party was supposed to get started. After about 10 minutes of taking off all of our extra layers at the coat check we were ready to check out the "party". Come to find out the DJ was nowhere to be found, the music being played wasn't all that great, and the place was a mix of couples and an older crowd of people that we later found out had several shares in the Hamptons (allegedly - they could have been lying - who knows). They were interested to hear we were from Texas but didn't quite give us an invite for the summer timeshare. However, we were ok with that as we weren't sure who all was with who and if we were being hit on by one of the older gentlemen from the group.
We were really disappointed that we found out the party was not going to be all that fun and considered walking back to Times Square, but then the champagne fairy kicked in. I would compare it to a wedding - when the waiters keep filling your glasses for you throughout the night so you don't have to go back to the bar. I would say this is a good and bad thing - you don't have to ask for another drink, but then you lose count of what drink you are on. Thankfully, we were not having to drive later that night.
Then Holly found what I would like to call, her boyfriend. We will just ignore the fact that he came with a date, but he was totally Holly's type - tall and kind of looked like the Rock. At one point they were close enough where I got a good picture of them "together", see below:
I think they were meant to be....
Throughout the rest of our time there we learned several things: The DJ stand was back by the bathroom run by an Asian guy who looked about 18. I made friends with him and he played any and every Britney request I made - love that! We also saw an older couple get in a huge fight, she stormed to the bathroom and didn't come back for over 30 minutes. She finally showed up for her midnight kiss with her guy. We met a group of Jersey guys who were friends with the bartender. The bartender of course was an actor and one of his friends was his producer. I hadn't heard of anything he had been in... The only thing keeping us through the night were the champagne fairies that kept filling our glasses.
The night waned on and I quickly remembered that there is no 2 AM bar close time like there is in Texas. I must say I really like that rule in Texas. It gives you a relatively reasonable time to get home without the sun coming up. Unfortunately, I am not sure what time we left - but it was around the same time that everyone else in New York City was headed home. Not a single cab would pick us up since we were going to Midtown, so we ended up having to ride the subway. Thankfully it wasn't scary even though it was late because there were a million other people riding it too. It was also full of the same type of women from earlier - those wearing too high of heels and too short of skirts with no tights or coats. What are these girls thinking?! We finally got back to our room way later than I want to admit to. As we walked into our hotel we could see the slew of confetti that was left over from the countdown in Times Square on the street. A part of me was a little jealous we didn't reconsider a ticket to Ruby Tuesday. However, we decided that any story is a good story and we walked away with several from the night. I don't think I have fallen asleep faster than I did this night.
January 1 -
This day would be what I like to call our "recovery" day. I am not going to lie - it was a hateful morning after one too many champagnes the night before. After two days of walking probably over 10 miles and the long hateful subway home from our NYE adventure - we were both in need of one thing - food.
We got ready and made it to Kitchenette - another recommendation by a good friend of mine. It was another quaint, really cute place with home cooking comfort food. Our waiter had cute glasses and a plaid bowtie. I really liked him. The food was so-so, but the cornbread appetizer was really good. Our iced tea was also served in mason jars, which I thought was really cute. By the end of brunch we were feeling ready to tackle the day.
We headed over to the Wall Street area and hopped on the Staten Island Ferry. This was going to be the closest way to get to see the Statue of Liberty - since the hurricane occurred this past fall the Statue has been closed for repairs. I had never ridden the ferry before so I was excited to try it - and it was free! The ferry comes every 30 minutes or so, so we had to wait for a bit when we got there. Now, I don't know why but more than one foreign person came up to me to ask for directions on how to get to the Statue of Liberty. I knew the answer was that it wasn't open so I was happy to chat with them, but I found it humorous that they thought I worked there. I wasn't wearing a nametag or a vest or anything of that nature that would signify I knew the answer to their questions - but they asked anyway. Holly kind of left me hanging (I think she just thought it was funny), but I got several confused looks by them when I told them that the Statue was closed. I kept saying they could ride the ferry but that it wouldn't take them to the Statue - I still don't know if they understood me.
The ferry came and we got to board for our short little 30 minute trip to Staten Island. Another thing I learned - the ferry is a lot more crowded than it is in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I don't remember seeing Kate Hudson waiting to ride the ferry - and you can't just stand at the front or back of the ferry - there are designated spots you can stand and they are just on the left or right side of the ship.
We got a few good pictures from the ferry:
Another self portrait. We decided we were better at taking our own picture than anyone else. It was a bit windy, if you cannot tell.
The Brooklyn Bridge. So old and pretty.
Miss Liberty - she looks great even on a dreary day!
After we landed back from our ferry tour we headed back over to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. Of course everything was closed for the holiday so it wasn't that crowded, I got a few good pictures.
The entrance is massive.
They still had their tree up too, which I thought was pretty cute.
Around this time it was approaching sunset and we had one more activity we wanted to do before dinner: the 9/11 memorial. We were really close to ground zero so we walked over to the entrance. We knew the 9/11 memorial wasn't finished but that they were letting people in to view the pools for the twin towers and that a small museum store was open. The new World Trade Center towers are in the process of being built along with a seven story museum that we were told would have over a million artifacts from that day. It was free to get into the memorial - however you had to have a ticket. I know that doesn't really make sense does it?
We tried to get tickets online beforehand but the website wasn't working properly and we were unable to do so. Since they were free we thought we could just show up and have them. Well, not really. Much like the Empire State Building - there was a worker for the memorial who took her job a little too seriously and was about to not let us in because we didn't have a ticket. However, her boss was standing right behind her and not only let us in - he handed us the "tickets" she said we needed to get in. It was quite a humorous experience. One of those candid camera kind of moments - not the first of the last one of those I will experience during this trip.
The line took almost 30 minutes to get through - we had to go through an airport security like process. Being that it was 25 degrees out it was quite a process to de-layer and then re-layer all of our scarves, coats, etc. Let's just say we were not at our cutest after a long day of sight seeing after a long NYE the night before. Of course, while I am thinking of this Holly and I both notice was how attractive the NYC Police Force is that is working the Memorial. They could have made a calendar, they were that good looking. Unfortunately, they were all on duty and we didn't get to really talk to any of them. Next time....
Once we were inside we got to just walk wherever we wanted and look at anything we wanted. This was the highlight of my trip. We most certainly lucked out at the time of day, the sun was setting and it just made the memorial breathtaking. While it is under construction - the two pools where the World Trade Center towers once stood are completed as well as the sidewalks and survivor tree. Take a look at what we got to experience:
We tried to get tickets online beforehand but the website wasn't working properly and we were unable to do so. Since they were free we thought we could just show up and have them. Well, not really. Much like the Empire State Building - there was a worker for the memorial who took her job a little too seriously and was about to not let us in because we didn't have a ticket. However, her boss was standing right behind her and not only let us in - he handed us the "tickets" she said we needed to get in. It was quite a humorous experience. One of those candid camera kind of moments - not the first of the last one of those I will experience during this trip.
The line took almost 30 minutes to get through - we had to go through an airport security like process. Being that it was 25 degrees out it was quite a process to de-layer and then re-layer all of our scarves, coats, etc. Let's just say we were not at our cutest after a long day of sight seeing after a long NYE the night before. Of course, while I am thinking of this Holly and I both notice was how attractive the NYC Police Force is that is working the Memorial. They could have made a calendar, they were that good looking. Unfortunately, they were all on duty and we didn't get to really talk to any of them. Next time....
Once we were inside we got to just walk wherever we wanted and look at anything we wanted. This was the highlight of my trip. We most certainly lucked out at the time of day, the sun was setting and it just made the memorial breathtaking. While it is under construction - the two pools where the World Trade Center towers once stood are completed as well as the sidewalks and survivor tree. Take a look at what we got to experience:
The first pool. The water constantly flows and the names of all those lost are carved into the ledges. The water flows down into the whole in the center of the pool. It was very surreal and peaceful.
One of the new towers in the World Trade Center complex.
Another - this building is going to be the tallest at over 100 stories. It will be exactly 1776 feet when it is finished. It was lit up blue and read at night - very pretty.
The second pool. They were exact replicas of each other. The names of the victims were strategically positioned closest to where the victims were on September 11.
I am so thankful I got to see all of this. It was incredibly moving. While we were there, we learned that there were over 4,000 architectural submissions for the memorial. I definitely think they picked a winner. While I didn't know any of the victims, I can only imagine how special this memorial will be for their families when it is completely finished in a few years. I will most certainly come back when it is complete and check the completed memorial and museum out.
After our visit of the memorial we decided to go check out the famous coffee shop Serendipity (love that movie!) before dinner. Unfortunately, so did a hundred other people. The wait was over 3 hours when we should up at 6 PM. While I wanted a frozen hot chocolate really bad, we both decided that we didn't want to stand in the cold for 3 hours to get it. So we decided to aimlessly walk and we ran into Dylan's Candy Bar. I had heard of this place because the owner is Ralph Lauren's daughter and she was on the Today show at some point within the past few years. This place was like living in Candyland. It was 3 stories tall and had all kinds of goodies, from chocolate covered popcorn, to various kinds of chocolate bars, chocolate covered nuts, various forms of hot chocolate, and even vintage candy like Pez dispensers, laffy taffy, and nerds. Holly and I spent over an hour just walking around looking at everything. It was a most enjoyable experience and a great alternative to Serendipity. I hate that I didn't get any pictures on my camera, but check out her website (www.dylanscandybar.com).
After our fun stop it was time for dinner, which I was most excited about. We had dinner reservations at Buddakan, which was recommended to me by a few people who had been to NYC before. I was also excited about it because it is a restaurant that is featured in Sex and the City. It is the restaurant where Carrie and Big have their rehearsal dinner. I really enjoyed the ambience of the restaurant - and we got to in the room right next to the big dining room that was featured in the movie. See below.
The Dining Room
The appetizers were amazing. We had egg rolls and edamame dumplings. We both got friend rice for the entrees, and they weren't too bad, but we should have just ordered more appetizers. And our dessert was delicious - some kind of apple tart. Overall a very good experience. The drinks looked good too, but we weren't really in the mood to drink after our NYE celebration the night before. There was also a very interesting couple to our left, a much less attractive Demi and Ashton who were eating off each other's plates and staring longingly into each other's eyes. Have I told you that I love people watching?
After dinner we strolled through the meatpacking district and got to peak inside the original Diane von Furstenberg store. I also think she has an apartment above the store, but unfortunately we couldn't peer inside those windows. We then took a cab home as we were very done for the night. A very productive New Year's day in NYC - only one thing - we didn't get any black eyed peas....whoops. Sorry mom.
January 2 -
This was our last full day in NYC. We slept in and then packed our bags (while watching Millionaire Matchmaker of course) to head to our next Hotel. The EY conference was starting the next day and was held at a different hotel. I had gotten a better rate at a boutique hotel for NYE and New Year's Day but we decided to head to our new hotel the next day as the rates had gone down by this point.
After we got all checked in we weren't sure what to do with our day. This was of course the day that David Letterman was supposed to call but we figured that probably wasn't going to happen. So we decided to get bagels and then finally find the Anthro that was supposed to be really big and full of good stuff. Our hotel was right next to Grand Central Station so we walked next door to check that out and grab a bagel. One bite into our bagel and my phone rings! Sure enough it was one of Dave's producers asking if we could be there in two hours for taping. "Of course!" I said with half a bite of bagel still in my mouth. We were both beyond excited - and we still had no idea who would even be on the show. At this point we had decided our bagels weren't all that great so we decided to go somewhere good for lunch and then head over to Dave.
I was told about a good make-your-own Mac and Cheese restaurant by a good friend of mine: S'mac. So we hopped into a cab and headed over there. I generally hated all of the cab rides in NYC. Most cab drivers are kind of rude, drive terribly, and stop at random times. However, this cab driver was the nicest ever, and he thought the same thing about us. He told us that we were his nicest customers of the week and that he was happy to simply be around happy people. Of course we were happy, we were still on vacation and getting to go to David Letterman! He then told us about a rude lady who was not happy that morning when he took her to work. He said she was just complaining about everything in general and to take his mind off of things while she complained he would just "count the windows on the building" or "think about my dog". It was the sweetest thing - he then told us all about his dog - how he is always waiting for him when he gets home from work and was his best friend. I told him that I wished all cab drivers were as nice as him. At this point we had been sitting in front of S'mac for a few minutes, but we had to listen to the rest of his story, which was just more about his dog. We didn't mind the extra $2 in cab fees: he was nice, we were getting mac and cheese and getting to see David Letterman, talk all you want cabbie.
The mac and cheese was Holly's favorite meal. This place was pretty awesome - it had about 20 different flavors of mac and cheese or you could make your own as well. Holly went with some kind of spicy jalapeno Mac and Cheese while I opted for the sampler - which had small portions of all of the most popular kinds of mac and cheese. Each person gets their own cast iron skillet of mac and cheese and toasted bread crumbs were on top. Yum, yum, and yum!
We then headed to David Letterman. I am not sure if you know this, but the show isn't filmed at night. It is filmed about 4:30 PM and then airs at 10:30 PM. As an audience member you have to show up at 2:00 PM and get your hand stamped and get your official ticket to the show. We were on the "Top 10 List" which was just the code word we had to say to security to separate us from the random people who were waiting in line for last minute tickets. So we got in line, got our hand stamped, and then had to "practice" our clapping and cheering with all of the Theatre pages who were all wearing letterman jackets and cracking their own standup comedy jokes while we waited. While we were in line we noticed that all of the other people on "the list" seemed like normal, nice people as well. So obviously they had passed the screening with the theatre pages like we did when we put our names down for the "lottery". I was totally convinced now that there is no lottery, they just pick who they want to come back. I am glad we passed the test.
The line to get inside. We made friends with the people in front of us. They were from Jersey and had been audience members once before.
We finally had someone else take our picture for once on the trip, and it turned out good!
After we got through the line and practiced cheering we were told we didn't need to be back until 3:30 PM. We were free to leave until then. This left us just enough time to check out one more macaron place Holly was wanting to try: Laduree's. This is a Parisian macaron store that has their macaron's flown in daily. Yes I said flown in daily. I was very impressed by this. They were by far the most authentic macaron's we had while we were there. I was very hesitant but tried the Pistachio and it was amazing! We both got a little box to take with us. They had a great store front and very good packaging.
It was almost like we were in Paris!
We made it back to Dave by our 3:30 call time. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed inside or you would be thrown out. We got inside and were part of Group A - go us. We had to stand in line for quite a while right outside of the theater. The pages once again came in and we practiced clapping and cheering (I think we had it down by now). Finally a little after 4 PM we got to go inside. It was open seating and we got seats in about the 5th row in the middle. We could see Dave's desk and Paul Shaffer's set up very well. We had done some research while we were eating lunch and found out the guests were Kathy Griffin, Chris Pratt (actor from Zero Dark Thirty) and the musical guest was Big Boi (who is the other guy from Outcast who isn't Andre 3000). I was pretty excited about all 3 of these guests.
As most things on this trip, the set was smaller than I had pictured and they don't even put the backdrop up until right before the show started. There were also janitors cleaning the stage while we were waiting too. The show really comes together right before Dave comes out, which is about 2 minutes before show time. I have always loved David Letterman - I don't know why. I realize he is old and very opinionated, but there is just something about him that I find very charming. Holly loves him too which made this whole experience fun for both of us. Dave came out and chatted with the audience for a few minutes and then ran off to be back stage so he could come out for the opener. Then it was show time!
The show is filmed live and there is really no down time. The band came out right after Dave had welcomed the audience and it was cool to see Paul Shaffer and the whole CBS orchestra. They were really impressive and seemed to love playing for Dave. Dave came out and did his opener, which was pretty funny since we had just had the Fiscal Cliff scare and Kim Kardashian had admitted she was pregnant the day before. During each of the commercial breaks the band plays the whole time while Dave preps for the next segment. So, besides our two minutes before the show started we really didn't get to interact with Dave at all (not that I expected to, I just had no idea every minute was filled with something - even during the commercial breaks).
Dave then interviewed Kathy Griffin - who had just come off of hosting NYE with Anderson Cooper. They had quite the banter between the two of them. It's funny when two comedians are chatting and each is trying to up the other. That's pretty much what their segment was like. Then Chris Pratt came out, who couldn't have been more of a stand-up guy. He is an actor who is originally from the Midwest and is just a very polite person. He called Dave "sir" more than once and doted over his wife (Anna Faris) and daughter - it was very sweet. It was his first time on the show so you could tell he was a little nervous, but he did a great job. Dave also really liked Zero Dark Thirty so he was actually interested in the interview. I am sure you know this, but Dave has a hard time hiding his emotions, you can totally tell when he is not into something. So, it was good to see him engaged in the interviews.
Then it was time for the musical guest. Now, I didn't know Big Boi had spun off to do his own thing from Outkast. He had quite the large band. When the song started I wasn't sure which one of the band members was Big Boi. There were 5-6 people on stage but no one really stood out. Then Mr. Big Boi came out - you couldn't miss him. He was wearing dark sunglasses, military pants, combat boots, a leather vest, and a fur scarf. Holly leaned over to me at this moment and said "I think that's Big Boi." I agreed with her assessment. I have no idea what his song was called - but he had a special guest with him who was a tall white guy with a maraca shaker. I told Holly I wanted his job. The performance was pretty good - it was just such an odd combination of people I didn't really know what to think.
After our Dave taping, we finally had time to go to the Anthro at Rockefeller center. It was the best Antrho I had ever been to. I guess when you are in such a huge city - the selections are just going to be better. There were lots of great things on sale as well as good winter clothes that the Dallas stores just don't get. We both tried on some cute things and were headed to check out when we realized the line was going to take 30 minutes or more to get through. At this point we needed to head over to the Theater for our evening entertainment and we just weren't going to make it if we waited in line. So, we had to give our purchases up (my wallet thanked me) and move on.
With this being Holly's first time to New York, we had thought long and hard about what Broadway show to see. She had seen Chicago in London, I had seen Wicked a ton of times, we had both seen Phantom, so we had narrowed it down to two options of shows: The Lion King or The Book of Mormon. We ultimately went with the latter as The Lion King is touring this summer in both Oklahoma and Texas. Boy am I glad we did, because something tells me The Book of Mormon isn't going to be touring through the Bible belt anytime soon.
For those of you who don't know The Book of Mormon is a new play by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The show won Best Musical at the Tony's during 2011, it's first year in production, so we both had high expectations. Boy were they met. The show was pretty fabulous. The music, dancing, and singing were all great. We both really really enjoyed it. However, it was extremely vulgar and pretty offensive to just about every religion and race imaginable, so while I enjoyed it I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that is overly conservative or offended by things. You have to just take the show lightly and have a good time while you are there.
The show follows two Mormon's on their mission to Uganda, which is just really random in general. However, I had done a lot of research on Uganda recently because my sister and brother-in-law are going there on a mission trip themselves this summer. I had no idea this was part of the plot so when that part was revealed in the show Holly and I just couldn't get over it! Too weird.
Overall, the show really just highlights the differences in the way the Mormon's behave and how the Ugandans behave. The songs were very well done - but the lyrics were just way out there. At intermission I asked Holly if she liked the show, and she said "I just have no idea what to expect next". Then the next song right after intermission was even more out there than anything before intermission. When the show ended we were both crying we were laughing so hard. We decided it was very well acted and had good dance and song numbers. I still have no idea how it got paid to be produced and put together since it is so offensive to just about everybody. I guess because South Park is so successful that helped a little. I just don't think the show will be doing Traveling Broadway Tours like The Lion King anytime soon.
The Marquee for Book of Mormon. I loved that the focal point is a doorbell - very clever.
Self portrait while waiting for the actors to come out after the show. We didn't get any autographs, but had some good people watching, as usual.
After the show, we went to dinner at a little Italian place called Becco. It had nothing on S'mac. It was an Italian restaurant, but our waiter was Hispanic. I was very confused. We were also towards the end of the night during the week and I think they were ready to close up and get us out of there. The food was so-so. We finished up and ate some more of our macaron's and left over Dylan's Candy Bar goodies back at the hotel - which made our night.
Once again it was quite an eventful day. We were pretty exhausted when we got back that night. Luckily, my conference didn't officially start until the end of the next day. Holly left the next morning to catch her flight home while I worked stayed for my conference for another 4 days (which isn't so smart after 4 days of hard core NYC shopping and sight seeing - I was so tired by the very end of the trip).
All in all it was another great trip! We both decided we like tropical trips better in general as we are not used to being outside all day in 25 degree weather walking everywhere. But, since I had to be there anyway, Holly had never been, and it perfectly coincided for the one week a year her store is closed, we will take it!
I cannot wait for our next adventure - let me know if you have any ideas for us for 2013! Until then, Ciao for now!
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