I heart NY

We had a FABULOUS time in New York. I was a little unnerved by the bomb scare last week (2 days before we arrived to our hotel IN Times Square.) But the NYPD was all over the place which calmed my nerves. A little. We saw basically all the major tourist attractions, but I'll try to spare all the details and just give some highlights.

Favorite things I ate:

*Corned Beef and Pastrami sandwich from the Carnegie Deli. The sandwich was literally 6 or 7 inches tall. Keith and I split one and we were both stuffed afterwards. And the cheesecake there was fabulous.

*Dark chocolate and Hazelnut gelato in Greenwich Village

*Chocolate bar from Jacques Torres in Brooklyn (yes I love chocolate)

*The best orange juice I have ever tasted, from Norma's in Midtown. Worth every penny of the $9 we paid (!!!!)

*Hot dog at Yankee Stadium (maybe it was just the atmosphere, but hot dogs at baseball games are just good.)

*Pizza from John's Pizzaria in Times Square (we also ate at the one in the village.) I have decided I'll take the thin crust New York style pizza over Chicago deep dish...much less guilt afterwards!


Favorite places we went:

*Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I really really enjoyed Ellis Island. It's amazing to think of all the immigrants who came to this country searching for a better life. Just about all of us probably have an amazing story of our ancestors coming to America - the sacrifices made, the reason they came, etc. Very humbling.

*Yankees game!!

*Navigating the subways. Seriously, it was fun, and we felt pretty good once we got it all figured out.

*The Manhattan Temple. Is it bad if I say mostly because it was nice to just sit for a few hours?? It is beautiful.

*Strolling through Central Park. That place is HUGE. It has lakes, trails, a zoo, and one day when we were walking through I saw what I am pretty sure was a castle (???) I'll have to look into that....

*The musems. The Metropolitan Musem of Art was incredible. You could spend weeks there. I enjoyed the Museum of Modern Art as well, although some of the art was perplexing to me (why is a blank canvas with one blue line down the side considered art? I think I saw Kate do that last week.....)


What we could have done without:


*The wind at the top of the Empire State building. I enjoyed the top of the Rockefeller Center better for that very reason, and the view was just as good.

*Waiting outside The Late Show Studio for standby tickets for over an hour. Keith called in that morning, answered the trivia question correctly (a prerequisite for seeing David Letterman) and we were standby numbers 3 and 4. They told us our chances were good to get in, but it wasn't meant to be. Better luck next time!

*Some of the smells of the city. There were some REALLY good smells and some REALLY bad ones (bad ones being cigarette smoke and the steam coming from the sewers - gross!) Being pregnant only added to the "fun."

Speaking of being pregnant, I think I fared pretty well with all the walking. Keith and I had pretty sore feet some of the time, but then we'd just go to a Broadway play, hang out in Central Park, or even people watch for a bit (which is an event all on its own.) Overall we had a great time and the kids had a great time being spoiled by their grandparents (thank you Paul and Linda!!)


Gotta see the Statue of Liberty!


View of Manhattan from Liberty island


Ground Zero. Still devastating to think of what happened here.

Hoping for the next Bull Market on Wall Street!

We had perfect weather and a perfect game. Great weather all week actually.

Times Square. Yes it is always that insane.

About to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I wasn't sure I'd make it that day, I was so tired!

At the top of the Empire State Building. Another one of those things you gotta do in New York.

A little Monet....

This one is so neat to see up close....

View of downtown from the Rockefeller Center.

Wow do I really look that big in real life??? *sigh*