NYC

We had a great time! I've never been a huge fan of the city, but I enjoyed it much more than I would have thought. Now I'm trying to remember what all we did. Luckily, the digital camera keeps time and date stamps.

We got in around lunch time on Sunday, and were able to check into the hotel early. We were staying right near Times Square, so we just stayed around there. We saw a sign for dim sum, which would have been fun, but it wasn't real dim sum... they just called the 10 or so appetizers on the menu "dim sum." So we were a little let down to begin with. Then the waiter said I looked like a tourist (because I had a camera around my neck. maybe I was a photographer?), and when he asked where we were from and I said NJ (because it was easier) he said "I'm sorry." Buddy, the tip's just going down. I cannot begin to tell you how old it is to put down NJ; I get so fed up with the ignorance and stereotypes. But that's for another day. Back to lunch. Some of the dim sum was cold, and the waiter was too busy flirting with a table full of women to bring our check.

After lunch, we headed downtown to meet my friend Leah from college for coffee. So good to catch up with her, though I wish we had more time to spend together. It's been tough for us to try to cram all of these visits into one trip -- totally worth it, but it always leaves us feeling like we wish we had more time!

The whole original purpose of our trip was to see Isabelle's (one of my college roommates) vocal recital a bit further downtown. We walked down to 25th St and got there just in time. Isabelle, of course, was beautiful and fabulous. I started crying as soon as she started singing, because I'm just so proud of her! It was great to see her parents and her sister again, as I don't think I'd seen them since our college graduation. It hard to get good pictures; I'm hoping some of the film ones turned out a little better. The shutter lag combined with low lighting is just part of the reason why I want a digital SLR (hint hint, wealthy benefactor). But that's Isabelle on the right.

We went back to Times Square for dinner at a French restaurant (in honor of Isabelle, who's French) called Pigalle, partly because it was right next to the hotel, and we were tired. So tired, in fact, that Greg accidentally left his credit card there, which we didn't realize until Monday afternoon. Since it was the only thing that was missing, we eventually figured out where it was, and they gave it back to him. He's verified the charges on it, and everything seems ok.

I think I slept more on Sunday night than I have in months. I was probably asleep by 9:30, and up again at 8:00. It felt so good to sleep!

On Monday morning, we had more Starbucks, and then went down to the World Trade Center site. I had been there in August of last year, and it doesn't look a whole lot different now. We're just so thankful that all of our friends and family were safe.

Across the street was a huge department store called Century 21 that I'd heard my cooler brother Dan talk about. It's basically a discount store, and reminded me of a giant Marshalls. But it was packed! Crazy. We looked around a bit, and I got a purse, and Greg got a couple of shirts. We headed back to Times Square to meet Isabelle for lunch. So good to just sit and talk with her in person for a while. Here's a picture of us after lunch.



Greg and I went to see if we could get tickets to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular for Tuesday morning, but after standing in line for 25 minutes, we found out that they were sold out until Thursday. Then we went down to Rockefeller Center, where they were getting the big Christmas tree ready.



















We walked down to Macy's to see if we could see any of the parade preparations, but not so much. They've got decorations up, windows decorated, etc. But the street wasn't blocked or anything.



We went to visit Isabelle's apartment, since I'd never been there, and she's done a lot of remodleing in the last few months. We chatted for a bit, but she was rightfully exhuasted. Greg and I made our way up to a restaurant she recommended called Citrus, at Broadway and 75th, I believe (but don't hold me to it.) It was billed as a fusion of Latin and Asian. It was really good! Probably a little too cool for us, but fun nonetheless.

As we were headed up to Isabelle's, we had seen a bunch of people crowded around in the street at Rockefeller Center, so we figured that they were going to be lighting these snowflake lights that cover the face of a building opposite the huge Christmas tree. We came back after dinner to check out the lights and choreographed music. It was so neat!


On the way there, we passed the NBC store. Can you tell Greg and I love The Office?






















We were exhausted, and our feet hurt, but I was hungry for microwave popcorn. So we got some, went back to the hotel and rented Knocked Up, and then crashed.

We got up on Tuesday, and it was still raining, a little harder than it had been on Monday morning. (It eventually stopped raining on Monday afternoon. Actually, Isabelle said she saw snow showers on Monday up on the 38th floor.) The other things we wanted to do (go to the top of the Empire State Building, walk around Central Park) weren't going to be any fun in the rain, so we decided to just head home instead. After more Starbucks, of course.