A few months ago my husband caught me looking at travel sites. This is something I do often, look at airfares, look at hotels, explore new cities via the internet. What can I say? I am infected by the travel bug. When he caught me he asked if I wanted to take a trip for our first anniversary and I shyly replied, "yes." (He would like to point out there was some downcast eye action going on too.) Christian asked where I wanted to go and I listed a whole bunch of places, but told him I was fine staying home too. Well, he surprised me a few weeks later by informing me that we were headed to New York City--a dream for a theater geek like me.
Last Thursday night we started our adventure. The highlight of the flight---I got to watch the King's Speech on the plane, there was also the lady sitting across the aisle from us who decked her husband. Not quite sure why, something about having to go through airport security. We took a cab into the city and arrived at our awesome hotel--The Michelangelo. Since it was already late we just hit the sack to get ready for our adventure.
The first day we walked the two blocks to Times Square. I was awed by the gigantic Disney Store, M&M Store, and the Hershey's Store. It was just a bustling crowd full of excitement and energy. We walked around for a minute trying to decide what to do and snapping some pictures along the way.
Me showing off that I really do have a baby bump, despite what all the naysayers say!!!Since my one "have to do this" item was to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island we decided to get them out of the way first. It was about ten or so and we naively thought we would be finished by two or three. Yeah, wrong. We got to Battery Park and discovered a half an hour line just to get tickets (I knew I should have bought them online) after we purchased the tickets we went to go and hope in line for the ferry. The line ended up being a half mile of people from the dock. We valiantly stood there for two hours to hop on the 1:30 ferry to see the islands. At least there were food vendors along the way so we could eat hot dogs and pretzels. Other than that we kept each other entertained and tried to keep each other warm with the biting wind.
Once we finally reached our destinations we got out and explored. It was fun to walk around the Statue of Liberty and learn about how it was made and it's dedication. I of course took many MANY pictures.
We even got a rare picture of the two of us. We then hopped the boat to Ellis Island and looked a bit for my great grandpa's information...we never did find it leading me to believe he was an illegal immigrant hiding out from the law, well that or it was because no one in my family knew how to spell his last name correctly.
We explored Ellis Island for a good ninety minutes. Then it was back to the city. This time for some real food. Christian had two goals on this trip 1- eat at a good New York Deli 2- eat good New York Pizza. We accomplished the first that night eating at the Carnegie Deli. I have never seen this much meat on a sandwich before...and this wasn't even the biggest sandwich they had there.
After a post dinner walk around Central Park we headed to our first Broadway show of the weekend- WICKED.
Now I love this show, my husband had never seen it but by the time we left he decided he really liked it. Pregnancy hormones had me crying the whole time. It was also fun to walk through the small museum they had there and see all the tokens from past Broadway productions.The next morning for our anniversary, and because my husband is the best man on the entire earth, Christian took me to the Stardust Diner. The waiting staff bursts into song all the time and dances. It was awesome!!! I might have cried there too, yeah go pregnancy. Then we just started wandering. We went in the huge Disney Store in Times Square, walked over to Rockefeller Plaza (where we found the NBC store and its Chuck and Psych merchandise!!!), and wandered along Fifth Avenue. Of course the only store I went in was---FAO Schwartz!!
I found the Sorting Hat there. After leaving the toy store my husband took me on a carriage ride though Central Park, cross that one off the bucket list. I told you he was awesome.
As if my husband was not awesome enough he then went with me to Chinatown to meet my friend Amy, her friend Janet, and their sons for lunch. The Wo-Hop was a hopping place and we had to wait a bit to get the table but it was worth it. The food was fantastic!!! And it was fun to spend some time with Amy too.
That night we went and saw Mary Poppins, it was a fun play even if we were surrounded by high schoolers who didn't know how to act while at the theater. We tried to take some picture that night, but it was too crowed so of course we wandered back on Sunday and snapped a few on a less crowded 42nd street.
My mother used to call me Marry Poppins, not sure if I agree with her but I wouldn't mind having her magic bag.While we wandered around Broadway we also came across "God's Favorite Musical" The Book of Mormon.
Christian had his picture by that sign, I think he was most excited that John Stewart liked it, then we went and got him some good New York Pizza.
We found some crazy things in Times Square. I think the craziest was the gigantic Toys R Us with the Ferris Wheel inside. There was also many picture points...I liked the Candy Land one.
It was fun to get away for a few days and just spend some good quality time together. There is no one in the world like my husband. He is a good, good man and I am forever grateful for him. So happy anniversary love and thanks for the awesome trip and great memories.
