I Heart NY

We're back from the Big Apple and finally settled back into our normal routine.
We had an unbelievable trip. More than ANY other city there are SO many things to do and see, and we did everything and more than we had planned to do. I won't bore you with the details of all we did (you name it, we did it) but I've included a slide show (at the end) if you have the time and want to see a few pics. But I'll share with you a few favorites...



Top 10 things to do in NYC... (in no particular order)

1. St. Patrick's Cathedral -- We really love our church, but the architecture here was gorgeous. Our church is absolutely industrial next to this church.


2. Rockefeller Center (Top of the Rock) -- Best Views of NYC. Better views that the Empire State Building.

3. Staten Island Ferry -- the cheapskate in me loved this...it's a free ferry ride to Staten Island and it goes right past the Statue of Liberty. They don't let you up inside anymore so this is the best way to see/get pictures of Lady Liberty (A bonus was we got to see THE most flamboyant (and scary looking) trans-sexuals on the planet).

4. Apartment roof tops -- We met a buddy of Wade's the first night at his apartment. He took us up to the rooftop and showed us how they have a common area or people can get their own private area and can have gardens, or sunbathe, or whatever...some of the private ones were pretty cool.

5. Central Park -- this park is MASSIVE. Truly one of the best things in NYC. (Don't try to see it all in one day)

6. Grand Central Station -- I loved it here. Of course as soon as we entered the main lobby we both remembered the scene in Madagascar where the animals that escaped from the zoo are caught. Funny that's what we recognized.

7. China Town (Canal Street) -- Where I met and brought home many friends (Coach, Gucci, Prada, etc...I'm not sure if they are knock-offs or stolen--but the quality is amazingly good if they are knock-offs).

8. Fifth Avenue was pretty great too. Here I am (purchase in hand) at THE Saks on Fifth Ave.




9. The Today Show -- I love Matt Lauer (seriously... I love him). We didn't spend a lot of time there but here are Ann, Al and some other fill-in anchor, so I did get a picture of a quasi-celebrity. I also saw Lou Gossett Jr. --is he still considered a celebrity? He is in my favorite movie of all time (An Officer and a Gentleman), so I say he still counts.



10. St. Paul's Chapel and Cemetery. Possibly my favorite. We stumbled onto this place on our way down to Battery Park. This chapel was built in 1766. President George Washington was one of the worshippers at St. Paul's. It's directly across the street from what was the WTC. Cool story, this little chapel survived the collapse of the WTC without even a broken window. One sycamore tree that was destroyed by debris on 9/11 fell and didn't disturb a single headstone in the cemetery (there definitely was a higher force protecting this little place). Here's a great little article on it if you care to see how special this little place was http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_28_118/ai_79514972


This doesn't even touch all the other things we did in NYC. I literally got blisters on the bottom of my feet from all the walking and sight-seeing we did.

5 things I learned in NYC

1. Subways are the best way to get around the city (and yes there are rats, I've got pictures for proof).
2. DO NOT go to NY during the Pueroto Rican Day Parade...trust me on this...80,000 participants, 2 million in attendance. It was craziness, seriously. This parade lasted HOURS...seriously how many cars/floats can you see before they all look the same. It was 98 degree too, never thought it'd be hotter in NY than in Tulsa. We didnt watch, but we could not avoid them.
3. People there love Giuliani and credit him with all things good in NYC.
4. One too many sushi, make me want to barf-y. (For Wade change sushi to mackerel sashimi for same statement).

5. Old mixes with new like no other place I've ever been (check out this pic...the skyscrapers built up around this little building)

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

The one thing I feel like we could have skipped was Ground Zero -- Nothing to see, then again...maybe that's the point.

The only thing I would have liked to have done and didn't, was catch a show, everything else was a bigger priority to me...but I did go see a movie in Times Square by myself ($13.00). Wade had to go to the Webby Awards for a work thing so I went to see Made of Honor (my kind of movie). I'm not sad about missing a show cause we're going to see Phantom of the Opera in a couple weeks...doesn't get much better than that (unless you're going to see Les Mis...can't decide which one is my favorite, it depends on which one I've seen last).

Here's the slideshow.

And I'll try to get better about posting so I don't have to write a novel each time.