The Big Apple

I woke up this morning to a very quiet (except for the baby sounds coming from 2 doors down) house. Very different than the traffic, sirens, yelling, hustle & bustle noises we woke up to every morning in NYC. And I must say, I sort of missed those noises. But every good (fantastic!) trip must come to an end and normal life must resume. And a darn good trip it was.

After a cancelled flight Thursday morning, we were able to get booked on another flight about 5 hours later. By the time we got to our hotel in NYC, the Westin Times Square, it was close to 8pm and we hadn't eaten dinner. We checked out Restaurant Row and found a wonderful little Italian place called Becco. It was crowded. We were squished into our table. The food never stopped coming. It was so New York. We loved it. After dinner we (froze our tails off) walked to the Empire State Building, which conveniently is open until 2am. When we reached the top, there were snow flurries. They melted a few floors down to become a slight drizzle. The NYC skyline at night was georgeous...far different than our Brunswick skyline - wait, do we even have a skyline??

Friday morning we had our television debut on the Today Show. I called home and my mom and Little Girl saw us (and commented on my teenager-ness when the cameras panned in my direction...can't help it...it was my 5 seconds of fame!). We got to meet Ann Curry and Hoda Cotb, and see Matt Lauer from a distance. Mission accomplished. Then I got to shop at my favorite store, H&M, for hours and hours and hours.

Friday night we met up with my cousin Debby and her husband Jason and had a great dinner at another little Italian eatery called 44 Southwest. Again, it was crowded. We were squished into our table. The food never stopped coming. It was so New York. We loved it! Then we browsed M&M World, the Hershey store, Toys R Us - yes, children's stores, and yes, right up my alley.

Saturday we went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It took a full day of standing in lines but was well worth it...especially Ellis Island. To see where MILLIONS of immigrants filtered through into the US was amazing.

That night we saw the Broadway show, Wicked. Crazy good. It is the backstory to the Wizard of Oz. Shows the relationship of the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch...thus the title. Incredible music. As awesome as it was, Lion King still tops my Broadway show list...with Wicked a close second.

And of course the highlight was seeing famous people. I am a famous people magnet. When I went to California on 2 different occasions, the famous people would not leave me alone. It must be my charisma. :) This time it was James Earl Jones. Oh yes, Darth Vader himself. We walked by the back door of the broadway show "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at the exact moment JEJ was coming out. My jaw hit the floor as I tried to hold in my teenager-ness. I tried to hold it to a simple non-overreactive wave, but the wave was semi-obnoxious. He gave a big wave back and I think I heard him say under his breath, "Who is that girl? Is she famous? She should be." but maybe that was just my interpretation. We also saw Mrs. Huxtable in her car (Phylicia Rashad) but since Theo and Rudy weren't with her, I wasn't too impressed. And of course, the biggest of all, Sanjaya from last season's American Idol. He decided to see Wicked like normal people do so I think that's what threw me off when Carter said, "Look behind you" and wammo, there's Sanjaya with his family, like a normal person. His mom wanted to take his picture so I stood right next to her and took one too, like I was part of the family. Obnoxious? Semi. I held it to a minimum.

A fantastic trip. A fantastic anniversary present to ourselves. Now I know I can leave my babies and everyone will survive...and even enjoy themselves!