New York, New York

First, not to get all political, but I have to say it is a GREAT time to be an American. I hope no matter how you voted, we can all put our differences aside. It's really a time to unify. I could go on and on, but I'll leave it at that and finally talk about MY TRIP! I have been so busy and I still haven't unpacked one suitcase, but I figure I better write my thoughts down before I forget them. There's no way I can write down everything I did, so I'm just going to include some pictures and the highlights.

I have to say, it's a good thing that John and I didn't visit New York City back when we first tried to go 10 years ago. As soon as he graduated, we would've moved there in a heartbeat and never came back. It had the energy of Seoul and the culture of London, but with a whole new level of excitement I can't even describe. When we were driving over the bridge to Manhattan and I saw the Chrysler building, my heart literally skipped a beat. When I first walked through Times Square, I almost peed my pants I was so excited. And when I sat down in my first Broadway theater, I started to cry. Yes, New York is my kind of town!

Here's the Reader's Digest version of our trip. We stayed at a Hampton Inn on 51st and 8th Avenue, we were right around the corner from the Wicked theater and the Hairspray theater. It's newly renovated and has good size rooms. We were very happy with it and totally recommend if you're heading to NYC. Anyway, we arrived Monday afternoon and here's the rest...



Monday - explored Times Square and Theater District, ate dinner at the ESPN Zone from window seats overlooking Times Square, shopped, bought a pin at Hard Rock Cafe (I collect them)



Tuesday - our actual anniversary (Yeah!), crappy weather, took a double decker bus to World Trade Center, was totally touched at the St. Peter's church next to the site, shopped at Century 21 - John was in heaven even though he hates shopping, walked to Financial District, had the BEST. PIZZA. EVER. at a dive by Wall Street - again, John was in heaven - never seen him so excited about food before, walked down to Battery Park and took pictures of the Statue of Liberty, bought a cool picture, hopped back on the bus and saw Brooklyn Bridge, U.N. building and other East side attractions, stopped at Rockefeller Plaza, explored area, went to NBC store and American Girl, more shopping, back to hotel, went to Ellen's Stardust Diner for dinner, waitstaff sings to you, our waiter sang "The Best is Yet to Come" and had us dance in front of everyone -- it was cute, went to "Wicked" (I've seen a lot of shows - L.A., Seattle, Chicago, London - some great touring productions and even some awesome ones at Pioneer Theater, but this was the BEST YET! And yes, I totally cried when I sat down in our seats!).


Wednesday - not as crappy weather as the day before, took the subway down to Tribeca, saw a little of Tribeca and So Ho on foot, explored the Village, found the "Friends" apartment building...



...walked over to China Town, bought a fake pashmina and a purse, walked through Little Italy, took subway back to Times Square, hopped back on the tour bus for a Upper West Side tour, saw temple, Lincoln Center, Dakota (where John Lennon was shot), had my one lame celebrity sighting -- Greenlee from "All My Children" who's married to that dork Bob the Bachelor, Museum of Natural History, walked way too far to get Gray's Papaya hotdogs (thanks to "Fools Rush In" I always wanted one -- they were GOOD), John got more pizza, rode bus up by Grant's Tomb and through Harlem, rode down Museum Mile on the Upper East Side, got off and explored 5th, Madison and Park Avenue, had frrozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3 (AMAZING!), shopped some more, John oogled at the Apple store...



...went back to hotel then off to a show "Boeing Boeing" - a french farce starring Greg Germann (Fish from "Ally McBeal", Christine Baranski the skinny chic on "Mamma Mia!", Rebecca Gayheart who's married to McSteamy and played Luke Perry's dead wife from 90210, Paige Davis from "Trading Spaces", Missy Pyle who played Violet's mom in the Johnny Depp "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the best was Mark Rylance, the Tony winner from the show, who's actually a Shakespearean British actor and is HILARIOUS!), had deli sandwiches after on Times Square.


Thursday - gorgeous day, waited forever to get up to the Empire State Building, too many people but great views, I ate authentic pulkogi for lunch in Little Korea while John watched (he wouldn't try it) and then, we went and got him... yep, pizza, took subway up to Central Park, did our own little walking tour -- well, not little, we walked about 40 blocks total in and around Central Park, did see some cool movies sites like the "Enchanted" bridge, fall leaves were changing so it was perfect, walked back to hotel and saw all kinds of sites like Carnegie Hall, The Late Show studio and 21, did more shopping, bought Christmas stuff, then back to our hotel around dinner time to get our luggage and go to the aiport. We got back late Thursday night.



Phew! Actually, re-reading it that's really only about 70% of what we did. I'm a pretty hard core traveller because I'm determined to experience all I can. We did walk too much though, because both of us were pretty sore when we got back. It's funny, even though we went like crazy, we still had a lot of time to relax. It was just great hanging out together, just doing our own thing without agendas, having real discussions at dinner. A GREAT way to spend an anniversary. We saw a lot for only being there about 3 1/2 days. It was a good surface visit and I think next time, I want to focus on a few areas and just really take it all in. So, it may be another 10 years before we get back, but it'll be WORTH THE WAIT!