The Big Apple

Brent and I were able to go to New York City to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We didn't get to go until April because I had gallbladder surgery the day before our anniversary. I know, good planning. It's just what worked out. A friend (with 6 kids!) offered to watch the boys so we could go somewhere overnight. Thank you, Allison! It was so nice to get away. The boys had a great time too.

We drove into NYC on Friday afternoon. Brent gave me the privilege of driving in Manhattan. We stayed in a boutique hotel in the Upper West Side. The room was decent enough, but I don't think I slept at all. There was some kind of chain or something banging against the outside wall all night. That was pretty lame. I didn't realize at the time that where we stayed was right in the same area that You've Got Mail takes place. We walked by all the restaurants and stores shown in the movie. Friday afternoon we walked into Central Park and saw Belvedere Castle. I didn't know about the castle until I was reading a Magic Tree House book with Elliott a few months ago. It was fun to see. After checking into our hotel we ate an early dinner at Patsy's Pizza. It wasn't as good as we heard it was. That was disappointing. We attempted to get tickets to Wicked through the lottery but didn't win. We walked down to Times Square and almost walked right past the temple. We were right in front of it when I noticed the church logo and realized where we were. It's pretty amazing to see the temple right there in the middle of it all. We spent some time walking through Macy's. The size of that place is incredible! Brent didn't believe that it was the largest department store in the world, until he stepped inside. It really is huge! We went to the Empire State Building that night. It was fun to be up there at night, but it was FREEZING and windy! The views are amazing. I have to admit, since I don't know my NYC landmarks very well, I was pretty confused as to which side of the building we were on at any given time. The Forever 21 billboard picture might seem random, but if you look closely you'll see us. Pretty cool. On our way back to the hotel, we walked up 5th Avenue. All the shops were closed, but we did see the Rockefeller ice skating rink. I couldn't believe how far we walked that day. We were both so sore and tired by the time we finally got back to our hotel, probably around 11. It was cold and wet for the first couple hours (it snowed the night before), but fortunately the rain basically stopped by the time we were done with dinner. Saturday was a little warmer and dry.

Day 2

On Saturday, we slept in and went to brunch at Sarabeth's, the most delicious brunch ever! I had the "Crisp Potato Waffle with Chicken Apple Breakfast Sausage, Chunky Apple Sauce and Sour Cream" which might sound a little bizarre, but it was SOOOO good! I'm craving it as I'm writing this. Since we did so much walking on Friday, we figured we'd take the subway on Saturday. We went down to Ground Zero, Battery Park, and Wall Street. We were planning on walking across the Brooklyn Bridge but nixed that idea because we could hardly walk. We took the subway to Grand Central Station, ate some cheesecake and a cupcake and then headed back to our car. We had a great time exploring the city. Brent is glad to have most of the major sites out of the way, so when we go back we don't have to traipse all over Manhattan, we can just focus on one of two things. It was fun but utterly exhausting.