Coming Home

Our flight didn’t leave until 3pm, so we were able to sleep in a little. Since we didn’t have our luggage we didn’t have toothbrushes or any of our toiletries. Luckily Matt brought his tiny so-called brush with him. The handle is broken off and everything. There was a hairdryer in our room so I was able to dry my hair. I must have pulled out half my hair trying to brush it with that brush! Horrible!! We made it to the airport and checked to see if there were any earlier flights we could go on standby on. But no such luck! We ate at the airport and waited for our flight. Gratefully it was on time and we made it to Washington in about an hour. What we thought was a non-stop flight, wasn’t. We had another stop in Denver and had to change planes again. We finally made it home around 9pm and thankfully our luggage was sitting in OC waiting for us. Oh and while we were at the airport we spotted Vicki and Jeana from the show The Real Housewives of Orange County . They were with their kids coming home from some place. I had to talk Matt out of taking their picture!

Nightmare!

Tracy left around 6:30am to meet her tour group and Alison left around 9am to go see family, so Matt and I had the rest of the day to ourselves. We decided to check our bags at the hotel and did a little more site seeing. We went across the street and picked up a few Christmas ornaments and then to a couple of souvenir shops to get a few gifts. Then we grabbed an early lunch at the restaurant across from the hotel. We ordered the cheese steak sandwich and spilt it. It was pretty big and looked good, but I thought the meat tasted a little weird. Then came the New York Cheesecake. We had waited all week for this and it was worth the wait! I have never had cheesecake that was so good! We then decided to walk down to Columbus Circle and go inside Time Warner Center, which is basically a shopping mall. We walked through the mall and played in the Samsung Experience shop. Then figured it was time to head back to the hotel and catch a taxi in order to make it to the airport on time.

We took a Town Car to the airport and once we got there we realized that our flight had been delayed an hour. But they put us on standby for an earlier flight, which ended up being over sold and we couldn’t get on. Then our original flight was delayed until 7, by now we knew we wouldn’t make the flight from Chicago to OC. But figured we could stay the night in Chicago. Then 7 rolls around and they end up cancelling all flights in and out of La Guardia! Then we had to stand in line 2.5 hours to get a flight out on Saturday. It was horrible. By the time this was done it was 10pm and all near by hotels were sold out. We finally found an Extended Stay America hotel in Whitestone, NY and it was $200 for the night. To top things off, our luggage ended up on that flight we were on standby for! The hotel was horrible. They only had smoking rooms available! We ordered pizza and had it delivered to our room. Then we went to sleep.

Fun in New York

We got up early and headed for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the way we stopped at Pick a Bagel again for breakfast. The MET is a huge museum, so we had to pick which exhibits we really wanted to see. We split up and Matt and I walked through and looked at the sculptures and paintings. It was so amazing and the museum is beautiful. After we were done we decided to grab hot dogs off the cart and eat on the steps of the museum.

We then walked down to the Apple Store and FAO Schwartz. The Apple Store is pretty neat as it is all underground. And FAO Schwartz was just as I had imagined it and had seen in movies. From there we met back up with Alison and Tracy. We sat and pondered what we should do next. Matt and I decided to visit Macy’s, which is supposedly the largest store in the world. While Alison and Tracy did a carriage ride through Central Park. We were shocked at the size of Macy’s! Inside there was a Starbucks, a pretzel place, Ben & Jerry’s, a bakery, a restaurant and best of all a bar. We couldn’t resist and got a couple of beers and spinach artichoke dip at the bar. It was so fun. The escalators at Macy’s were the original wooden ones and something we hadn’t seen before. On the way back to our hotel we stopped by Hooters for a couple more drinks and some wings. At this point we were pretty tipsy. When we finally got back to our room we found Alison and Tracy drinking Malibu and Pepsi, so we joined in and had more drinks with them.

We finally had to get ready for a comedy show we had bought tickets for. We all got dressed and headed for the comedy club. There were several comedians performing and most were pretty funny. Afterwards, Matt and I decided that we would go to the Empire State Building. Alison and Tracy were tired and headed back to the room. We couldn’t imagine missing the Empire State Building and are so glad we went. The views were amazing and to see it at night was the best. There are 2 levels you can view from: the 86^th floor and 102^nd floor. We decided to do both. Everything looked so small looked down!

Diamonds, Cupcakes and Broadway, Oh My!

On our way out we stopped at Pick A Bagel for breakfast again. Matt and I ordered a breakfast wrap with potatoes and split it. We then headed for Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center. Top of the Rock was amazing; we had a 360° view of the entire city. We then walked down to where they have the huge Christmas tree during the holidays. There was a farmers market going on that day. Alison and I spotted Dean & DeLuca and had to go in to get coffee.

Afterwards we walked down 5^th Avenue for a little shopping. We stopped and went into Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. The cathedral was huge and so beautiful. We were able to walk around inside and take pictures. On our walk we noticed a group filming an Adam Sandler movie called You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. We saw Adam, but of course we saw him from across the street, but it was still cool. Next, we wandered through De Beers looking at diamonds. Then the girls decided to wander through Tiffany & Co. while Matt walked down to the Apple Store. I found a couple of necklaces that I fell in love with. I didn’t buy either. I’m hoping I can get at least one for either my birthday or Christmas!

Next we figured that we should go to TKTS to buy our Broadway tickets for that night. They offer tickets up to 50% off, so of course tons of people line up to get these tickets. Our first choice was Hairspray and at the urging of others around us we decided that our second choice would be A Chorus Line. While waiting in line Alison and I decided to go pick up lunch. On our way we say the Naked Cowboys, so we had to stop and get our picks taken with them. When we finally got back and we got to the ticket window we found out that Hairspray was completely sold out. So we went with our second choice instead and got 4 orchestra seats together, so we were happy.

After TKTS we hoped on the subway and headed towards Greenwich Village. We specifically wanted to go in Magnolia Bakery, which is known for its cupcakes. I picked out 3 cupcakes and a container of banana pudding. We walked across the street and found a table in the park to sit and relax. The cupcakes turned out to be just okay, but the banana pudding was fabulous!

We went back to the hotel and got dressed up for our Broadway show. Tracy and Alison left first and took the subway and Matt and I decided to take a taxi. We all made it in time, but were surprised to see most people didn’t dress up. We were some of the best dressed in the entire place! This was a good show; however it was a little boring. I would not recommend this show to someone that was only seeing one show in New York. Thinking back we should have just paid full price for Hairspray tickets. After the show we decided to dine at Ruby Foo’s, which is an Asian restaurant. It was pretty good, but a little pricey. We then headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Lots of Walking

We got up early again and took the subway to catch a ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands. Once we got there we had to wait in line for about an hour to get tickets and then wait in another line to get on the ferry. It was worth it though! We weren’t able to get tickets into the Statue of Liberty because they only give out a certain number each day, but we went to the island and walked around. We took some great pictures of the city. Then we got separated from Alison and Tracy and took the ferry to Ellis Island on our own. While on the ferry, the older woman sitting next to me on the boat fell over on me. She had passed out. Matt went to look for help, but the crew was very unhelpful and pretty much sent him on a wild goose chase. This is a little concerning! But there was a nurse on vacation that finally came and helped her. I think she just had heat exhaustion. Once on Ellis Island we walked around and looked at the museum. Then we took the ferry back to Battery Park. Matt and I wandered down Broadway and made our way to Wall Street and saw the New York Stock Exchange. It was pretty neat to see where all the action goes down. We kept wandering and had a slice of pizza for lunch. Then found Century 21 department store, which was supposedly a great store to find designer stuff, but it reminded us of a giant TJ Maxx or something. We weren’t too impressed. We kept walking and came across St. Paul’s Chapel. The Chapel is located directly across from the World Trade Center site. I was quickly touched by the Chapel. It was built in 1766 and is the city’s oldest public building in continuous use. Outside was an old cemetery, which are always interesting. Set up along the walls of the Chapel are 9/11 memorials. There are posters and articles taken from the memorials left outside the church after 9/11. I read some history about the church and it survived the great fires of New York shortly after it’s construction and it survived the attacks on 9/11. Not even one pane of glass was broken after the attacks, which is amazing considering it is literally across the street from the WTC.

Tracy and Alison caught up to us at the Chapel and from there we decided to head to Canal Street to do a little shopping. On Canal Street you can buy all sorts of knock-off products like purses, watches, jewelry and electronics. We were mainly interested the Coach purses. As we walked down the street we were approached by several different people selling purses. One came up and said he had Coach purses and to follow him. So we walk about a block down to a tiny store where we were told to wait. Then a small secret door opened up at the back of the shop and we were ushered in. Inside there was floor to ceiling designer handbags. Alison and I picked 3 bags each and tried bargaining with the woman inside. She eventually got mad at us and said we were “driving everyone crazy” and proceeded to kick us out of the secret room. So, we left empty handed, but quickly were ushered into another secret room by someone else. We eventually bought our share of bags. I ended up with 2 black Coach handbags, 1 brown Coach handbag, a black Coach wallet and a brown Coach wristlet. And I think it all coast $130! Not too bad. They aren’t real Coach, but unless you look really close you can’t tell. While the girls were shopping for bags, Matt walked through some electronic shops that had their own secret rooms. But those rooms were to preview adult movies. So weird. But Matt says he didn’t go in them!

After a crazy afternoon of secret room shopping, we decided to head back to Little Italy for dinner. We found a place that looked pretty good. However, we had the worst service ever! And the food wasn’t as good as it was the previous night.

Rainy NY Day

We woke up to a rainy mess outside. Yuck, not the way you want to spend your vacation. And the genius that I am did no bring any tennis shoes. For some reason I thought it would be okay to wear flip flops everyday! I did have a pair of slip on shoes that I thought would work best. We decided to have breakfast at the hotel. Then we ran across the street to buy overpriced umbrellas from a luggage shop. Luckily there was a tour bus stop in front of our hotel, but we still had to wait in the rain. We got on the first bus that stopped, but quickly realized that it was not going the direction we wanted. But luckily they were handing out plastic ponchos. We got off the bus and put on our fashionable ponchos so everyone would know we were tourists.

We had decided to get off at the World Trade Center site. It appeared that the rain had let up as we got off the bus, but it quickly began to pour. Unfortunately our bus dropped us off about 2 blocks away from where we wanted to be, so we had to run in the rain, wearing tourist ponchos! Then the wind started blowing and flipping our umbrellas the other direction. What a nightmare. By the time we made it inside the building, Matt and I were soaked and I had giant blisters on my heals. I was miserable and let everyone know it. I was in so much pain and sopping wet even with the tourist poncho on. The WTC site was amazing. You can’t really get the feel for what really happened on 9/11 because there is construction equipment covering the site. But it was still amazing to see.

We went back and forth with what we would do the rest of the day. I threatened to get a taxi and head back to the hotel. Pour Matt is always having to calm me down. Tracy and Alison went outside to see what else was around. Matt and I found a Godiva and got some chocolate, which cheered me back up pretty quickly.

We all decided to head over to the American Museum of Natural History since it was something we could do inside without getting wet. We decided to try the subway. We bought the weekly pass and we were set. We made it to the museum without too many issues and without getting too wet. It is such a pretty museum. We didn’t go through all of it since it’s so big, but we saw some key exhibits. We saw the “Big Bang” exhibit and the Dinosaur exhibit, plus a few other things. The dinosaurs were pretty cool, but I think they were fake. It didn’t say it anywhere, but I think they were just replica fossils of one’s they have found. They were in glass cases or anything, so I don’t understand how they preserve the real thing like that. But it was neat none the less. There was a hot dog cart in front of the museum so Matt and I decided to grab a late lunch. It was our first “cart food” in New York. Can beat a $2 hotdog with kraut! By the way, it was still raining at this point. After the dogs, we met back up with Alison and Tracy and took the subway back to our hotel. We stopped by a liquor store and got some Parrot Bay to mix with our Pepsi.

Back at the hotel, we changed and took the subway to Little Italy. After about 30 minutes of walking in circles, we finally made it to a restaurant. I ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo and Matt ordered the Meat Tortellini with Alfredo Sauce. It was amazing! I love Italian food to begin with, but this was fabulous! Then we couldn’t resist dessert and I had Tiramisu and Matt had a Canoli. Both were to die for. I could live at that restaurant. Some day I will go to cooking school in Italy. On the walk back to the subway, Allison was solicited for Coach purses, which made us very excited! Originally I thought I heard him say “cooch”, which means something completely different, but gave us a great laugh. Oh and the rain was pretty much gone by the time we went to dinner!

Touring NY City

Today we woke up fairly early to start our sight seeing. We hit up Pick a Bagel on our way out. I had a great garlic bagel with veggie cream cheese and Matt had an everything bagel with regular cream cheese. They were pretty good!

We decided we would do the 48 hour bus tour which we could hop on and off as we wanted. They had several stops all over the city, so it seemed like a pretty good deal. It was a double decker bus, so the prime seats were located on the upper level. Among the stops were Central Park and The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. The Cathedral is under construction, but still beautiful. Central Park is also beautiful. You walk through and people are walking, jogging, biking, playing soccer, Frisbee, and just laying about. It is such a peaceful place and could not have been more perfect. We walked through a Quiet Garden filled with beautiful flowers and plants. There were butterflies everywhere. At this point I was super tired and grumpy and yelled at Matt for chasing a butterfly away that I wanted to take a picture of. Then he was mad at me for yelling at him. But then we made up.

After the bus tour, we decided to head back to the hotel to move our stuff to our new room and grab some lunch. We ate at a place down the street from the hotel called Carnegie Deli. When we sat down they had fresh pickles sitting on the table for us! I was in heaven. Matt and I decided to share a Reuben Sandwich, which was gigantic, but super good. We couldn’t even finish the whole thing!

After lunch we decided to walk around the street fair going on along the street our hotel was on. It was somewhat a waste of time looking back. It was a lot like a swap meet. But I did get to share a Banana Italian Ice with Matt, which made it completely worth it.

Then it was nap time, we were all pooped.

We got up in time to catch the night tour on the bus. This was not a hop on, hop off tour. It took us through Upper Manhattan and to Brooklyn. There happened to be an accident on the bridge and we sat stopped for probably half an hour.

After the tour we were ready for dinner, so we headed to Ray’s Pizza. Now, there are several different versions of Ray’s and I’m not sure which one this is, there’s Famous Ray’s, Ray’s Original, Famous Original Ray’s, etc. So, who could keep track?!

We hit up a bar on the way back to the hotel, which was a dud. There were only a few people in there and it was bad service.

Headed for New York

We got up at the crack of dawn this morning, re-packed and headed to the airport. Knowing our suitcases were on the heavy side, in an effort to be sneaky we went directly to curbside check in. But they caught on and directed us to check-in at the inside counters stating that we would have to pay a $10 fee for each bag over 55 pounds. Well, that wasn’t the case. Once inside we were told we’d have to pay $50 for each bag. They told us we could re-arrange our items and take stuff out to take as carry-ons to avoid the fee. But they said we had 3 minutes to do this in order for our bags to get on our flight. So, here we are suitcases open sitting on the floor trying to figure out what we could take out and carry. We eventually got it all worked out and headed for our gate. There was a Starbucks conveniently located next to our gate, so Matt and I stood in line forever! Tracy and Alison decided to go ahead and board the plane. Matt and I eventually got our drinks just in time as we heard overhead, “Matthew & Michelle Wedeking to gate 17”. Apparently, the entire plane was waiting on us. But we made it!

After the longest flights ever we were finally in New York! We headed directly for the hotel. Once there Tracy and I went to the check in counter and were told they were sold out of the double beds we had reserved and were putting us in a room with one king bed. Needless to say we were upset. How would 4 of us fit in one king bed? After an hour of arguing with the manager we finally headed to our room. We were told we could change rooms in the morning to two double beds.

Once settled into our room we decided to walk around and see some sights. We were surprised to learn how close our hotel was to Times Square. Times Square was super busy and lined with shops and restaurants. All the lights were so beautiful! We walked around for a bit and decided to grab a bite on the way back to our hotel. We stopped at a place called John’s Pizza. We all shared Pete-za-rolls and a Pizza. Along with a pitcher of the local Brooklyn Pilsner. It was a great way to start our trip! On the way back to our room we stopped by a drug store to pick up a case of water and a bottle of Pepsi for drinks. Once back at the hotel we cashed in our 4 free drink coupons and ordered some pretty pricey cocktails. But why not, they were free!

So for the night Tracy, Matt and I slept on the king bed and Alison slept on a cot.

Day 1 of Vacation

Today was officially the first day of our vacation. We spent the day packing, cleaning and running last minute errands. We made a few last minute shopping trips for shoes and clothes. We also ended up having to buy a larger suitcase even though we already had half a dozen at home! Once everything was packed and the house was clean we headed for my moms. My mom surprised us with $300 to spend on our trip! She then took us to Tracy’s parent’s house. We thought it would be best to stay there for the night since our flight was so early Saturday morning. At their house we ordered Chinese and talked about what we would do on our trip. Then Tracy had to do some rearranging of her suitcase to make sure her bag didn’t weigh too much. Then off to bed we went for a 3 hour nap.