New York New York!!!

Every time I say New York! in an excited way, I think of the Pace Commercial where they say New York in a Southern accent like totally disgusted.  I just can't help it.  But anyways, I joined Nick in New York a couple weeks ago.  And it was awesome.  I would have preferred about 20 degrees warmer, but I have been getting used to the cold in Portland this year (don't get me started complaining about the crappy weather here because its hard for me to stop). Regardless, the weather wasn't too bad and I had a blast cruising around New York for a few days.

Some of the highlights:

1.  I got to walk around for two days by myself (while Nick was at work) and I loved it.  Figured out the subway, got aggressive with my taxi hailing skills, figured out the general vicinity of where things are, and just tried to soak it all in. And. . . I walked, a lot (which is good considering we pigged out at the restaurants there).

 2.  The first hotel we stayed at was the Eventi right in Midtown just a block off of 5th.  The view of our room was the Empire State Building as you can see above.  Thank you kindly Phil for your generosity.  The second hotel that we switched to once Nike was done paying was a Moroccan dump in the Upper West side.  I did not take any pictures of that place because I couldn't fit my camera in the room.  And I was busy trying to not inhale too much second hand smoke.

 3.  Walked through the Central Park zoo one day on the way to the MET and wanted to have Briz with me.  Anytime I saw fun kid stuff, I wanted my little pal with me.

 4.  We headed over to 30 Rock, just so I could say 30 Rock on my blog and feel somewhat closer to Tina Fey.  We did the Today Show thing, but we got there when nobody cool was there, so it wasn't that exciting.  I tried to look ugly so I could get a makeover but we missed that too.  After that, we waited in line for standby tickets to Jimmy Fallon.  I was so excited because Joy Formidable was going to be on the show, but we didn't get tickets.  I was very disappointed that day.  (Our dream was to go to the Colbert show, which apparently is pretty easy to get tickets to, but they weren't shooting any shows while we were there).

 5.  At Grand Central Station.  Nick was excited about the whisper wall and I was excited thinking about all of the movies and shows that have been shot there.  On the top of my list, Felicity in the best episode ever.

 6.  At the Natural History Museum.  We went there twice because each time we didn't have long enough.  The second time was way too packed and I couldn't handle all of the kids.  Ah!!!

 7. We went to FAO Schwartz on 5th and it was awesome.  This is the picture with the Zoltar machine from the movie Big.  Honestly, I wanted to be a kid when I went in that store.  And I also wanted a lot of money.

 8.  Nick and I rented a tandem bike and rode around in Central Park.  Some of the best things about that were a) when I tried to drive and almost drove into the pond b) Nick and I tucking our socks into our pants c) A lady yelling at Nick and calling him a dumbass for riding the bike on a path (Nick was upset pretty much the rest of the night that we weren't both yelled at).

 9.  We walked by Ground Zero.  It was crazy how different it looks from the last time I was there in 2005.  It's exciting.  I didn't realize they were putting up 4 new buildings.  Nick and I enjoyed some trash talk to terrorists in general.  Take that terrorists!  You knock down two buildings, we'll put up four in its place. Bam!  (Is that inappropriate?)

 10.  I think my favorite thing was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and eating at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn under the bridge.  YUM!  I am still dreaming about that pizza.

 11.  We ate at Serendipity's.  It was fine.  But definitely not worth the hour wait.  We ate at some amazing places: Serafina's, Norma's, the Four Seasons, and this was probably my least favorite (I guess it's all relative).

 12.  We went to the Chelsea Market.  There were cool little shops and and nice to get out of the busy part of the city on a busy Holiday.

My last favorite thing was seeing Jersey Boys.  The star of the show was the original main character that had won a Tony Award for his performance and he was phenomenal!  We tried three nights to see Newsies or Book of Mormon with the lottery, but no luck. I am so mad we never won lottery tickets that I am pretty sure I will try it again next time I go.  I'm not giving up!  Plus, I can't resist the chance to win $30 tickets to Broadway.