Our Family Adventures: May 2008

As many know, I just returned from a three day trip to New York. I've never been to The Big Apple and it was everything I expected and more. I went with my good friend Leah for our 30th birthday and a little mommy vacation. We stayed with her sister Tera in mid-Manhatten. We were minutes from everything and Tera did a wonderful job planning our experiences for the visit.

We took the redeye on Wednesday evening and arrived earlier Thursday morning. Leah and I braved the subway during rush hour that morning into the city. We arrived at Tera's (a few blocks from Central Park and the Time Warner building), slept for a few hours and then hit the streets. We first walked around most of the Southern part of Central Park. We finished the Central Park tour at the Metropolitan Museum and took a one hour "highlights" tour. My favorite part was the paintings done by Monet and Van Gough. It was amazing to see such familiar pieces of art that close. After the museum, we walked back on Madison Ave. Lots of highend shops, boutiques and beautiful brown stone homes. We only went into a few shops, but the most famous was Tiffany's (the one from Breakfast At Tiffany's). Tera and Adam then took us to a Mexican dinner a few blocks from their apartment. They had yummy guacamole that they made right at your table - avacado is one of my favorite!! We stayed up late, and ended the evening at a bar right below their apartment called Kennedy.

Leah at a fountain in Central Park.

Part of the Metropolitan Museum. Isn't it beautiful!!

One of the rooms we toured at the museum, and one of my favorites.

The next morning Leah and I caught a cab to the piers where we went on a three hour boat tour, The Harbour Tour. It was a great way to see the different areas of Manhatten, the vastness of the city and the different bouroughs. The tour guide gave lots of current and historical information about everything and the boat also swung by the Statue of Liberty. Smaller then I thought it was going to be. It was also interesting to see how the statue seemed more off the coast of New Jersey then New York. It was very rainy and windy that day, so most of my pictures didn't turn out trying to peak out the window. After the tour, we took a bus to Time Square. Probably one of the busiest parts to New York while we were there. We didn't get much time here, we needed to go and change for dinner and the play we had that evening. We had dinner at Thalia. Very yummy and then headed over to see the Broadway play, Avenue Q. Very halarious play. The characters were puppets with human problems that lived on Avenue Q - they were trying to find their purpose in life. Here's a peak at some of the play:

http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoinfo.cfm?showid=37

After the play, Leah and I walked back and arrived at Tera and Adam's drenched from all the rain. :) The next day's weather was much better. :)

We had Tera with us the next day and started at Rockefeller Center. While there, we went to the "Top of the Rock" which was top of the Rockefeller Center Building. It was a gourgeous view and one of the highlights! Next we met Tera's friends in the meat packing district for a Champagne brunch. I tell ya eating and drinking is the main event while in New York - there's plenty of it!! Of course, another wonderful meal with great company. For the rest of the day we trecked through the many other parts of Manhatten such as Greenwich Village, SOHO, NOHO, China Town, and Little Italy. So much to see, I really want to go back and spend some time in some of these places.

Top of the Rock with Leah and Tera

Little Italy

Finally we made our way down to the southern end of Manhatten, where we saw the Twin Tower's site (very sombering), and the financial district and the NYSE. The subway was underconstruction there so we took a combination of buses and subways to find our way back to Tera's. I'm so glad I was traveling with Tera and Leah - they were so good with directions and figuring out the transporation systems. I eventually caught onto some, but they were really quick with it. :)

Later that night we went out to dinner with Tera. Again, very yummy. It was a place where you order a few entree's and then share. So we had 6-7 dishes between the three of us (that's what was recommended) but I think we would have been good with 5. We finally ended our NY fun at Kennedy's next to Tera's again. I had the best time visiting with the two of them until the wee hours of the morning. It's true, NY never sleeps!! :) Tera/Leah, thanks again for the great experience!! You both are such wonderful friends and loved experiencing NY with you!!