Vacation Fast Track

I thought I should make a fast track to my NYC recaps. It will just be easier to go back and view. Plus, for those of you just joining us it will be much easier for you to read through. Enjoy.....

NYC Recap- Day 1

NYC Recap- Day 1: Part 2

NYC Recap- Day 1: Part 3

NYC Recap- Day 2

NYC Recap- Day 2: Part 2

NYC Recap- Day 2: Part 3

NYC Recap- Day 3

NYC Recap- Day 3: Part 2

NYC Recap- Day 3: Part 3

NYC Recap- Day 4

NYC Recap- Day 4: Part 2

NYC Recap- Day 5

Until...........................

NYC Recap- Day 5

Well here is the last part. Hope you've enjoyed it.....

Day 5

This day we just slept in since we didn't plan on going anywhere. We had thought about going back to Crumbs to get cupcakes to take home, but we figured that it would be too expensive to take a cab, so we didn't. Instead, we just stayed in our room, took a few more pictures and repacked.

Right before we went down to catch a cab to the ariport we saw an infomercial on ShamWow! You really will saw Wow everytime! :) We were totally enthralled.
So, we headed down to get a cab and as we were standing outside waiting for a bellhop to hail a cab for us a man approached us and asked if we wanted a ride to the airport. He said he was part of a car service and charged similar to what a cab would cost, but he had an SUV that was more comfortable. Now, he seemed nice enough, but we had been burned before so we were a little leery. We asked the bellhop what we should do and he said that Jose (that was the drivers name) was from a reputable company and that we could trust him. So that was enough for us. We loaded our bags into his SUV and off to LaGuardia we went. He was super nice. He talked to us the whole way there. He told us about his family, and a little bit about the city. MUCH better than the driver we had when we arrived. I wish I would have gotten a picture of him, but we got his card, so if you want a good, repuotable, honest driver when you go to NY, just let us know.
So we checked in at one of the kiosk stations (which are kind of nice) and then we went through security. We had a quick lunch and then went and sat at our terminal. We still had like 2 hours to kill, but it was fine. I called mom to tell her we were there, and everything was on time. Holli and Lisa read their books and I started on some sudoku puzzles. The wait didn't take too long and then we were boarding our plane. We were on a pretty big plane going to ATL. There were like 6 flight attendants. They showed an episode of Ugly Betty on the tvs. Luckily I had seen it before, so no need to buy the headphones. I started reading my book on the plane so it went pretty fast. Before we knew it we were in ATL and getting ready to endure our 4 hour layover. :/
We walked around a little bit and then searched for our terminal. For whatever reason our flight was not listed, so that had us searching for a little bit. We finally saw it on one of the screens and discovered they had changed our gate so we headed in that direction. If you have ever been in the Atlanta airport, you now it is ginormous. There is definitely a lot to do. We ended up eating at the Atlanta Bread Co. It's basically like Panera (but Panera is WAY better).

After that we headed over to Ben & Jerry's since it was right by our terminal. We had a Ben & Jerry's right across the street from our hotel, but we never made it over there, so we finally got some in ATL. It was yummy. I had Butter Pecan, and I'm not sure what Hol and Lis had. Something chocolate.... Anyway, we ate that and then began our long wait. We ended up sitting at the gate next to ours because there were more seats. A plane had just boarded to Ohio and passengers for the next flight to Minneapolis were arriving, so we quickly snatched up 3 seats. Of course I was seated next to one of the most annoying couples ever. I think they had just been on their honeymoon. They were sugary sweet together and I just couldn't take it. Thankfully, they got up and went for a walk. May the reading of my book and people watching continue!
We sat there for about an hour and a half and then when our gate boarded their flight, we went over there to sit for the rest of our wait. The layover actually went by pretty quickly. We all read some, and talked to people. It was fine over all.
About an hour before our plane was scheduled to board they starting calling for Mrs. Garcia (Thank you Holli, for letting me know her name). Well Mrs. Garcia never answered.
Pretty soon this airport employee wheels up an older woman in a wheelchair. He asked her where she wanted him to sit her. We assumed she had trouble walking or something. She seemed kind of out of it. Just smiling and looking around. Well he's getting ready to sit her wheelchair next to us and she gets right up out of the chair and walks away. The look on that guy's face was priceless. He just said, "Uh...okay...." then walked away. We were cracking up! The lady just got up and walked away. I have no idea where she went, but it was out of the gate area. Obviously farther than that guy thought she could walk. Too funny!
About 10 minutes before boarding they called for Mrs. Garcia again. Wouldn't you know it the old woman in the wheelchair was Mrs. Garcia! She walked up to the counter and they got her ready to board. Crack me up! he had been strolling around for over a half an hour by herself.
More and more people kept arriving at our gate and this one old woman had us cracking up. She was on her pink Razr cell phone talking to someone. All of a sudden we hear her say, " What?! You must have been drunk!!" Oh my word!!!! I thought we were going to die we were laughing so hard! She kind of chuckled because she saw us laughing, but we couldn't contain ourselves. Between her, Mrs. Garcia, and our exhaustion we couldn't keep it in any longer. Shortly after that she told her friend she had to go because her husband was waiting for her so they could pre-board. She was funny though. She had spunk, and I loved it!
So we boarded the plane and got situated. Hol and Lis were sitting together and I was by myself across the aisle, so I could look out the window if I wanted. (Poor Holli said she could smell Mrs. Garcia's perfurme the whole way home. :p) Our flight attendant was hilarious. Her name was Ashley. It was her first flight, so she was a little nervous. She did a great job though. She went through all the safety stuff, and when she got to the exit doors she said "Don't worry, you won't need them." Then when she was showing us how to use the seat belt and the oxygen masks she said "You won't need this, promise." She was too cute.
The flight was pretty uneventful. No turbulence, thankfully, and it actually seemed to go by pretty fast. The only bad thing about it was that I was just getting to the best part in my book when we landed and had to get off.
It was SO nice to be back in familiar territory! Mom and Dad were waiting for us. Mom held me for the longest time! I thought she was going to crush me! We went down to baggage claim, got our bags (Thank God our luggage never got lost or damaged) and then we were on our way home!!

Overall, the trip was amazing. There were a few bumps in the road, but it was unforgettable.

Plane tickets: $420-ish
Tickets to see three Broadway Shows: $300
Staying in a nice hotel 5 days, 4 nights: $1052.52
Going to NYC with two of your best friends for the first time: Priceless

Until...............................................

NYC Recap- Day 4: Part 2

Aren't you surprised?? I worked on half of this post last night after I finished the previous one. I was on a roll I guess. :) Here is the rest of Day 4. Only 2 parts for this day.....

Day 4: Part 2

When we were done at the beloved Grand Central Station we trekked to The Empire State Building. What a bust! Seriously. Don't go inside. It's dirty and the gift shop is terrible! Just take a picture of the pretty outside and move on. Don't waste your money. Go to Top of the Rock. Much better, same view, and clean. I mean, honestly, isn't the Empire State Building you want a picture of anyway? You can't get that if you're inside the building. Just my thoughts. You can do whatever you want, just wanted to give you my honest opinion before you were going to waste money.

After we did that we went back to the hotel (I think) to drop our bags and then we went to Columbus Circle. You know, I think we may have gone back to the hotel earlier... I don't remember. Either way at some point we went back to the hotel....

So we went to Columbus Circle, because I for some reason had become obsessed with the fact that we go there and take pictures. I enjoyed myself. I spent 15 minutes trying to track down a horse and carriage to take a picture of (why...I don't know), we took a couple pictures of Trump Tower, the big globe, and surrounding buildings. Oh yea, there was also a freaky statue impersonator there. He was almost more scary than the Statue of Liberty posers because he was decked out in head to toe white. *shudder* Ick! Who would want that job?

So right off of Columbus Circle we found a Subway and got a sandwich for dinner. FYI- Roasted Chicken is Ick! Then we decided that Pinkberry was in order again and we stopped in to have dessert before dinner. This time our collective concoction was Original fro-yo with chocolate chips and yogurt chips!! I was so excited to have my beloved yogurt chips again! :) However, the picture is blurry because Lisa was freaking out! We weren't supposed to take pictures inside the store, which is kind of dumb.

Not sure why they have that rule, but I figure I was only taking a picture of my purchase which I could have done anywhere. I wasn't taking a picture of people, just my food. Do they have fugitives working there or something?? Weird....

So after that we went and hailed a cab and went back to our hotel for our delegated resting time.

This day we had like 3 and a half hours to kill before Lion King. So we ate our disgusting sandwich from Subway and then Lisa took a nap. This is when Holli and I decided to go through ALL of our pictures and write down what they were so we wouldn't forget. I'm glad we did, because it's only been two weeks, and without my cheat sheet I would be lost. Lisa was just too funny sleeping though, so I had to snap a few pics of her. :)



We started getting ready for Lion King around 6 or so and took our mandatory picture. Of course the one musical I'm not overly thrilled about seeing is the one I'm wearing my favorite shirt to and my hair was not destroyed by the elements throughout the day. Oh well....

We headed off to the Minskoff Theatre. This was probably the biggest, and nicest theatre we went to. There was a very nice view of Times Square too. Check out the traffic!




So...the Lion King. I don't know. I'm glad I saw it...so I can say that I saw it, but it wasn't too spectacular to me. I don't know if it's because I was so tired, or if it was the fact their weren't really any strong lead vocals. It was more like a "choir" performance. No one really stuck out. The costumes and set get an A++. That was of course the best out of the three musicals. I had a hard time focusing though. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to look at the real person head, the costume head, or both. It was a little distracting and the whole first Act had children singing and dancing. You know how I feel about that.... unless I know them it creeps me out. I don't know why, it's just how it is. Here's a clip of the beginning though, because it's just so cool. This is from the Tony Awards that they performed at.



Yea, so that pretty much concludes our evening. We went back to the hotel, got ready for bed, and that was it.
I'll post about our last day and journey home sometime soon... I promise. It should take me as long. I have Friday and Saturday off of work, so hopefully I will be able to post sometime then.

Until.....................................

NYC Recap- Day 4

I know, you're shocked. I'm actually back to update on my trip. With work and everything I've been a little busy. Working 3rd shift is good, but the whole sleeping thing is an adjustment. Oh well...
I keep having to remind myself that it's summer. I feel like I should be going to the pool, or taking long walks...something. Instead I'm working 3 days a week and then sleeping the rest of the time it seems. I really love working in the PICU though.
Anyway... I guess I should get on to the real reason for this post. :) Enjoy......

Day 4

We got to sleep in a little bit more this day (Saturday). We were going to go to Rockefellar Center (aka Top of the Rock) first and they didn't open until 9 or something, so we slept until 7:45 and then leisurely got ready. So we listened to a little music on my ipod and got ready. We were actually listening to the Wicked soundtrack. Holli came out of the bathroom and clicked her heels (or rather her knees) at one point, she was so excited for the day. :) Haha! She was constantly searching for things, as we all were. Living out of a suitcase is not my ideal, and I don't know how some people do it for an extended period of time.

So, as I mentioned before we were starting off our "shopping/misc" day by going to Top of the Rock. I must admit I wasn't sure about this. I don't know if I quite knew for sure what it was, but now that I know I recommend it to anyone going to NYC. It was great. You go up in these elevators (that have tv's in the ceiling) and then there are three more levels that you can go up (on foot) to look out over the city. The city is quite beautiful from up high. Central Park looks really nice, and a little out of place. It's building after building squished together and then there is this vast green section. It was a perfect day outside, so it was nice to be out and enjoying the view.

(I paid $.50 to look through this thing, and it didn't even work very well. I want my money back!)

(Target Walkway. This whole room lit up with lights intermittantly. It was cool.)

When we were getting ready go down on the elevators the guy who was operating the elevator looked at me and said, "Hi. How ya doing?" I replied, "Good." (I know... how intelligent of me.) Then he says, "Oh good, someone who speaks english." Haha! It is so true!! Everything sounds foreign and garbled everywhere you go. It just cracked me up that he said that. :)
On the ride down you could look up and see the elevator shaft with the cable lit up in all different colors. It was pretty cool, but I recommend looking down if you're afraid of heights or something. I enjoyed it though.

Fun fact: Did you know that Kandace Pelletier from Amazing Race is a Rockette? Right before we got in line to go up on the elevators there was a movie playing and she had a 3 minute blurb about being a Rockette. Who knew....

After Top of the Rock we went around some shops inside Rockefellar Center. Nothing too spectacular, but it was nice to walk around. The NBC studio Store was there. That was a nice thing I guess. I got a shirt and posed with Matt Lauer's cardboard cut out.

Then we went across the street and got our pictures taken with the BIG picture of Matt and Meredith.


Shortly after these pictures we encountered a SCAM ARTIST!!! He wasn't threatening or anything, but he wanted us to buy these hats he had for $10 a piece to "benefit a charity". Whatever Dude!! He was being all suave and flirty, and I was pretty much not looking at him or paying attention. He was ridiculous! He talked to us for awhile and then smoothly mentioned that we could keep the hats he had handed us for the low low price of $10 a piece and then we could walk around with an "I've been scammed" sign on our forehead. Ok, so I added that last part in, but we might as well have if we paid him for them. He can call us Shaniqua, Shanaynay, and Roxie all he wants... we were not paying him for those hats! He was trying to butter us up so we would fork over some cash! We're not dumb! Just as we were walking away he started trying to scam anothe rgroup of people that walked by and this woman chewed him out! She said "I was here last year and one of you people tried to scam me. I'm not falling for that!" To which he kind of stuttered a reply, "It's only a scam if you give me money." Are you kidding me?! What an idiot! Right after he said this we snapped this picture...

Caught ya red handed!! Yea, so that was our excitement of the morning.

Next we started walking toward Grand Central Station. We made a pit stop in a souvenir shop. We had to get something, we'd barely purchased anythign besides food that whole time we'd been there. So we got a shirt and some dirty photo albums (No, we didn't know they were dirty when we bought them. They were wrapped in plastic). It was funny because almost the second we walked into the store we had workers "stalking" us to see if we needed anything. They were trying to sell us something before we left and we wouldn't have the chance to leave if they were 5 inches away. So we pick some things out and as we're still kind of browsing and headed toward the cash register they are nowhere to be found.... Seriously? You stalk me for 15 minutes and then when I'm ready to check out you're down in your store room? Talk about backwards! We finally made our purchases and left.

After that we continued on our way to Grand Central Station for lunch. I love GCS!

It's very beautiful inside, and there is just something about it.... I don't know. It's hard to describe. We stopped in a fun little store called Pylones.


The store had some really fun stuff inside (mostly for children). The cashier cheated me a dollar though. My purchase cost $7.04, and since I didn't want to dig around for 4 pennies I gave her $8. She counted it, looked at me and said "Don't you have 4 pennies?" So I kind of looked at her a second and said "I don't think so." ....Blank stare. So I said, "Well, let me look." So I pull out my wallet and rummage around and finally find 4 pennies. I hand her the pennies and say, "I gave you $8." .... Again she says nothing. She puts the money in the register and gives me my purchas. I looked at her for a second and then I just walked away. I'll forfeit the $1 just as long as I didn't have to look at or talk to her again. She wasn't so bright, and quite frankly rude. What is up with this day?!

So we move on to Juniors, which was on a lower level. This restaraunt is famous for their cheescake. It's very odd how they have food places set up in GCS. They are teeny tiny spaces, and I'm surprised they had sit down places, but they did. We had to wait like 15 minutes, but once we were seated we ordered and everything came in a timely fashion. I was quite impressed. I got a BLT (because I had to see how theirs was compared to ours :p), Holli got turkey (of course), and Lisa got a cheeseburger. All were very yum! We got a piece of Strawberry Cheesecake to share for dessert. Oh my word! It was phenomenal! I think it was the best cheescake I've ever had. If you think your cheesecake can beat theirs you make me one and I'll try it. I'll gladly taste test and see. :)




So after we ate we took a TON of pictures. Of course I had to be a little artsy. :) The funny thing is that Hol and Lisa try to be artsy too, and Lis has a little bit of trouble, but one of the pictures she took was pretty fantastic and artistic with not much effort on her part. It turned out amazing. Snaps for Lisa! (Sorry... just a little left over Legally Blonde there) :)

(Lisa's artsy work.)

Alright, well I think that's enough for this post. Next up... Visiting the Empire State Building (affectionately called the Eiffel Tower by me all week. I don't know why I was so confused), Columbus Circle... You're Fired!, and the Lion King.

Until.............................

NYC Recap- Day 3: Part 3

Well, tonight is the night that I stay up as late as I can, so I can sleep in as late as I can, so that I can stay awake as long as I can for work tomorrow night. Did you catch that? I'm listening to a little Legally Blonde the Musical soundtrack in honor of this part of the recap. :) Enjoy.........

Day 3: Part 3

We arrived back at that hotel around 4 o'clock and my feet were so sore from all the walking we had done that day. Here's a little bit of how I was feeling....

Along with this death stare I also had this to say....

I also have a video of Lisa, but I think she would seriously injure me if I shared it with you all. :)

It was shortly after we arrived back in our hotel room that delirium set in. We were giggling like crazy! It didn't matter what it was. Whether it be talking about how almost all of our cab drivers had the name Mohammed, Hol and I laughing at Lisa's near comatose state during the musical the night before, Holli spontaneously breaking out into song ('People Get Ready' to be exact by Crystal Lewis I believe), the fact that I thought there was an image of a face in our cupcake filling, or Holli reenacting the Lite Rock 107 tv commercials (I'm cracking up even as I type that and only people in our area will know what that commercial is). Oh yes, we were having a good ol' time during our "rest period".

We started getting ready around 6, and Holli came out of the bathroom laughing. I asked her what was so funny and she showed me her neck. She had gotten sun burnt and the outline of her necklace was on her neck. My nose was a little pink, but otherwise that was the only sun we got.

We took our picture before we left, and I tried on Lisa's night mask. Apparently her eyelids are too thin for sleeping in the dark. She gets bothered by even the tiniest bit of light, so she wears a mask. :p


That night we were headed to the Palace Theatre for Legally Blonde the Musical. The theatre was on times square, only a couple blocks away from our hotel, so we decided to walk. This is when I made the ingenious statement: "You have to walk like taxi drivers drive." It is so true! You just kind of have to swerve in and out, cut people off, and you NEVER apologize for it. If someone says excuse me or they're sorry you know they are from out of town. No one is sorry or polite in NY (atleast that's from my experience).

So we arrive at the cute little Palace Theatre and went inside to of course buy our souvenir for the night. I went with a shirt and Lisa bought the soundtrack.

The inside of the theatre was so cute. It had red velvet seats and it was just cute to me. I don't know... It felt very comfortable and personal. We had really good seats too.

The best thing about it was that the tickets were half off. Way to go Holli for finding the amazing deal! We were fortunate to see most of the original cast. Vivienne's character was supposed to have been played by Kate Shindle (Miss America '98), but instead that role was played by her understudy, as well as one of the P.M.S. girls who was a contestant on the tv show 'Grease: You're the One That I Want'. The rest of the main characters were all original though (Elle, Emmett, Paulette, Callahan, Warner, etc). I was so glad we got to see it because soon there will be a new Elle, and everyone knows it's very rare to find someone as good as the original. Anyway, so the musical was spectacular and Laura Bell Bundy was amazing, brilliant, and funny! Here's a little sneak peek. (This is the first scene of the play, so don't worry if you are a spoiler-phobe)

So afterwards we took some night pictures of Times Square, then headed back to the hotel.

We were not even a block away from the theatre when we saw the poster of the winners from 'Grease: You're the One that I Want'. We took a quick picture and were on our way again.

We were walking along 8th Avenue towards our hotel and a woman in a wheelchair was headed toward us. A "nice" man is walking next to her making sure that she has a clear path to get through. So we kindly step to the side and when she gets through he thanks us. This is what ensued after that:

Man: Thank you ladies.
Us: (continue walking, Lisa in front then me and Hol closely behind)
Man: You ladies are gorgeous
Us: (continue walking)
Man: (walking behind us) Man, you ladies are gorgeous!
Us: (continue walking)
Man: Guys (to the men around), don't tell me you don't see these ladies right here!
Me: (calmly) Ok, Lisa pick up the pace.
Lisa: (starts to speed walk/run)

Holli and I were laughing so hard by the time we reached our hotel. If you could only have seen Lisa take off like a shot through the crowd. We were cracking up! I said pick up the pace, not run for your life! Haha! So funny!

We got back to the hotel around 10:30 so we got to go to bed earlier than the night before and we had already resolved to sleeping in on Saturday because Lisa was starting to feel icky from lack of sleep and we were all starting to get a little exhausted by that time. So, that concludes our third day in the city. It was eventful, but if I had to choose I would say it was probably my favorite so far.

Until...............................................