Our New York City Adventure - Summer 2006
John and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary with a trip to NYC. We have wanted to go to NY since we MET - yes, really!! We were going to go to NY for our Honeymoon but my inlaws were kind enough to gift us a Honeymoon to California as a wedding present so we never did go to New York. Since then, life has moved rather quickly and here we are 14 years later and we finally did it! There are so many highlights to mention that I'm going to start at
Day 1 - August 15th
We had a rough start to the trip as just as we were heading out to take the kids to mom and dad's John spilled OJ on his shorts and decided to change them. As were were about half way to my parents house I said, "so you got our passports right?" and his face dropped. The passports were in the first pair of shorts he had put on that morning. So... we pulled a quick U TURN and headed home. I called mom and dad on the cell and asked them to meet us at the Ferry terminal instead of us coming to their house. We made it onto the Ferry and got to the airport in lots of time. The flight was great! We've never flown Cathay Pacific before and we were very impressed. We actually got a good meal and we each had our own TV in front of us with a variety of movies and TV shows to watch.When we arrived in NY it was like any other airport. We took the Super Shuttle into Manhattan (never again) and just about lost our lives. It was the craziest ride of our lives!!! We got to our room after midnight but couldn't rest (we were too excited) so we headed out to walk around. Our hotel was one block off Times Square so we walked around there. It was pretty much what we expected - very touristy.
Day 2 - August 16th
Today we spent the day walking around Times Square and SOHO. There was some great shopping to be had in SOHO and John and I both bought some clothes. I had my makeup done at the Armani store and felt obligated to buy a bunch of makeup (which I didn't need). Here is a picture of me getting my make-over. Stephanie was proud of me for doing this as it's the closest thing to the TV Show "What not to Wear" which is her favourite show.
After my mini makeover we walked and walked and shopped and shopped for what seemed like days!!! It was fun but I had to stop and buy new shoes because my feet were killing me!! Also... I had a skirt on and the humidity and my big thighs rubbing together were not a good match. Can you say itchy, red ugly rash??? (TMI perhaps!?!)
One of the really exciting things we did on this trip was have dinner at a restaurant called BABBO's. John had heard about it and made reservations a month ahead of time in order to get a table. This dinner was more than a meal it was an EXPERIENCE. Neither of us have ever eaten food like that before. This was our "official" Anniversary dinner and it cost more than all 14 Anniversary Dinners that preceeded it but we figured we deserved it!!! LOL.
John ordered black spaghetti with seafood (pictured) and I ordered salmon. For appetizers I had a tomatoe and cucumber salad with homeade mozzerella and John had pan fried squid. Desert was amazing!! John had a chocolate cake and I had cherry upside down cake. Sounds pretty simple but we've never tasted food like this!!
One funny story about this restaurant... when we first sat down the waiter asked us if we'd like water and I said "sure". He then asked if I'd like bottled or tap water. I said bottled please (thinking that as long as I'm given a choice I'll take bottled). When our bill came we were charged $14 for water - two bottles at $7 each. That's NYC H2O for ya!!Day 3 - August 17th
Today we woke up early and hit the ground running. I think this was the last morning we actually woke up in time for the free breakfast at our hotel. John went and stood in line to try to get tickets to the David Letterman Show. We knew our chances were slim but because it was one of very few shows taping this time of year we thought we'd give it a go. There was quite a long line up and when John got to the front they asked him a few questions (ie. how long have you been watching the show etc) and he said since the 80's which is true for him. They took down his cell phone number and said they'd call him if he was choosen.
We walked around a bit and ended up at the ABC Studios where someone on the street came up to us and asked us if we'd like to be part of the studio audience for a new talk show called Dr. Keith Albow. We said OK and went into the studio. It was cool to see how it was done and we really enjoyed watching the taping. The episode was about Mothers abandoning their daughters and it was very interesting to watch. John's cell phone rang just before the show started taping and guess what... We got tickets to the DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW that day!! We were SO EXCITED!!!
We had to be at the theatre by 3:00pm as the show taped at 4:30pm. I had no idea the show taped so early in the day but I guess it makes sense. We had Yankee's tickets that day so we jumped on the subway and headed for the game. The game was SO COOL!! My DH is a HUGE baseball fan (moreso than any other sport) so it was an absolute thrill for him to see a game at Yankee stadium. 
We sat in Section 39 of Yankee Stadium (cheap seats). I was surprised that John bought cheap seats because baseball is his passion and I expected him to splurge on good seats. He told me that he wanted to sit in the bleachers with the "bleacher creatures" for a true Yankees experience. The section that we sat in was so cool, there were alot of season ticket holders becuase everyone was chatting and knew each other. All of a sudden the entire section stood up and started this chant to the players. I can't remember exactly how it went but they chanted each players name and in turn each Yankees player on the field turned and waved to section 39. John was so blown away by this I thought he was going to cry - seriously!! I guess it's a guy/baseball thing. John said that would only happen in Yankee Stadium. I was so happy for him to experience this... To be honest I was more intrigued by the people around me than the game. These were true blue New Yorkers and they were just so darn cool!! John bought himself a "section 39" Tshirt at the game and was completely and utterly thrilled with the experience.
Ok.... so then we're RUNNING to make the taping of the David Letterman Show and when we got to the door we were literally dripping sweat. Thank goodness the theatre is FREEZING!!! The show was incredible, the studio is much smaller than it looks on TV. We were "warmed up" by Dave's staff for way too long in our opinion. By the time Dave came out we were sick of screaming and clapping already. Dave came out and talked to the audience first and welcomed us all and told a few jokes. He is much more relaxed and funny than what my perception of him was on TV. He is also very skinny which surprised me. The guest on the show that night were Whoopy Goldberg, a sock puppet artist and Ugly Kid Joe. It was a great show and we were totally excited to be there.
After the taping we had dinner and went to a Musical on Broadway called The Drowsy Chaperone. It was soooooo good. The music was incredible and the acting superb. The only star that I recognized was the Georgia Engel (she played Susan's mom on Everybody Loves Raymond and Georgette in The Mary Tyler Moore Show). We were so exhausted after this very long day - we slept well that night!!!Day 4 - August 18th
Today was one of my favourite touring days. We got on the double decker bus and headed to Harlem. Our tour bus driver told us the best soul food in New York City was served at a restaurant in Harlem called Sylvia's.
So.... we hopped off the bus. We walked around a bit and shopped in Harlem. We saw the legendary Apollo Theatre.
I fell in LOVE with Harlem. We had an incredible lunch at Sylvia's. We wanted the true Southern cooking experience so between the two of us we had ribs, fried chicked, collared greens, candies yams and gumbo. We shared each others meal so we could taste it all. Oh... and the BEST corn bread I've ever tasted - it was like CAKE!! We had a big pitcher of lemonade and just enjoyed every second. After lunch we walked aroung some more and visited the Harlem Market. I had a nice conversation with a couple of little boys who were just walking home from summer school.
After our visit to Harlem we went to the Metropolitan Museam of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/). This museum was massive!! We could have spent days in there and not seen it all. It was absolutely breathtaking!! We rented the headsets so that we could listen to the history of some of the paintings. There was so much history in this building it was incredible.
There were rooms and rooms and rooms of artwork. Thank goodness for the headsets or I wouldn't have known a thing about any of them (insert embarrased face here). I have never studied art nor have ever had alot of interest in Art History. John appreciates art much more than I. I love to look at it and I revel in how these works of art were created "so long ago" and are so beautiful. It's almost too much for me to comprehend. I did learn alot though and really enjoyed our afternoon touring "The Met". 
For dinner that night we found a great little Louisiana Style Restaurant (we like the "whole in the wall" type places). 
John thinks he is SO tough and that he can eat anything spicy that is served to him but OMG!! he had tears running down his face this food was so spicy. We had corn bread, crab cakes, gumbo and jambalaya. The food was good but not my favourite. I find that if it's too spicy then you can't really taste what you're eating. I was really glad we tried it though - it definately was a fun place to eat (great Margaritas!!).this post is a work in progress ... to be continued
posted by Tara @ 6:30 PM
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