NY report

What to say about NYC? I am almost at a loss of words to describe the experience. First off, we had a great weekend. The drive up was nice, it didn't get crazy until we hit the Lincoln tunnel. I wasn't planning on the $27 in tolls to get up there but other than that it was pleasant. Big worked on the phone and we chatted. The second we were in the city we knew it. It was crazy. I have never seen such driving. Not even in DC.
We got to our hotel, which was nice. The buildings were so tall they blocked the sun light. Our hotel was squished in between two others, everything is super crowded. I was so surprised how many people there were. I was expecting crowds. I thought it might be like Chicago, or Disneyland. It wasn't. It was wall to wall people. Honestly I have never seen so many people, it was crazy.

We started with a walk through Times Square. We ate food on the street, and I bought a purse, also on the street. We ate and took in the sights then went back to our hotel to change. When we were dressed we headed back out to see "the Lion King". I really liked it, the costumes and music were amazing. Big didn't like it.

We saw the M&M store and I really enjoyed it, I wanted to buy everything, it was so cute and chocolatey. We saw tons of shops and walked down 5th Ave. and walked around Broadway and Times Square.

The only bad thing on the trip was the hotel. We had noisy neighbors that partied until 2am so we didn't get much sleep. We had booked an early morning tour so still had to get up, even though we were tired. Plus we didn't want to waste time sleeping since we were only there for a day and a half.

Once we were up and ready we walked to our tour and met up with the tour guide. He was funny and knew a lot of history about NY and was interesting.

There were three couples doing the tour. Us, a young dating couple, and an engaged couple. He was recently back from Afghanistan, and was injured. He was in a hummer and was hit by a RPG that blew up in his face. He's been in DC having reconstructive surgeries and healing and was scarred but happy to talk about it. Very brave.

We went first to Ground Zero, and having him there made the experience more poignant. There is a lot of reconstruction going on and we stopped at three memorials and watched the work and heard the stories. Our lives sure changed on that day, and we are still fighting that battle. I am so grateful for all the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend freedom and liberty.

Riding the subway was interesting. I saw a "track rabbit" (rat) running around and it was big. The subway was gross, DC's is nicer.

After ground zero we went on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, which was a great experience. It was neat to see it up close and to go to the museum and to walk up the million steps. We also rode to Ellis Island.

Next we headed to Central Park. I enjoyed seeing all the movie spots that I have seen before in countless movies. We saw lots of iconic images all through out the city, and lots of famous locations. The park was also packed.

The shopping was amazing. Here I am at FAO Shwartz wishing I could bring this giant stuffed elephant home for Lu's herd. I had to stand in line for 12 min in this store to use the bathroom. Packed packed packed.

After shopping we headed to Mesa Grill for dinner. We both love Bobby Flay and were really looking forward to eating his food.

I was not disappointed at all, it may be the best food I have ever eaten, so delicious. We were very impressed and enjoyed the whole thing.

We had blue corn pancakes with BBQ duck in a habenero chili star anise sauce for an appetizer. It was exquisite.

For dinner I had New Mexican Spiced Pork Tenderloin w/ bourbon ancho chili sauce and sweet potato tamale with pecan butter. Big had pan roasted venison with cranberries and a pumpkin tamale with allspice butter. So melt in your mouth delicious.

We also had dessert which was lovely. While we were eating we saw Maneet Chauhan, which was fun. Our only celebrity sighting :)

By time dinner was over we were exhausted. We had walked 7 miles on Friday, and 13.4 on Saturday and I was overwhelmed with all the things to see and do and eat and notice. All the people and the festive atmosphere, it was not like anything else. How do people live there? Anyway, we didn't want to walk the couple miles back to the hotel to pick up our stuff so we rented a rickshaw and that was wild. Finally I had to just close my eyes.

I also had to close them on the drive out of the city. It was WILD and I couldn't take it. Big thought he was a native and swerved in and out of traffic and I just couldn't watch. I covered my eyes with my hands and screamed (on the inside). It was a relief to make it out alive!

Our drive home was good and long. We were so tired. I couldn't keep my eyes open. Poor Big B had to do most of the driving. We stopped several times to sleep and I took a shift and we finally made it home safely at 2am.

I had so much fun. I would go back in a second, there is so much to see and do. I don't think I will ever talk my sweet husband into going back though. I would love to eat more, shop more, see more shows so fun!