David and I had a great weekend in New York with the Rishers! We originally planned this trip in 2010 for a reward to ourselves for finishing grad school; however, Kate's arrival in December changed our plans. Likewise, Will Risher kept us from going the next Christmas. So, no one had a baby this year which meant we were finally able to go to New York.
Working out the logistics of the kids while we were gone was an ordeal, and I thought David would need to find me some Xanax in order to get on the plane. Lindsey had a speaking part in her first grade Christmas program the night we left, so we missed that, which was a bummer, but both sets of grandparents helped out with the kids so we knew they were in good hands. As I packed Wednesday night, Lindsey could have won an Emmy for her dramatic performance (DON"T LEEEAAAVE ME!) while Benton kept telling me I should pack more so I could stay longer so he could stay with B. Night and day, those two.
Thursday we made it to New York early evening, dropped off our bags at the apartment, then went to eat at Nino's, an Italian restaurant on the upper east side of Manhattan. It was local and quaint, and the food was delicious. They had excellent Caesar salads they made at the table, but the highlight of the meal was a fruit arrangement they brought for dessert. After dinner we walked down to Rockefeller to see the tree and took in all the holiday lights on the way. That night was cold and it was the perfect weather for seeing Christmas displays in New York.
Friday morning we were up early for the Today show. We opted not to get there insanely early to be on the front row, and I am glad we did. We hung out there for a while then walked over to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes. I have now seen that show four times and it never gets old. Nothing is better at putting me in the Christmas mood than seeing those high-kicking dancers and the live nativity at the end. It blows my mind that there is a live nativity in the middle of Manhattan. We left there in pouring rain and took the subway to Little Italy. By this point we were all starving and grumpy due to hunger and rain, so we stopped at Sal's in Little Italy and had a bottle of wine and pizza and were all happy once again. From there we walked through the financial district to the World Trade Center. The new memorial for 9/11 had just opened, but there was an insane security line that took over half an hour to get through just to see the memorial. While the fountains were very impressive, the wait in the rain was not. We went from there to Macy's to get out of the rain for a bit and enjoy our 94th cup of Starbucks on the trip. While at Macy's, we received a phone call that Lindsey had gotten hurt at school (she was fine) and that our credit card had been stolen (not fine at all). Once we worked through those issues, we headed to the Union Square Holiday Market of local vendors then to dinner at Blue Water Grill. This was an excellent seafood restaurant near Union Square that had incredible sushi as well. I left off what could have been the coolest part of the trip: as we were walking through the financial district, we saw a cute park that had several camera men in it. We thought it might be some sort of protest or rally, so we stopped to check it out. It was actually a movie crew filming a scene for the movie Winter's Tale that stars Will Smith, Collin Farrell, and Russell Crowe. We kind of felt like movie stars!
Saturday we started the morning a little later--but not much--with a run through Central Park. I loved the idea of running through the park, but what we did not anticipate before we got to NY was the insane amount of walking we would do daily. Our walk to the park and back was three miles by itsel, plus a three-mile run in the park. While we ran, David went to Times Square to get us tickets to a Broadway play. He was a trooper to do that for us! I have been to NY four times but never seen a musical, so I was anxious to do this. We got tickets to Nice Work if You Can Get It, which starred Matthew Broderick. I get star-struck easy, so I was thrilled--and it was really an entertaining musical. We spent the morning at the gigantic American Girl store, Lego store, Tiffany's, and FAO Scwartz shopping for family members. Then we went to JoJo for brunch. David and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the park and exploring the rest of the upper east side then met back up with the Rishers for a sushi dinner before the play. Whiel we were in the park we realized it was the anniversary of John Lennon's death and there was a large group of fans around the Believe memorial singing Beatles songs. Afterwards we wanted ice cream from Serendipity but there was an hour wait at midnight! We opted instead for Baskin Robbins.
Sunday was another rainy day, so we walked up the upper west side and toured the Museum of Natural History. It was cool to me because that book is the setting for much of Catcher in the Rye. We left there for lunch with DAvid's cousin Missy at Five Napkin Burger, then we headed to the airport. We had a blast despite missing our children and cussing the weather. I was happy to come home to a big backyard and my simpler life, but we did truly enjoy our trip to New York.
The carousel in Central Park--it's closed this time of year.
Watching the ice skaters in Central Park with the Upper East side in the background.
Shopping for Lins at the enormous American Girl doll store.
Shopping for Benton at FAO Scwartz--they had enormous statues made entirely of Legos.
A lego Statue of Liberty
The Museum of Natural History. We walked in and David instantly recognized the movie "Night at the Museum."
This was inside the Plaza hotel. There was a sign right behind the tree that said Gatsby because this is an integral part of the setting of the novel.
There were gorgeous decorations throughout the city.
In the rain, we had to snap a picture before walking in to see the Rockettes.
All four of us at Rockefeller Center. I need to make a note to myself to make sure my hemlines aren't so drastic between my coat and dress that I look like a bag lady. The headband did not help the beggar look, but it kept me warm.
Inside Radio City Music Hall
At the Today show
