Teresa in New York

A friend of mine had a conference for work there and wanted to hang out in the city. The hotel was covered and she wanted to know if me and a third friend could go do NYC with her. My answer was OF COURSE! I had frequent flier miles that I used so the cost of the trip was only my food for 2 meals a day and all the playing and shows that I wanted to hit. Luckily I have been substitute teaching a ton and had a tidy little sum to put toward my super fun trip!!

We left Thursday morning early and landed in NYC around 5pm. We had bought tickets online to the opera La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera House. So by the time we got to our hotel and got settled we had to throw on our clothes and headed out for our show. It was so beautifully done and amazing. I was worried that I would be so tired that I would sleep through the whole thing, but I stayed awake the whole time. Unfortunately we were in such a rush that we didn’t grab anything to eat and it was 11pm by the time we got out of the opera.

We caught a taxi back to our hotel and he dropped us off at the top of the block right in front of a New York pizza place. They had those huge slices with tons of different types of pizza and so many delicious desserts that I was in HEAVEN. I got a slice of something and was so proud of myself when I folded it in half and ate it just like the New Yorkers. I usually think that’s gross but it was awesome! Then I had a chocolate dipped canolli. I don’t know if you’ve had a canolli before but it was light and delicious. I’m usually not a cannolli fan, but man I ate one of those almost every day I was there! After dinner we headed up to our room and totally crashed. Our room was on the corner of the hotel and looked directly down on Time Square. That big Coke sign was right outside our window. SO COOL!!!

The next morning we headed to the Statue of Liberty. It was the perfect day to be out on the water. It was 64 degrees so we just walked around in our tshirts and jeans with a light sweater to throw on when were were out on the water.

We bought our tickets early and were able to get tickets to the Pedestal but not up to the crown. You have to book tickets up to the crown about 5 months in advance. While it was too bad, it was still so amazing to see her and walk around inside. I’ve seen about a million pics of the SofL but it always blows my mind to see things like that in real life. We kinda blew through Ellis Island. I wasn’t super interested in it. I’ve never really been interested in the research end of genealogy, but it was cool to walk around the building for a bit.

Sat. morning we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They had a great Egyptian exhibit and had some amazing artists on display. Van Gough’s Starry Night on display. So it was really neat to see those. I really enjoyed the Monet section. I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of his works at the different museums I’ve been to. That night we weren’t able to get into a musical so we totally crashed. It was nice.

Sunday we spent the day walking around to all the different fun stores. We went to FAO Schwartz which is a super cool toy store that had 4 levels of different types of toys. It was so fun to wander around and look at all the different types of toys that they had. All of the toy stores were about 4 stories tall. I couldn't believe everything they had. My favorite display was this huge Transformer.

We also walked around at Tiffany’s. SO amazingly beautiful! I wanted to get on charm made out of silver and it would have been $250. Needless to say I didn’t get anything from there. We got tickets to the matinee called Chicago. What a disappointment. The dancing was ok the voices were ok and the stage was blah. Totally felt like a high school production instead of a Broadway show. After the show we spent the rest of the day walking around the different stores and looking at things. That night we went searching for dinner at a local place. We found a pub that had AMAZING burgers and fish and chips. It was so good. We had asked a street worker and he sent us there. It was totally better than anything they had in the tourist traps on the square!

I’m surprised at how much NYC reminded me of my mission. The smell of a big city and all those people who get grumpy with you just because you’re walking down the street was a trip down memory lane. We rode the subway and it totally took me back in time! It’s funny how you forget little things like that when you’re not around it.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my long winded trip to NYC. I know I sure did. I really appreciate my husband and friends for helping out with the kiddos while I was off raising a ruckus!