Let's Hear it for New York, New York, New Yoooooork!

So much has happened in the last two weeks that I can hardly wrap my brain around it! In addition to the excitement of getting engaged, Steve and I had a New York trip to look forward to! Neither of us had ever been, so we were looking forward to exploring the city together and celebrating our new Fiancé and Fiancée statuses! I’m in SUCH a hurry to write down everything that we did for fear that I won’t remember…even though I took about 300 pictures while we where there. Find the shorter version of the album on Facebook or here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2310120&id=11501957&l=ac5dc96bda


Day 1 – Thursday, March 25th:

I took a half day off work and we flew out on 2:00 from Midway to La Guardia. We were worried that traffic was going to be terrible, because we arrived at 5:00 pm, but we had an uneventful cab ride to the Beekman Tower Hotel, which was perfectly situated on 49th and 1st, right in Midtown East. The area reminded us a lot of the Gold Coast here in Chicago, because it was about ten blocks to the heart of the city, but the area where the actual hotel was located was quiet and residential. The Hotel itself was nothing to write home about, it was older, but the room was a pretty good size and it had a full kitchen. Everything worked and was clean, so I was satisfied with our choice. Or…I guess it was Priceline’s choice….we did the Name Your Own Price option so we could get it for less.

It was such a beautiful day, that we couldn’t wait to get outside and explore. We needed to go downtown to pick up our tickets for the bus tour the next day, so we decided to walk. We saw Fifth Ave, the Waldorf Hotel, Grand Central (which was phenomenally huge), stopped to take pictures in Bryant Park (where Steve randomly saw someone that he had met at U of O) and finally wound up in front of Madame Tussaud’s wax museum in Times Square to pick up our bus tickets for http://www.citysightsny.com/. We then grabbed a burger at Burger Heaven, which was pretty good, and headed in a cab back to our Hotel to get ready for the next day.

Day 2 – Friday, March 26th:

I was up bright and early at 7:30 because our bus tour started at 8:00. I knew that there was no way that we would be getting there that early. Steve finally dragged himself out of bed and we headed down to the tour stop by the Waldorf Hotel around 10:00. We stopped for breakfast at The Local Store, a little bakery that looked cute. We weren't very impressed with the portions for the price though, and knew we would be hungry soon. After breakfast, we waited about a half hour for the bus to come…not a great first impression. They claimed there was a fire on one of the buses…but I don’t know. The tour was fun – three of the four guides were really funny and told us tons of interesting facts about the city. They were very much your typical New York locals. We hopped off at Greenwich Village because Steve wanted to grab a Pastrami sandwich from the famous Katz’s deli, where a scene from When Harry Met Sally was filmed. The place was packed and it cost up 15 bucks EACH for a pastrami sandwich, but it was some of the most tender and flavorful meat that I have ever eaten.

We then wandered town to a place that our tour guide recommended – Rocco’s. It was a bakery and I about drooled all over myself when I walked it. A long line of counters revealed rows and rows of cakes, pastries, cookies, candies and any other insulin-shock inducing food you could think of. We settled on a few treats and headed over to NYU Law School because Steve wanted to have a look. The campus was okay, but I don’t think I’d like it being smack in the middle of the city like that.

We hopped back on the bus in SoHo (South of Houston street) and then rode down to Ground Zero – the World Trade Center site. For me, seeing the new buildings being put up to replace them really made the horrific events of that day a little more real. After, we walked past Trinity Church and down Wall Street. We got lost for a little bit, until we finally found the road that would lead us to Battery Park on the South end of the Island. You can see the Statue of Liberty from there. I have to say that I was disappointed though. I didn’t realize how far away the statue was from the park. She just looked like a shadow in the background and I really longed to get a closer look. That look would eventually come on Sunday.

After resting a bit, we got back on the bus and finished the tour, which dropped us at the United Nations building, about five blocks from our hotel. We rested a bit and then got dressed and ready to see the Lion King on Broadway. After arriving near the theater, we grabbed a very quick dinner at McDonald's and made our way to our seats. The theater was pretty modern…not like the ones we’ve been in when we go to plays in Chicago. There was lots of legroom and a lack of old fashioned decorations that I love about old theaters. We had pretty good seats – third row on the balcony – and we ABSOLUTELY enjoyed every minute of the play. The dialogue was almost exactly like the movie, although there were more songs. I loved how they made the people look like the animals and the singing was amazing. We were very happy to have had such a pleasant Broadway experience. We were exhausted from our very long day, so we went back to the hotel and crashed.

The last two days of our amazing trip shall be continued in another post…