After lots and lots of planning and months of anticipation, the day finally arrived! Early Friday morning of Labor Day Weekend, we jetted off to the Big Apple and were happily reunited with one another. We hadn't seen Sonia in TWO years so you can imagine how excited and emotional we all were to not only see her, but spend 4 days together. For the majority of us, this was our first time in NY so we crammed as much sight-seeing in as we could manage. Our flight had us arriving at 9:15am so we had a full day ahead of us. Thankfully our hotel was in a central location, on the corner of 5th Avenue and 40th so we did a little exploring, then headed to Times Square. We decided to take one of those double decker bus tours to help get our barings as to the layout of the city and to see some of the must-have sights. That evening we headed over the meat-packing district for a delicious (however, very pricey) dinner at STK. I must say we did it up for our first night in the Big Apple and managed to rack up over a $600 bill! Sonia, who still is used to life in Europe where you aren't served tap water, ordered still water which turned out to be a $20 bottle of Fiji water! Following dinner, we went to the Hotel Gansevoort's rooftop bar where we had a great time, enjoyed amazing views of the city, danced and relished in one another's company.
The next morning we headed to NBC Studios in Rockefeller Plaza where we did the studio tour and went to Top of the Rock. The studio tour was one of my favorite things we did! We were able to go to the set of the Dr. Oz Show, Jimmy Fallon's studio (which also happens to be Johnny Carson's old studio) and the Saturday Night Live studio. We also were able to see some behind-the-scenes rooms, such as where they do makeup and HOW they change into their costumes in between SNL sketches. It was AWESOME! We had an early dinner at Carmine's, one of NY's famous Italian restaurants and then headed off for the Broadway plays. Me, Chenequa and Amanda chose Wicked. We LOVED it. I enjoyed it so much that I plan to read the book VERY soon. The rest of the girls went to Mamma Mia, which they all loved as well. Following the plays, we met up at Junior's for their famous cheesecake. As most know, everything stays open late in NY. In fact, you can be walking down the center of Times Square at midnight, but it's so lit up with billboards and lights and bustling with activity that you would literally think it's the middle of the afternoon! Sleep wasn't a huge priority on our trip and we stayed out late and woke early to see all that there is to see and do. So even though it was after midnight, we decided to walk to the Empire State Building and were the very last group to go up that night (or should I say morning) at 1:15am. The view from the Empire State Building, 86 stories high, at night was unbelievable.
The following morning, Sunday, we found ourselves in the midst of a street festival where vendors were set up with delicious food, loud music and cute clothes, purses, watches, jewelry, scarves, cell phone accesories... pretty much anything you can think of. We all made purchases then continued our walk to Central Park and then on the FAO Schwarz, where we were saluted by an employee dressed like a toy soldier. We felt like kids as we explored the legendary toy store... the Big Piano, superheros made entirely out of Legos, and life-sized stuffed animals. Later on that day, we found ourselves in China Town, which was quite an experience of its own! For our last night in the city, we met up with a friend from college and his fiance for dinner at Morimoto, which happens to be the Iron Chef's flagship restaurant. The sushi was delicious but the most interested thing of the evening would have to be their restrooms! There was a control panel on the wall for selecting different options while using the restroom. The toilet seat was heated and you could chose to have it vibrate to enhance your restroom experience! Not only that, but there was an option for 'frontal' and 'rear' cleansing. I'm NOT joking. Needless to say, we were all entertained by the toilets but none of us were willing to try out all of the options.
The next morning, we woke up really, really early to head over to Rockefeller so we could be at the Today show. Unfortunately for me, my back was killing me so after an hour, I headed back to the room to lay down. However, shortly after I left the girls hit it off with the fill-in weather girl (since Al Roker had the day off) and she interviewed them on the show!!! It was awesome and Marianne (who did all the talking) did a fantastic job during the interview. Following their television debut, we all reconvened at Serendipity 3 for lunch, and of course their infamous Frozzzzen Hot Chocolate. We made one last stop at Dylan's Candy Shop where we loaded up on candy before our departure that afternoon. It's true what they say, that New York is the city that never sleeps, because we figured up that over the 4 nights we were together, we got around 18 hours of sleep. That's an average of around 4 hours a night. Needless to say, we were worn out! I was thrilled to return home to Jamie and the boys but I am forever grateful for our experiences in New York City together. It truly was the trip of a life time with my friends. It was a blast, such an amazing experience together and has made me that much more thankful for my friendship with each of these girls. But I have to mention Jamie and just how very thankful I am for him allowing it to happen, for taking off work on Friday, keeping the boys all weekend long and letting me be apart of this experience with my friends.
WARNING: This post contains ALOT of pictures.
What else would you expect for a girls trip to NYC?!? :)
