Wednesday, November 16, 2011

NYC Day 5 & 6...

I had debated all week if I wanted to go to Serendipity 3 for a frozen hot chocolate.  I finally decided that we had to go.  I wanted the hot chocolate as my reward for running the marathon. 

Isn't it cute?

Ken was less than thrilled about waiting in line for the place to open.  It was such a good sport!

Here is the reason we came!  It was so good!  In case you are wondering if I shared with Ken, well, I did.  He loved it too, so you know it had to be good.

It was yummy!  As an added bonus, they had started to put up their Christmas decor!

Since Monday was our last full day, we walked over to Central Park on the way back to our apartment.  I could not get enough of the park!


I loved the carriages!  If there would have been snow and if Christmas decorations would have been up, I would have made sure to go on a carriage ride.  Consider yourself lucky Ken!


At Central Park

On our way to the subway, we saw a group of people standing around and a bunch of lights.  We look over and Ken says, look its Mario Lopez!  First off, Ken totally loses a few cool points for recognizing AC Slater before me.  I busted out the camera and got a picture.  Mario ran the marathon on Sunday as well.  In case you are wondering, I totally beat him.  Yes, that is right, I beat AC Slater.  :)

One thing we were excited about, was getting to go to the 9/11 Memorial.  The monument was beautiful.

We walked thru several security checkpoints to get in.



One of the new towers under construction











Since we were already downtown, we walked along the water and to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty.



I hate that this picture is dark



Ken's favorite picture

He was such a trooper the entire trip, not saying anything about me dragging him all over. 

Ken did not sleep well Monday night and he was up super early on Tuesday.  He woke me up and asked me if I wanted to go down to the Today Show.  Um yeah!!!  I have been watching the Today Show since I was 15.  I adore Matt Lauer!  I was so bummed because I knew Matt was gone on his Where in the World is Matt Lauer tour, but that did not stop us.  I was smiling like a kid the entire time.  It was like Christmas!



Here comes Al Roker!


Al came around and to tell everyone hello.  Did I mention that he shook my hand? 

Ann Curry came out next.  She was so pretty!

She told everyone hi as well.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect trip!

After the Today Show, it was time to head to the airport.  I love to go on vacation, but when it comes to traveling home, I get so irritated and just want to get home.  We had a blast and enjoyed spending so much time together.  Thanks Ken for taking me on such a great trip!


NYC Day 3 & 4...

I think Satuday was my favorite day of the entire trip!  I had one real plan, go to Rockefeller Center.  Ken thought it was touristy, but he did as he was told. :)  We went on top of the Rock and the views were amazing!


Radio City Music Hall where the Rockettes perform.  Too bad we were a week too early.

Here we are, we are at NBC studios!

I loved Central Park! 

The Empire State Building





Zoomed in on the Statue of Liberty.  I could not get over all of the stuff we could see.

As cool as I thought the buildings were, I loved the park in the middle of everything the most.



Ken and his token pose. 



This is by far my favorite picture from our entire trip!

The ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center. 


The Rock

After walking around Rockefeller Center, we found a delicious pizza place for lunch.  We both liked New York pizza way better than Chicago pizza.  After lunch, we walked to Central Park and found mile 25 of the marathon.  The park was gorgeous.  It was so sad that a lot of trees were lost in the recent snow storm. 

We went back to our apartment to rest and hang out before dinner.

This is what happens when I want a picture.  Please excuse my pumpkin spice latte teeth.  The latte was so worth it!

And again.  I told him it is over a lot quicker if he just smiles from the get go.

See, that was harmless.  :)

We stopped at a Mexican place for a drink and some chips and salsa.  Ken loves to take super close of pictures of me. 

After our pasta dinner, we came back to the apartment to figure out where Ken would meet me the next day.  I went to bed and Ken went to a bar around the corner for a few drinks.  I guess I am boring.  :)

Day 4 was the marathon.  I will recap this in a separate post, because I have a lot to say.  :) 

New York City Day 1 & 2....

Ken and I got back from New York last week.  We had such a fun trip, but were absolutely exhausted from all of the walking, all of the siteseeing, and of course, the marathon.  I am so grateful for this trip and that I was finally able to see things in New York that I have wanted to see for a long time.

We flew into New York on Thursday night.  It was so cool to see the city with all of the lights on.  It reminded me of the beginning of Friends.  We made our way to our apartment and then went out for dinner and to Times Square.  To say I was excited was an understatement.

I am in Times Square!

I had to get a picture of where the ball drops on New Years Eve

Ken was less than thrilled about all of the picture taking.  Sorry Ken, we were in New York!
Here we are on Broadway

On Friday we went to the Expo.  Have I mentioned how much I hate Expos?  I am so not a fan of them.  I would have ordered the shirt I ended up getting online, but they did not have XS online and I had to get it at the actual Expo.  We thought it would be less crowded on Friday.  Maybe it was, but it was still packed!  We looked around, got my Asics hoody, my packet, and got out of there as soon as we could. 

I wanted to go to Soho, so this meant we needed to figure out the subway system.  We ended up making it, although, I was confused the entire time that they were not called colors like they are in Chicago.  They were all different colors on the map though.  I kept calling one the red line and Ken kept reminding me that it was not Chicago! 

We stopped for lunch at The Antique Garage.  It was a super cute place that used to be a garage.  The we walked around for a while just taking in everything. 

We stopped at a Japanese coffee house for coffee and a latte.  Ken said it was by far his favorite coffee the entire trip.  Here he is, intriqued by how they are making it in the beaker things.  Ken is wearing his backpack to sherpa my stuff.  What a good husband he is!

In Soho getting ready to take the subway back to midtown

Look Mom, there is a bus!

We ended our wonderful day with sushi and then we went to see Wicked!  I had seen Wicked in Kansas City a few years ago and loved it.  I was so excited that Ken was going to see it.  I knew he would love it!

I so loved watching Ken smile and laugh during the entire show.  We had really good seats, Happy Birthday to me!