i ♥ ny

{So I'm pretty sure that this will be the longest post in the history of all posts, ever. But since you all know that this my only form of a photo album, journal, scrapbook, I am going to post pretty much every picture we took and talk about every detail since I forget everything and want to remember everything about this trip...sorry to bore you!}

On to the trip.....

Over Labor Day weekend Al and I went to NYC and it really was probably one of the funnest trips I have ever been on! We had both been to New York before but not together so we gave ourselves this trip for our 3 Year Anniversary. We left Thursday night at midnight (yuck) and got there bright and early at 6:30am on Friday.

When we got there we went to our hotel hoping that they would let us check in early (our check in time wasn't until 4pm). Unfortunately noon was the earliest we could check in so they held our luggage for us and we started our day super early-which was actually a good thing since we had a huge to-do list for the trip! I changed and got ready for the day in the hotel lobby bathroom and we headed to breakfast.

Our hotel was right across the street from Good Morning America in Times Square so when we walked out of our hotel we were able to watch the show. The first morning Wolfgang Puck was in the street cooking with Robin Roberts--not the best picture of her!

We grabbed some breakfast, hung out in Times Square and started the adventure by getting on the Subway to Canal Street! The subway system was an adventure in and of itself on this trip--is it confusing to anyone else but us??

The first time I went to New York I didn't get to go to Serendipity so that was a priority for this trip, and it did not disappoint! It was not what I pictured at all, but I loved it. It is so tiny, kinda ghetto and pretty random, but that's what I loved about it.

I LOVED the Frozen Hot Chocolate, I really could have had three of them! And we shared a sandwich that was so good too.

Such a cute little hole-in-the-wall.

Our next stop right down the street was Dylan's Candy Bar! I saw this on Oprah last year and have wanted to go here ever since.

The displays were awesome and I loved looking at all of the candy they had.

We spent way too much time there I think!

After wandering around the city for a few hours we got in line at TKTS. We were SO tired after not sleeping the night before so after getting our play tickets we went back to the hotel, checked in, and took a nap!

Before the play we went to Carnegie Deli aka HUGEST and MOST EXPENSIVE sandwiches in the world! $23 for a sandwich? And a $3 sharing fee? But it was worth it! And their cheesecake is to die for!

After dinner we went to see Mary Poppins! I really didn't think I would LOVE it....but I did!! It was so well done. The sets were awesome, the actors did such a good job, and I loved the music.
It was a make me laugh, smile, give me chills, make me want to fly a kite and dance on a roof type of play. See it for sure if you ever get the chance...its definitely in my top favorite plays.

After the play we hung out in Times Square....the people watching doesn't get any better than in New York!

Saturday we woke up and spent the whole day walking around, exploring the city and shopping.

We love 30 Rock so we walked around Rockefeller Center and the NBC studios. The NBC store entertained us for awhile!

As we were walking back to Times Square we noticed that TKTS still had some Shrek matinee seats left so we decided to go. I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite. It was cute though.

That night we went to the Upper West Side to eat at Celeste. My sister-in-law recommended it and we loved it, thanks Lize! Al got an amazing filet mignon that he is still craving.

After dinner we walked around Central Park for a few hours. That park is gorgeous and huge! I loved getting off of the gross subway, walking up the stairs and seeing this huge, amazing forest in front of me.

The Enchanted fountain!

We couldn't leave the Upper West Side without getting shakes at the Shake Shack, YUM! Bud, thanks for the tip on the Natural History Crunch!

After an entire day of walking around in black flip-flops! Disgusting I know--and they were even grosser in person!

The nexy day we went a Mets vs Cubs game at Citi Field.

Long story about the game...Us, being really smart and all(!), thought that we didn't need to buy tickets before-hand and figured that we could just buy some $10 nosebleed seats. So we take the 35 minute train ride out to Citi Field and the cheapest seats we could find were about $30/ticket from a scalper. Al thought that was too much to pay so I go wait in the line at the box office and by the time I get up to the window the seats were up to $90/ticket. Ya right! (We didn't really take into consideration that they were playing the Cubs, it was Labor Day weekend, and the US Open was going on across the street).

So we were in the worst mood and Al wanted to just leave but there was no way I was going to let us just leave without seeing the game. So Al went and tried to talk down some scalpers while I tried to butter up some Citi Field workers! And low and behold my strategy worked! Not really how I wanted it to but it worked. (Its an even longer story about how it worked but that'll be for another time). Long story short....there were only $90 seats left but we got in for free! We were so excited. The seats we first went to were pretty bad but we moved down to some awesome seats during the 6th inning.

You cant go to a baseball game without getting hot dogs right?
That night we decided to go to the Empire State Building.

Alan had never been before so it was a lot fun.

Later that night we went to Little Italy to eat at Lombardi's. By the time we found it it was an hour and a half wait, no thank you. So we got take-out and ate it on a bench while we people watched. The pizza was SOOO good. We will go back there for sure!

Bored on the Subway!

Monday was the the US Open! Alan is a huge tennis player/fan and has always dreamed of going to the US Open so he was on Cloud 9, it was cute!

The first match started at 11am, the doors opened at 10am, so we got there at 8am so we could get good seats! We had tickets to all of the matches at the Louis Armstrong stadium but our seats were first come first serve and Al was not about to have bad seats. Its a good thing we got there so early because we got awesome seats! Right when the doors opened everyone went running to the stadium to get seats, it reminded me of when all the boys would run to the lunchroom in elementary school!

Right in front of our seats.

We saw Davydenko/Soderling, Wickmayar/Bondarenko, Isner/Verdasco, and a mixed doubles match. We were there from 8am to after 8pm, and didnt move from our seats until about 8pm!

The huge version of Al's raquet!

It was SO fun and so cool watching the matches in person. Next time we go its tickets to the Arthur Ashe for sure!

Tuesday we started off the day by going to Regis and Kelly! A few months ago I sent in a thing requesting tickets and then I completely forgot about it until a few weeks before our trip when two tickets came in the mail. I was so excited because I love the show!

On the set.

Gelman (the Producer) teaching how to clap and applaud correctly!

Our guests werent the greatest but it was still fun to see them and to see how the show works.

The first guest was Queen Latifa, who I actually like....as an actress...not so much her music. But she was fun to see.

During the commerical breaks they would come out in the audience and talk to us which was cool.

The next guest was AnnaLynne McCord (90210 anyone?)

The ABC studios are just a few buildings away from the temple! It is so cool how the Manhatten Temple is right in the middle of all of the buildings. When we first saw it we had no idea where it was, we were just walking to Times Square from Central Park one night and happened to look up and see Angel Moroni, it was awesome.

Hopefully next time we go we can do a session.

We stopped at Central Park again and walked around for a bit in the daylight this time.

I cant get over how gorgeous this park is!

The stairs in Times Square that lead to nothing.

We didnt have much planned that day so we decided to go walk on the Brooklyn Bridge since neither of us had ever done that. We had a lot of fun! It is such a cool view of the city. Next time we want to do it at night to see the city all lit up.

We ate lunch at Grimaldi's, another great pizza place (I think I lost count of how many times we ate pizza on this trip!)

And then headed back to the hotel to leave :(

Here we are on the plane, TIRED but depressed to go home.

A few things we learned on this trip:

::Know EXACTLY where you are going before you go somewhere.
::Getting lost in Central Park at night is not very fun.
::Accidentally taking the Local Express train is pretty freaky. Im pretty sure we ended up in a third world country.

::Be prepared to smoke a years worth of secondhand smoke in about 2 days.
::Dont wear black flip-flips all day and night if you dont want your feet permanently black.
::Be prepared to walk 1000 miles a day.
::If your nice you can get into the Mets game for free and get upgraded seats at Shrek.
::The Naked cCowboy may be kinda funny but the Naked cowlady (aka nasty grandma) is just gross.

It was jammed-packed, crazy, busy, not much sleep, PERFECT weather and SO much fun. We want to go back asap!