New York, New York!!!

New York is the only real city-city.
– Truman Capote

Is it still 2020? Check. Does life still suck? Check. Is there unrest and unhappiness throughout the United Stares and probably the world? Check. Do I miss my parents like crazy? Check. Do I miss shopping or browsing in a store? Triple check. Having dinner out in a restauant? Infinity check.

Life has been hard and it just got way harder for me recently. It is not something I am ready to talk or write about at this point as it is too overwhelming so I thought I would post something happy and positive – our once in a lifetime New York City trip a few years ago with Brett’s mom Ray Anne.

Ray Anne asked us where we wanted to go, just the 3 of us, and we picked New York City. I honestly thought she would say no but she was all for it and so the planning began! I love the planning and there were so many things we wanted to do. All of this was happening in April of 2014. We decided to stay at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square which was amazing! If you ever go the elevators are pretty cool and the location is amazing! When we first arrived it was a Saturday afternoon and we were tired but we went to find food. Apparently all the Broadway shows were starting when we went out and we were packed in shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalks. I sorta freaked out thinking NYC was always like this but things calmed down after a bit and I stopped feeling like I was in a sardine can. We ate and went back to the hotel for martinis overlooking Times Square and it was perfect.

The next day was spent checking everything out, we did some of the big ones, saw The Statue of Liberty which was kinda small, ate at some delicious Irish pub, shopped, did an open bus tour to see all the biggies like Rockerfeller Center, Madison Square Garden, New York Stock Exchange, countless parks and graveyards and churches but the highlight was dinner at China Blue in Tribeca. We were starving from walking all day so we just ordered all the appetizers (except the pig’s feet, gross) and feasted like kings. The service was amazing, the food was delectable, the drinks were strong! Our waitress kept insisting that Beyonce and Jay Z lived above the restaurant but I found this very hard to believe. Ray Anne was ready to go to bed but the Mavericks were playing in the playoffs so we went to a couple of bars in Times Square to watch. New York was so magical late at night and didnt close until 4 so we were out late quite a bit and I never felt uncomfortable. Everything there just seemed really alive all the time.

The next day we wanted to see the 9/11 Memorial and do some shopping. I really wanted to see everything at the memorial but the crazy, convuluted ticketing process soon made us realize that.this was going to take hours so we saw what we could and moved on. It was time to have some fun! We did it all, Tiffany, Bloomingdale’s, Ralph Lauren, Lucky, and my favorite F.A.O. Schwartz! It was the most amazing toy store ever! The were real live toy soldiers that opened the door for you and every space was a different world or theme for 3 floors! It was awesomeness and I even got to jump on the piano from Big, something I always wanted to do! I think it is a travesty that it is no longer there and I am so glad I got to see it before it closed. It was magical!

That night we went to one of the oldest restaurants in Little Italy. The restaurant was kind of old glamour and our waiter was a Russian man who was not playing around and seemed very stern. I think we ordered an appetizer, salads and some amazingly good pasta that I cannot remember while drinking martini’s. He was always there when you needed him and was so seemingly indifferent I couldn’t stop staring at him. It was an amazing meal with excellent and fascinating service. It was so interesting to see Little Italy and then we kind of wandered around Time’s Square a life was good.

Next day we were going to see The Book of Mormon so we went shopping including Dylan’s Candy Bar which was so cute and well put together. There was a bar where.you could get candy shots but it was closed when we were there. I have never seen so much candy in my life. The we went to Serendipity. Most people have heard of Serendipity and they are know for their Tiffany lamps and.amazing menu. I got their Belgain waffle and it was delicious but we went there for the frozen hot chocalate. It is simply divine! It was better that anything I have ever had that is chocalate. It is simply difficult to explain but I would kill for another one! If I ever went to NY I would go there again for sure.

Onto The Book of Mormon. Brett and I loved everything they did from South Park to Operation America and convinced her to get tickets. The theater was beautiful and the play was so profane, so vulgar I thought I might die from laughing. Oh, and thank God, when I looked at Ray Anne she was dying laughing as well. After that we were off to a very welll known lobster place for the Seafood Tower and we stuffed our faces. You do a lot of walking in NY so were were always starving.

Last day we checked out more of Central Park, we did the TMZ tour which was actually hilarious and really, really interesting. We got to see all the hot spots, where famous people lived and other notorious spots. Then we went to The Plaza for High Tea! High Tea was amazing! I felt very fancy sitting in that hotel, eating tiny, delicious finger sandwiches and cakes while having our champagne and tea. High tea was very cool and The Plaza Hotel was beautiful! That night Ray Anne was tired so she told us to go have an amazing dinner without her. We went to The Clam in Greenwich Village which was a tiny restaurant with maybe 10 tables. We ate dinner for like four hours. We had almost everything on the menu and it is still to this day one of the best and most amazing dinners I have ever had!

We flew home exhausted the next day but it really was the experience of a lifetime! Thank you Ray Anne and I am so happy you were there to make memories with us. I know I have left a lot of things out like the weird fact all the curbs are made of metal in NY and the day it suddenly started raining and we slowly realized it is impossible to get a taxi in NY when it rains, that really sucked, and all the marvelous places we went since I was just giving the highlights. And I am sure I have some of the days mixed up but what matters is that we experienced NY city’s finest foods and we loved it! Thank you Ray Anne!