NYC

David and I posing in front of the heart in Times Square in honour of Valentines Day

At Top of the Rock with Empire State Building in the background

We had a WONDERFUL time in NYC this weekend. And a HUGE thanks to Amanda for making it possible; she took on our boys so that we could have a weekend away...and thanks to Granny and Oupa and Alan and Andrew for helping out as well.

We left Friday afternoon and had a wonderful, uneventful flight...there is something to be said for flying on Friday the 13th as our plane was half empty whereas our flight coming back was PACKED!

We arrived, got a cab to our hotel, the AMAZING Waldorf Astoria in Mid-town Manhattan. We changed for dinner and then walked to Rothmans Steakhouse where we had an amazing steak dinner (Gorgonzola encrusted filets, red wine, onion straws and a chocolate molten cake w/ vanilla Hagendaz - YUMMY!). After dinner, we walked to the Empire State Building. There were no lines, so we got to go straight up - and up and up and up to the top! My photos didn't turn out great because I was trying different settings to see what worked best at night, but here are a few that are ok. you can't see it well, but the moon was bright red (in honour of Valentines Day?)

David took this snap of me and Hello Kitty on our walk - too cute to pass up!

On Saturday, we started the day with a walk to Grand Central Station. We met up with Ashima and her husband, Shaishav. David and I worked with Ashima at Nexgenix, and we haven't seen her in years. They now live up in NY, and it worked out that they could come into the city to meet up with us and it was SO NICE to catch up with them! Just wish we had longer.

Flashback Alert: Here's a photo of Ashima and I at a party back in 2000 (pre-husbands and babies)






After catching up with our friends at Grand Central (and no Alex the lion spottings by the way, although, I swear I saw the little old lady with the purse :) We headed to Times Square where we ran into some other 'old friends' and got a quick photo (for the boys I swear! :) Then we spent some time shopping in the area - went into the amazing Toys-R-Us there and got some gifts for the boys (they have a huge ferris wheel in the middle of the store!). We had a late lunch at the famous Carnegie Deli, and even at 3pm, we had to wait about 10 minutes to get in, just to be shuffled to the back and packed into a table with 4 other people...bad service....ordered a Reuben to share (they are huge!) and it was a moderately good sandwich - but not a traditional reuben...had good conversation with the people next to us who were toy store owners in Asheville in town for a toy convention (now that's a career option!)...our shared reuben, small fries and two waters cost $34!!!! Can you imagine!

After 'lunch', we headed for FAO Schwartz for more fun and games...they have some pretty amazing things as well.

After shopping and looking around Times Square most of the day (and David even let me go into Tiffany's on 5th Avenue and was it ever packed on Valentines Day!), we headed back to the Waldorf to get ready for our evening on Broadway. We saw Phantom of the Opera, the longest running show on Broadway, at the Majestic. Afterward, the show was over around 10pm, we just grabbed a quick dinner and walked around a bit. It was Valentines night after all and couples were out EVERYWHERE!

Sunday, we were off to Rockefeller Center for breakfast while watching the ice skaters. Then we went to the top of the building - called Top of the Rock which is only about a year old, but was amazing!!! So much better than the Empire State Building thing! Highly Recommend! They have huge plastic/glass panels up for safety instead of a metal mesh wall like Empire which helps block the gusts of wind while still providing amazing views and the feeling that there is nothing between you and the world! We got some amazing views and photos!

Central Park - look how it's completely boxed in by development...looks much smaller from this perspective than it's 843 acres!

We had a very distant view of the Statue of Liberty

And here is a cute photo they took of us to look like we are on a construction beam. Afterward, we grabbed some coffee at Dean & Deluca and hopped a cab to Ground Zero. You can't actually see much there now as it is all blocked off for construction, but there is a small memorial there already.

Then we walked over to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange which was of course closed but still a hot spot.

Then we walked over to the waterfront and saw the Brooklyn Bridge

And after a bit of a quest, we finally found the Merrill Lynch bull which had been moved since Merrill Lynch no longer exists. After the bull, we took the subway back to Central Park which was a few blocks from the Waldorf. We saw our requisite crazy person on the subway, but all in all, it was a pleasant experience and was much quicker, not to mention cheaper, than the cab ride down.

Us in Central Park with ice skating behind us

Flashback Alert: Here is a photo of David and I from winter 2000 in Central Park (my only other trip to the Big Apple).

After an hour or so in the park and a hot dog and some peanuts from a street vendor, we headed back to the Waldorf and got our bags and a cab back to the airport to head home. We had an uneventful if packed flight back and got home to our boys (and reality) around 10:30pm on Sunday. A quick but PACKED weekend. It's still hard to believe that we were immersed in normal routine life - then a quick interlude in NY - then back to normal life (AKA laundry) :) So many great things about 'THE' city, but were were able to cram so much in because we didn't have to drive around to see it all...it is all so close and so easy to walk to. We must have walked 20 miles in 2 1/2 days!

And if you can believe it, there are even more photos than the ones I have posted here -so if you want to go through all of them - here they are!