NYC: Day 4

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

Can I just note that the downside to traveling alone is you end up with a whole lot of pictures that look like this.  You know, the one's that are super up close with the arm hanging out in the side of the photo.

We were up bright and early to have breakfast at Norma's where you can get $1,000 pancakes with caviar.  I had plain old french toast (no caviar).  It was back to the hotel to pack and then we took a cab to the airport.

Now for the transportation story.  Our hotel had a "house car".  It was a Maybach which I guess is a big deal.  I know enough about cars to know this.  The house car came with a driver and you could use it on a first come, first served basis.  Casey made it his mission to ride in this car.  Every time and I do mean every time we left to go somewhere he would ask if the house car was available.  It was so embarrassing.  I just know that every time they saw us coming they were thinking "great... this guy again."  Guess who never got to use the car.  Little old unimportant us.  Casey took this as a personal insult.

*I would just like to say that it wouldn't have been such a big deal had they not said "you can't reserve it but if it's out there, it's yours".  Then three of the times, it is sitting out there and the excuse is "oh it's reserved" or "your destination is out of our range" or "the driver just stepped away on break".  -Casey

On the home front, my parents kept Hudson while we were gone.  Of course he got sick while we were out of town.  Tonsillitis, 103 degree fever, trip to the doctor, the works.  Guess who got a new toy to "make him feel better". 

Oh grandparents...

NYC: Day 3

It's Saturday!

The weather was fabulous and today we did a little shopping.  Happy times!  For me anyway.  We grabbed more bagels and then took the Subway downtown to SoHo, Greenwich Village, and Chinatown.  What self-restraint I have:  we only went to What Comes Around Goes Around (a very cool vintage store that I knew Casey would like) and Marc Jacobs (my favorite).  In NYC and we only went to two stores!  Can you believe it?  Casey wanted to go to Canal Street, which I had already been to but is always entertaining if not a little creepy.  We ate lunch at a cute restaurant in SoHo and then headed back uptown to make a quick stop in Times Square for a picture and then to my favorite New York City building, the NY Public Library. 

This t-shirt that Casey found at What Comes Around Goes Around has a back story.  Casey always jokes that Ron Wood (of the Rolling Stones fame) is his long lost uncle.  "Uncle Ronnie" he calls him.  I guess he did a solo tour back in the 70's, hence this shirt.  What is really awesome is that his last name is spelled with an 's' and the s is marked out.  People try to put an s on the end of our name all of the time!  We were like 'we aren't the only ones who have this problem!'  We thought it was hilarious.  Just us?  Anyone?  Anyone?  The cheese stands alone.

We had to go to FAO Schwartz to buy our little Spud a gift (a little backpack and a book...we are such squares).  We saw the Big Tom Hanks piano.  You know the one, right?  We had a wonderfully delicious dinner that our hotel recommended.  We even got complimentary glasses of champagne.  Our waiter was suggesting places downtown for us to go after dinner.  Yeah... one guess where we went.  Back to the hotel to go to bed.  Are we old or what?

NYC: Day 2

Welcome to Friday!

We grabbed our New York bagels from a street vender ($3.75 for the both of us thank you very much), which were awesome.  Have you ever heard of a slice of cream cheese?  One was on my bagel.  It was glorious.  Enough about the bagel.  On to Rockafeller Plaza to see the Today Show.  We missed our opportunity to make it onto tv so we went to Top of the Rock.  The view was the best.  If you ever go to NYC, skip the Empire State Building and go to Top of the Rock instead:  shorter lines, less wind, and better views.  Afterward we took one of those double decker bus tours.  That's right.  We aren't ashamed.  It was fun and we got to see stuff we probably wouldn't have gotten around to seeing otherwise:  World Trade Center site, the Flatiron Building, Madison Square Garden, and Battery Park.

Eating my bagel on some church steps outside of Saks 5th Avenue....is this how I look when I eat?  I'm never eating again.  At least I don't have my cream cheese smeared on my face.  That cream cheese was good...  Right, back to the day.

 90 degrees outside = hair up by 10am

 Tiles made by kids in remembrance of 9/11/01

This was in the World Trade Center Lobby and was recovered in the rubble.  What remains of it is here at Battery Park with an eternal flame to remember the lives that were lost.

 After the oh-so-cool bus tour, we were dropped off via the bus (Do we travel in style or what?  More on that another day.) at Grand Central, which was so beautiful inside.  We looked around there and ate underground at Oyster Bar, then went for some New York cheesecake at Junior's, which we were told is the best for cheesecake.  After a very long but fun afternoon at the MET, we went to see a Broadway play.  We saw Memphis, which even Casey liked.  Afterward we had desert at Cafe Lalo, which was in a scene in You've Got Mail.

NYC: Day 1

This long weekend Casey and I made the trip up to the big city:  New York City that is.  I had been once before and Casey had never been.  He is a country boy at heart so he was reluctant to go.  He needs the woods, fresh air, some dirt under his nails, and his deer hanging on the wall to feel complete.  I told him that everyone needs to go at least once in their life (and if you haven't been, you must go.  Yeah, I'm talking to you).  There is truly no place like it.  Once convinced, much planning was done and the day finally arrived.  We took so many pictures and we did so much that I'm dividing the blog into days.  

Welcome to Thursday!

Casey's first cab ride!  

We flew in bright and early: 7:30am.  Once we got checked into our hotel we got to walking.  And walking.  And walking.  And walking.  I was in a state of constant leg and back pain the entire weekend.  We walked uptown and cut across Central Park.  Something you may not realize:  Central Park is HUGE.  Like 900+ acres huge.  I know!  We were surprised too!  We totally got lost.  Once we found our way out we had a quick bite to eat and went to the Museum of Natural History.

After a subway ride back downtown (no more walking for us, thank you very much) and a much needed nap, we went out for dinner.  We have heard a lot about the famous Grimaldi's pizzas so we made the walk (ugh) across the Brooklyn Bridge to stand in line (double ugh) to check it out for ourselves.  It was very much worth the wait and the walk.  Plus we got a great view of the city from the bridge.  After the pizza we got our sugar fix at Dylan's Candy Bar.  It's three floors of every kind of candy you can imagine.   I'm a little like a six year old girl when it comes to candy.  I get a tad bit too excited and go a little overboard.  Chocolate covered gummy bears?  Yes please.

The owner?  We aren't sure but he was cracking us up pointing out people in line to come in and rolling his eyes when you didn't respond fast enough.  Love it.

The Zoo

Casey took the day off yesterday and we headed out to Zoo Atlanta.  I thought we would try to beat the crowds, let Hud skip his morning nap and get there early.  Hudson screamed and fussed the whole way down there so I was thinking 'oh no... here we go.  I'm going to be that mom with the screaming kid' (which wouldn't be the first time).  Once we got there, there was so much for him to look at, he was great.

The giraffes were Hudson's favorites!  He died laughing when he saw them.  Then he wanted to climb all over the statue of the giraffe.

Casey and I liked the gorillas the best.  They were HUGE and came up so close.  They just seemed so human.  This big guy walked up, plopped down, and sat there looking pouty the whole time.  At one point he crossed his arms and sat staring at everyone.  I could have stayed there and watched them for a long time.  I couldn't get over how big they were!  This picture doesn't do them justice.  They were seriously ginormous.

Looking at the orangutans.

Needless to say, not my favorite exhibit.  

The petting zoo was the last thing we did and was Hudson's definite favorite thing.  This pig/hog/whatever jumped up whenever Hudson went to pet him.  Scared the bejesus out of me.  Hudson loves laying on top of Chloe and loving her so of course he loved all of these animals.  We had to try and keep him from laying his head on them.  The sheep's ear kept twitching and Hudson would crack up at it.

Hudson was exhausted and was konked out by the time we got on the interstate.