Last year over Christmas break we found out our very good family friend, Vale, was invited to sing opera with the Philharmonic Symphony. My mom, sister, and I quickly started planning a trip to NYC to see him sing. My mom had never been to NYC before, my sister hadn't been in years, and we were in need of a third visit to our favorite New Yorkers, Jason and Erica. Plus, it was Tyler's last bit of freedom before starting his job, so we kind of considered this as a graduation vacation for him. We had so much fun like we always do and can't wait to go back for more...
Here are some highlights:
Times Square:
For tourist season they closed down some of the streets of Times Square. It was nice to not have to fight with all the cars on the road.
They also put up bleachers so you could sit and relax and enjoy the scenery. We did just that for many hours.
Again, sitting and relaxing.....life is just too hard!
Me, my mom, and my sister
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Tyler's Graduation Dinner:
Eating here was Tyler's only request the entire trip and I am so glad that my husband knows everything there is about food because this place was delicious. It was expensive, but good, and you can't put a price on good food in my opinion. Jason and Erica came with us and of course we had a great time. How could you not with a good atmosphere, good food, and good company!
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Ground Zero:
Paying our respects to those who lost their lives on 9/11
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Statue of Liberty:
We rode the Staten Island Ferry so we could get a free view of the Statue of Liberty, but unfortunately it wasn't a very clear day. Still fun though. With this trip, Tyler and I have successfully been to all five boroughs!
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Chocolate by the Bald Guy: Max Brenner, and Lombardi's Pizza with Jenna and Leah:
Before my sister was a mom, she worked as a nanny to support her husband through law school. After I graduated from high school, I took over for her one day a week and this is how we know Jenna and Leah. My sister and I cared for them when they were approximately 4 and 5 years old. And now they are 14 and 15!! We had dinner with their family in Jersey and it was fun to catch up with everyone. We couldn't get enough of them, so the next day we invited them to come along with us for lunch and some shopping.
Lombardi's Pizza -- it was really good but not *quite* a good as Patsy's.
Chocolate by the Bald Guy: Max Brenner is a restaurant where they have a menu full of chocolate items; it was so good we had to go twice! The best part about it was seeing my mom grin from ear to ear the moment she sat down in her seat. She was acting like a kid in a candy store. It was so funny!
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The New York Philharmonic Performance with Vale and dessert at Cafe Lalo:
I have to admit that I was a little nervous about sitting through this show because opera has a way of putting me to sleep, but it was fantastic! And Vale did such a wonderful job with all his solos. Bravo Vale!
Cafe Lalo has amazing desserts and it's also on "You've Got Mail."
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Broadway Show: In the Heights
I have never seen anything on Broadway before, and I didn't want to go this trip either (it's always too expensive); but my mom and sister convinced me to go, and I'm sure glad they did because I LOVED IT! And I know I say that about every musical I see, but this definitely is in my top three favorites. I even dragged Tyler along with us and he loved it, too. It won the Tony Award in 2008 and the music is set with a latin/hip-hop flare. About five minutes into the first song I leaned over to Tyler and said, "I love this already!" And he said that I was smiling the whole time, so I guess I was the kid in the candy store this time!
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"BIG," China Town, and Little Italy:
Here we are on the piano from the movie "Big."
And here we are in Little Italy holding our new knock off bag purchases from China Town.
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Other highlights include:
Spice Market - Jason and Erica treated us to this Jean Georges restaurant located in the meat packing district and it was so good! We are definitely going back there.
Patsy's Pizza - Needs no explanation, but it was quite the pleasant surprised when Jason showed up to the airport with two pies in his car. What a guy.
J&E's apartment in Harlem - Cutest apartment on this planet, and just five blocks away from 1-2-5th!
Low lights include:
The Empire State Building - The day we tried to go to the top was a really foggy day and had 0% visibility. So, we instead rode the virtual ride inside. Don't do it, it was expensive and we felt sick for the rest of the day.
Upright Citizen's Brigade - Not quite on top of their game the night we went. I didn't find their skit too funny. We had been for improve, which was fantastic, but the sketches weren't nearly as funny.
My sister's run in with Anne Hathaway - I totally missed this, but she talked to her and got a picture with her. So lucky!
A spotting of Josh Hartnet - I missed this one too. Tyler spotted him first in Soho and everyone saw him but me. I did see the back of his head, though. He's much taller in person than in film.
My sister's iphone - It fell out of her pocket in the back of a cab and she never got it back.
Even with the low lights, we still had so much fun. Now we just need to figure out a way to live there.
There aren't too many pictures of Tyler, but I promise he was there. And I didn't get a single picture of Erica but a big thanks to Jason and Erica for letting us crash in their new apartment. We love them. We love Harlem. And we love NYC.
