The Big Apple, Part 1

A few weeks ago, my stepmom, 2 sisters-in-law and their moms all went on a girls' trip to New York. We had a blast! We did not stop moving the whole three and a half days we were there. Needless to say, I came home and crashed hard! Get ready for recap and picture overload...just a fair warning!

Diane and I flew in from Memphis Thursday morning and took a cab to our hotel, The W. The hotel was fabulous...modern, clean and very accommodating. We dropped our bags off and headed out the door to grab a bite to eat. We stopped into Cafe Metro at the recommendation of the concierge and enjoyed our meal immensely. After that, we met up with Kristen and her mom over at the TKTS booth and were able to score tickets to see Nice Work If You Can Get It for that evening. From there, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the crew and get ready for dinner.

That evening, we dined at Tony's Di Napoli and stuffed ourselves on arugula salad, shrimp scampi, chicken parmesan and eggplant parmesan. (Got to love family style dining...you can try a little of everything!) Then, we headed on to the show!

Now, I am not a Broadway fan by any measure. But, I was sold on the show by the promise of Matthew Broderick (SJP's husband! Yay!). Unfortunately, he was off that night, but the show was very entertaining without him and we did get to see Blythe Danner, which was neat. After a quick stroll through Times Square, we went back to the hotel to rest up for Friday. 

Friday morning, we had big plans. We were heading to Rockefeller Center at 6:00 a.m. to stand in the crowds at the Today Show with the hopes of getting on TV. Well, that we did! Diane (my stepmom) had made a very loud sign, complete with ruffles, flowers and flip flops attached to it, in order to get the anchors' attention so we could be on screen. When the weather anchor that day (Dylan Dreyer...Al was off!) came out and started greeting everyone, she headed in our direction and asked if we wanted to be on camera with her. Of course we did! We were featured in a quick snippet while she went over the weather forecast and we were excited. She was unbelievably friendly and posed with us all for a picture afterward.

With our goal of being on screen fulfilled, we headed on to get some breakfast at Burger Heaven. Then, it was time for shopping and sightseeing. We hit up St. Patrick's Cathedral, The Empire State Building, The NYC Public Library (site of the ill-fated Carrie & Big wedding...yes, I did make it a point to see as many SATC landmarks as possible), Grand Central Station, The Flatiron Building and a few other shops along the way. 

After all that walking, we needed something to eat, so we grabbed lunch at The City Bakery (another SATC landmark). The food was delicious! I had some wonderful marinated turnip greens, roasted fennel and pasta salad that served as the perfect fuel for the rest of our jam-packed afternoon. 

We were scheduled for a walking tour of Greenwich Village and Soho after lunch, so we headed onto that. The tour was great. Very informative and interesting and we got to see a lot, including the Friends building and a few other pop-culture sites. 

While this isn't the best stopping point, I'm having some issues with Blogger and adding photos, so I'll finish up this little recap later this week. Thanks for reading!