My fingers are finally thawed enough so that I can write a bit about my trip.
So much fun, so little time.
I left Saturday morning and, of course, sat next to a VERY large woman on the plane. I don't mind large people, I mind large people's thighs overlapping with mine. Buy a second ticket!
Arrived safely at LaGuardia airport where Tara was already waiting for me. After lots of screaming, kisses and hugs, we got in a taxi and headed to Manhattan.
The hotel was located on 48th and Lexington and it was very nice!
We dropped off our stuff and headed out for some lunch. Somehow we ended up in a Japanese section of Manhattan (in Midtown!!) and we ended up in a very local sushi bar. Hallelujah. It was unbelievable. I could seriously eat sushi every day for the rest of my life.
We headed south and did some shopping at H&M (neither one of us have one nearby) and then decided that it was time for a drink.
Channel 4 was the pub of choice. One Cosmo turned into another which then turned into Martinis and before we k new it, we were slightly tipsy and chatting with.........everybody around us.
We finally left just in time to go back to the hotel to change for dinner.
We had reservations at Butter, which apparently is a very famous restaurant/lounge and where all the famous people go. (According to People magazine, and they never lie....)
We showed up at 8.30 and was told that it would be another 20 minutes before our table was ready so we went downstairs for a drink. The restaurant is beautiful. Very cozy and intimate. We saw no famous people, or maybe we just didn't recognize any of them.
As we are having our drinks, an older man (in his sixties) come up to talk to Tara (she always attracts old men). Turns out it was the owner of Butter and he wanted to make sure we were well taken care of. Especially after Tara told him that I was a freelance writer for a Danish magazine and wanted to write about the restaurant!
Wow, Flashback! Didn't this happen last time we were in NYC and we ended up getting a tour of a restaurant, free food, free drinks and a phone number to a very cute manager who would have been more than happy to show us around the city?
Back to reality. We finally sit down and everything starts out great with the appetizer, but then it all went downhill! The entrees were inedible. In fact, it was so bad we didn't even finish it.
Well, the owner felt bad about that so he invited us back for Monday night when all the celebs were there. We never went back and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. So disappointed.
After dinner we realized how old we actually are, 'cause we went straight back to the hotel instead of going out to funky little bars and clubs. Oh, and it was raining really hard too.
Sunday morning was a trip down memory lane. I had the thought that I would go back to my old stomping grounds and enjoy breakfast at my old diner, see my old apartment buildings and pretend I was still young, not married and skinny.
Well, have you ever, as an adult, read your favorite childhood book and it just wasn't what you remembered?
Welcome to my trip down memory lane. My diner was gone, it is now a pizza place. The other diner was open, but it was all renovated and nice and that's not right. Weird. Our old Chinese food place was still there as was The Toolbox. The picture to the right is where we used to live.
Tara and I decided that we were going to go to China Town for some purse shopping. We took the 6 train downtown and let me tell you. Something is going on in New York City. The subway was clean and nice. There were new seats everywhere and you could understand the guy on the loudspeaker! What the heck is going on? Is Mayor Bloomberg trying to rob the city of all its charm? It is too clean and user friendly and we only saw 2 pigeons in 3 days! And no rats, not a single one! I was dumbfounded. Oh yeah, and now they have "customer service intercoms" on the subway platforms!!! NOOOOOOOO, you're supposed to get lost and have to take the train back and forth 3 or 4 times before you get to your destination. Not press a button and get help. Where is my New York City?
At least China Town is still crazy. Millions of people and total mayhem wherever you go. We were there for the purses and as soon as we had the opportunity we gladly followed a little Chinese lady down an alley, up some stairs and into a tiny room filled with knock offs. It's a funny thing, this purse business. I mean, who voluntarily goes with a stranger into a building, follow them down dark hallways, up and down stairs only to get locked into a small room for 5 minutes while you make your selection? And if you don't buy anything, are they going to let you out again? I swear, buying a purse in China Town is simply an episode of Law and Order waiting to happen! At least I didn't get locked into a mini van this time! But I did pretend I was doing a segment for 60 minutes. Watch this and see our way out of a secret room.
6 purses, 3 watches and a pair of sunglasses later (and that was just my loot) we headed to the village for some lunch. We found a fantastic little cafe named........Le Petit Cafe where we had the best sandwiches ever along with some soup and hot chocolate.
After walking around for a bit we headed back up to Times Square to get some tickets for a Broadway show. We ended up with tickets for Mamma Mia.
After that we went to a sample sale, but left empty handed. Back to the hotel to drop off all the purses and back to Times Square for the show.
It was a fun musical. Very light, very simple. We sang along which seemed to annoy the people around us, but come on. It's Abba, how can you not sing along? In fact, we sang the whole way back to the hotel. We picked up a pizza on the way back and ate it in bed while catching the tail end of the Grammy's.
Monday we had decided to get up and see if we could get on the Today Show by standing outside the studios along with the rest of the tourists. Well, we left too late for that. Then we were going to see if we could get stand by tickets for The View, but we also left too late for that. We just couldn't get anywhere on time that day. Maybe because it was so cold we couldn't feel anything.
We decided we needed breakfast, so we got a bagel and headed to Century21 for some more shopping. One tiny itty bitty purse later we went back to Le Petit Cafe on Spring Street for another round of sandwiches and hot chocolate.
Oh, we also bought some very warm fur lined hats with big flaps that cover your face, that's how cold it was. Apparently it was around 10 below with the windchill factor. Only problem with the hats, we couldn't hear a damn thing while wearing them and that is how we became Marlee and Matlin. Yes, I know it's a "wrong" joke, but that's me.
Then it was on to Bagels On The Square to pick up enough bagels to fill up my spare suitcase. If you haven't lived in NYC I don't expect you to understand the value of a good bagel. You might have bagels where you live and they might taste just fine to you, but in all honesty, you are fooling yourself if you think that's a real bagel. So I picked up just around 40 bagels (they freeze well) and then we went to the Ed Sullivan Theater to pick up tickets for a taping of the David Letterman Show. We had just enough time to drop off the bagels at the hotel, pick up our concert tickets for later and then head back to the Letterman show. It was a lot of fun. The guest were Kate Walsh, some guy from SNL and a fantastic performance by OK Go and Bonearama (sound like Barack Obama if you say it real fast).
We did make it on TV for all of a split second.
Once the show was over, it was time to take the PATH to the Garden State also known as New Jersey. Not just anywhere in NJ, but lovely Newark. We were there to see the Spice Girls. The place was packed with teenagers who tried very hard to look like the Spice Girls. Or maybe it was just New Jersey, I'm not sure. Anyways, as we're sitting waiting for the show to start and music is playing, all of a sudden the crowd goes wild. Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" is playing and I swear, with the way people acted you would have thought it was the National Anthem of New Jersey. Scary!
Of course, Tara and I were the oldest people there who were not escorting their children! The show started and it was surprisingly good. Since they only have about 8 or 9 songs they added some cover numbers and they each did a solo number. Well, except for Posh. I think she has finally realized she really can't sign, so she just went down the runway in a very large dress and didn't say much. That chick has the skinniest legs ever, not pretty, simply just sticks.
After the show we went straight back to the hotel, packed and went to sleep. We had to get up very early to catch our flights.
Only one thing left to say to my darling husband: Thank You so much for a wonderful Christmas present - You rock!
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