NYC!!!!

Did I fail to mention I was heading out of town? :) SIL L invited me along with some of her co-workers to see NEW YORK CITY!!!! I have NEVER been before and I was SO excited! She and M.C. picked me up at 6AM on Thursday ~ we met up with the other two gals and headed out!!!

M.C.

Our "fearless" leader, driver, "tour guide" and trip organizer.

My first view of the city

 

The new Trump buildings... more on him in a minute

The first thing we did was check into our hotel that was right around the corner from Central Park. We walked through the park to get over to 5th Ave and it was crazy how you could look at this...

Turn around and see this...

and then get lost back in the park again.

A quick stop at "THE PLAZA" where we watched people having "high tea". Interesting to see such well dressed 20 somethings at 3PM ish sitting alone, drinking champagne and eating sweet treats. My how the "other side" lives :)

5th Avenue

Here's your clue for our first store...

Oh yah baby. If only I had a little black dress, my sunglasses on and some "breakfast" :)

Our "tour guide" suggested that we just go in to check out Trump Tower and said "people say, if he's in town this is your best place to see him..." I mean really... what are the chances?

 

 

We walked in and I walked ahead of the group to go up around the corner. There was a small gathering of people and this is what I saw....

I thought it was a wax figure :)

UNTIL HE MOVED! And we realized he was taping (what happened to be a segment on that evenings Bill O'Reilly show)

The lady in black was the woman in the know and she told us if we hung there for a bit he'd walk right by... AND HE DID! :)

Then he started grabbing things off the counter, made eye contact with SIL L...

and threw chocolates at HER!!! Course our "tour guide" broke her sunglasses in the chaos but SIL L will NOT.BE.DEFEATED. and came up swinging and catching the chocolates! :)

One for SIL L and Bets :)

 

A couple for CountryMum

and one for Minnie ~ before I left all she was interested in was "will there be fire trucks mom? and can you see one?" :)

 

The part where I take a million pics of big buildings because I DO live in the country, I WAS a tourist and I'm TOTALLY OK with it :) TIMES SQUARE....

The city was about 100+ degrees and I felt SO BAD for these guys all dressed in their outfits...

:( Minnie was psyched for this pic though! :)

After going to dinner at a Texas BBQ place ~ uh... yeah. I know. Didn't make sense to me either but it was yummy :) SIL L and I had about 2.5 hours (while the rest of the crew went to a Broadway show) to explore Times Square. SO.MUCH.FUN.!!!

One of the things we really wanted to do was ride the Ferris wheel INSIDE the Toys R Us in Times Square. It was a blast!

Course it was ALL about the company! AND the part where we rode in the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head car :)

The next morning we headed out to take the subway (yikes) in the 95 degree heat (yikes) down to the Staten Island Ferry. It's a free ferry ride back and forth to Staten Island and it goes right by the Statue of Liberty. It wasn't something I felt like I HAD to do while I was there but I'm so glad that M.C. said we just HAD to. Wow. This was the view leaving the city. The building with the tall pointy thing on the top is the first of the new twin towers....

You all know I can cry (and do) at the drop of a hat and I DIDN'T CRY but I did totally choke up going by the statue. We live in an amazing county protected and defended by amazing military men and women and I'm so proud to call this my home...

It was breathtaking even in the haze...

What the boat we were on looked like...

Hazy, Hot and Humid doesn't even BEGIN to cover it...

The only place I REALLY REALLY wanted to go was Eataly. I had either read about it in my Martha magazine or seen it on her show and it did not disappoint. It was HUGE, so yummy and, to ME, totally worth the crazy 40 block walk in the heat. I would have liked more MONEY and TIME in this place but I'm SO SO HAPPY we got to go there. I came out with two Italian beers for Husband and a loaf of pancetta and provolone cheese bread for me my family. :)

even with all the HEAT, the LOUD (radio ~ wink wink) and the "interesting" it was an amazing trip that I would NEVER have done without SIL L inviting me. Thank you sweet girl for a GREAT trip, a FUN time and some 1x1 time! I love you!