NEW YORK CITY

December 2012

I've done a whole lot of traveling with some old friends, new friends, and even picked up a few here and there in the past years. I have seen some really cool places, slept in the streets of NYC, stood in the 20 degree weather in the snow in Boston, took a road trip from Miami to Memphis and somehow ended up in Wichita Kansas, and partied like a Rockstar in Vegas...you can read all about those adventures HERE! When I looked back at my last trip, I realized it had been over a year since my last trip... and thought I was way overdue for a new adventure!

My Huns had not yet began exploring the world, so I decided to close out the year with a trip to the Big Apple, NYC.

 A few days before we left I caught a horrible cold, and thought I just wasn't going to make it...one because the temps in NY were so low and it was going to rain all week.  I didn't know how, but I was determined sick and all to make it to my long awaited vacay and to make the best of this trip, especially since it was my Hunny's first time in New York.

I made sure to pack extra warm clothes, I double up on all cough remedies, so nothing could hold me back from getting on that plane.

We're HERE!!! Our first picture in NYC!!!!

Dinner at TGIFridays!

 After dinner we went off to explore the city...

And saw "This Naked Cowboy"
(Seriously it was like 29 degrees and this nut was outside naked)My itinerary had a million things on it that I wanted to see and do, we decided to check out where our first stop in the morning was so we walked over to 42nd Street where Madame Tussaud Museum was...and guess who was in the window?

Yup...The Rock...which made me even more excited and could barely wait for morning.
(Even made out of wax he's beautiful! :P)

  As we continued exploring till the wee hours of the night,
we decided to get a head start and scratch some stuff off our list that same night...
so we visited the ToysRUs Store

I totally loved the carousel inside the store; I was so close to convincing the Hubs to let me ride it. The Barbie section was to die for, I've always loved Barbies and thought how much my nieces would love to be in this place. The Lego Statues were pretty cool too. 

Then next door we stopped in at the Disney Store, where I wish I would've taken pictures of all the decor, but got too excited when I walked in that I totally forgot. However, I did take a picture of this Mulan doll, because she looks a bit like my niece, Layla.

And we finished our first night hanging out in Times Square and just taking in 
all the pretty city lights.

     

 The Next Morning we got up had breakfast and off we were. We decided to start off at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. If you have not yet visited this place, it's a MUST see!!!
You'll need about 3-4 hours to see the entire museum, definately worth your money!

   

 This is Madame Tussauds
You can read all about her HERE and HERE The first wax museum was opened in 1835 in London, and there are now 15 locations within America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

 (Wax figure of Madame Tussauds)

Here are just a few of our favorites that we saw...

This place is ahmazzzing!!!  There's sooo much to see, I think we were here for almost 4 hours!

From there we walked back to Times Square and checked out some of the other shops we wanted to see, like the Hershey's Store, the M&M Store...

We bought a lunch from one of those hotdog carts like in the movies...

I've always wanted to do that.

And we grabbed some Starbucks, and mini cupcakes from a Food Truck, 

something else I've been wanting to do.

  

Hot Dog and Cupcakes were Delicioso!

Then off we went to Rockefeller Plaza to see the Christmas Tree

 

I loved this Window Display at NBC Station

 

The weather got colder and it started to rain so we went back to our hotel to rest a bit,  

and get ready for dinner. We had NY Style pizza for dinner...yummmy!!!
Wish I would've taken pictures of our pie...It was huge!

 After dinner we hit the town again and continue to go down our list. This time we stopped at the Apple Store. Everyone had been talking about this place, how it's underground at what not. Since the Hubs is an Apple freak I knew he'd definately love this place. Above ground it's glass walls and at night the apple sign lights up. Then you go down these steps to enter the store. Pretty cool, huh?

  

 

Next door was FAO Schwarz.

This was one of my favorite places. I couldn't believe how many cool toys there were, even from my childhood.

Along the way we saw...

 

Saw Santa riding out in a '64 Impala

These Nutcrackers were pretty cool, and the street lights and decor were pretty amazing.

We stopped at Bryant Park and saw the Empire State building from afar.

We didn't get to go ice skating, the rink was super packed, but definitely something I will do next time I'm in the city.

We bought tickets to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular in Radio City so we made a quick stop just to locate ourselves for the next evening.

 

Saw this LOVE sign and just had to pose! :)

We walked over to Serendipity, I wanted to have a Frozen Hot Chocolate; but the wait time was over an hour, CRAZY!!! told the Hubs maybe next time.

So we caught a ride on a bike taxi's back to our hotel. Ride was FUN, but expensive.

Cost us just about as much as our taxi ride from LGA airport.

New Day new adventure...today we thought we'd hit Ground Zero,
Battery Park and go see the Statue of Liberty.

We decided we'd give the Subway a try, ummm not sure how many times we got on and off  till we finally got it right. But we both agreed that walking above ground and checking out the sights was more enjoyable.

When we finally made it, we stopped and asked some guy standing in front of those hop on and off city tour buses how to get to the Statue of Liberty. He told us that the Statue of Liberty was closed due to some storm damage, but that we could take a water taxi tour for $20/ea and it would take us close enough to see her. So we bought our tickets and he pointed us towards the docking station. Of course he wasn't specific as to which building we were to enter, all we knew is that the next trip was at 3:15pm. We walked in to the building with the blue glass windows and read that the next ferry left at 3:15pm. Perfect enough time for a bathroom break and some lunch.ended up on the Staten Island Ferry. I mean c'mon what are the odds that both the water taxi and the ferry left at the same time.
As we got on we noticed that no one else was giving their admission tickets, so I asked a lady if she had to pay to get on here, she looked at us confused and said no, this is the Staten Island Ferry. So I asked does this take us to the Statue of Liberty? She said no, this ferry takes you to Staten Island and then back. We got up and went to the gate but it was too late we had just left the dock.
So we decided to enjoy the free  not so free $20 wasted ride and make the best of it.
We did get to see the little boat "water taxi" take off, the water was a bit rough so in a way I was glad I didn't get on. We did actually get to see Lady Liberty from afar on the way back from Staten Island, and the skyline was breathtaking.

 After our ferry ride it was raining again, so we decided to get on one of those hop on and off city sightseeing buses to get to Times Square and still get to see some sights. At this point just about everything we wanted to see and do on our list was scratched off. So we headed back to 5th Avenue for a little shopping and to see all the christmas lights and department store display windows.

The next day it was pouring out, thankfully we had purchased that hop on and off tour bus ticket so the day was not wasted. We hopped on at the corner of 48th & 49th Street where the Hershey's store is, and spent the day on the bus. We got to see just about everything on there, china town,Columbia university, midtown, and just about every place our friends had mentioned we went by...not to mention our tour guide lady was hilarious!

I gotta say this trip was memorable, the nasty rain, the cold weather, my horrible cold couldn't keep us from having a blast in NY.

Our last picture in NYC...WE WILL BE BACK!