New York City

Two weekends ago, Sean attended an Anesthesiology Conference in NYC, and I was able to tag along (thanks to my sister, Livy and my mom who watched the kids!) It was so much fun. We went down there with no solid plans, didn't have anywhere we particularly needed to go, and I was all shopped out from Christmas shopping as it was (Sean was super thrilled about this). Hello people, I stood at the doors of a 4-story H&M and turned around. If you would have seen the size of the crowd in NYC during the Christmas season, you might just have turned around yourself. It was insane.

I was extra excited about going down because I had never been to the city during the Christmas Season. So many twinkling lights, big red bows, horse-drawn carriages, roasted chestnuts (that were unfortunately disappointing in taste) UGG boots, fur coats, window displays, and oh so much more! It really was magical, like everyone says.

Sean attended the conference in the morning, and I got to walk around all by my lonesome and see the city. Honestly, I wish I had taken more pictures, but it was SUPER hard to find a bare spot on the sidewalk, or against a building to stop and take pictures. Sean and I started a new fun little idea for ways to take pictures of us (don't we all hate the up-the-nose pictures we take when we hold the camera out in front of ourselves??) so although we aren't in any many pictures together, you can get an idea of what our trip was like. Many thanks to my cousin, Mary, for letting us stay at her place on Long Beach, and also for one of my dearest friends, Marissa, and her husband Dres, for keeping us toasty warm in their TriBeCa apartment for the last two nights. SO MUCH FUN!








We decided not to buy any Broadway show tickets online prior to getting to NYC. I just couldn't get myself to cough up $250 for two tickets!! So, we went to the box offices of each of the following shows and we were able to get great seats for all 3 shows for under the price we would have paid for ONE show, full price. I was in Heaven.
West Side Story leaves Broadway this January, and I just had to see it. Wow, amazing, amazing, amazing choreography, beautiful theater, incredible school dance scene. It was seriously incredible in everyway.

Next up was "In the Heights", which won best Broadway Musical in 2008. It is also leaving Broadway in the next month, so I was really excited to see it as well. It's a story about the Hispanic barrios in NYC and the everyday life of trying to make it, etc. Oh my goodness, our socks were blown off by the end of the first big number. Sean and I looked at each other with huge smiles on our faces. We loved it. The music is phenomenal, upbeat, catchy, brass, all while being flavored with the beats and rhythms of Central America. Jordin Sparks had just finished up starring in the production just a week before we saw it, which would have been cool to see. Nonetheless, amazing!!!!!!!!! This was Sean's favorite performance, and my 2nd favorite.

Sigh. Where do I begin with this one? I was really bummed because I have been wanting to see Billy Elliott for quite some time now, and it was always sold out. And then in 2009, I saw {this} "angry" performance from the Tony awards and about died. Amazing. We made it to the Sunday evening show, and before the curtain went up, the director of Billy Elliott got up and said that the original boy playing Billy Elliott was performing for his final time. What an awesome bonus! It was, in my opinion, one of the best, if not the best musicals I've ever seen. It tugged at every emotion, and had me crying one minute, to full on laughing the next. The set was great, the music-amazing, the boy Billy-incredible!





Such an adorable girl!






I actually don't like PB cups, but seriously....TWO HALF-POUND CUPS?!? (this was in FAO Schwarz)

this was disturbing:

as was this:


The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is so huge!






Sean and I were getting a kick out of these two guys who were weaving in and out of people doing fancy moves and such.

what you can't tell from this picture is that this was seriously the most packed place to stand in NYC. Seriously, if we had our kids with us, both of them would be on leashes!!!




Chinatown. It was like stepping into another place and time.

My hair is out of control!


We thought it would be a fun idea to go inside Macy's...


until we saw this:

We walked out soon after. It was awful in there!

The infamous Naked Cowboy. He was hilarious!



inside the largest toy shop in NYC: Toys R Us


I kick myself everytime I leave NY, because I never get pictures of my friend Marissa and me!! We went out to an awwwesome Italian restaurant called Crispo (last time they went, Leonardo diCaprio was sitting across the room!) and got to try Bone Marrow as an appetizer. I must say, I was a tad skeptical but it was pretty good. I didn't get a picture of it, but this is from the internet and it looked exactly like this:


The food was delicious, and the company was even better! :)

Marissa and I had some time one morning and headed over to the Guggenheim Museum, one that I had not been to. On the way there, Marissa walked this man to the subway...

About two minutes after this picture, it POURED. We had a few blocks to walk before we got to the subway, and we were laughing so hard at how DRENCHED we were. The front of our jeans were one color (WET!) and the back of our jeans were still dry. My umbrella couldn't handle the wind which made me laugh even harder.

I always try to go to a new museum every time I'm in the city. I was kinda skeptical of its collection because they didn't provide any info on its permanent collection, but W-O-W...it was truly remarkable. The permanent collection was so incredible. Tons of early Picasso work, as well as late, Chagall, Kandinsky, Seurat, Rousseau, Brancusi to name a few. I love all of their works, and I grew to love and appreciate so many more! (no pictures allowed inside) Boo!

Thank you, Sean for letting me tag along!!