New Yawk

I got that off of Wikipedia and I thought it was perfect! But, to be totally honest, I only heard one lady with an accent fitting to "New Yawk" on our 3 1/2-day trip to the city. Yep, we finally made it on our long-awaited and anticipated vacation to NY to visit Davis, Melissa, and, of course, to see the city. OK, so I must give a warning now to all readers: this is a travelogue and if you don't like 'em, stop reading NOW.
So, with that out of the way, we started in Albuquerque at 7:30am and had to make stops in two other cities before making it to New York. We stopped in Denver and then in Atlanta where my mom came to the airport to take Oliver for the weekend. We are so thankful we did that, though it was difficult to say goodbye to our little guy for a few days. Thanks, Mom, for making that happen and taking such good care of him! Anyway, it really felt like we were on our honeymoon all over again without a baby to take care of and by the end of the weekend we hardly felt like parents and had totally forgotten what it was like to have a kid. I must admit that it was kind of nice until we saw his big blue eyes and heard his laugh all through the terminal when we picked him in Atlanta. We REALLY missed him! OK, OK, back to NY.
So, after arriving Fri. night, we hopped in a taxi and drove to Davis's apt. in Manhattan. We got right down to business- started with dinner at a cute little restaurant, went straight to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and, of course, the Apple store. At the Rockefeller Center, we went to the "Top of the Rock" as they call it, and it definitely made for one of the highlights of our trip. After a long elevator ride, we made it the VERY tip, top of one of the tallest buildings in NY. It was about 11 at night and the city was buzzing. The view was incredible, though I was a little weak in the knees with the height and all. You could see all of the city and we couldn't believe how far the skyscrapers stretched. Wow- what a beautiful, unique place!
We missed our goal of being out before noon on Sat. by about three minutes. We started in Soho, went down to Canal Street, had lunch at Edward's in Tribeca, then on to Battery Park (also incredible views of the city, the Statue of Liberty, and the Hudson River), Ground Zero and the little church next to it that's been museum-ized, Wall Street and the Financial District, Union Square, Greenwich Village and Chelsea, with a stop off at Magnolia Bakery where Davis waited in the line that curled around the street while Christian and I explored (FYI: just buy a box of Pillsbury cupcake mix and make 'em yourself- at least they won't make you sick if you eat two in one sitting), and our last stop was at Rosa Mexicana, a famous Mexican restaurant (guacamole made at your table- translation: yum, yum). Are you tired yet? Because I am. Needless to say, we settled down to a movie that night at the apt.
The next day was the big NY marathon. 26.2 miles and apparently Katie Holmes finished in about 5:30. I went away from this weekend thinking, if she can do it, I can do it. Next goal: run a marathon (Though I have bad luck with these. I sprained my ankle 2 weeks before one I had trained and trained for in college.) It was seriously motivating to see all the runners and they were walking around town all day with their metals and aluminum foil-looking blankets. We went to church at the building with the temple in it and then went to lunch at Patsy's- seriously the yummiest pasta I have ever eaten. We then went to a fancy apartment, filled with fancy people, for a fancy get-together of Davis's buddies who ran the NY marathon. We chose to veg that night, stay at home and hang out with Davis and Melissa- good times. We were on our own on Monday as Davis had to go to his big shot, wall street job. So, Christian and I headed out to Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge before meeting up with our big shot brother, Davis, for lunch in Times square. We made one last stop at Dylan's candy bar before heading off to La Guardia. All in all, it was an AWESOME weekend and a special thanks to Davis and Melissa for being the BEST tour guides ever.
If you thought our trip was over, you're wrong. Since our plane was 1 1/2 hours late leaving La Guardia, we were stuck in Atlanta for the night and then had a three-hour layover in Denver before making it home to Albuquerque, more than 24 hours after we left New York. It was good to finally be home.


This is Top of the Rock...


Central Park