New York City Times Three:)

Well, as most everyone knows, I flew to NYC with three girlfriends from work earlier this week, making this my third trip to the city. We flew in Monday morning and flew home Wednesday morning.

During the school year, Jill casually mentioned that if I ever found cheap tickets to NYC that she would go. As it happened, in May I found cheap tickets and rounded everyone up, getting Lupe to call me ASAP by stating it was an EMERGENCY, and someone else I had to badger into going, but I won't mention any names.

I am the last one to blog about our trip so I'm going to just highlight some of the fun and interesting things for me. Make sure you check out Dawn's and Jill's blogs for a more in dept recap of our 2 days in the city.

I HUGE shout out to Dawn for helping me manage both flights. I was a nervous wreck because I really dislike flying. My flights to and from Florida were rough, with the one coming home even dropping significantly in the air. The woman next to me yelled, "What the ****!" I was seriously dreading this trip because of the flights, but Dawn talked to me the whole time, made me laugh, gossiped, watched a movie, and didn't make me feel like a fool for having to use the bathroom so much:)

We left Detroit on time and would have arrived early in NYC but there was haze, which put us into a holding patten high in the sky. Thus, more anxiety for me, but we landed on time and found a cab no problem. Off to the city we went!!! We saw Shea Stadium on the way, which was cool!

We were a block away from our hotel when I heard Dawn say, "Oh, no!", followed by a grinding crunch and long scrap. The driver pulled over and I said, "We can get out here and walk to the hotel, no problem." I didn't want to be a part of two cabbies yelling at each other. Isn't that what we see on TV? The cab driver replied, "No, I will take you to the hotel." So, we proceeding the one block to the hotel. When he pulled up again, the other cab driver, who had hit us was there. Our cab driver asked, "You okay?, I'm okay!" and off the other driver went. They were so nice!! I guess cab drivers don't mind hitting each other?

Dawn and I went to check in while Lupe and Jill stayed outside, on my command. (I didn't know if we would get charged extra.) After much anxiety and waiting, we finally checked into our room, freshened up for the day and headed out. We met up with Amanda, Lauren, and Amanda's mother for lunch at one of the many soup, salad, and sandwich places NYC has to offer.

After lunch, we decided to do the Double Decker buses. I've been on them both of the times I've visited, but really enjoyed both trips. We took the Uptown bus and headed for Central Park. Last time I was in the city, my sister and I walked all over Central Park with out kids looking for the zoo. We didn't' see much, so it was nice to see so much this time. It was great to see the John Lennon memorial, Strawberry Fields, the Boathouse and Pond, and Cherry Hill! After walking around Central Park, we decided to get back on the bus. We got on the downtown bus and headed for the sights downtown. On the way we got caught in a rain storm, which was fun, if you like pouring rain, blowing plastic ponchos, and wind. We ended this day with a fun meal at the Brazilian restaurant, Plataforma, I found on the Internet. Four tired girls, no kids, wine, and a good time was had by all:) I think we got back to our room around 11:30 p.m.




The next day we planned to do the Today show, Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty, the musical Hairspray, and Chinatown. We had to get up early to go to the Plaza for the Today show. We arrived shortly after 7 a.m. and soon after Billy Ray Cyrus was there. It was neat to see him so close up, even those he didn't sing. I had so much fun doing the whole Today Show thing. I got to shake hands with Al Roker and Meredith Viera and I also got my picture taken with Al and Piers Morgan, the most recent winner of The Apprentice. We all got on TV at one point or another, yeah!! Again, this was another thing I had wanted to do and hadn't done on previous trips. Make sure you check out Joe's blog because he has a few clips of when we were on TV. What a great time!!

After the Today Show, we took the subway to Battery Park for the Statue of Liberty ferry. This was another thing new for me, and fun. We took the ferry over, ran into our friends from school, ate a cold and crappy meal, took lots of pictures, ticked off a woman who wanted to have a seat and view on the ferry over:) One or the other was all you could hope for, you either satisfied your eyes or your feet! Oh, and I can't forget to tell you about the personal rubber item used to prevent pregnancy Dawn spied in the water:)hehe!!

Towards Ground Zero and St. Paul's church we headed, next! It's amazing how silent everyone becomes at these sites. I've been to both before, but was glad to revisit them and refresh my memory. We took a tour of some sites at Ground Zero and received a talk from a Ground Zero survivor, which was extremely moving. If I could have brought the man home, I would have. The most moving part for me was the American Express memorial in the World Financial Center. It was incredibly touching!!

Needing to boost our spirits, we headed into the outlandish world of Chinatown! I've done this scene before, so it was nothing new. Dawn, Lupe, and Jill couldn't get over the people, the hidden markets, and the persistance of the people. After everyone was done purchasing the goods, we rushed back to the hotel room to freshen up for the musical.

We had to walk qucikly and couldn't stop for batteries for Jill's camera because it was exteremly important that we arrive early, even though we had assigned seats:) Love you, Dawn!! The show was super, we had great seats, and again we ticked off an old man because we stopped to gawk at the stage. He was shaking his cane at me!! Finally, we got signatures from Ashely Angel Parker, Marissa Perry, and Kevin Meaney, who had lead parts in the musical. Being it was so late, we decided to eat at the diner next to the hotel. Again, four tired girls, no kids, water this time, and a good time was had by all!!

We took one last trip up to the 35th floor, pack our suitcases, and went to bed. The return flight home was uneventful, but I am glad we took the morning flight after talking to our school friend, Amanda. She took the 4 p.m. flight with her family and ended up sitting on the tarmac for 4 hours! Yuck! Everyone made it home safe and we had a fablous time! Can't wait to do this again, maybe next time we might let the guys come:)