Waiting in line for Letterman
Monday morning we woke up bright and early for a jam-packed day of sight-seeing. Started the day off with a quick breakfast at a nearby coffee shop, then we spent an hour or so at the Museum of Modern Art and walking around that area. We walked back towards Times Square and checked out some of the stores, then got in line at the Letterman Show to pick up our tickets for the taping. We had an hour to kill after that, so we caught a quick bite to eat before heading back to the show. We spent the next few hours in the audience of the Letterman Show, which was a blast!! The guests were Shawn Johnson (the olympic Gold medal gymnast), Tracy Morgan and Solange Knowles who sang "Sandcastle Disco." After the show we were pretty tired from clapping so much, but wanted to continue our sightseeing, so we headed over to the TKTS booth were they sell day of broadway and off-broadway tickets. We ended up buying tickets to see "Avenue Q." We had about an hour to kill so we went over to a BBQ restaurant where we had a tasty dinner. Then we headed to the show which was HILARIOUS!! If you don't mind crude humor and aren't offended by some tasteless jokes I would definitely recommend seeing this show if you ever have a chance! After the show we walked over to the Empire State Building and took the elevator up 80 floors to the top. We got up there around 11 pm and decided to stay until midnight so Andy could celebrate his 26th birthday at the top of the Empire State building!! We had an amazing view from up there too! We could see the Chrysler building, Times Square, The Brooklyn Bridge and a very distant view of the Statue of Liberty :)
View from the top of the Empire State Bldg
Tuesday was another pretty early morning. We started off by getting another quick breakfast and coffee then we headed to the subway station for our first attempt at the public transportation system! We took the walk to the subway station and got to see The Plaza Hotel on the way, so Andy was pretty excited about that, since Home Alone is his favorite movie!! We first rode the subway up to the Metropolitan Museum and spent a while looking through the four floors of modern art. There was some pretty interesting art..to say the least! Our plan was to head up to the Guggenheim next but when we went to the subway we accidentally went the wrong direction, so we changed our plan and headed South. We got off the subway near Ground Zero and walked down to that area. We didn't stay to take the tour, but we walked around the gated off construction site and saw the memorial they have set up, it was very heart wrenching and difficult to be in this area, just knowing the horror of 9/11. After that we walked down and saw the Wall Street bull, then headed to the Staten Island Ferry for a free ride past the Statue of Liberty. After the hour long ferry ride we were pretty hungry since we didn't eat much for breakfast, so we walked through Battery Park and found a hot dog stand where we both enjoyed some delicious New York sausage dogs! After that we headed to the subway station and went up to Canal Street for some shopping on the Black Market. This was Andy's favorite part of the trip I think. He loved going into the little shops and having them take him to the back rooms to show him the knock off purses, wallets and watches. I got a Gucci and Coach purse that are both super cute :) After our shopping expedition we took the subway back up to our hotel to drop off our purchases and rest before dinner. Since it was Andy's birthday, I wanted to take him to a fun dinner. We went to "Hawaiian Tropic" which was pretty much like a Hooters, except the food and drinks were more expensive..the girls were all in bikinis...but Andy wasn't too impressed! After dinner we walked through the giant Toys R Us then to a restaurant where we picked up a piece of cheesecake for dessert! We went back to the room and shared the cheesecake and watched the movie Chicago before bed.
Ground Zero behind the Fire truck
Wednesday was our last full day in New York. We woke up at 5:15 (the middle of the night our time!!) and got ready to head over to watch The Today Show. When we got there we realized we probably didn't have to get there that early since there wasn't much of a crowd. Oh well..we had a lot of fun watching Meredith and Al and got to shake hands with both of them..and we were on t.v. for about 2 seconds! lol..After the show we got a quick breakfast then walked down through Times Square and the Garment district where Andy got an awesome deal on some suits for work. We continued the walk until we got to our destination--The Museum of Sex--we spent about an hour looking through the museum...it was very interesting, lol...hard to believe they would put some of that stuff in a museum...I'll just leave it at that!! haha..After the museum we headed back to pick up Andy's suits and drop them off at the hotel before we went to the Guggenheim. The building was impressive, but the museum wasn't anything too special...I liked the art at the MET much better..oh well..it's one of those things you just have to do when you're in New York!! After the Guggenheim we went into Central Park for the first time...it is so beautiful!! I think it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. We walked through the park for a while, then headed back to our hotel where we took a nap before having a late dinner. We went to dinner at Angelo's Italian restaurant where Andy had a delicious New York pizza and I had some pasta :) We were still pretty tired after dinner so we just walked around Times Square about an hour before heading back to the hotel to rest up for our last day!
The Today Show!
Thursday morning we got up around 8 again and got all checked out of the hotel. We bought another subway pass and took the subway up to the Museum of Natural History which was pretty cool. We got to see a space show in an imax type theater, then walked through the entire museum where we saw dinosaur skeletons, african animals, primates, birds and much more!! After the museum we took another walk through the opposite side of Central Park which was equally beautiful!! After a little bit of relaxing in the park we went over to FAO Schwartz and the Apple Store (2 stories!) We did one last swoop through Times Square and all the shops to make sure we got all the souveneirs we wanted before heading back to the hotel to catch a ride to the airport.
Laying down in Central Park
That concludes our trip to New York...sorry this turned out soo long!! I wanted to write this to remind me of all that we did too!! Here's a few pictures to enjoy from the trip as well! :)
