In the cab on the way home from the restaurant Sunday night, we heard the weather report: 19 degrees. Monday forecast at 6 am: 11 degrees with a wind chill of 5! We hemmed and hawed a bit and then decided it just wasn't worth it to get up at 5 to stand out in the cold for a POSSIBLE chance of meeting the Today Show cast. We'd sleep in till 7 or so, have breakfast, and then make our way to Rockefeller Center at our leisure. We arrived about 9 am--just in time to see Matt, Meredith, and Al hustling back inside the building to warm up. Here's a little note to those who have not tried this before: that group of people standing with signs and cheering didn't just walk up and stand there. They had to walk all the way to the end of the building, have their bags checked and their signs approved, then weave their way back up between the barriers to the front. We were disappointed, but noticed there was still a group of people hanging around so figured it was worth a little wait to see what would happen. We went through the clearing procedure and staked out a place behind the Toys for Tots set up. Half an hour later, much to our delight, out came Al and Ann (and Lester?). Long story short, both of them came over and wished Alyson "Happy Birthday" (our sign said: Sweet 16 in NYC-sponsored by DAD). Both of them posed for a picture with her and then they went on air. If you happened to be watching the Today Show during the 9:30 hour on Monday you saw Alyson standing behind and between them while they opened a couple of segments out on the Plaza!
We went to watch the skaters after the segment ended. We decided we were too cold too skate and then headed for Starbucks.
Did you know there are 171 Starbucks in Manhattan? Alyson and I thought we ought to plan a trip back to see if we could count and visit all the Starbucks in the city but I found out some other guy had already done it:
http://gothamist.com/2007/07/18/171_starbucks_i.php
Anyway, back to our story. Unfortunately, at that moment in time, before any nice, warm stores had opened, we couldn't locate any of the 75 or 80 Starbucks we had seen the night before. We finally found one inside Trump Towers and happily settled in a table to warm up.
The rest of our day Monday involved a lot of walking and shopping. We went to FAO Schwartz, the big underground Apple store,
and over to Central Park. We declined several offers for carriage rides and just popped into the park a bit.
We went to a store called Juicy Couture, where Alyson spent a big chunk of her birthday money on a hoodie. We bought souveniers, had lunch at a local deli (yum!), back down to Herald Square and Macy's to pick up something I saw the night before,
and gazed up at the Empire State building. We didn't go up to the observation deck like we had wanted because the one on the 102nd floor is closed for renovations.
Disclaimer here for those who may have noticed the lack of "culture" on our trip:
Unlike our usual trip-taking agendas, we were strictly going for fun. We based our most of our sightseeing around our favorite movies-Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Elf, Big, to name a few. That and shopping. We went to no museums--and we definitely plan on going back with the entire family to do that sometime.
We shopped and shopped, and shopped some more on Monday. We took a cab down to Soho and shopped. Then we tried to get a cab over to the World Trade Center area, which was a bad idea right at rush hour. So we walked all the way over there. We didn't get to see much because it was dark and busy with commuters, but did get a feel for the enormous hole it left in the city. Just being there gave me the feeling so many of those people must have felt trying to get away. It was chilling. And quiet. That's something I really noticed. Walking along the streets all through the city, there is chatter and noise. People talking on phones, to each other, horns honking. But in the WTC area, it is eerily quiet. There are just as many people; they're just all being quieter.
We found a cab finally and asked him to drive us to Battery Park so we could at least glimpse the Statue of Liberty. Going out to it had been on our agenda, but time was against us. We got a nice view, but unfortunately none of the pictures really turned out. Our cabbie waited for us then drove us back uptown to our hotel and it was time to head home.
I had gotten more and more nervous about driving out of the city after walking around for two days and watching the traffic. Going into the city wasn't too bad because I didn't know what to expect but now I knew. Thankfully, by the time we had finished shopping (we made one last stop at Lord and Taylor's to look at the windows, which ended up being my favorites)
it was 8 o'clock and the rush hour traffic was gone. We actually headed right out of town, into the tunnel and were back in New Jersey in no time at all. Thank you so much to those of you who were praying for us as we drove. Things went more smoothly than I could have imagined.
This was a thrilling weekend for both of us. A great time for us to spend time together, talk, and relax. I'd love to go back and maybe ought to start saving up now so we can go see Wicked again! For those of you who voted for the mom/daughter trip to NYC, great job! Now we need to do it with the entire family. Maybe it can become a Christmas-time tradition for us. :)
One thing I will definitely do next time: wear a pedometer. I am really curious about how many miles we walked in two days!
And huge thanks to our benefactor, aka "Dad," for this amazing trip! He made it possible for us to have such a fabulous time.
The boys had a good time of their own here--getting to go to a college basketball tournament at the Verizon Center in DC (BB&T classic), and having a day off school Monday!
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