Saturday: First off, I have to say that without the help of Don's parents, his mom in particular, this trip would not have been possible... yes, they kept our kids, but his mom also woke us up Saturday morning after we slept in. If not for her, we would have missed our flight and our entire trip!!!! So thanks! After our flight to Dallas and onto New York, we arrived at La Guardia Airport just after noon. Flying in over water and landing on a runway built on water scared the heck out of me (ask Don about it), so I was already a little leery about the trip. Once we got our bags, we found the car that don had scheduled to pick us up. Abey, our driver, was just as crazy of a driver as any of the taxi's...I was scared of dying on the way to the hotel!! I'm not at all joking....at times people just jump in front of you, missing the car by inches and every car has scratch marks on it. Oh, the craziness of the city! When we got to the hotel, they informed us that check-in wasn't for another three hours, so Don and I decided to go get some lunch and see the Empire State Building. We ended up going to eat at this very authentic Irish Pub where the food was good. From there, we went to the Empire State Building.
(Don at the Empire State Building)
Having been to the Sears Tower in Chicago, I would have to say that the Sears Tower was more informative and nicer than the Empire State Building, but the Empire State Building allowed you to walk out onto their observation deck. It was so windy that I thought my glasses we going to fly off!!! The view of the city was amazing- it blows my mind how many buildings can fit on an island the size of Provo. After our climb up the Empire State Building, we walked back to our hotel. It was only 3 and check-in wasn't until 4, but I was sooooo tired, that Don spoke to a manager to see if they could get us in. Don walked up to the desk clerk and said "Don Borchert, super-duper Gold Elite Member, checking in." (FYI- we stayed at the hotel for free from all of the stays that Don has from being in California...he has TONS of points and really is an elite member). The clerk said "Yes, just like everyone else behind you.... (then he looks at his computer)...oh, my, you really are. Sorry!" Don just laughed it off, but the clerk worked really hard to get us into a good room quickly- I guess his trick worked. We had a corner room on the 16th floor with a great view down Broadway!
(Don standing in the window sill of our hotel room, which was a historic building)
(Us at the Rangers Game at MSG)
After Resting for a little while, it was time to go to see the RANGERS at Madison Square Garden, the most famous arena in the world!!!! It was really exciting to watch the Rangers play the Penguins. The game was really exciting... going into the third, Pittsburgh led 2-0 because of two lucky goals. With about a minute remaining, Lundquist the goalie, went to the bench and we had an extra attacker. After 30 seconds of passing and shooting, the Penguins had a shot at the empty net, which they missed. With 10 seconds to go, the puck was passed to a Ranger, who shot and scored with 8.4 seconds left. It was awesome to see such a great goal and Don's pure joy at the score. They went into overtime with no one scoring so it went to a shootout. The first two shooters of both teams missed the goal, our third shooter made the shot and their last shooter was stopped by Lundquist. The Rangers won the game!!! Being in the stands with all of the thousands of other Ranger fans was so amazing... I can't describe it other than totally AWESOME!
(The Rangers "Saluting" the crowd after their win)Sunday: Waking up, without the assistance of little ones, is such a small thing that I miss so much! It was great to just wake-up, order room service, and get dressed at our own pace. Heaven! After dressing, we decided to take a walk up Broadway and see Times Square on the way to our first show. It was a ZOO. No only are there a million stores everywhere, but they had an entire block shut down for street vendors. Zany. After having Lunch at the ESPN Zone (while all of the Sunday football games were playing), we walked through the shops...it reminded me a lot of Las Vegas. After walking another mile or so up Broadway, we arrived at the Winter Garden Theater. The theater itself was so old and intricate and Mamma Mia was spectacular! I expected it to be entertaining, but I was really swept into the story and the acting/singing was so amazing~ I really did want to get up and DANCE! Don even enjoyed it, which is saying a lot. So, if you have the chance to see the play, you should.
(Us in our rickshaw in Times Square)
Coming out of the theater, there were tons of little bicycle rickshaw drivers, so Don decided that we should hop on and go for a ride back to the hotel. Our driver was nuts! Driving between taxi's and posts, just missing getting killed. It was fun in the sense that I knew that nothing would happen, but scary in that I had no control over what he was going to do next. Again, something you should try just once in your life.
After taking a quick break at the room, we were off again to hike back up Broadway. On the way, we stopped in at Macy's New York. I have never been in such a large store in my life. It was 8 floors, with each floor being the size of a normal Target or Walmart. As we rode the escalators up to each new floors, it amazed me to see what they had inside the store. They had 5 restaurants and some snack bars to just relax at and on the children's floor was a full sized McDonalds. On the last few floors, they even had the old wooden escalators still in use. Crazy weird! After grabbing a quick bite at Macy's, we made it to the Shubert Theater to see Spamalot. If you've ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you know what it's all about. The songs were laugh-out-loud funny and the acting was superb. And Clay Aiken was even in that nights show. And he was really good! We definitely got into two great shows... I'm so lucky! After the show, we went to Carmines (a fabulous Italian Family Style Restaurant), which was also really great. (Oh, I wish I was Italian and could cook as well as they do!)
Monday: Today was our day to really see the city, and what a beautiful day it was. We got up and out around 9. First stop, Ground Zero- which was really, really downtown so we caught a cab (I felt like we were really, really going to die this time). Ground Zero was eerie... in a city that has a billion building and little open area, to see such a large open space kind of freaked you out. Different, but I'm glad I saw it. From there, we walked around the Financial District, saw Wall Street, and the New York Stock Exchange. We even found the Bull on Wall Street (yes, that is me grabbing the "bull's balls"~ anyone know the movie?) From Wall street, we went to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. We thought about going out to the island, but the line to get on the boat was nearly three hours long, so we passed on that one. Although we did see that Korean War Veterans Memorial, which reminded me of my dad. I was very proud of him! Eventually, after walking around the ENTIRE park, we found the subway to central park. The ride was quicker than expected and super cheap. I can see why lots of people take it.
(Don with the Bull on Wall Street)
(Me grabbing the "Bull by the Balls")
(Central Park looking out to 5th Avenue)
(Us in our carriage in front of The Tavern on the Green. I really look 6 month pregnant here!)
We got off the subway at Columbus Circle, just across the street from Trump Tower. We were now on the ritzy side of town, and you could tell! Walking into Central Park was like walking into a different dimension. It was quiet and peaceful and full of beautiful autumn colored trees. We decided to take a horse drawn carriage ride though the park. It was beautiful to see the playgrounds, fountains, ballparks, lake, and all of the people out in the park enjoying the beautiful day. We ended our ride at "The Tavern on the Green", a very hoity-toity place, where we decided to have lunch just to say that we've eaten there. The food was excellent, but the waiter was so snobby!!! I couldn't believe that way that he acted toward us, not all out hostile, but definitely "I'm better than you". It kind of made me angry. Oh, well, I guess that's how some New Yorkers act. After lunch, we walked forever to go to the FAO Schwarts Toy Store. I wish the boys were there with me. They had every toy imaginable! From FAO, we walked another forever down to the NHL Store, where Don got to meet one of the commentators from ESPN. Very cool for him. After that, we walked another forever back to the hotel. By this time, my feet were killing me and I felt as though we had walked all over town (which we had). I think we walked like 10 miles that day.
(Don and the ESPN Commentator at the NHL Store)
After resting at the hotel for maybe 5 minutes, our driver Abey was there to take us to the Ranger vs. Islanders game in Long Island. It was an hour long drive through Queens and Nassau county to get to the game. This game was good, though not as good as the first. The Rangers beat the Islanders 4-2, but that's not really the interesting part. The interesting part of the game was watching the Rangers/Islanders fans fight in the stands. Security escorted 7-8 people out of the arena for fighting. Don warned me, but I didn't really believe him. I guess that it's good that Don is a lover, not a fighter.
Tuesday: After having not slept well all night (I was up throwing up all night long), I woke up to Don's phone vibrating. It was the airline calling to tell us that our flight was cancelled. WTH? So we quickly packed and ate and hurried to the airport once our driver arrived to pick us up. It was pouring buckets and buckets and they expected it to turn to snow in the early afternoon. With our flight cancelled, they had moved us onto the next flight into Dallas, but Don checked to see if there was any other way to get back to Little Rock. Lucky for us, we had a very understanding booking agent, who went through a lot to get us on a delayed flight to Chicago and then on to Little Rock. We barely made the flight~ I would consider us extremely lucky to have made it to NYC and even luckier to have made it out! Although we had to wait in the Chicago Airport for 4.5 hours, we made it to Little Rock before our cancelled flight would have made it and the flight that we were bumped to was delayed and we would have missed our connection. We were really lucky!!!
I really, really enjoyed this trip with Don after having to deal with him not being home for the past 10 months. Hopefully, we will be able to go back again in a few years!!
No comments:
Post a Comment