Hello Princess :)

Hello everyone :)

This blog is going to focus mainly on my trip to the "Big Apple" aka New York City! I have been fortunate enough to have visited NYC twice now. Once in March of 2010 for a week and this time Aug. 20 - Aug. 24. The first time I stayed in Queens - Long Island City and this time we stayed in Manhattan - right on Times Square! Where a lot of the hussle and bussle takes place, but really, it is a huge tourist area. All of the big gigantic screens make it look so neat. We got to our hotel room and were able to look right down onto Times Square, which was fabulous. The city was our "night light". Onto the activities...

Day 1:

We arrived in NYC around 11:30am. From there on we visited the 9/11 Memorial, which was beautiful and obviously sad. Then, we headed to Chinatown and Little Italy. We ate a Chinese restaurant and I had General Tao's chicken. It was authentic, so it tasted a little different and they egg rolls were HUGE. We ended up having gelato in Little Italy and it was pretty yummy, but honestly, I probably could have had regular ice cream and been just as pleased; It was mint chocolate chip :) After all of that action, we headed to Madison Square Park where we did nothing but people watch and get a nice view of the Flat Iron building. 

Day 2:

After a night of rest, Shannon and I got up early to go visit Central Park. Of course within the visit of Central Park you get to see John Lennon's memorial and the Dakota. Trivia question: What significance does the Dakota hold?? After our lovely visit through Central Park, we headed to Grey's Papaya for yummy hotdog lunch. Then, we made our way to the Museum of Natural History. There we got to watch a movie about stars, see dinosaurs, and little things. Later that evening we ate at Virgil's BBQ with my grandpa, which was pretty good, but I feel as though I could get the same satisfaction from BBQ here in Illinois. After that, we headed to Rockefeller Plaza to visit the "Top of the Rock", which overlooks the city. 

Day 3:

After killer day #2 with all of that walking, we headed out to do more walking and things. First thing was to see Ole Lady Liberty and all of her glory. She was very big and pretty...and big. Oh, I need to mention that I decided to wear a dress on this day. Going out to see her involved a ferry ride. I used the restroom on the ferry, which was quite the experience and then later discovered that my dress was tucked into my underwear for probably a total of 10 minutes. I discovered this while I was walking up the stairs with people behind me. There you go, you can have your giggles. After Lady Liberty, we to ventured onto Ellis Island. After Ellis Island, we ventured back into the city and made our way to The Village. My way of understanding The Village is that it is "hipster". Back in the day, this is where the hippies gathered/lived, etc. (Correct me if I am wrong). We ended up eating at a pretty delicious place for lunch that is called La Bonitierre, or something along those lines. After we left The Village we headed to the Empire State building. The lines weren't long and we got up there pretty much right away. After that event, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with my grandpa for some dindin. This night we ate some New York style pizza that was located pretty near the hotel. Obviously it was very delicious. I mean c'mon, it's New York pizza. 

Day 4:

This day was my especially favorite day... Art museum day. Ha ha ha, I am joking. I am not really into art, but Shannon really wanted to do art things, so of course I did art things, too. Anywho, I got up pretty early because it was also the Today Show day! Carly Rae Jepson and Owl City were playing and I wanted to catch some tunes and see some famous dudes. On my way, I stopped in Times Square because Goodmorning America had been putting on some Dancing with the Stars and I wanted to see what all the rave was about. I had watched them set up everyday since we got there and I was determined to get in on the action. So, I get down there and here comes the dancers and Carson! Carson is the blonde gay guy from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He was also on a season of Dancing with the Stars. It was pretty cool. After that, I headed over to the Today Show. I heard Carly sing her "infamous" Call Me, Maybe then Al Roker came out...I left after that. Headed back to the hotel and got ready to head out and do art things. On our way to doing art things we stopped at Sacs 5th Avenue and checked out all the fancy stores like Ducle and Gabbana, Prada, and Gucci. We then had lunch with my grandpa at some Irish restaurant and then headed to the Met to see some art. Well, Shannon got to see a lot of art and my art viewing was very minimal. However, I did see some mummies!! After that, since we were far far far away from our home, we caught a bus back home. That night, Shannon went to see Phantom of the Opera and I went to dinner with my grandpa. After dinner, my grandpa and I got some gelato in Times Square and we were able to catch a music video being recorded for a band called Red Oblivion. During that recording, I also got to see the drummer for Black Sabbath. 

Day 5: aka Our last day:

This is the saddest of days because it was our last day in the "Big Apple" and yet, it was what seemed to be the most exciting for me. I got up bright and early at 6:00am to go watch the Today Show with my grandpa. Train was playing and I really wanted to see them, but when we got there at about 6:30, it was already packed and even though it was free, I really did not want to stay if I couldn't see them. On our way back to the hotel we ran into a place on the street that was setting up a little concert and it was for Fox Family. Apparently it is something they do every Friday and this day Rodney Atkins was performing. It was also free and included free Famous Daves for lunch, but I really didn't want to stay. Once again, as we are walking back to the hotel, who do I see? Rodney Atkins! We followed him for about a block and I could approached him for a picture, but I really didn't want to bother him. So instead, I got a really dark picture of him from behind, ha ha. We ended up back at the hotel for breakfast and after breakfast we went down to Goodmorning America and watched it being recorded. Here we found out that the hosts of the show were headed to the park to do recording there for the Concert in the Park. Not only that, but they were offering a free ride to people standing outside of Goodmorning America. The ride was on the double decker bus and it was something I had been wanting to do, so my grandpa and I did it. We get to Central Park and they let us right in the front for the concert. While waiting for the concert... stinkin' TYRA BANKS walks out on stage for a live interview about the newest season of America's Next Top Model. After that, The Wanted came out to put on their show. It was pretty wonderful, especially since it was all free :) Once my grandpa and I made our way back home aka the hotel, we got ready to go grab some grub at the Hello Deli. Then... it was time to go get our things together and leave. Drats. The end.

To say the least, our entire trip was fully packed with fun and I think we managed to do everything that we wanted to do. It is definitely a "once in a lifetime" sort of trip and if you ever get the opportunity, it is something that you should do.