About: New York City Anniversary Trip

*Preface: This post concludes my blog catch-up! 1 day - 3 videos, 6 posts, and hundreds of pictures, and I'm all caught up from the last 3 months + this trip... hopefully I can not get so far behind again. When I sit down at the computer lately it just feels like work, so blogging isn't something I feel a desire to do much anymore, but I don't want to be done blogging just yet though. This blog is my "photo album" and my memories and the connection for some of you to stay current with us.  I could and probably should work on making Shutterfly albums for the kids, but those are intensive and so time consuming, and one more thing to do on the computer. So, all in all, this was a To-Do on my checklist and, it's probably not quite up to my quality standards - but it's done, and I feel good about it. End rant*

We went to New York City to celebrate our 15th anniversary!

... last October - but, better late than never?

Ripley wasn't happy about it, but we sure were! 

We took a super early flight out figuring it would be better than taking a red-eye, and I think we were right. 

 Because we flew into La Guardia we got the BEST view... 

 Well, hello Lady Liberty

Flying into La Guardia is unreal - it was the perfect introduction to Manhattan. 

We discovered that our hotel was only a 9 minute walk to Rockefeller Center, so headed there as soon as we dropped our bags.... and had searched everything for my missing ID, left a "missing item" report on Delta's website, and called the airport. Yeh, it turns out I left it in the bin at TSA in Boise :( It used to be that you needed it when you first walked up to the TSA line, and then again when you walked through the metal detector, but I guess they don't do that anymore - and so I had tossed it in the bin with my purse before it went through the x-ray machine and then hadn't grabbed it out on the other side. Ugh! I'm sure they found it right away - why didn't they do an all-call over the intercom? Oh well - so I spent at least an hour on the phone with the airport trying to figure out how to get it to me in a hurry - poor Linda had to run out to the airport and get it to the FedEx to airmail it out within an hour, because they were closed the next day. So that was an "exciting" start to the trip...

But at least we were in NYC!

We just did a little walking around through this area and then headed back to our hotel for a dinner reservation at an Indian restaurant literally next door. It was amazing! Not only our first time getting Indian food - but also, a very lovely restaurant and experience. We stopped back at our hotel, checked out the rooftop - and then decided to walk back to Times Square (only 13 minutes away). 

After meal #1 at an incredible Indian restaurant next door we were refueled and ready to sight-see. What's better than Times Square at night? And hey, while we're at it, might as well just get ourselves some...

Tickets to a Broadway show! "Waitress" is one of our favorites, I saw it last time, but Todd has only heard the soundtrack.

We were just needing a littles mackerel of something afterward - and Magnolia Bakery was on the way back through Rockefeller Plaza. We got a traditional cheesecake - because New York - and a cupcake - because Magnolia. Both were perfect!

Ok, we like it here. 

Picture a nice stranger took that turned out more than acceptable. 

The next morning Todd had scheduled us for a tour of NBC Studio in 30 Rock - we were initially disappointed to find out that Saturday Night Live wasn't shooting that day, but once we realized we wouldn't have been able to tour it's studio if it was filming, we were super glad. So, we got to see where Nightly News with Lester Holt, SNL, and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon film - and to top it off, Hoda Kotb was also giving a tour of the Tonight Show studio to her friend so we got to chat with her really fast. The whole tour was super interesting and engaging, we were so glad we did it!

 Literally the best Italian food ever, manicotti in Times Square. 

 We were stuffed after eating this, but had to stop and get a Dough doughnut while the opportunity presented itself. I put them in my backpack and we hit the subway (Todd's first time) to Brooklyn. Just look at how beautiful...

 We wandered a bit, but settled on a beach to have coffee and doughnuts in the sunshine.

 Does this look familiar? It's a pretty famous view of the Manhattan bridge. I notice it everywhere now... online, in ads, tv, etc.

 We decided to walk across the bridge instead of the subway to get back to Manhattan.

 Last time I walked across it, it was nighttime, which was also beautiful, but this was nice to really be able to see everything, including the Statue of Liberty way out there.

We walked all over the Financial District, crossed over Wall Street and saw the NYSE, but our main goal was to see Trinity Church - it was amazing, all that history buried in one small spot. 

We also walked around the World Trade Center memorial, which was sobering of course. But we didn't have time for the museum since we needed to head back uptown for another show. "King Kong" was still in previews, so it was cheaper, and easier to get into. The real star was King Kong - who did not sing, but he did plenty, and he was huge, and loud, and pretty intense. 

The next morning we went to the Chelsea Market for breakfast and then a walk on the Highline. This place is gorgeous, a must do, however - we were not dressed quite as warmly as I would've liked for the wind and chill of the day. 

Every so often the trees and plants would part and you would get a view like this...

The Empire State building was basically everywhere we turned. 

The Highline went on for far longer than we realized, and we finally just had to get off and find some coffee to warm us up. 

Thankfully the sun came out and made being outdoors bearable again. We just never could get over randomly coming across scenes like these of the Chrysler Building...

Grand Central Terminal - so pretty, but the best part is the hustle and bustle.

Washington Square Park and a peek of NYU

This was possibly the most exciting thing we did - tickets to "Mean Girls", 2nd row, original cast. It blew our minds. 

And then like true nerds we waited at the stage door to hopefully see any of the amazingly talented cast...

And oh did we see them...almost all of them, but it wasn't after a few people came out that we got the courage to hold our Playbill out and get some signatures.

And because you just can't waste any time in NYC, also because it's the city that never sleeps. We decided to go to Top of the Rock at midnight and stand at the freezing tippy top for an hour talking to New Yorkers and getting the best view. 

Even when we left, there were stills skaters. 

We were PUMPED for this day - it was Central Park day... you have to walk by the Guggenheim, it was just terrible. 

... but first coffee, Ausralian coffee, in an old church, on Fifth Avenue - because New York. 

yes please and thank you

This maybe looks pretty plain, but it was legit the BEST banana bread  I have ever had in my life, with a bite of that ricotta, dipped in a little honey - holy tastebuds. I will have this again every time I am able, ever. 

Ehh, Todd's brekkie was alright, jk though it was amazing. 

First stop, the Met. 

It was perfect. 

Then we had our official "anniversary dinner" at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park. It's pretty famous; has been the setting in many a movie. 

We were lucky to get a table near the window

And splurged on some fancy food, that we would normally never eat - but we did, and we loved it. 

Then, time to explore. 

Contemplating life

Balto

It was perfection, and that's all there is to it.

So then, to celebrate further, we got a reservation for a rooftop bar with this view. It was fancy, I maybe didn't feel quite fancy enough to be there, and had to order food that I wasn't really hungry for ... worth it. 

Ah - the last day. We got ready and packed completely up and left our stuff with the bell boy so we wouldn't have to worry about coming back early to pay. The first thing we needed to do was walk back to 30 Rock one more time, we needed to find treats to bring back for family... and ourselves. 

Todd got a latte from the Ralph Lauren truck and declared it was the best latte he'd ever had. Oh and it was staffed with male models. 

I took this pic for my sister, SAKS 5th Ave. was getting all gussied up for Christmas even though it was two months away. I wasn't sorry about it. 

I dragged Todd downtown to the Flatiron district for a coffee - he was dubious about the time but I really was trying to not waste a second of the last day. We got stuck on a subway for longer than we cared to, and when it finally pulled into a station - we decided to walk the rest of the way, just in case. Brooklyn Roasting Company is always worth it - the Maple Shay, mmm.

Since Central Park was our favorite thing, we decided to head back to the eastern corner, and take one last step into it for making our way back to the hotel, but the subway line we needed was down (we should've realized this), so in my efforts to take another way back I accidentally got us on a line that went north instead of east and we ended up at the opposite corner. Honestly we weren't sorry about it, we got to walk all the way across it one more time, and took one more sit on a park bench and soaked it in. 

Did you even go to New York if you didn't see a pigeon? (or a rat, or a bat - apparently, because we did)

The very last thing we had to do was get a New York bagel and we literally waited to the last minute. This AH-mazing bagel stop was directly around the corner from us - and they literally had a line around said corner every morning. We had to catch an Uber at 1:45 and got in line to get this little beauty at 1:00... we got it just in time to walk to a little garden across the street, scarf it down, and run back over to our hotel in time to get the suitcases from the bell boy. 

We were SUPER sad to leave - easily another day or two or seven could've been filled with seeing sights and eating eats that we hadn't before. But of course, we were happy to see the kids and unpack all of the treats we had brought them. This trip is literally the BEST memory we have had, just the two of us, since our honeymoon - which was also epic. Todd said it beat all of his expectations and frankly we are both already ready to go back anytime.