Vacation Recap, Days 5-7

The last half of my vacation to the East Coast was spent in New York City.  I had originally planned to fly home Tuesday midday, but everyone convinced me to stay a little longer so they could take me to the city.  Let me tell you, they really had to twist my arm!  I was able to get things squared away with work and graduate school to stay the extra time so I did and boy am I glad it worked out!!

Tuesday morning after breakfast, all five of us loaded up and hit the road to the big city.  It takes about an hour to get from Dan and Laura's to the outskirts of NYC, but obviously with traffic and what not it took longer to get into the actual city.  When we first got to town we headed to SoHo to go to Kelsey's favorite store.  From there we headed to Little Italy and Chinatown and did some window shopping and browsing at the store fronts there.  We ended up finding some cute purses and jewelry that no one could say "No" too.  By this time we were all starving and decided that lunch was next on our To-Do List.  The last time Laura and Dan were in NYC they found Heartland Brewery and wanted to share it with us.  I had the most amazing plate of Tex Mex Nachos and a delicious adult beverage, sorry no pictures.  After lunch we wandered in and out of some of the boutiques and shops around Seaport.  I was also able to see the Brooklyn Bridge!

I had great luck shopping in that area and ended up with three dresses and a bunch of accessories thanks to Dan and Laura.  I'm telling you these two people are the best EVER!

After leaving the Seaport area we headed to our hotel.  For our impromptu trip to the city we stayed here...

The hotel was commissioned by William Randolph Heart in 1926 as a statement of love for Marian Davies, whose picture is located everywhere through the hotel.  Many old time Hollywood celebs have stayed at this iconic hotel back in the day and it really is beautiful!

Around 6:00PM we hit the city streets to walk to supper, but along the way we went by...

 For supper we went to Gallagher's NY Prime Steakhouse.  This particular restaurant has been serving great steaks in NY for 85 years!  That's a lot of beef!

We dined on clams, crab cakes, crab cocktail, sauteed baby spinach, sauteed mushrooms and of course some very delicious steak!  I had the signature "The New York Strip" which is dry aged to perfection for 21 days.  To wash it all down we drank several bottles of champagne and toasted to great trips, great friends and a great meal.  After we left the restaurant we headed to Times Square, which was really magical at night.

Times Square is certainly a big draw for tourists and I had no shame picking out magnets, key chains and signs to bring home for Matt!  Somehow we also found ourselves in this store with giant statues, where Kelsey found some of her relatives!

Isn't the resemblance striking?!?!  Love you Kels!

By this time the rain set in and we took refuge in the the BIGGEST M&M store I have ever seen!  There was just about every colored M&M you could imagine, as well as clothes, jewelry, and statues of the characters.  Do you have a favorite character?  I've always like Yellow, he crack's me up.  I also had the opportunity to try the Dark Chocolate Mint M&M's, holy cow they were yummy!  The rain had begun to let up and we decided to brave the sprinkles and head back to our hotel.  Along the way, Kelsey climbed into a fountain on a dare.  Did you know you can get arrested for that?  Oppsy!  Thankfully, we didn't get caught.  To wrap up a great day we all had dessert and drinks in the bar of the hotel and then headed to bed.

Wednesday morning Dan and Laura headed back New Jersey and left Kelsey, Luke and I in the city to be collected by Tommy, my chaffuere.  We had breakfast downstairs in the hotel and then headed towards Central Park for a carriage ride.  While it may be touristy, I didn't care I needed some horse-time!  Joey took us on a great trip and our driver Ian told us all about the park and neighborhood.

 After leaving Joey, Kels and I broke off from the boys who wanted food and headed to Forever 21 and did some more serious shopping!  We both did really well here and came home with some cute clothes.  From Forever we walked down the block to Macy's.

This store is seriously HUGE!  Seven floors and a whole city block huge!  Ladies, there is TWO floors of just SHOES!  The building itself is really cool, my favorite feature is the old wooden escalators.  Talk about historic. 

This is the last photo I snapped in the city and it's very "New York"...

Someday I hope to come back with Matt and actually go up inside.  That and do some of the serious tourist attractions too like the Statue of Liberty and a Broadway show!  Crowds aren't really Matts thing so it might be more like dragging him...

Leaving the city we went through the Lincoln Tunnel, which spurred an entire conversation of Elf quotes!

"I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel."

" I'm a cotton-headed ninny-muggins."

"SANTA! OH MY GOD! SANTA'S COMING! I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!"

I seriously love love love this movie!

Once we were back in NJ we were all spent!  Exhausted hardly covers it.  The evening was spent watching movies, eating Chocolate Covered Pretzel ice cream, and relaxing. 

Thursday after packing and breakfast, Tommy showed up and took me back to the airport in Philly.   Matt and Bella both showed up in Bloomington to collect me, talk about the welcome wagon!  I'm not sure who was more excited to see me, Matt or Bella?  The trip out to New Jersey was wonderful and I'm so grateful for the Muirhead/Young family for having me out to see them!  I'm ready to come again whenever you are!