new york, new york : round 2 : 2010 : the finale

i know right.

like seriously - how much longer does this trip go on???!!!

this is the last post about it.

scouts honor.

sunday morning, d.might & i took the subway uptown to church.

and lo & behold ran into a familiar face...

jessie!!

one of my sister's best friends!!

it was so nice to see her & catch up for a little bit - we went to starbucks after church & then road the subway back to midtown together.

she is such a beautiful soul.

love her.

we also happened to find the winning version of 'ducky-mo-mo' for ava!!

doesn't look a thing like a duck, but she loves it just the same.

the chrysler building.

just standing there all shiny and pretty.

while we were walking down 5th ave, we stumbled upon this little gem of a parade...

and lets face it. 

it's no secret how much i love a parade.

the music! the dancing! the sycronization!! ahh!!! loved it.

these dudes were killin' it with all their bells and whistles.

i'm dead serious.

there were bells on all their boots and they blew whistles.

amazeballs.

that night we went to one of the only two places in the world i eat burgers from - 5 napkin!

me & d.might!

....and 2/3 of barts face.

typical.

this boy and his sushi.

oy vey.

yiz. uck.

and here we have what normal people call Y-U-M!!!

so, so delish.

after dinner we made it back down to the financial district, since we cut the outing short the other day.

of course, it was like 10pm & everything was closed, but it was still amazing to see it with construction lights on & such.

it was right around this time we all needed a bathroom break and of course, chaos ensued.

we were in a building observing ground zero and finally found a restroom on the ground floor.

however, we only found a men's bathroom - we couldn't find the women's!!!

ugh. we were on the verge of dying, i kid you not.

soooo, we made sure no one else was around & had the boys watch the door.

if i never have to use a men's bathroom again. it'll be too soon.

but it was pretty funny at the time.

or maybe we were just getting delirious.

i'm gonna go with the latter one...

we were really trying to get on the last ferry ride of the night, you see. to go out & see the statue of liberty. but we had some detours & hiccups along the way. duh. because what fun would it be to just go straight to the ferry??!!

it was on this alleyway where someone dared me to jump a fire hydrant just to see if i could get off the ground...

and i. did.

here is the only clear picture out of about 34 that turned out of me & amanda with good ole george.

you can't see amanda's shoes in this picture can you??

that because she took them off 3 blocks back.

and continued the trip barefoot.

the new york stock exchange, of course.

we were also wandering around for a starbucks that was open.

guess how many we found in a 4 block radius with 2 stores on each corner?!?!?!!

that's right - not a one.

the boys & the bull.

and finally...

we made it.

at 11:34pm.

4 minutes after the last ferry left.

i believe you'd call that a F A I L.

amanda & i spent the next day shopping the entire time!

but we did, however, manage to make it to chelsea.

fat witch bakery.

eh. overrated.

amanda with the food network logo!!

they still wouldn't let us upstairs.

rude.

we called the boys & had them meet us for lunch somewhere special..

special is hard salami sammies & cel-ray soda, if i do say so myself.

and of course, zak morris right next to you.

he probably wanted his phone back from amanda...

our last night in the city, we split from the boys for this guy...

oh. yes. we. did.

being in the audience for a live tv show taping was crazy fun!

seriously.

amanda & i even made it on tv!!

and jimmy shook her hand!!!

she said it felt like death.

but we laughed & laughed & laughed.

total fun time.

around midnight we wandered over to grand central to see what the bums were up to.

 it is always stunningly beautiful.

then headed over to times square for a last HOO-RAH! and on the way over, found my name on a building...

obviously this city loves me.

well, at least this building does.

we went to junior's for coffee & cheesecake & it was DE-LISH.

we weren't prepared for what all was about to go down though...

while we were chillin & eatin & chattin it up, amanda went across the street to get some souvenirs for the kiddo's in her class at school.

about 5 minutes after she left, it got cold.

quick.

and the winds picked up.

enough to throw some chairs around the patio we were sitting on.

and then,

the bottom fell out.

and i mean FELL. OUT.

and here comes little ole' amanda through the sheets of rain with her little bag of pencils!

hahahahahaha!! 

we started out when the rain let up a little bit, only to have lighting durn near strike us right in front of the hard rock cafe {in which we ducked for cover}.

it finally let up a little bit again & off we went.

but, alas - we had to stand on the curb & wait for traffic.

and most normal people wait a few steps back, yes??!!

and now, amanda knows that after being COVERED - and i mean COV-ERED in street sewage from head to toe.

twice.

she was soooooo mad she didn't say a word to any of us the entire walk back to the hotel.

and i could not stop the giggles.

i know, i'm horrible.

but it was literally like a scene right out of a movie.

and with morning light, it was all said and done with.

wonderful trip. wonderful friends. crazy wonderful good times.

amen.

new york, new york : round 2 : 2010 : III

we kicked off the weekend with breakfast {our hotel always has a killer breakfast} and headed out for a PACKED day.

we stumbled upon a little street fair when we left the hotel & just perused through it down avenue of the americas.

of course you can see the empire state building on the left in the pic above - but that tall orangish-brownish building over there on the far right is our hotel. and all those beautiful trees are bryant park.

what does one's view look like in the mornings staying at such accommodations you ask?? well, you have two choices...

 bryant park.... or...

the empire state building.

ummm - like either of those would ever be considered anything but an awesome view!! HELLO.

 as we were walking down the street, i asked amanda to snap a quick pic of me & d.might...

and ended up with a sweet photobomb by bub rub. awesomesauce.

the street fair was pretty neat - there were all sorts of vendors! pashminas, hats, sunglasses, etc. and of course jewelry booths - one even had bugs in the jewelry. like for real insects.

and it totally smelled like toad suck daze. not the jewelry. the actual street.

we finally made our way down to our intended destination - the first stop of the day...

i've had this print in my room since around the age of fourteen and even though i adore it -- i can't help but think of how my accident prone self would fall plum off that beam if it were me eating my lunch up there.

the empire.

the park.

the boys.

we headed over to brooklyn {ahem, via the subway, mind you - s.c.a.r.y. stuff} after our top of the rock adventure.

we'd heard of the best pizza place ever and we're full believers of not leaving any stone unturned.

and here is the line to get into said best pizza place ever.

however, there was this little park just down the street, overlooking the river - so we took turns standing in line & walking around down here a little.

grimaldi's pizzeria.

tiny. old. full of italian dudes.

and delicious pizza & root beer. 

it was so good!! but i'm not really one for waiting an hour and a half {on a good day} for food. 

call me impatient if you must. 

but the last thing you'd want to deal with is me waiting for food...

why take the subway or a cab back into manhattan when it's just a bridge away??

exactly.

loved walking back across the brooklyn bridge.

except for almost getting taken out by people riding bikes.

twice.

we stopped at a few points just to observe and found this little jewel written on the bridge right were we happened to stop...

f.a.t.e.

the brooklyn bridge.

we eventually made our way over to ground zero, of course.

because it doesn't matter how many times you've been down there - it is always an amazing thing.

the cross at ground zero.

this go-round they had the 9/11 memorial store open. so in we went.

i wish i had the adequate words to describe what it feels like to be in there, to see everything in there.

this is a replica of what it all should look like when construction is finished. simply amazing.

unfortunately amanda got seriously sick right around this point, so we decided to come back and see the towers, construction, and what was once ground zero.

she rested a good part of the afternoon and evening and luckily felt well enough to make it to one of the biggest highlights of the trip...

the yankee game.

yankee stadium, the bronx.

new york yankees v. the minnesota twins

american league championship series - game five

of course you need a broom when the yank's sweep the series!!!!

SWISH-ER.

and this lovely, lovely little thing is what one might refer to as a bleacher creature.

and the other one to her left... jury's still out on if that was her son or her date.

crazy fans. crazy win. crazy, CRAZY good time.