New York City

Okay, so our New York trip was AWESOME!!! We fell in love with New York and found ourselves thinking, "why have we never been here before? Why have we never lived here before?" I distinctly remember a conversation back in college when we were first married, about internship/first job opportunities. I said I would prefer west coast b/c that's where all our family is, but in the end, would go anywhere except NYC. Why did I limit myself like that?

Anyways...I'm not going to do too much commentary, because most of you probably have the exact same pictures and are thinking, been there, done that. But 5 full days definitely gave us time to do all my big checklist items and then some. And even though there was no snow, NYC at Christmas time was magical.

our first night there we went to the top of the Rockefeller Center to see the view and the empire state building was all lit up green and red for Christmas!


the rockefeller Christmas tree. and no, we didn't ice skate--we're not big ice skaters, but watching for a while was fun.

another shot of the tree

we saw the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall--really cool!

We found NYC to be very similar to Tokyo. We felt right at home. except NYC had way more limos and food vendors. (loved the hot roasted peanuts!) They don't eat on the street in Tokyo.

carriage ride through central park--at midnight! this city never sleeps...
we got tickets to the Letterman show!! We were totally surprised b/c I had submitted our names 6 weeks ago and never heard anything, and then our first day in NYC, we got a call, and Ryan answered the trivia question correct (thank goodness!) and we were in! He was not allowed to repeat the question outloud to make sure me or anyone on the street could help him.

It was so fun to see how it all works. during a commercial break, like 15-20 people would rush up on stage to do stuff/talk to Dave. The guests were Anderson Cooper, Lindsey Vonn and Donald Glover's rap band--who is Troy from the Community tv show!

getting dressed up and seeing Wicked and Phantom was my favorite part of this trip. We had awesome seats for both!!

Check out the bling on these shoes!! 5 1/2 inches. This was my splurge and early Christmas present for myself. and no, they were not that comfortable. Yes, I could walk in them just fine, and I LOVED them. except my heart dropped after coming out of Wicked to pouring rain. you know how people joke about how it's impossible to find a cab in NYC when it rains? Totally true. I was not thrilled at the idea of walking 15 blocks back to the hotel in those shoes. I thought about going barefoot. but we ended up going out to dinner around the corner to wait out the rain.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge

Times Square--really reminded me of Tokyo, except I could read all the signs!

Central Park

also not pictured but VERY impressive was the 9/11 memorial site. It was a very quiet and almost reverent atmosphere as everyone remembered that day and saw both the construction of the new 1 World Trade Center and saw the 2 memorial waterfalls with all the names where the twin towers once stood.

and a quick stop at Crumbs in the airport on the way home. for 1 or 2 ...or 12 cupcakes. every hour or so on the plane home, Ryan and I would get out our cupcakes and try a new one... :)

and that was our fabulous trip!! Thanks mom and dad for watching the kids.