Day One in NYC

That's really interesting to check the last entry date on your blog when you're not an obsessive compulsive blogger like me. Some people update their blogs everyday...don't ask me how ANYONE has time to do that, or the patience. Some call it therapy I guess. It stresses me out though to try to keep up on it. Well, it has been quite awhile since I blogged last. We have had just wonderful weather. I mean really wonderful. 60s in the mornings and 70s in the afternoons. Yummy. The perfect fall weather for South Dakota, or anyone I guess. We have tried to spend lots of time outside. The kids ride their bikes everywhere. Gabe rides to and from school everyday---by himself. (I know all the parents out there will gasp at this and shame on me. blah blah) I guess I feel the same way about buses as a lot of people do about sending my first grader on his bike alone. I know...I know....no one can drive up and steal them out of a bus like they can on a bike. I get it. (Can you tell that I have been scolded a lot for this whole "bike thing"?) I'm okay with it and I'm this child's mother. WHEW! Got that off my chest. laugh.




So I have been preparing for a big trip I just got back from. I've been working and working--I almost feel really bad for how much I was working just trying to get everything under control. I know in most areas of the country the real estate market is not so good, but I have been just crazy busy. I can't complain at all about the work I have been blessed with. It's just an adjustment. I had so much fun buying lots of new clothes, shoes, and pajamas before I headed out. I got my nails done and made sure I had plenty of batteries for the camera. And so the story begins... I bought my plane ticket in July or early August for a trip out to see my aunt and uncle who live in Philadelphia. For me, this is the trip I always dreamed of having since I was a little girl. I have wanted to go out to visit my aunt and uncle and stay a week in the city just eating it all up without my family. That may sound weird to some, but when I started visualizing my dream vacation I didn't have a family or any children. So I've had it in my mind of it being my aunt and I for about 12 or 13 years now. And it finally came true!!!! YAY!! We planned on going to NYC for four days of the week and then Philly for a day and a couple days of travel. We had gotten tickets to Regis and Kelly that came to my house in the mail a week or so before I left. And in that pile the ticket stayed. Do you thik I remembered to take it with me when I packed my suitcase? nope. After a few moments of realizing that I didn't bring the ticket I call my husband in sheer desperation and he scans it, we get it and print it. The lady questioned us on where the original was when we were at the door, but I make my pouty face and she lets it go. When I got in we ate some yummy soup that Kathy made and then off to yoga class at her church. That was an interesting concept to have yoga at a Christian church, but I really wanted to do what she wanted to do. She always comes here, appreciates our lifestyles over here in SD without judgment and I wanted to do that for her as well. It was kinda creepy, but I just kept telling myself that I was stretching and not focusing on anything dangerous or whatever. So the next morning our day starts at 3:30 to gt ready and catch a train to the city that departed at 5:15 AM! We had to drive a half hour to the train station and then take the ride for an hour into NYC. We caught a cab to the hotel and were able to get into our room at 6:30 that morning. Thank goodness they had a room for us to drop our luggage off. We caught the subway to get to the Regis and Kelly show line by 7:30. It was really fun to watch the show. It was interesting to watch a live show instead of it being taped and edited. Kelly is so skinny in person. She is really beautiful and crazy. Regis has an apartment across the street from the studio and walked over right before the show surrounded by his bodyguards. Everyone watched him walk across the street and all the women in the studio in line screamed and gasped. ha!

Here we are just waitig for the show to start. We didn't realize we had worn the same colored shirt that morning.
Molly Shannon was one of the guests. She is just one of those people that makes you smile the whole time you listen and watch her.

The studio was much more big and beautiful than what is captured on tv. It was the same color as Nobody's kitchen. You are so in style Nobody.

It was a Jewish holiday the day we got there and a lot of the fabric and trim stores I wanted to hit up were closed for observance. We did get into one store though that was AMAZING and HUGE!! I could look it up to see what the name of it is but it was all about accessories and trims. There was a sign that said "No Pictures" but I managed to take two without them noticing.

Rows and rows and rows of stuff. There were trims at hundreds of dollars per yard with tassels and gold and everything you could and couldn't imagine. It was pretty expensive though and I didn't come away with anything other than a couple pics and a desire to go back every day for the rest of my life just to fondle every trim in there.


So after the trim shop we decided to go back the next day when everything would be open. We then hit up 5th Ave. and walked and walked through all of the shops. We stopped at the American Girl Doll store because I am living vicariously through my daughter and am pushing my childhood obsession with American Girl dolls onto my little girl. I never got one since it was way out of my parent's Christmas or birthday budget, so it was now my time..I mean Ella's time. I got her a beautiful doll for Christmas (Shhhh...don't tell her) and that is it. That's all I could afford in that store. ha!

The funniest thing in that 3-story store of little girl's delight was the hair styling salon for dolls. Kathy and I just stared at this fantasy land we had come across. It cost $15 to bring your doll from home whose hair was ratty and used in to have it combed and curled like a real person. There were lots of other things you could pay for. Braids, bows, curls and all kids of fun things. We also stopped at many of the expesive shops on 5th Ave. to check out all of the thngs we couldn't afford and never wanted. You know, like the python skin bags for $5800 or the $15000 furs at Saks, or the crazy huge pink diamonds at Tiffany's.

We then dropped in to check out the carvings and massiveness of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The carvings ad sculptures and alters in there were so amazing. All of the people and the quietness was just kinda eerie. And the fact that you could step off the streets of NYC in the hustle and bustle and business of the world into a building that is hudreds of years old. The alters were masses of gold and marble and had great dipictions on them of different Bible stories. The ceiling was so high with more arches then I could count. Amazing building.

So of course we had to stop at FAO Schwartz and check out the unique and great toys. I can't even imagine what that great store looks like at Christmas. We had to see the big piano like on BIG the movie. Took lots of pictures for the kids to see too.

Coke in one hand and a pirate in the other at FAO Schwartz on 5th Ave in New York. Really...what more could you ask for?


After a long day of walking our feet were very tired and we relaxed on a carriage ride through Central Park. It was so beautiful and relaxing. Ahhh....just thinking about it now is so good. We sat and sat watching the sketch artists, people dressed up like the Statue of Liberty taking pictures with tourists for tips, and homeless people begging for money. Such an interesting way of life for all of these people. In my mind, it is such a hard way of life.

To wrap up Thursday we went over to one of Kathy's long time friends house to check it out and eat with her. She lives in the Upper East Side (think Sex and the City) about a half a block from the Guggenheim Museum. They renovated four floors of an old old apartment building. When I say renovate I mean completely gut, redesign, and fill it back up with very posh expensive decorating and architecture. It is an apartment worth $15 million dollars. Holy junk. That is the most expensive house I've ever been in. Amazing. Really amazing. You even ride one of those really old elevators to go up and then walk out into the apartment after you open the gate. ha! After the tour we went down the street to a little authentic French restaurant with great great food and service. It was pretty spendy, but SO worth it.

WOW! We got all that stuff done in ONE day. Our feet were killing. Different shoes for the next day for sure. And those were my comfortable ones! I guess I realize that you can really get a lot done in one day when you get up at 3:30 am and go to bed at 11:30 pm. I should try that more often. laugh.