New York City

I surprised Alex with a trip to NYC for his birthday back in October. We hadn't been since 2006, and with the new baby coming in January, we felt that an adult only vacation was needed. What a better time to go to NYC than during the holidays! We rented an apartment in Midtown for 8 days and left the day after Thanksgiving. Brooks stayed with his Nana and Poppy McGee the first four days and his Grandma Kaiser stayed with him at our house the last four days.

We had an absolutely fabulous trip and thoroughly enjoyed the time with just the two of us. Our little studio apartment wasn't the Ritz but it was all we needed and was only a 10 minute walk to Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall and 15 minutes to Times Square.











The weather was very cold for most days with temperatures in the low 30's in the mornings and mid-40's in the afternoons. The wind blew pretty hard which made it a little worse. It did rain one day but that didn't stop us from spending the day outside and standing in the 1/2 price ticket line. I grew out of my coat in the first two days so we made a trip to Burlington Coat Factory to buy one that would fit over my belly!


We saw seven broadway shows during our stay - Phantom of the Opera, Spamalot, Forbidden Broadway, The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes, Avenue Q, Wicked and Hairspray. All were great and some were absolutely hilarious! We had front row center for Wicked and Hairspray after putting our name into the ticket lottery and being one of 14 people chosen. We got to meet the cast members of Hairspray after the show, including Harvey Fierstein, who was phenomenal in it!











We did LOTS of walking through Central Park, the Upper East and West sides of the park, Chinatown, Little Italy and Times Square. We visited The Guggenheim, The Met and Trump Tower. I had a bagel from H&H Bagels, rated the 'Best Bagels in NYC.' It was good but it didn't taste much different than the delicious bagels from Einstein Bros. - go figure! We visited Café Lalo, where Meg Ryan is waiting for Tom Hanks with her book and rose in 'You've Got Mail.' We also had coffee and a rest at the Life Café in the Lower East Village where the writer of the broadway show 'Rent' (one of our favorites) used to hang out and do his writing. Being 8 months pregnant, I used every Starbucks restroom in NYC - thanks Starbucks!!! Thank goodness you can find one on every corner or I would have been in trouble!!! We also had lots of pizza - at least once a day...YUMMY!















We spent two mornings in the Today Show audience where we saw Heidi Klum, Bob Harper (from Biggest Loser), Kevin Bacon and Harry Connick Jr. (one of Alex's all-time favorites). Alex even met Harry Connick Jr. and got his autograph on one of his kid's CDs for Brooks. We were even on TV a couple of times!











We also spent one morning in the Good Morning America studio audience. It was different than The Today Show because we had to write the show way in advance and get confirmed. The studio audience is inside as well. The guests included Oprah's best friend, Gail, race car driver Jimmy Johnson and the Dean Brother chefs.















We planned to attend the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center but you couldn't get within a 1/2 mile of it due to the crazy crowds. We ended up going to see Hairspray instead and walked by afterwards for pictures. It is HUGE and beautiful and always had a crowd around it day and night.















By the end of our trip, our bodies hurt from all the walking and standing (not to mention being 8 months pregnant) and we missed our little guy at home. It was a wonderfully fun trip but it is always nice to come home to family and sleep in your own bed.