Saturday, June 11, 2011

Vacation Continues

Although I cannot consider myself a city girl just yet, I have officially made my first journey to The Big Apple. I was definitely a small town country girl caught up in the hustle and bustle in the city! While it was nice to visit, I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that I would not want to live there. I cannot imagine having to navigate through that place on a daily basis.

We did the typical touristy things: Visited the Empire State Building, Took a Water Tour to see The Statue of Liberty, Saw A Broadway Show, and had a NYC Hot Dog and slice of Pizza. I must say that I was very glad to have visited the city so nice they named it twice with my "bestie" of 21 years. She's been living in Maryland for 10 years now, so she's become quite the city girl herself. She's an amazing navigator and hails a mean taxi cab!

PhotobucketI had a fabulous time but unfortunately the camera I took was malfunctioning. I took a few pictures and when I went back to review, they weren't on the card. I assume that either the camera was malfunctioning or the memory card was not accepting the images. Either way, the only images I captured to share with you of my visit are the ones I snapped with my Iphone. Fortunately it captured some great shots.

We waited in line at the TKTS discount ticket booth. Fortunately we got there and only waited an hour in the (record!) heat. It was pretty miserable, but in Times Square there is always entertainment!  The beautiful bride you see pictured here was more than blushing, she was glowing in the heat!  She was beautiful and took a moment to pose with her groom atop the stairs in the center of Times Square.  They were marvelously happy and she was positively breath taking in that beautiful gown.  Although I didn't know who they were, it made me smile to see them enjoy their special day.

PhotobucketWe waited in the ticket line a little over an hour to get discounted tickets to see the Broadway show, Rock of Ages,  an arena-rock love story told through the mind-blowing, face-melting hits of JOURNEY, NIGHT RANGER, STYX, REO SPEEDWAGON, PAT BENATAR, TWISTED SISTER, POISON, ASIA, WHITESNAKE and many more. In 1987 on the Sunset Strip, a small town girl met a big city rocker and in LA’s most famous rock club, they fell in love to the greatest songs of the 80s. It was an awesomely good time about dreaming big, playing loud and partying on! Becca and I both enjoyed it.

Before the show, we had dinner at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company.  It was recommended by a Facebook friend and am I ever glad she did!  It was awesome food and our waiter was great fun and even hit us with some fun Forrest Gump Trivia.  We did great on most of it, but failed the one about which movies featured both Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise.  There were three.  Can YOU name them?  Becca and I both had  Lt. Dan’s Drunken Shrimp: Large Chargrilled Shrimp and Andouille Sausage with Mashed Potatoes and Bourbon Sauce! It was scrumptious! There was a great photo opportunity while waiting to be seated, of course I couldn't pass up!  Ya love my shoes? 

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"That's all I hafta say about that!"

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Taken atop the Empire State Building
On Friday we did the Empire State Building. is a 102-story landmark in New York City, United States, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It is 1,250 ft (381 meters) tall. Its name is derived from the nickname for New York, the Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for 40 years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City. Although the views were breathtaking, it was a lot of waiting in many lines only to get to the top and be in mass chaos! If you got close enough to the edge to take a photo, it wasn't long before you were smashed or pushed enough you just wanted to get the heck outta there.

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Of course we stopped for lunch and had a hot dog from a street vendor in New York City.  It was delish!  We went from there to have a fresh slice of NYC pie (pizza!) .  We chose a hole in the wall place, I don't even remember the name, but I am fairly sure that it was close to the Empire State Building.  Being a plumber's wife, I can tell you that they are in desperate need of one in this building, as evident in this photo.  I knew I should have brought my husband with me on vacation.  He could have made back all of the money I have spent on the trip thus far!  ;)

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Me and Lady Liberty!
We ended our NYC trip by touring the city via The Hudson River.  We sailed down the Hudson, cruised around the Battery, up the East River, and under the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges. It was a fabulous time, and of course, the piece de resistance: Lady Liberty!!! I have to admit this was my favorite part of the whole trip! I had been looking forward to catching a glimpse of her on the Empire State Building, but seeing her up close on the water tour was simply breath taking!! She was definitely worth the wait in the hot sun to get tickets, and then on the boat to come back from the previous tour! I snapped a few photos while on the water, and I will share some of them here with you.  Please pardon the quality, as I said before they are phone quality photos.

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I really loved the bridges!
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Reconstruction of the World Trade Center!
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So beautiful!  Her shoe size:  879!

We had a great time and made it back to Baltimore all in once piece and have enjoyed our day back here. We had lunch at the Cheesecake factory. I won't bore you with photos of my lunch and dessert, but suffice it to say it was magnificent!

4 comments, add yours here:

Linda said...

Sounds like you had the time of your life and got to see a good bit of the city in the process!

In all honesty NYC totally wears me out and I'm always ready to head home, I am impressed that anyone can live there and still have energy!

I'm still bummed that I didn't get the chance to come down and meet you but life got in the way up here as it sometimes tends to do. We'll figure it out at some point.

Continue to enjoy your vacation with your BFF but I think by the time you get home, you're definitely going to need a vacation from the vacation!

Crazy Working Mom said...

Indeed, Linda! It really did wear the both of us out but I enjoyed it. I hate that we didn't get to meet up, but understand. Someday...hopefully SOON we'll have a "Mo Show - Yahoo Chat Groupie" reunion! ;)

Have a good Sunday!

Becca said...

Great times, great pictures and a great summary! Glad we could do it together.

Willy said...

Willy needs a vacation

10-4 Willy