Empire State of Mind

Some time in October my husband got an official go ahead e-mail to book a trip to New York City for not only himself, but a plus 1.  Guess who got to be the plus 1?
After the initial shock of an actual opportunity for mostly cost free and completely child free trip to a place I've never been, I got busy e-mailing and talking to friends about what to do with those children during our child free trip as to keep the cost as minimal as possible.  I didn't even have to beg.  We have great friends.  However, the generosity of one was tested and next time I might have to beg, bribe or find some other unsuspecting friends.  All's well that ends well.  We came back to three well fed and well loved children.  The youngest one may never have a positive view of New York.  The day after we got back and one of mentioned the need of a shower she said, "You stink because you went to that New York place".  She'll get over it.

We left on Wednesday and arrived an hour later than scheduled, but still had plenty of time to check into our hotel, grab some snacks and get fancy.  Our hotel happened to be directly behind another hotel under construction.  The construction involved some unbelievably loud hammering between the hours of 7 AM and 5:30 PM.  We decided it was just part of the New York City experience and we weren't there to hang out in a hotel room anyway.  The actual purpose for the trip was an event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrating the year of chemistry (I think)?  Some sort of chemistry celebration.  We started with a meet and greet, then dinner that included a speech about being better business people.  My mind might have wandered occasionally during the speech, but I think it was a man.  Just kidding!  It was a former P&G worker guy who now apparently makes speeches and writes books.  Anyway, the whole event was a far cry from my life as a stay at home mom, former nurse chick.  Here I am in front of the Met before I was wishing I could remove my feet from my body.  I love these shoes and I'll wear them again when I am going somewhere that requires no more than 10 steps at a time and no standing.

Times Square.  And those shoes again.

After our 7 AM wake-up jackhammer, we were off to Central Park for a short run.  Then back to the hotel to request a room change--hoping the side opposite the jackhammer might be just a little bit less jackhammery--it was almost jackhammer free our final morning there.
Then on to the "hop-on, hop-off bus tour" a la London 2008.  This time with 2 less adults, 6 less kids and 2 less double strollers.  Now I see the appeal.

We had gorgeous weather--it was hazy and we had minimal visibility from the tops of buildings, but rain had been fore casted for the entire day and we had no rain until almost midnight.

The former Ground Zero.  We couldn't see much of the memorial, but we saw the line to get in and were told the waiting list for tickets is several months. 

The memorial is behind all of that construction.

Bad timing for a good view of Lady Liberty, but we knew she was there.

Were these also a gift from the French?

I had no idea there was a "famous bull" in NYC, but here he is.

We didn't see those occupying, just the street.

The line was just going in when we walked by on our way back to the hotel.

Just to change clothes and head out for more...Top of the Rock.

Empire at night.

Look kids, this is what parents do without you---we eat giant candy and stay up all night!!!  Mwahahaha!!

Over-priced and life flashed before our eyes pedibike ride.  I kept thinking about the guy we saw dressed like a giant bed bug and wondering if he would approve of the blanket we were using.  Yikes!

Grand Central Station in really bad lighting, but it was beautiful in real life.  If we weren't so tired and hungry waiting for our 9 PM dinner reservations, we might have tried harder to get better pictures.

New York Public Library.  My husband had no idea he was on the Sex and the City Tour.
This was the last stop before dinner.  No taxis?  We walked.

We ended with coffee.  We did not have a big salad or two small salads.  I had cold apple pie with no whipped cream and he had cheesecake.  We were probably the only people in there actually old enough to watch Seinfeld before syndication.  We listened to the enlightened conversations of today's college students at Columbia, saw what could have been the first cash register ever made and also, that fore casted rain made its appearance.

One more picture while the taxi we grabbed from some other coffee seeking Columbia students waited um, patiently?  That's all.
Back to life.  Back to reality.  Back to three kids, one who apparently would like a sworn oath of some sort that we will never, ever both leave her at the same time again.