Start Spreading the News – we had an awesome vacation!

Concrete jungle where dreams are made.
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York!

That's right, friends, we took a big ole' bite out of the Big Apple. Y'all ready for this? We did a lot, I took a gazillion pictures (literally) and I've posted quite a few of them here. I feel like this is a marathon of a post. It will probably take you a while to read it, if you get through the whole thing, but on the upside, you can be reminded that it took me much longer to write it. HA! Maybe play a little "Empire State of Mind" to get in the mood to read about our trip.

What about the boys???? We did NOT, I repeat, did not, bring them up to NYC with us. That would have been mayhem. I couldn't have handled it. Luckily, we have 2 awesome Nanas (2 of my aunts) that were willing to come and spend a long weekend with these sweet things so that Thomas and I could have some adult time in the big city. MaSha was in Guatemala on a mission trip, so the Nanas really were on their own. I was a little nervous, but kept realizing that they could call me at any time, and they know how to dial 911 if a real emergency happened.

Before we left...pics with the Nanas.

Mary Nell, William and Ryan

William, Aunt Wanda, Stokes, Aunt Mary Nell and Ryan

Thomas and I have been looking so forward to this getaway. We LOVE NYC and we wanted to make it up there while one of Thomas's besties, Matt, still lived there. Bonus - one of my besties, Jacqui, just moved to NYC a few months ago. It was perfect! We did, however, have a little flight drama getting there. We were supposed to leave around 6 PM on Thursday evening and had a direct flight into LGA. We were going to land around 8 PM, get a cab to Matt's and be eating a late dinner somewhere around 9:30. It all sounded great....until our flight got cancelled. Apparently, NYC was experiencing a huge storm that was affecting flights. They re-booked us on a flight that left at 6:30 AM on Friday (and yes, that meant we would have  had to be at the airport by 5:30 AM - UGH) and wasn't direct and we would get to NYC around 10 AM. That put us at Matt's by 11 AM and I felt like half of the day would be gone before we even got to start exploring! I was not happy. Thomas called to see if there were any other options. We got a 4 PM flight for Thursday, connecting through Atlanta, and arriving at LGA around 9. We took it!!! We made it to Atlanta with no issues, but started getting concerned when our flight to LGA kept getting pushed out by 30 minutes. It was delayed 4 or 5 times. Ruh roh. We didn't end up getting dinner in Atlanta because we didn't like the menu at the first place, then spent some time walking around between terminals, then studied our options at the directory, then walked around some more (hey, we had plenty of time to kill with all our delays!). We finally settled on something, had to wait, finally got seated, waited for our server, looked at our watches and realized that we didn't have much time actually at that point and needed to just grab something quick in our terminal, near our gate. We left and went back to our terminal. We also noticed that our flight that was currently scheduled for a 9:15 departure, and in danger of being delayed again, was 2 gates down from a flight to LGA that was scheduled to leave at 8:45 and was boarding! I am still baffled as to why our flight kept getting delayed due to weather and this other flight was boarding and about to take off. Anyway, we talked to a gate agent and got on standby for the 8:45 flight. Guess what....we actually got on it!!!! So we really didn't have time to get dinner at all. I was too excited that we made it on a flight to be hangry (hungry + angry) about dinner! Sorry for the long story, but we finally got to NYC around 11 PM. We waited in a ridiculously long line to get a cab! What was the deal with that?!?!? We seriously waited in line for over an hour. Ugh. Talk about tired and the hunger started setting in! Finally we got a cab and got to Matt's apartment somewhere between 12:30 and 1 AM. It was a long day of travel, but we were pumped about being in NY. You can just feel the energy there and it feels amazing.

Travel time!

Airport selfie at LGA - we made it!

Ridiculously long line to get a cab :(

In the taxi!

When we finally got to Matt's apartment, somewhere between 12:30 and 1 AM, he had these scrumptious little bites of heaven there to greet us. They're bite sized cupcakes from Baked by Melissa and were incredible and came in creative flavors like chocolate chip pancake, pb&j, sugar cookie and more!

Baked by Melissa mini cupcakes - you can see
we dug in before I took the first picture!

Friday

I was so glad that we actually did make it in on Thursday night so that we could have an entire day on Friday. We found a restaurant near Matt called the Barking Dog and had breakfast there. We had planned to have a girls day/guys day on Friday. I would meet up with Jacqui and Thomas and Matt had time on their own as well.

Our first Subway ride for this trip!

I met up with Jacqui and thus began our girls day (aka #JacquiAndKatieDayOfFun).

First stop: Madison Square Park.

Beautiful fountain

Jacqui walking under the cool artwork exhibit

View of the Empire State Building

Jacqui: Welcome to NYC! Let's have fun!!

How awesome does Jacqui look?!?! Seriously. She has a great ability to make life fun. Whether she's in Charleston or NYC, she acclimates herself so well to her surroundings and just jumps right in. She lives life to the fullest. She is always tons of fun to hang out with and being in NYC with her is fabulous!

Second stop: MAC store. 

See, MAC has this awesome recycling program, called Back to MAC. If you return 6 used MAC makeup containers,  you can get a free lipstick. Jacqui just happened to have 6 containers to trade in and was generously willing to let me have the freebie. What what!!!! That right there proves what an incredible friend she is. I am too cheap frugal to buy makeup from MAC so this is a real treat (drug store make-up, anyone?!?!). :) Thanks, Jacqui!!!

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Applying make-up at the MAC store
Shamelessly posed. Taken by the MAC employee that helped us choose our
lipstick shades ;)

Besties - with new lipsticks!!!

Next stop: St. Mark's Place. 

After our make-up shopping, we strolled through St. Mark's Place in the East Village. It's such a cool area - so eclectic and fun. We found this little Mexican gem for our lunch spot. Jacqui had eaten there before and gave it a good rec. I concur!

Lunch spot

Margarita -woo hoo!

Lunch - yummy tacos, chips, salsa and guacamole!

Selfie on St. Mark's Pl

Next stop: Nail salon. 

Continuing our "girlie" day of fun, we just had to get mani/pedis. Did you know that a mani/pedi in NYC is super duper cheap? Like $20. SCORE.

Pamper time!

Fun times at the nail place

Pedicure...ahhhh...

Meanwhile, the guys were doing a little of this....

View of the Statue of Liberty

NYSE

Wall Street

Yummy yummy dessert display

Pony Bar

Quite different days. Different strokes for different folks (read: girls rule, boys drool).

Next stop: Vu. 

Late afternoon/early evening, we all met up for Happy Hour at a little place called Vu. Jacqui and I got there first and then told the guys to come meet up with us. I did miss Thomas throughout the day, despite all my fun with Jacqui. I was glad to see him and Matt! Vu is a casual and cool rooftop bar with an amazing view of the Empire State Building. Don't you just feel like you're in a cool city somewhere when you're at a rooftop bar?

View of Empire State from Vu

Jacqui and me enjoying a little happy hour

The arrival of Matt and Thomas

Loving on my honey

Loving on my bestie

Matt and Jacqui!

At some point, we decided that we were over Vu (it was pretty crowded, although it's not possible to get over that view!) and wanted to move on.

Next stop: a bar called Cask. 

I honestly can't remember if Matt and/or Jacqui had been there and recommended it, or if we just stumbled upon it. That's the thing about New York...you can just stumble upon some really cool places anywhere!

Jacqui and me at the bar

Matt and Thomas

Thomas and me

Next stop: dinner.

We had a reservation at Carroll Place, a casual and fun restaurant in Greenwich Village. Jacqui went home to hang out with Adam, so it was just Thomas, Matt and me for dinner.  None of us had been here before, but their website and menu looked good and {shocker} it was great! I loved the atmosphere in this place. It was just cool.

The guys!

Matt's dinner - some sort of fish??

My pizza - with argula and prosciutto. SO GOOD!

Thomas's dinner - gnocchi

Dessert - Nutella calzone. Magical.

Walking around after dinner

Saturday

Saturday morning we got up and wanted a real New York bagel! 

First stop: H&H Bagel.

Matt has this H&H Bagel within a few blocks of his apartment. Jacqui had actually mentioned this place on Friday, unbeknownst to her that we were planning to go. Apparently it's well known. 

My pick - plain bagel with lox cream cheese. Delish!

Just a random street. I love taking random pictures in New York.

Next stop: we walked by the MET and saw the outside of it.

Matt and Thomas in front of the Met.

Thomas and me in front of the Met.

Next stop: Central Park. 

We walked around this pond called the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. It was gorgeous and we loved the views.

Is that the building from Ghostbuster's behind us?!?!

Next stop: Museum

After we walked around the reservoir, we went over to the west side of the park and to the Museum of Natural History.

American Museum of Natural History

Thomas and me outside the museum

Dinosaurs in the main lobby

Thomas checking out the dinos

Matt, T-Rex and the real T-Rex

I had to take a picture of the pterodactyl because we used to
say that Stokes is a pterodactyl (and he still sometimes
sounds like one!). :)

Elephants

Matt and me

Go Tigers!!

After the museum, we were super hungry and it was past time for lunch! 

Next stop: Eataly! 

It's a play on words for Eating like you're in Italy. HA! It's this awesome place that has several restaurants and also it's like a market for all sorts of Italian food and other goods. Jacqui and her husband Adam met us there. We got our name in at the pizza and pasta restaurant and walked around while we waited. We tried to get a meat and cheese plate and a glass of wine during the wait, but never could figure out where to order it and before we knew it, our table was ready.

The building was covered in scaffolding so it wasn't much
to look at from the outside.

Matt, Thomas and Jacqui

Time to eat! Jacqui and Adam

Thomas and me

Our pizza/calzone. YUMMO!

Meat market!

Bread for sale

Homemade, legit pasta

No Italian visit is complete without some gelato!

Jacqui, Matt, Thomas and me in front
of the Flatiron Building

Next stop: Freedom Tower.

At some point on Friday, Thomas and Matt had gotten tickets for us at Freedom Tower and reservations at 4:30. We pretty much had to book it after Eataly to get there in time for our reservation!

Approaching the Freedom Tower. I think this may be
a museum.

Freedom Tower. I love how it looks like there's a cross
along the side of the building.

It's massive

View straight up.
Freedom Tower is the tallest building in
the Western Hemisphere and has
102 stories

Freedom Tower has an observation deck on the 100th floor. You basically wait in line (for a long time) and take an elevator up to the 102nd floor. The 48 second elevator ride is awesome because it shows a video all around the sides of the elevator walls that is the historical timeline from the beginning of Manhattan and as the buildings were built up from there. You accelerate so fast and so high that your ears pop! Once you get to the 102nd floor, they have a little presentation for you and you end up going down a few floors to the 360 degree view of Manhattan on the observation deck. It was really, really cool to see. I was a little surprised that they didn't mention much about the Twin Towers and 9/11 at the Freedom Tower. I suppose that is saved for the museum and the Memorial plaza. 

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Hudson River and west side of Manhattan

Matt's sister, Currie, moved up to NYC
a few weeks ago and joined us
at the Freedom Tower!

They have this cool simulated video floor showing
movements down below.

Such a cool view, right?!?!

Bridges in to Brooklyn -
Manhattan bridge further away and Brooklyn Bridge closer

View of the 9/11 Memorial from up high

Thomas and me

After Freedom Tower, we had a short time frame to get ready for our evening. Therefore, we had to take a cab and forego the subway. 

Picture of one of the bridges from the cab

Next stop: Comedy Cellar.

We had tickets to go to the Comedy Cellar on Saturday night along with Jacqui and Adam. I've never been to a comedy club before and wasn't sure what to expect. It was so funny and we all loved it!

Jacqui and me at the Comedy Cellar

Thomas, Matt and me

LOVED  it!

Next stop: Watering hole.

After the show, we grabbed a drink at the White Rabbit. It was a bar right around the corner and was...interesting! I love a new experience. 

She's so much fun!

Cheers!

Next stop: Dinner.

Eventually we decided to eat dinner (probably around 9 PM at this point, but it's not weird for New Yorkers to eat late - you know the expression, when in Rome haha!). We ate at Ramen-ya. Apparently ramen restaurants are all the rage. Side note: how old did I sound when I just said "all the rage"?!?! Wow. 

Ha! Love this girl

Where's our food?!?!?!

My hubby :)

My ramen bowl - yum yum

Last stop of the night: Thunder Jacksons. 

They had some fun tunes playing but we made up 1/2 of the people in that place. We didn't stay very long.

Thomas and Matt hanging out with a poster
of Das Boot (this is an inside joke with
their buddy, Joey - I have no clue).

Matt, me and Jacqui

Sunday

Saturday was a big and busy day. We had to sleep in just a little on Sunday. We eventually got up (I really couldn't sleep in too much and feel like I'm wasting our time in NYC), and took a jog in Central Park. Are you proud of us?!?! You should be. ;)

After our jog, we went back to H&H Bagel for breakfast again. What can I say, it was a really big hit!

Post-run selfie at H&H

I felt like I wanted something sweet, so after H&H we went by a crepes place and got a big old crepe to share and some coffee. The crepe was so yummy! And in case you're wondering, the answer is yes, all we did in NYC was EAT!

Strawberry jelly crepe!

After we got ready, we took off for another full day of adventures and making memories.

The guys in the subway station

We got off at the stop near the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan

Next stop: walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. 

There is an area between the two traffic lanes that is made for walkers and bikes. 

The guys starting off on the bridge

Matt and me

View of the Freedom Tower from the bridge

USA! USA!

Thomas and me on the bridge

Selfie time!!

The views were spectacular!

Once we finished our walk across the bridge into Brooklyn, we roamed around a little and went to grab some lunch. 

Next stop: Grimaldi's in Brooklyn

We decided to eat at Grimaldi's, known for pizza. This is the line. No reservations. We spent a lot of time in New York standing in line. Just sayin'.

Line for Grimaldi's pizza at lunch

Where they make the magic happen

Thomas being silly

Matt and me

Our pizza! It was good (but not the best ever)

Next stop: Canal Street.

After lunch, we hopped on the subway back to Manhattan and started wandering around. No trip is complete without going to Canal Street!

Can you tell how excited they were about
shopping on Canal Street?

Next stop: exploring around SOHO, NOHO, the Village, etc.

Fun streets in Greenwich Village

Matt and Thomas

We took a little dessert break throughout our walking around.

Giant cookie, cheesecake and mini cannoli

We love dessert!

Next stop: Washington Square Park. 

We made our way over to the park to relax for a little while, people watch and take in the sights and scenes.

Thomas and me

I love this fountain and the arch

Bromance???

There were these funny and entertaining street performers that we watched

Great entertainers!

These guys were tired

It felt SO good to sit down for a minute.

Next stop: Happy Hour.

Cheers to another fun day!
Happy Hour at a bar near the park

We were enjoying just taking a few minutes to relax at Washington Square Park that we didn't feel the need to rush back to Matt's apartment and change and get ready for dinner. We blew it off so that we could just chill and enjoy the moment so we had to go to dinner in what we were wearing.

Next stop: dinner at Osteria Morini - another great dinner!

Our pastas!

We all loved our dinner

Next stop: Grand Central Station.

By the time we were done with dinner, it was late..but we weren't done yet! We hadn't been to Grand Central Station yet, so we did a little stop there on our way home. It's incredibly beautiful! I love that we went there later so it wasn't crowded at all. We could really see everything and get a good feel for it.

Grand Central Station at night

Back to the subway!

Next stop: Central Park again.

You might think we were done then, but not yet!!! We were definitely tired, but there were some areas of Central Park we wanted to see and hadn't gotten to yet. We walked through (and felt safe!), but didn't necessarily find the areas we were looking for. We did come across this pretty pond!

Central Park at night

By the end of the day, we were exhausted and knew we (unfortunately) had to get up really early the next day to catch our cab back to the airport. It was such a fun-filled day and weekend! We seriously tried to maximize all of our time and get the absolute most out of our trip. You know that expression, "we need a vacation after our vacation" - so true in this case. We were worn slap out.

BTW, I had to capture this. See here? This is what the guys did during whatever little bit of time we did spend at Matt's apartment. Like while I was showering and getting ready and after we got home at night before we went to sleep. Matt had seasons of Game of Thrones available and Thomas is behind in his viewing.  They watched an episode at any short period of down time between all the items on the agenda. They're both obsessed.

Watching TV

Game of Thrones

We hated to see our long weekend come to an end. We had such a great time in the big city with some of our great friends and had seriously perfect weather all weekend. I'm sure it felt hot to New Yorkers but to us, it was awesome! The only upside to ending the weekend was that we were ready to see the boys!

Here's what we came home to on Monday. The Nanas did a spectacular job with our little guys. We owe them big time for keeping our precious ones safe and sound while we were out in the big city. Thank you, Nanas! 

I couldn't wait to get my arms around each one of them!!!!

William, Aunt Wanda, Stokes, Aunt Mary Nell and Ryan

Until next time, New York, we'll miss you. Hope to see you again soon!