New York In June

Short Version: We had an amazing time visiting NYC in June. Our faves: Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to eat pizza under the bridge in Brooklyn, getting lost in Central park, seeing the Statue of Liberty, watching Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, attending a live David Letterman show, eating authentic Valencian Paella (Reed's), eating a 5 course gourmet meal at the French culinary school for $40 (our best meal), and finally, just walking and walking and walking and enjoying the diverse mix of people and places. Not so faves: standing in endless lines, and the many unpleasant smells on the streets and in the subway!

Long version: On the 22nd of June, Reed and I flew from ABQ to Newark. Reed was attending an SEC reporting conference at the Marriott in NYC the 25th-26th, so we thought we would make a vacation out of it. Our parents, bless their wonderful souls, undertook the job of watching our rambunctious children while we played. Thank you!

The first two nights, we stayed at a ghetto hotel in Jersey City, since we were paying. We don't have pictures of the hotel, basically because we feared for our lives and didn't want to be seen with any type of electronic device. (I am only exaggerating a little!) We took the train into NYC and spent two days sightseeing before Reed had to attend the conference. The weather was absolutely perfect the first 3 days of our trip, and then it got downright stifling for the remaining 2 days.

The first day, we visited Ground Zero, a humbling site, rode the Staten Island Ferry (free and very windy) which gives you a great view of the Statue of Liberty, walked the financial district (Reed was excited) and saw the site where George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the U.S. (scroll down to see the pic.!). Reed was also giddy to see the NY Stock Exchange and get his picture taken with the bull. We also walked by some amazing old churches, complete with cemeteries right in the city.

Next, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, and gazed upon the beautiful view provided by the NY skyline. We walked into Brooklyn, and were surprised at how beautiful it was (at least where we were). Gorgeous old brownstones and bountiful trees adorned the streets. We then waited in line for 30 minutes at Grimaldi's(see the pic.) to be jammed into a tiny pizzeria so that we could eat coal oven prepared Brooklyn style pizza. Was it worth it? Yes!

After our lunch we met up with Reed's friend, Amanda, from high school. She was an excellent tour guide and helped us figure out the subway, while showing us the East village, Chinatown, Union Square, The Strand (an amazing bookstore), Rockefeller Center, and some I am probably forgetting. Thanks, Amanda!

The next day ,we fortunately moved into the hotel we stayed in for the remainder of our trip, the Marriott in Times Square. It was very nice and had a great view (see the very top pic.). We also felt much safer there, which is an added bonus. After getting settled, we visited the Natural History Museum, which was cool, but expensive. It would have been much more enjoyable to have Owen with us to hear him get excited upon seeing the massive dinosaurs! Next, we walked through Central Park. Amazing. Such a variety of landscape, people, happenings, and also very easy to get lost in!

Monday I spent the day walking, and getting lost. It was still fun, though! That night we ate at the French Culinary school in Soho. It was fabulous. The food was amazing, different from anything we had experienced before. Definitely recommend it!

Tuesday we fulfilled one of Reed's lifetime dreams, to see the David Letterman show. I was not quite as excited, but I played along! It was really fun, more than I anticipated. After Letterman we saw Phantom of the Opera. It was awesome. We actually were hoping to get into another show, but failed, so Phantom was our second choice, but it was amazing, nonetheless.

Wednesday we prepared to go home. Let the nightmare begin . . .
By some communication error, our car to take us to the airport was an hour late, so when we finally arrived at the airport we rushed and ran to our gate to find that the flight was delayed an hour. Okay, we can handle an hour. . .

Little did we know when we boarded our plane that we would be in for quite a ride. Because of storms in Dallas (our layover destination) we were stuck on our plane for 9 1/2 hours. When we finally were able to land at DFW, we had no luggage (they had no clue where it was) and were told that our flight to ABQ was canceled. They gave us the next available departure date, 5 days later (we don't recommend flying with American airlines). What??? Anyway, we were very fortunate (unlike countless other families stuck in the airport for days) to have family in Dallas. Ryan and Kim picked us up from the airport and let us stay with them until we were able to get a flight out with Southwest (American will not pay for those tickets, of course) 2 days later. We very much enjoyed our short visit with them and are grateful for their hospitality!

Although our trip ended on somewhat of a sour note, we had a great time in NYC. It was so fun to get away and we were able to make some great memories, which we will savor for many years to come!