3 hot ladies in the big city

I had a great time in NYC. It is such a large city, we couldn’t see it all. We only went to Manhattan, none of the other 4 boroughs were explored during this trip since there is just so much to see. We did pack a lot into 3 days though.

Nej and I arrived to Newark, NJ around 11am. By the time we got our bags, found a cab, and got to the hotel, it was noonish (our cab driver had issues, so we ended up taking a route out of our way through a very sketchy area of New Jersey). But, we made it to our hotel and were able to check in early. Then we headed to Manhattan. We walked around and explored and had lunch in a neat little Cuban restaurant. I love how Manhattan is so big, you can just get off the subway and just start walking in one direction and you’re bound to find some neat things. We then went up the Empire State building. What a gorgeous view from up there! (I will post pics on Facebook this weekend). You can see most of Manhattan from up there, it was really amazing.

Then we headed to Macy’s. What a HUGE store! Like 9 floors and it takes up an entire city block. It was quite an experience. After walking around for a few hours, we found a little pub to have dinner in and then went back to the hotel to meet up with lj. Then we found a liquor store to buy some wine, and it was very shady looking. The wine was good though ;)

Saturday was a really fun day because we went on 2 tours: Sex and the City tour and a tour of NBC studios. The Sex and the City tour was around 3 hours long and we got to see many of the locations used on the show and we even got to have our picture taken sitting on the stoop of Carrie’s apartment. We also had cosmos in the bar that Steve and Aiden owned on the show. After the tour, we went to this restaurant called “Mars 2112” where before you get seated for your meal, you have to go in this little space shuttle for your trip to Mars. Then when you get to Mars, the waiters are all dressed up like space Captains and there are aliens walking around (with very tight tights on, I might add… that left nothing to the imagination, yikes). It was a really fun restaurant. Then we went to Central Park for a little walk before our NBC Studios tour. On the NBC tour, we got to see the set for Conan (it is really small!) and SNL. We then went back to the hotel to get showered and changed for dinner and then we had some drinks at a neat little bar in Greenwich Village. It was a lot of fun, and I definably got a little drunk from a cosmo followed by a very strong martini ;)

Sunday, we went down to the World Trade Centre site, which is now just a massive construction site. It was very surreal to actually be there. I got goosebumps. We then went to Battery Park and got to see the Statue of Liberty (we didn’t go to Ellis Island, but we saw it from across the river). We then walked around the financial district for a bit and then went to Chinatown and shopped around for the afternoon. We also scored some half price tickets to see Spamalot that evening. What an amazing show! I was laughing the whole time. I highly recommend it; very entertaining. We then had dinner in a neat place that was a 50’s diner with signing wait staff (they are probably broadway wanna-bes). We then walked around time square and then headed back to the hotel.

Monday we went back to Chinatown and then to Macy’s again and I got the cutest shoes. Leopard print open-toed flats. They are awesome! Just before heading back, we went to Saks Fifth Avenue just to check it out. Outrageous prices, but we were expecting that. Like $520 for a scarf kind of prices.

Then we headed back to the airport only to find out our flight was delayed. I guess there was poor visibility in Newark. They initially delayed us around 2.5 hours, but in the end, we ended up getting to Toronto only an hour after we were originally supposed to land, so that’s not bad at all. Poor lj though, her flight was cancelled altogether, so she had to fly to Montreal and then to Toronto instead of flying direct. What time did you end up getting back, lj????

All in all, I absolutely LOVED NYC. Never once did I feel unsafe. I wouldn’t want to walk around by myself at night, but with the 3 of us, it was totally fine. The subway system is great, quite easy to navigate. I don’t think I have a single complaint about the city. Except for maybe the sweltering heat in the subway tunnels, but I don’t think there’s anything they can do about that. It was a very warm weekend. The only time it really rained was when nej and I were inside the Empire State building waiting to go up. The rain had stopped by the time we got to the top.

I am really glad I had yesterday off work, I needed a day to recover and rest. I did some laundry, went grocery shopping for the week, and went with my mom to her dress fitting (she’s having her dress for the wedding designed). It looks amazing!

Oh, and here’s what I missed while I was gone: Alex quit his job to go back to school fulltime in September (he’s going to get his highschool equivalency first and then do a college program) and Thom bought a car (he bought a Camry). Which means my mom is trading her van in, so she won’t have a vehicle anymore. I guess she’ll have the truck to use. Good thing she walks and rides her bike to work!

So now it’s back to work for me. 3 day work week this week, yay! And it’s exactly 1 month to the wedding! Wow!