An Adventure to the REALLY Big City!

Stephen was sent to New York City 2 different times in 2010 for a week plus for training and I decided to make the most of it.  His last trip to NYC was for about a week and a half right before Christmas.  Last year, when he was sent, I went with him for a short weekend but found myself a little overwhelmed and lonely as he had to work a lot.  This year, I decided to bring some trouble along with me, and so I invited 3 of my best friends and only 2 could join me (dang it, Donielle!).  So, December 16-20th, Katie, Laura and myself ventured to the Big Apple and we packed a lot of fun into a few days!  It was so fun to be there with them and to see the city all decked out for Christmas.  Below you'll find a chronological list of all the fun we embarked upon as well as some pictures to please your eyes :).

We arrived on Thursday evening and took a cab to our hotel in downtown Manhattan.  There's nothing like walking outside your door and seeing the Statue of Liberty!  We walked around to get food with Stephen because he had not yet eaten dinner.

On Friday morning we were up and at 'em venturing to Central Park, 5th Avenue, and all the streets of shopping that surround that area.  Our good friends Matt and Mandy were also enjoying a trip to NYC so we met up with them for lunch:

After lunch we stuck around that part of the city and hung out at Tiffanys, checked out Dylan's Candy bar as well as went into every ALDO (basically one on every street corner) looking for a pair of brown boots on clearance for me :).  We also made sure we were incredible tourists by checking out the Plaza, Bloomingdales, Saks 5th Avenue and any other well known building in that part of the city.  We hit up St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center to see the tree, went to Times Square and saw Mr. 2011 and then went to Little Italy (which I LOVED) to enjoy a wonderful pasta dinner at La Nonna's.  It was a fun filled day!

Saturday started out with Stephen and I venturing to Chinatown to enjoy some Dim Sum with his manager while Katie and Laura frolicked on their own.  We then met up with them in Soho, walked around that area of town and tried our hands at some bargaining in Chinatown.  After scoring tons of scarves, pashminas, perfumes and coach wallets, we headed over to the Village to enjoy dinner at Jon's Pizzeria per a recommendation from my friend, Jenn.  Unfortunately the line was going out the door at Jon's and so we walked to another restaurant and enjoyed a great dinner and good company.  After dinner we headed over to Magnolia's and enjoyed some cupcakes and banana pudding....YUM!

Sunday came and we started the day off by heading over to Macy's to meet up with my friend from high school and college, Liz.  It was great seeing her; we never get to see each other except for when Stephen's job sends him (and I get to tag along) to NYC but when we're together, it feels as if no time has passed!  We braved the crowd that seems to live at Macys, walked down to Grand Central Station and then enjoyed Rockefeller Center again.  We were able to enjoy church at Redeemer on Sunday night hearing a great Christmas message from Tim Keller.  Needless to say, we were WIPED out by the end of Sunday.

By Monday, we were dragging!  But, that didn't stop us from heading to the Today Show, over to Chelsea to enjoy some yummy New York bagels.  We then caught the subway back to Central Park to see more of the wonderful scenery at the Park as well as the Drake which was the home of John Lennon and the site where he was killed.  We ended our time in New York with a trip back to Chinatown for some more bargaining purchases!

We headed out of town on Monday night.  Unfortunately, Katie and Laura were heading back to Lexington and I was headed to Chicago so we weren't in the same terminals at the airport.  My flight got delayed and I didn't make it home until 2am - fun times!  No matter what time I got home, the trip was completely worth it and TONS of fun!  I am looking forward to the next time I get to go on another Big Apple adventure!!!  And now that I've finished typing out what we did on our trip, I need to go and take a nap! :)