Some NYC favs

It wouldn't be vacation without picking up crappy souvenirs.

Just a few little trinkets I really liked when I went to the huge old Macy's in the Big Apple.
I actually ended up buying this because I thought it was cute. It reeks of plastic and I don't know what I will ever put in it, but I thought it was darling.
I debated on this one.
Obsessed with Pylones. These adorable quirky creations from a cool company in France.
A little pricey but so cool and artsy.
Macy's was having a floral show so the building was always packed with tourists like myself taking pics (I might have gone back 3 times...maybe).

great trip.

Being all Touristy and {Wonderland}

I have to say...
Times Square is a rather fun place to be. So we decided that since the only people walking through Times Square are tourists, that we would stop trying to blend in and give ourselves permission to act all silly-touristy-like. (although, due to the fact that I brought bright red and blue coats with me and everyone in NYC only wears black and gray--we never truly blended)
Because if you can't act like an idiot in Times Square, then where can you?
Of course, our main reason for dilly-dallying in Times Square was to see this talented lady perform ON FREAKING BROADWAY in the new musical, "Wonderland."
How cool is this picture of Natalie Hill? I mean, it's like 9 feet tall. I had to get a shot of Rod with mim's impressive cleavage. :)
You guys, I loved this show. I was so entertained. We had crazy-amazing seats and it was so fun to know someone in the cast (way to go RZ). I loved the dancing and the costumes and the whole crazy spectacle of it all. I think this will be something that all the little Wicked-ers will just eat up.
7th row, baby.
And Natalie was so awesome to invite us backstage and actually ON STAGE. Always fun to be in a theater. Reminds me of the good ol' days (sigh).
Rod and I look a little like we just got stunned with a stun-gun, but it's on stage at the Marquis Theater so you better believe it's getting included. :)

Definitely one of the highlights of NYC. Thanks Natalie for making us feel so special! (and thanks Rod for those ridiculously priced but hella-amazing seats).

More Reality TV Dumbness...

Only this time, it's about that lunatic, Charlie Sheen.

When we were in NYC I was hell-bent on walking through Central Park. I had never done it before and I always pictured myself frolicking down the paths around the lake gazing up at beautiful skyscrapers. Too bad it was totally freezing and I'm 30 years old. Not a whole lot of frolicking going on, unless its in my head. Luckily Rod decided to humor me and agreed to walk along the side of the Park en route to the Shake Shack celebratory dinner we decided to have since Rod had found out he passed his last administrator exam WOOT!.
The incident happened like this:

We come out the subway and are greeted by an enormous crowd gathered around Trump Towers. Black SUVs, police officers, cameras, you get the idea. We thought for sure it was The Donald, so we decided to hang out for a few minutes to see if anyone came out. There was this southern lady standing next to us with a super telephoto lens, fanny pack, and talking all serious on the phone about the whereabouts of this "important person." Definitely paparazzi, right? Wrong. And right when I was getting a little embarrassed about incessant picture taking. At least my camera was a little point and shoot and not some 40 inch camera.

We decided we would watch her because she was pretty excited and seemed to be "in the know." All of a sudden she goes, "Oh my Gawd! There is one of the Goddesses!!!"

We were like, "Wait a minute...The Donald doesn't have Goddesses."
"The Donald?! pssht. Charlie Sheen is staying at Trump Towers and is doing his show tonight and he's already late to get to Radio City Music Hall."
"Ohh, Charlie Sheen..."
Now that is one crazy sighting. So, like a pack of weirdos, we decided--like any respectable human, we would stick around long enough to see Charlie Sheen brave the restless crowd. There were definitely a few guys who looked like they wanted to kick the crap out of old Charlie.

This guy wasn't one of them...although I thought he looked very appropriately like a paparazzo.
Then the southern lady told us she was just a tourist, but that she was getting all her info from the paparazzi guy standing close by. (Who was very forthcoming with the info of the Head Warlocks' whereabouts.)

And that, my friends, is where the Sheen story ends. You see, 5 minutes turned into a good 30 and I got cold. REALLY cold. And that Jimeny Cricket in my brain was screaming, "WHY ARE YOU WASTING ONE MORE SECOND OF YOUR TIME DOING THIS." But mostly, I was cold.

So that was the story about how we ALMOST saw Charlie Sheen. And apparently New York felt the same way about his show that night.
We did, however, enjoy gorging on Shake Shack. nom nom nom. So unbelievably, amazingly good in the moment, SO gross the rest of the night.

Funny, New York

Hey, look at me guys! I'm on the subway! With sunglasses on!
Well, now that we got that nonsense out of the way...
Just a few things you wouldn't see in your typical American suburb. Honestly, as much as the convenience of the suburbs is just waaay easier when raising a family, hoofing it around NYC made me fantasize about moving into a 500 sqft apt so I could see signs in the subway like this everyday.
What IDIOT does that? Honestly. (Clearly idiots of all nations must do it because the sign was in 15 different languages.)

Hmmm. Good to know.
Not that HIV or anal cancer is a laughing matter but the public service announcements were definitely...interesting. What you can't see very well on this one is the picture of the skeleton in the bottom corner with his anus ablaze. I think the red letters were enough to get the picture. Yikes.
These next few were taken from this glorious little "Pinkberry" style rice pudding dessert shop called Rice to Riches. Best Marketing EVER. Delicious too, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Wise, wise words.
Phew. Thank goodness Rod saw this sign. He was just about to sit on the curb to do his business (as depicted in the rendering) and luckily we looked up and saw this painted on the side of the building. TRAGEDY AVOIDED.

We kind of went all reckless on this last one...

(Dude, it was freaking chilly...)
It's true. It was a ten day whirlwind, especially if that whirlwind was 40 degrees and humid with a wind chill. I took 578 pictures because I was so excited to blog about something other than the backyard.

Landon was a champ. Here is the short rundown.

Wed, March 30--my mom Nan, me, and Landon fly to Louisiana. Landon did pretty well on the plane. I felt spoiled because I had my mom with me to help. Otherwise I would have hit the "delete" button for sure.

Fri Apr 1, Rod joins us (after I drive to the airport at 1am to pick him up). We spend the next few days visiting with my Louisiana family and eating obscene amounts of fried food and crawfish.

Tuesday, Apr 5-Rod and I wake up at 3:45 am, ditch the kid, and drive to the airport and hang in NYC from the Apr 5-10. My mom agrees to fly with Landon back to Denver and then take him to Oakland to do the grandparent hand-off. BIG props to my mom (and all those years of being a flight attend so she is fearless in the face of a strong-willed toddler and fuselage)! The sole purpose of the NYC trip was to be an eating one, and we also wanted to pick a place we would never, I repeat, NEVER dream of taking a toddler. New York fit the bill. We both gained close to 10 lbs in 10 days. This is where I hit the "pause" button on HealthGirl. :)
View from our hotel room
It was great. And I am going to be posting individual posts of the vaycay in reverse order because NYC is still fresh in my mind and Louisiana is definitely going to be a baby-overload.