New York awesomeness

I hope you're ready for an incredibly long post... I finally got around to going through my hundreds of pictures from my trip to New York, and, though it was extremely difficult, I picked out some of my favorites to share. My mom and I had an absolute blast! I am convinced that NYC is the best city known to man. Even though we were only there for 5 days, we were able to pack quite a bit of stuff in. We even got to spend some quality time with my great-aunt Sharon and her friend Fred. Check it out!

We couldn't miss the opportunity to go see some Broadway shows - we saw 6!

In the Heights was A-MAZ-ING!!! I got a picture and autograph from the lead guy who wrote and performed in the show (the guy in the background)- he wrote it when he was only a sophomore in college! Talk about talent... He was able to pack salsa, hip-hop, and classic Broadway all into one show. All the shows we saw were fantastic, but this one was my FAVORITE!! See how excited I am about it?!

Patti LuPone is a Broadway legend, so everyone was making a huge deal about this one. After seeing her, I understood why people were fussing over her so much. She's so fun to watch and has an awesome voice!

Spamalot made me laugh til I cried! Even people who aren't big Broadway fans would have enjoyed this. Drew Lachey (Nick Lachey's brother) was one of the main characters in the show and he was a riot! Who'd have thought?

Xanadu was a spoof on the Xanadu movie from the 80s. It was super funny. Whoopi Goldberg played a part in it and after the show I got a picture of her and got her autograph. See how close we were? We actually had a conversation with her while she was signing our Playbills!

Hair Spray was very cute - my mom's favorite. We got to see yet another celebrity in this show - George Wendt (from the old TV show Cheers) played the not-so-attractive mother of Tracy Tunrblad.

The last one we saw was actually an Off-Broadway production- not nearly as good as real Broadway, but entertaining nonetheless. It was called Forbidden Broadway and it made fun of all the shows that were playing on Broadway in New York City at the time. Pretty hilarious, especially considering the fact that we had just seen the majority of the shows that they were making fun of!

Our hotel was about a block from Times Square. I loved the way it looked at night with all the lights!

China Town was an eye-opening experience. It's just as if they took a small city in China and stuck it in New York. It's hard to find someone that isn't Chinese! This is a picture of the little outdoor markets they had everywhere. They carried the strangest things... they had fruits, vegetables, meats, and sea creatures that I had never seen before.

Little Italy was just the same as China town in that it seemed like they just took a small piece of Italy and set it right next to China Town. Everyone was Italian- English speakers were almost impossible to come by. My mom and I loved the food in Little Italy. Probably the best Italian food that we'd ever had! We stopped at a little gelato stand for dessert after our lunch and there was this funny Italian guy that worked there who gave me a TON of extra gelato b/c he thought I was pretty. He even asked if he could take a picture with me... a little creepy, but kinda flattering at the same time.

Central Park was breathtakingly beautiful. It seems so incredible that they would have such a huge, beautiful park right in the middle of the city.

We went to the MET and viewed a lot of famous artwork including pieces by Picasso, Renoir, Pizarro, and Monet. I wish I had just an ounce of their artistic abilities...

I had always heard that New York has bagels, cheesecake, pizza, and deli sandwiches like nowhere else in the world (or in the country, anyway), but I didn't believe it until I experienced it. The bagels are so light and fluffy and delicious. The cheesecake is lighter, a little less sweet, and more crumbly than any other cheesecake I've had- heaven in your mouth! The pizza was yummy - they had more varieties than you could ever imagine. And, lastly, the pastrami sandwiches were about 6 inches high and cooked to perfection. Mmmm!

Gotta love the ginormous toy store that is FAO Schwartz! Me and the toy soldier are pretty stoked about all the toys inside!! Surprisingly enough, out of all the stores we went to, including Saks 5th Ave, Tiffany's, Gucci, and Louis Vutton, this store was my fav!

The next few were all really cool things to see, but don't need much explanation so I'm taking a typing break...

Ground Zero

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Rockefeller Center

Beautiful architecture

Ha ha! That was a short break, but I guess this picture could use an explanation... One of my mom and my goals while we were in NY was to get us some cute, cheap knock-off purses. We were told that the Harlem market is the best place to go, so that's where we went. We wheeled and dealed for a couple hours and when we were just about ready to head back, it started to POUR! It was like buckets of water were being dumped from the sky. Unfortunately, we were forced to wait in the rain for our bus to come. I was smart and used my shopping bags to cover my head, but my silly mom just stood there and got really wet. When we got on the bus and she noticed that I wasn't nearly as wet as she was, she was like, "Hey! How are you so dry!?" She was dripping from head to toe! It was so funny - I started laughing uncontrollably and couldn't help but take a picture of her :)

And here is the fruit of our labors in Harlem. So worth standing in the rain!

And that completes my recap of our New York vacation! This amazing trip was all thanks to my mom, great-aunt Sharon, and Fred. Thank you guys for making my first trip to New York possible and for making it so fun. I can't wait to go back!