Monday, April 12, 2010

So not me, but Spring Break in NYC

Little Miss Texas-Wide-Open-Spaces-Looking-Across-A-Praire was talked into going to New York City for Spring Break.  Well we waited too last minute to make any real travel plans so not until the night before did we decide to go to the city.  Not just all fun, we also are still working on cleaning out Paul's Uncle Robbie's apartment in Queens which we did the first day, Wednesday, all day, the hottest day without air conditioning.  A very long but productive day.  42 years of not getting rid of ANYTHING.  Last year we did spend Spring Break in Texas so it was the guys' turn to pick and Paul really needed our help with so much to do in the apartment.  Thursday evening we headed to Manhattan, stayed in a nice place, and walked out for dinner.  By then the cold front had come through and it was in the 50's and 60's the rest of the time.  We really hit the town starting Friday morning heading to The Museum of Natural History first.  We stayed right across from there with Central Park on the other side.  Matt's fave is the museum and we'd been there before so we didn't spend all day as one could if it's a first trip.  Great place.
A compromise was that I said no subway; plenty of people on the streets without going underground squeezed into cars with them.  I do it in DC but I drew the line in NY.  So we taxied to 30 Rockefeller, above, showing the beautiful Easter flower topiaries they still had in front. 
Lots of beautiful flowers all around there.
Paul and Matt are big fans of the show 30 Rock and most all NBC shows so they were tickled to be there.  They had a huge store dedicated to NBC souveniers where Matt got his, "That's What She Said" t-shirt.  In case you don't know, that's from The Office, maybe their favorite.  We watch the reruns every night;  I'm starting to "get it" and it's funny.  And Matt loves how passive-agressively he can use that line inappropriately.  You know how hard it is to be firm with a kid when you are giggling at them.
The ice rink at 30 Rock, beautiful with the gold statue and all the flags.
Then onto Times Square, a slight overload for me but still fun to sit and people watch.  You could make a full time hobby of  just people watching in New York; it really is amazing.
More Times Square with a British photographer who made some comments to us about how fat Americans are...like we were interested in his opinion...what, did we seem like tourists?
And then came Mecca-M&J Trimming!  I could have spent all day and all our money in that one spot.  Knowing I was being a good sport even being in the city, Paul and Matt were patient for about 1/2 hour while I showed great restraint and only got two different lengths of trim and ribbon.  It was hard to keep up with it all anyway and I could see that a girls field trip would be the time to do it up right in there.
Yes, two photos of M&J but none of The Empire State Building in which Paul and Matt went to the top of and went out.  Yikes!  Not for me but they loved it and I'm sure it was great.  The photos Paul took are amazing, I'll have to share them later.  They are on his camera along with our visit with Justin so hold your breath.
And, finally, on our way out on Saturday, I found just the place where I would have felt right at home.  Unfortunately we were on our way out and there were no parking spaces anywhere around, otherwise I'm sure I'd have loved their margaritas and good food as advertised!  While the guys could go back tomorrow, I'm good for a while, but it was a fun trip and nice to have a change of scenery.