NEW YORK

Christopher and I will have been married 10 years on June 6th, so he said to me at the beginning of the year that I was in charge of this anniversary. So I decided we would spend it in NYC. We actually went a bit early (May 24-29) and had the best time! I think it was the longest that we've spent together alone for quite awhile. It was really so much fun that I can't even really describe it. We took a bunch of pictures, but they also only capture glimpses of the fun we had there. We arrived Thursday afternoon and checked into our hotel, The Marriott Marquis, right on Times Square. We stayed on the 42nd floor and were just right there in the middle of everything. We found a great French restaurant before seeing Wicked that evening.
Christopher on Times Square

We saw Wicked at the Gershwin Theater on Thursday night....oh so good!

On Friday, we got up and went to the Empire State Building. We didn't get a good pic of the actual building because it's so tall, but we went on a fairly clear day, so the views of NYC were fantastic. It really is breathtaking. The wait wasn't too bad because I already had bought our tickets on line. The longest waits were for the elevators. You go to the 80th floor in under 60 seconds and then wait in line again for another elevator to take you to the 86th floor, where the observation deck is.

Views from the Empire State Building

Central Park is in the top left corner

Another view...you can see Macy's on 34th...a whole city block! ...and the Hudson River

Christopher from the Empire State Building

Looking at the Chrysler Building from the bottom of the Empire State Building

We spent the rest of Friday really walking A LOT and saw all the major sites. Here are some pics from our day.

Grand Central Station, or Terminal as it is named

Radio City Music Hall
Christopher in the GE Building where NBC studios are
Rockefeller Center


Carnegie Deli---home of the best cheesecake in the world!
Carnegie Hall

Trump Tower--we didn't see the Donald, however.

Saturday, we spent getting to and from Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty is. We didn't get into line until close to 10 and waited in line about 2 hours and passed through a security spot to catch a ferry to the island. W then headed to another line to enter the base of the Statue of Liberty. There we waited for another hour or so and passed through yet another security station. We finally made it to the observation deck and walked around and then headed to the line to catch the ferry back. It was about an hour wait. The Statue of Liberty is such a landmark to NYC and one not to be missed. It was breathtaking and emotional to read some of the letters from immigrants and their families and what the statue meant to them as they came by boat to America.

Me in front of Lady Liberty

Christopher and the Manhattan skyline

Because the Statue of Liberty took so long, we decided to keep Ellis Island for our next trip back and headed back into the city to the financial district. We went to Ground Zero and saw the construction going on right now there. It's hard to believe it's been 6 years since the attack and it's still such an emotional thing. We went to a temporary memorial museum that displayed many items recovered from the site, as well as the pictures of all those lost and wallpaper of the actual Missing Signs that were posted at the time. It was definitely worth the time we spent there.

Ground Zero

This is across the street from Ground Zero...the fire station is located there with a temporary memorial museum as well as this wall of tribute to the fallen firefighters
This sculpture stood in the Plaza at the WTC and was only damaged in the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01.

It is now located at Battery Park and stands as a memorial.

On Saturday night we saw Marry Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theater. This was simply an amazing show. So creative and so good. It is definitely one to see!

This is such a good show! It was definitely a highlight of our trip.

On Sunday we got up and went to the MET. There is a lot to see there! We stayed for a few hours and then walked through Central Park a bit.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met!),

These two sculptures are in Central park. Christopher is with Alice from Alice in Wonderland

and I'm with Hans Christian Anderson

Central Park



After Central Park we headed back to see Les Miserables. I think this was the 4th time we've seen this together. It wasn't the best production we've ever seen but it was worth seeing it again, as it's an all-time favorite!Christopher in the subway

Les Miserables! Always a great show

After Les Miz, we headed out to eat at Katz Deli, where we ate their famous pastrami sandwich. We then ventured on the outskirts of Chinatown trying to get to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Me and the Brooklyn Bridge

We saw these guys in a subway station after going to the Brooklyn Bridge. They were really talented and got me in the mood for the summer hit...So You Think You Can Dance!

On Monday morning we attended a session at the Manhattan Temple. It was a beautiful temple and we enjoyed visiting it. We ate at Tavern on the Green in Central Park and then did some last minute shopping in the city.


On our last night we went on a dinner cruise in the Hudson River. It was a lot of fun. We had an excellent meal and enjoyed seeing the city at night. Christpher surprised me with a diamond anniversary pendant necklace that you can sort of see in the pic at the bottom.

The Brooklyn Bridge at night

NYC is such a fun place to visit. We didn't watch TV, use the computer or phone, but were still busy 12-14 hours a day. We saw so much and enjoyed all of our trip so much!