"New York, Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of"

Matthew and I finally took our much needed and very delayed 5 year anniversary trip last week to NYC!  About 8 months late, but man, was it well worth the wait.  We were busy little bees for 5 days, trying to see as much of the city as humanly possible while we were there.  We flew out Saturday late morning after going to see my brother in a leading role in Lipscomb Academy's production of "High School Musical".  No surprise, he was incredible!  Thankfully, David and Sandra had agreed to watch our sweet baby girl in Birmingham while we were gone, even dealing with the horrible weather, tornadoes and all.

Saturday was mostly spent traveling.  Once we got to our hotel in Time's Square, we explored a bit before we went to a nice dinner at a place called Esca, which was good, not excellent, but worth it considering the diners at the next table gave us several suggestions for places to eat and visit for the rest of the time we were there.

Sunday morning we got up and walked to Sarabeth's for brunch right on Central Park.  It was one of the best meals we had all week!  After brunch we took a nice long walk through Central Park, and ended up buying tix to one of those hop on hop off bus tours, which I highly recommend for people who have never really spent significant time in the city.  We mostly used it to get around the island for the time we were there.  Sunday night we took the subway to The Bronx to see a Yankee's game.  The park was really nice, game was fun, and we definitely enjoyed eating our ball park hot dogs.. the subway ride up to the park though was another story... brings a new meaning to claustrophobia.  

Monday we explored some more, took the uptown tour of Manhattan, walked 5th avenue, and ended back at 30 Rock to get M a hat to keep his poor forehead from getting burned.  While walking through the NBC store to get a Fallon hat (we watch every night), some interns from Seth Meyer's show asked us if we wanted tickets to see him practice his monologue that day.  While it wasn't Fallon, it was actually cool getting to go upstairs in 30 rock and see his studio and such... He films in a studio right next to the SNL studio, so we got to take a little peak.  Monday night we had reservations at Bobby Flay's restaurant Bar Americain.  We obviously wanted to go because we are big Bobby fans, but didn't expect the food to be as incredible as it was!  After dinner we had tickets to see Chicago, which was pretty amazing.  Seeing shows on Broadway is ten times better.

Tuesday we had tickets to see Live with Kelly and Michael, which meant for an early morning.  We grabbed bagels and walked to Lincoln Square to wait in line for the show.  During filming, I got a random call from a New York number... and for some reason I just knew it was someone calling about Letterman tickets.  A month before our trip I had requested tickets, but had never heard anything, and assumed we were out of luck, especially since he announced his retirement about a week after I requested the tickets.  So imagine my surprise when the lady left a voicemail saying that they had some tickets available and that I needed to call back ASAP.  We could not get out of the Live studio fast enough!  While I love Kelly and Michael, I grew up watching Dave, and now with him retiring, M and I knew this was once in a lifetime chance.  Thankfully I called back, answered a trivia question about the show and was granted two tickets to the show.  At this point, we were elated, but little did we know that it was going to get even better!  We were told to get there between 2 and 3, after arriving right at 2, we were literally the last people in line.  We had resigned ourselves that we were going to get nose bleed tickets.  As we filtered through the line, we were sent in and asked what our favorite part of the show was, and were then pulled aside to a very small group of people while they sent everyone else out to return at 3.  The guy pulled us in and told the group that we had all been selected to be in the first 3 rows of the show!!  He then said that Dave can only see those first couple rows throughout the monologue and taping and that they depend on those people to keep the energy up during the taping... if you know my husband at all, this is NO PROBLEM.  We really thought our day couldn't get any better.  After arriving back at the show we waited around for a while before they finally opened the doors of the theater to lead us to our seats.  We walked in and the people in front of us are shown to the second row, so I immediately start to filter in behind them, when one of the pages stops me and points us to the front row, mid center of the theater.  WHAT?!  We were literally right in front of Dave when he came out to do his monologue.  Coolest thing ever.  During the show, M made eye contact with Alan Kalter (Dave's announcer) a few times since, of course, M was doing his best to be a good audience member.  Alan apparently was very appreciative, because at the end of the taping he invited us up on stage to shake our hands and then handed us a signed cue card to take home with us!  Only the couple who sat next to us that we had actually hung out with all afternoon got one as well.  BEST DAY EVER!  Once the taping was over, we had to book it back to our hotel to get ready for a 7:00 showing of Les Miserables, which was INCREDIBLE.  I knew I already loved the music, but seeing it in person, oh man, it was the most phenomenal show I have EVER seen.  I had tears streaming down my face at the end of both acts.  I could fly back there tomorrow just to see it again.  We then left for a very late dinner at Carmines, best Chicken Parmesan I have ever tasted, only wish we hadn't been so tired, we wouldn't have been in such a hurry to get to bed :)

Wednesday was our last day and it poured the entire day, delaying out flight back almost 2 hours.  We decided it would be a good day to tour the MET, ate lunch, then headed to the airport to wait for our flight.  At that point, we were SO ready to get home and see Aves.  Bad weather, and a bumpy flight made this Mommy even more homesick for our baby.  Unfortunately, we got into Nash so late that we had to wait and leave early Thurs morning to drive back to Birmingham.  The smile on Avery's face when we walked in the door was priceless.  So thankful to my in-laws for taking care of her all week.  M and I appreciate it very much!  Such a fun trip, one of the best we have ever taken.

Last day!