Weekend in New York City

My sisters, Mom, and I spent the weekend in NYC to celebrate Michelle's 30th birthday and have an early bachelorette party (I'm only allowed to travel for a few more weeks and Jenny is moving to Colorado this summer, so this is the only weekend we could all get together before the wedding). We left from Tampa on Friday morning and had a direct flight to NYC...soooo nice to sit and enjoy the flight without a restless, noisy Katelyn (she stayed behind with my dad on Friday, then Bryan picked her up for their weekend of fun...orange/blue game in Gainesville, Sea World on Sunday). Mom surprised us with a limo ride from LaGuardia to our hotel in Times Square...nice way to travel!! We did have a nutty limo driver, reminded me of "Big Pussy" from The Sopranos. We took us through lots of back roads in Queens, before crossing the bridge into Manhattan. After some confusion on where our hotel was located, we found the Courtyard Marriot and checked in. What a cute hotel...small and quiet with super comfortable beds and a free coffee/tea machine in the lobby (we took advantage of that machine!!). After checking in, we walked a few blocks to Grand Central Station and met mom's friend Dorothy, who works inside GC. This train station was very busy, but beautiful!! Looks like a museum inside and it's soooo clean. Dorothy, took us up an escalator to a little italian restaurant and it was delicious!! They also had the best deal going...appetizer, dinner, and dessert for $15.50!! I'll take that. And like I said, the food was awesome. Dorothy took us on a tour of Grand Central after dinner and you wouldn't believe all the hidden treasures inside this train station...a huge marketplace with fresh meats, desserts, cheeses, spices, etc. and a train museum. Very impressive!! From there, we walked to Rockefeller Center, then back to Times Square for a drink at a very trendy bar and popped in a few shops. The amount of people in Times Square amazed me. At times, you can barely move or cross a street. Ali and Jenny went off to a late-night comedy show, while Michelle, Mom, and I went back to the hotel. So tired!

Next morning, we were up and showered early (only took the 5 of us an hour and a half to get showered and dressed) and walked to a great breakfast diner, "The Red Flame," recommended by the hotel concierge. Food was good, quick, and cheap!! As we were waiting for theater tickets (saw "Cry Baby" based on the Johnny Depp movie a few years ago), Mario Lopez (AKA "Slater") walked by. He is tiny!! So short! That was our celebrity sighting! We took a double-decker bus ride through downtown NYC, stopping at SOHO to do some shopping and Central Park for drinks at Tavern on the Green. We had dinner at John's Pizza then to the theater to see Cry Baby (my review...just okay. Granted, they were still just "previewing' the musical, so it's a little rough, but the production was small and reminded us of a high school musical).

Sunday, we had a few hours before catching our flight home, so it was back to Red Flame for b-fast, then back on the bus to hit spots we missed yesterday (Greenwich Village and Ground Zero). It was a wonderful trip and so nice to get away.