New York - Day 10

If you’ve missed any of the previous New York blogs please click the links below!

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9

New York - Day 10

Day 10 signalled the end of our time living it up in Midtown Manhattan, we were moving to the Southern tip of the island within the business district. We packed.... well Mike packed I shoved everything in my suit case much to his horror!

We had a couple of hours spare before we had to check out so we went and looked for the newest Cake Boss patisserie just passed Hells Kitchen and gorged on cream horns, peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes and large coffee’s! - Making the most of the last few days!

 

So much cake, so little time!

Mike being the lovely guy that he is then pushed me two miles just so we could buy the make up my youngest sister Nicola asked us to find. We found one of the two shops in New York that stocked the brand and Nicola was a very happy bunny as we’d managed all but one of the products she’d requested.

We got back to the Manhattan Club hotel picked up our “much heavier than when we arrived” luggage and caught a yellow taxi to the Millennium Hilton Hotel opposite the World Trade Centre plots. Our room was spacious, clean, with a humongous queen size bed with city/river views and a mini bar that we avoided after looking at the prices - £5 for a can of Coke anyone?

After we’d settled in we decided to wander around the financial district and see if we could catch another boat ride included in the New York City Pass, but after lunch I had a complete toddler-esque melt down. Exhausted and in a great deal of pain I ask Mike if I could go home for a nap! How rock and roll am I?!?

My nap turned into an epic 5hr full stop kip, whilst Mike went out and continued to wander the city alone. When I eventually woke, we watched a beautiful sunset over the Hudson, got a take away from Chipotle - a fresh and healthy range of Mexican taco’s, fajitas and burritos, and watched a pay per view movie - White 

House Down.

Sunset over the Hudson River

Once the movie had finished I went back to sleep and didn’t surface until 12hrs later!! BOOM!

L x 

New York - Day 9

If you’ve missed any of the previous New York Blogs please click the links below!

Day - 1
Day - 2
Day - 3
Day - 4
Day - 5
Day - 6
Day - 7
Day - 8

New York - Day 9

By day 9 in New York I was exhausted! My pain level was going through the roof so we decided on a less intense day. We were up early as always so we picked up some giant Jumba Juices for breakfast and wandered through Central Park to the American Natural History Museum (again included in the New York City Pass).

Much like The Met you need an entire day dedicated to the Natural History Museum, we had three hours! We whizzed around as many displays and floors as possible, my favourite parts of the museum were the Mammal Halls, there were so many animals I’d never even heard of!

I have no idea what these are!

The Hall of Ocean Life was spectacular with a 94ft long model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling and all manner of underwater creatures displayed beautifully around the hall.

This photo does not to justice!

Lastly I was very excited by the Dinosaurs; the mighty skeletons of all different types were an impressive sight although I had a thankful moment that they are extinct!

Dino - Note the size of the people!

After a whole morning at The American Natural History Museum we were due to meet a family friend of Mike’s for lunch.

We met up with Rob whole lives between the UK and New York depending on his partners work as a theatre and film Producer/Director. We met at Hotel Edison where they have a very casual diner in the foyer. 

We lunched on huge sandwiches (that took away most of in a doggy bag) and unlimited coffees.

In the 8 years Mike and I have been together I had never met Rob. I was excited to talk all things theatre, TV, movies and celebs but Rob was hilariously clueless in film stars and mentioned “that Sarah girl” from Sex and the City film, or was it TV? Lol! Of course he was talking about Sarah Jessica Parker and casually chatted about meeting Lynn Redgrave and Julie Andrews at the Tony awards! We had a really lovely relaxing afternoon!

After lunch we decided we’d book tickets to see Avenue Q at the New World Stages Theatre on West 50^th Street. When we got to the theatre we were offered tickets between $70-$90 and as we were deciding the box office clerk suddenly said “Unless you come back for 20/20” we found out that 20/20 was a post Summer discount scheme were you can see 40 off Broadway shows for $20 each if you queue at the theatre 20 minute from the show - bonus!

So we went back to our hotel to start packing as we were moving to our last hotel the next morning got some frozen yogurt before the show at got back to the New World Stages at 6 to be in with a good chance of tickets (which sell on first come first served basis) there were only 5 people ahead of us and we got chatting to a young actor who was waiting for his dancer fiancé. Sadly when 7pm came round the dancer still hadn’t appeared and one of the rules of 20/20 is that all parties attending a show should be present at show time!

Mike and I got our 20/20 tickets saving ourselves a maximum of $140 and were guided to the theatres basement. Within the New World Stages venue there are several small auditoriums showing all different shows with bars and merchandise stalls in the middle of it all.

We had great seats and waited for the madness to begin! If you’ve not heard about Avenue Q you’re in for a uproarious evening watching an adult puppet musical! With songs like “The Internet is for porn” and “Everyone’s a little bit racist” and a full on puppet sex scene it is not a show for the easily offended or embarrassed. We loved it - make of that as you will!

By the time we came out of the show we were starving and wandered home looking for somewhere to eat we were getting closer to the hotel when eventually I suggested Hooters which was conveniently situated opposite our hotel! Hooters is, of course the restaurant where the waitress’ are in skimpy orange shorts and tight white t-shirts plus it’s a sports bar to boot!

In my wisdom I thought - “Boom! Girlfriend points - Ker-ching!” but I will warn you now that it you are remotely having a fat day do not go to Hooters! All of the girls are gorgeous and tiny! Luckily despite my every widening waistline I wasn’t feeling too down on myself and all the girls and bar staff were lovely!

Mike had a huge spicy burger and I went for fish tacos which were very tasty. I had to laugh at one point when Mike commented that he couldn’t read the slogan on the girls t-shirts.... Yes, Mike it was the slogans you were looking at! I couldn’t blame him at that point I was starting to look rough with pain, tiredness and all the naughty food I was eating - but I did not care - I was making the absolute most of the wonderful city I was learning to love a little bit more with everyday!

L x

New York - Day 8

If you’ve missed the previous New York Blogs please click the links below.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7

New York - Day 8

Day 8 was an incredibly hot (33c 93f) with over 80% humidity! Mike was not at happy boy! Even at 8:30am as we chugged on huge and tasty Jumba Juices’ Mike of course still had to push my ever increasing arse around - my boy was struggling.

At 9, most of 5^th Avenue was still closed but we wandered into Trump Towers where there was a coffee stall. What can I say about the infamous Towers? Built by Millionaire Donald Trump... well it is exactly what I expected; pink marble floor to ceiling, gold fixtures, fittings and elevators and the foyer was a Trump trading room where you can buy all of Mr Trumps books, clothing range and even Trump Champagne - class all the way ;).

We were booked in to go on a NBC studio tour, on the way we saw The Today Show being filmed (UK This is the equivalent of This Morning in the US) outside the Rockerfella Centre.

It was September 11^th so the show, among many, were remembering the events of that fateful day 12 years ago. As we walked around the city we saw many churches holding special services in memory of the fallen and even many of the shops cleared windows to place tributes too.

NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is where Saturday Night Live (SNL) and the Jimmy Fallon Show are filmed, but it has also been the home network for shows like F.R.I.E.N.D.S, The Voice & Ironside.

Our two tour guide’s Ariel and Carmen were warm, welcoming and as all tour guides are in New York - bloomin’ happy! We went into the SNL studio where the girls asked who wanted tickets to the show... and then shot us down by telling us there was a 3 year waiting list!

From one tour to another we walked to Radio CityHall where we met Joyce and Emily our next hosts. Radio City is another Rockerfeller marvel built in the Great Depression as was the Rockerfella Centre. Known as the “American People’s Palace” it’s a huge 12 acre plot that over 3 million people come to see it every year. 

Radio City Hall Foyer

Radio City Hall is beautiful, a real place of opulence and old school glamour, even the restrooms are decked out in original art deco furniture! Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos of the magnificent auditorium, which, at the time of our visit, was being set up to house America’s Got Talent for the series final. It is truly one of the most glorious theatres I’ve ever seen. Before we left we had an intimate Q and A with a world famous Rockette and had our photo’s taken with her too!

Art Deco Loos!

From Radio City we went to Central Park! We stopped in a little cafe’ for lunch then started to have a wander but It. Is. Huge! 778 Acre’s of huge! You can see why New Yorkers and tourists love the city haven it has become!

We found the Belvedere Castle and the Carousel but the heat was so intense we decided to take refuge in The Metropolitan Museum ofArt (The Met). As you all know by now I’m a history geek so I loved it! We had three hours at the Met but this was nowhere near long enough, you could plan a whole day dedicated to the astonishing collections, and we’ve agreed that when we return to the Big Apple we’ll do just that!

Just some of the beautiful art at the MET

We returned to Central Park where we found the famous boathouse, (featured in the movie 27 Dresses) on such a sunny day it was picturesque but all the boat’s were being put been put away for the day - muchos sadness as I was desperate to have my own chick flick rom com moment, Michael rowing me around lake, me parasol in hand - pure cheese!

The Central Park Boat House 

Sadly as we came upon the Central Park Mall as beautiful as it was, the evening was drawing in there were gangs of teenagers and groups homeless people hanging around. I suppose this is something that happens every day in every major city in the world but it was a tad unnerving, especially when police cars started patrolling the length of the Mall up, down and back again.

The Mall

After all the walking Mike was hot, and very hungry so we stopped at the Brooklyn Diner - an obvious favourite with the rich and famous with hundreds of golden plaques etched with their names dotted around the place. I enjoyed my first Lobster Roll whist Mike went for Mojito flavoured chicken - both amazing and a scrumptious end to another fabulous day in New York.

Lobster Roll - Amazeballs!

L x