The Second Annual Girls Weekend

Look closely between our heads...it's the Statue of Liberty!

Well, after an amazing start to our Girls weekend tradition in Chicago last year, I thought it would be quite a difficult task to top that trip but fear not - it happened. NYC was the city of my dreams! Every part of it. The trip was absolutely amazing. Thrilling, fun, informative, intriguing, expensive, scary, confusing....just about anything you can imagine.



Trey asked me last night what my favorite thing was and I had such a hard time naming one thing! Thinking back to everything we experienced, it was overwhelming to even believe how much we actually did in the span of four days. But leave it to me and Stephanie to tackle a city head on. We were all over Chicago last year but we took it to a whole new level in NYC.

I asked Stephanie at the airport how much she thought we might have walked in NYC - we both agreed it was probably about 35 miles. It could possibly be more but it had to have at least been that much. And my feet had the blisters to prove it. My comfortable shoes were only comfortable for so long. And the torn muscle in my calve wasn't helping any. But my desire to see everything on my "to do" list for NYC was enough to keep me moving.

Maybe I can break down my experiences into favorites....

The funniest experience by far was Canal Street. Now let me preface this by saying my sole purpose for going to Canal street was to find a knock off Coach duffel bag. I had done research online about these underground operations so I kind of knew what I was getting into but I failed to fill Stephanie in on any of it...

Here's what Stephanie wrote on her blog (and I'm posting b/c her perspective of the experience is hilarious!)



- canal st. is a major thoroughfare that runs right through chinatown. both sides of this one street are littered with retailers selling souveniers, sketchy people selling things out of suitcases, and people constantly accosting you with their annoying line, "handbag.dvd.rolex." (imagine that being said over and over again, in the thickest asian accent you've ever heard!) we went down there on saturday afternoon. us and a couple a thousand other people! it was packed. kelly had told me that she was looking for coach bags, so as we were passing the sketchy guys selling things out of suitcases, i was confused as to why she kept passing them by. finally, i said something.
me: we have passed a lot of coach bags. why aren't you looking at those?
kelly: because those are crappy. i am looking for the good ones.
me: okay. how do you know where the good ones are.
kelly: just follow me!
we reach a street corner, and are waiting for the light to turn, so that we can walk across the street. there is a group of women (3 of them) engaged in deep conversation. they were speaking chinese, so i wasn't paying much attention to them. all of the sudden, right in the middle of the conversation where we could not understand a word they were saying, one of the ladies looks kelly right in the eye and says, "handbag?". i hear kelly say yes, and the next thing i know we are being escorted down a side street. at this point, i start to get nervous...
me: what are we doing?
kelly: this is what i was looking for. we need to follow her.
me: follow her where?
kelly: just follow her!
as i am wondering where in the world we are going, the lady pulls out a walkie-talkie and radios someone. we have turned down several, unfamiliar, back streets at this point.
me: kelly, where are we going?
kelly: it's okay. this is what is supposed to happen.
me: what do you mean?
kelly: you know the bags are good if you can find someone with a walkie-talkie!
me: what???
we reach the corner of a street, when we are then handed off to another woman. she tells us to follow her. it is about this time that i am wondering if we are walking into some sting operation. i am thinking that we are both about to get arrested. we finally reach a little store, where we enter and then follow some man to the back of the store. THERE WAS A HIDDEN DOOR!! he opened the door and told us to go in. as soon as we were in, the door locked. NO LIE! there were other people in there as well....looking for bags. but i was scared to death. kelly, on the other hand, looked like she had just won the lottery.

Buying knock off bags could not be more fun. And embarrassing Stephanie with my negotiating skills was priceless. I guess these past 6 years in sales have taught me one thing - the price can always be negotiated. My best negotiation was getting the guy down to $130 and then handing him $120 and then arguing with him that I wouldn't pay any more than that and he eventually gave in. It wasn't even anything I had planned until I was pulling the money out of my wallet. All I had was twenties. I thought if I gave him $140 he may try to keep it so I gave him $120 and said, "It's $120, okay." He got a little argumentative (since we had agreed at $130) and then he tried to convince me to swap out the Coach duffel for the old style (since I had picked out the new one) but I refused. I threatened to shop elsewhere and he caved in. He gave me a nice eye roll and took the money. I don't recall hearing, "Thanks for your business," but I'm sure that's what he meant to say! :-)

The most emotional experience wasn't actually Ground Zero - it was seeing the Statue of Liberty! I never imagined seeing Lady Liberty up close would nearly bring me to tears but it did. And then going to Ellis Island and seeing where all of the immigrants went through the process to become a citizen was overwhelming. This was certainly one of my favorite "historical" places to visit. As most of you know, I'm not a big history fan, but this was something that I was totally in to. And the architecture of the building was simply breath taking. I wish so badly that we built things the way they used to.

The scariest moment was when we nearly witnessed a stabbing on the subway platform on our way to Greenwich Village. Stephanie wrote it best on her blog so I'm stealing it....



- on some of the subway platforms, they have chairs to sit and wait for the train. these chairs are connected, so it is kind of like a bench with dividers. at this particular platform, there were 6 seats on this one bench. we had been waiting a while, so we decided to go ahead and sit down. there was already one man sitting in the first seat (man A). we were following another man to the chairs (man B). as man B approached the chairs, man A decided to set his bag down on the seat next to him. maybe to prevent man B from sitting directly beside him. man B had several bags of his own, so he sat down and then set his bags to his right, which is where kelly and i proceeded to sit down. so the line-up was: man A, man A's bag, man B, man B's bags, me, and then kelly. as soon as we sat down, we knew something was not quite right. here is what unfolded:
man B: (talking to man A) what are you looking at?
man A: (silent. continues to stare at man B)
man B: i said, *expletives* what are you lookin at?
man A: (silent)
man B: it's called courtesy, man!
man A: (silent)
man B: i was trying to set my bags down, and you put your bag there. it is called courtesy.
man A: (silent)
man B: i don't know what they call it in your country, but here it is called courtesy. *expletives* what are you lookin at?
man A: you crazy!
man B: i'm what?
man A: you crazy!
man B: you're right. i am crazy. you know what that means? it means i ain't afraid to hurt you.
man A: you crazy!
man B: (stands. fumbles around in his pocket for a minute. pulls out a knife) alright. now i'm going to hurt you.
man A: (stands. backs away) i'm calling the police.
man B: go ahead. by the time they get here you'll be dead!
man A: (starts to walk away)
man B: (puts knife back in pocket and sits down)

My favorite food experience place - well, that is a tough one. I'm not sure I can pick just one so let me explain my favorites and why.

Rare - the gourmet hamburger joint. GREAT FOOD. Wonderful waiter. Incredibly awkward manager who tried to make small talk but was a complete idiot. But every bite of food was absolutely magnificent!

Carnegie Deli -Besides the sandwich being the size of my head and costing $24, it was YUMMY. The waiter seemed totally irritated that we were even there but that's part of the allure to Carnegie Deli (well at least according to the travel book). I would totally eat there again. And lucky for me and Steph - we walked in and went straight to a table. We didn't have to wait at all!

Hot dog stand - Ok, this isn't getting rave reviews because of how delicious it was but because how funny the experience was. Stephanie went first. The guy opened her bun, stuck in a weenie and looked at her and asked if she wanted a jumbo hot dog? She said yes and he stuck another weenie in there! So her one hot dog bun boasted two hot dog weenies. I was totally grossed out! I have never seen that before! Plus, he actually had jumbo size weenies so for the simple fact that he put two weenies in there instead of putting in one jumbo, it cracked me up. When it was my turn, he asked if I wanted jumbo and I nearly shouted, "NO!" I just couldn't stop laughing. I'm still grossed out. But the best part? It was $2. Not bad for lunch in NYC.



Serendipity 3 - Somehow in my life, I have managed to miss the hit movie Serendipity. A few days before our trip I was telling Stephanie that we needed to go to Serendipity 3 (because of everything recommended to me - this was the one I heard most). She asked if I had seen the movie and I had not. And guess what? It came on Bravo the very next night! So I got to see it and it made me want to go and eat there even more. The Frozen hot chocolate was magnificent! I wish I could have another one. And since they have an $8 per person minimum, Stephanie and I each got our own. Talk about chocolate overload. But it was worth every expensive sip!



Lombardi's Pizza - Eating pizza was on my list of food wishes in NYC. And thankfully Stephanie knew just the spot! Lombardi's in Little Italy was AMAZING! We ordered a pizza and while I had been daring with my food choices (chuckling to self) I decided to play it safe with just plain cheese pizza. Stephanie always goes out of the box with her food selections and I tried that everywhere else we ate but I wasn't doing it with the pizza. And I was glad I didn't. I am pretty sure that Lombardi's was the best pizza I have ever eaten. I liked it better than the pizza we had in Chicago last year. I wish I could eat some right now. It was fantastic!

The most frustrating experience was trying to locate the Guggenheim. It was Sunday afternoon, we were tired but I insisted. Sadly for Stephanie, I refused to leave NYC until I saw it. We made our way up the Subway from Lower Manhattan and emerged (finally) on Museum Mile. But why was it frustrating? Because it was within viewing distance of the MET which we had visited on our first day there. So had we realized that it was on the same street, we could have saved a lot of time and walking to just hop over and see it before heading back to other parts of Manhattan. And to make matters worse, I had written the address wrong. I was beginning to think I was dyslexic (since I had made the same mistake earlier in the trip) - I had transposed the street numbers so where we expected the Guggenheim to be, there was a street! Thankfully for Internet access on my blackberry, I realized my mistake and we headed back and walked a few more blocks and there it was. I'm still very glad that I saw it. It totally did not fit in with the surrounding architecture but it made it that much more intriguing. Stephanie will absolutely agree that it was probably the most frustrating item on my list but I think we're both glad we saw it.

The best idea experience was the Empire State Building. Stephanie, being the savvy travel planner that she is, knew that we had to buy our tickets to the ESB prior to going. And boy was she right! Thankfully we managed to get there before most of the crowd and since we had our tickets we got to bypass that entire section of waiting. And the morning we went it was sunny and so pretty! There was a little bit of morning haze in the air but it was absolutely breathtaking! I would love to go up there at night and see the city lights. NYC is just an overwhelming city. It's just so much to take in. Being on the ESB certainly helps give you a birds eye view perspective. The pictures from the ESB I think are my favorite.


The best architectural sightseeing was by far St. Patricks Cathedral. I can't even begin to describe how unbelievable this building is. The experience was awkward. People are in pews and at the altars of the church and then there are a hundred or so tourists walking around taking pictures. It's hard to know what is taboo and not but I turned my flash off and tried to be discreet. The lighting in the church was just mesmerizing. The architecture was breathtaking. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more beautiful church. I'm really at a loss of words. It's something you have to see for yourself to even appreciate. Pictures do not even begin to do justice.



The sweetest experience we had was visiting Dylan's Candy Bar. What a great place! The three story candy shop gave me sensory overload! The best part were the stairs - all candy filled! And at the landings of one of the staircases was a saying written in candy, "May each step you take be sweet." How adorable! And the next best part was at the register. After you pay and receive your very cute shopping bag with your purchases inside they say, "Have a sweet day." Something about that just makes you feel all warm inside. My $10 purchase in there was perfectly sweet.

My favorite street sign that I saw said, "DON'T HONK. $350 PENALTY." Seriously. In NYC? I took a picture. It totally cracked me up. No honking. That's just ironic.



My favorite storefront was CLOTHING BARGAINS FOR MILLIONAIRES. The first person I thought of was Donald Trump and his comb over. I'm not sure if it's actually a bargain store for millionaires or if that's kind of just a funny name to get people to go in? Either way, what a great name for a store. And a great subject for a picture!


The biggest letdown of our trip was Earth Hour. Earth Hour was supposed to be an hour where everyone was supposed to turn off/unplug any unnecessary energy using items. That morning we woke up to national news about earth hour in Times Square. It sounded like a big deal so we decided that night we'd head on over and check it out. I mean - how cool is it that we are in Times Square for Earth Hour? Have the lights in Time Square ever been turned off? This would be huge! The clock strikes 8:30pm and one jumbo tron shuts off. And then the next. And then the next. And then that was it! Times Square looked the same at 8:35pm as it did at 8:30pm! Earth Hour Smearth Shmour. What a joke. But we headed off for Jamba Juice and a McDonald's hot fudge Sunday and called it a night. (But when we arrived back in our room we noticed we had left every light on, the tv, etc....OOPS!)



The best unexpected comment came from the lobby at the Hilton Times Square on Friday night. Since Stephanie and I were in Times Square we decided to find out where our hotel was for Saturday night. We entered the door to see an empty lobby. It was a little strange to say the least. No bellman - nothing. So we kept walking and went out the other doors. That's when the fun began. We saw an ambulance with someone inside on the stretcher, the hotel employees, a girl who was being detained by someone (I can't remember if the police were there) and there was some shouting going on - seemed like they were arguing over what had actually taken place. Stephanie and I were going to walk down this street and head back to our hotel but it was not in Times Square and it was pretty dark so I suggested we go back through the lobby and back onto Times Square where it was brightly lit. So we did. But as we were walking through the lobby, there was a female employee in there who was being approached by another employee who had come in from the crime scene. The conversation was kind of like this:

Male: Hey Tawanda. Did you bring your taser today?
Female: No, I left it at home today.

Male and female continued to discuss the issue but we bolted. The funny part was how passive they were being. The tone of this conversation was more like this:

Male: Hey Tawanda. Did you bring your umbrella today?
Female: No, I left it at home today.

Typically when you're discussing a TASER, it's a big deal. Guess not to them. And I guess they don't keep it with them on a daily basis. She didn't even act like she had forgot it! She just acted like she didn't want to bring it that day. Needless to say, we were a bit stressed about the hotel stay the following night but it all turned out ok. It was a pretty swanky place after all. Just goes to show that crazies are ALL OVER NYC!

(Turns out, this wasn't actually the hotel lobby. That was on the 22nd floor. This was basically a breezeway to the streets and where the bellman stayed for checked bags, hailing taxis, etc.)

My list of favorites could go on and on and by now, this post has taken nearly an hour to complete so I'm going to stop for now.

It's been four days since I've returned and trust me, I'm still recovering. I left last Wednesday and returned on Monday so I was gone for quite a while. The laundry managed to quadruple while I was gone, the dishes seemed to triple and well, the house just looks like a bomb exploded. Sadly, it still looks that way. But I did spend three hours last night folding clean laundry. You have to start somewhere, right? Hopefully I will be ready to resume my normal life next week. I know it's going to take the rest of the weekend to continue to catch up but it was totally worth it. Next year we're thinking maybe San Francisco? It's too early to tell but for now, that's on the top of our list!

Until next year...