New York City

We had the BEST time in New York! I KNEW I would love it there! There is so much to see and so much to do - we could have stayed another week!! It wasn't your typical "relaxing" vacation, but we didn't care - we were so excited to see it all! We stayed at the Franklin Hotel on the upper east side of Manhattan. I loved it - it was recently remodeled and it reminded me of a Restoration Hardware magazine. It was REALLY SMALL - and I mean really small, but so nice and I would recommend it to anyone! It was right by the subway too so it was really convenient! We took a bunch of pictures, but I soon realized that we need to invest in a new camera.:) Sorry for the long post - I LOVED NEW YORK! Here is the rundown:

TUESDAY

We got there early Tuesday morning - tired (dang redeye flight) but excited! We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed to do the "touristy" stuff. We were told to take the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. It is free and it dosen't take as long. We loved it! Lady Liberty is beautiful and we enjoyed the nice boat ride:)

Then we went to the World Trade Center site. So emotional. It was so sad to see that there is still a huge hole in the ground. It was hard to believe that two huge towers once stood there and to imagine them crumbling to the ground. There really isn't a place to take pictures because it is surronded by huge chainlink fences and black tarps. There is a temporary museum type place set up right next door to the site so we decided to go in. It was incredible. I recommend it to anyone going to New York. They had artifacts there that were found while sorting through the rubble. There was an airplane window, coins that had been melted together, and a huge piece of the steel that one of the towers was made out of. It was totally burnt. There were free standing colums and on them were buttons you could push and hear the firefighters talking back and forth on their walkie talkies and quotes from people who expierenced it and text messages that were sent to loved ones. It was really hard to read and hear. They also had one wall that was covered with the pictures of the lives taken. That night we headed to the US Open. That was so much fun!! We had reserved seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium. This stadium usually holds the top players matches most of the Open. When you buy the tickets you don't know who you are going to get to see - they do the draw the night before - and lucky us - we got Venus Williams in the first match and Roger Federer in the second!! After his match we went down and got his autograph!! Hey Roger!!

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was our day off from the sporting events so we decided to head out and test the shopping waters! We went to Canal Street. SO FUN! You know I bought a purse! I loved wheeling and dealing them! We spent a couple hours there and decided to do more "touristy" things. We headed to Magnolia Bakery and enjoyed a famous cupcake. Then went to eat luch at Papaya's - hot dogs only $1.25!

In the afternoon we went to go and do a session at the Temple - and it was closed for cleaning! We were so sad! I had heard so much great stuff about this temple and we were so excited to see it. It is so crazy how it is just on a busy street. Don't mind the picture - I totally cut off Angel Moroni.

Later that night we had dinner at Blue Smoke House - great BBQ place. We then headed to Times Square aka the Vegas Strip. I seriously felt like I was in Vegas. I liked it, but I think I expected more from it. We walked over to Rockafeller Center and checked things out there. It was fun to see all of the ads on the buildings. I even saw a huge Vitamin Water ad with D-Will in it - that was awesome. After a long day and night - we decided we better get some sleep!

THURSDAY

We got up early on Thursday to go to the Today Show. In case you missed it - we were on TV! Too bad Meredith was the only one there, but it was still fun. And I got some free wrist weights from the lady who was doing the ouside segment that day. We also went over to the top of the Rockefeller building. You go up 70 floors and you can see all of New York City. Of course, our camera battery died while we were up there - so no pictures. But it was really cool!

That afternoon we went to the last Red Sox vs Yankees game in Yankee Stadium. THAT WAS GREAT! Even though Giambi won it for the Yanks in the bottom of the 9th - it was still fun to see:) We were sitting in the upper tier on the third base line - they were great seats! The foul pole was right in front of us - we were hoping for a foul ball:) Yankee fans are hilarious - you mix direct heat, lots of beer, and overall Yankee craziness - and it was a fun game! Go Sox! Thanks Daryl for the tickets - you are great!

Thursday night we went to dinner in SoHo - on Daryl. Nice guy. Thanks so much!! We loved our dinner! After another long day - we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. We knew we had a big day ahead of us!

FRIDAY

Friday morning we were up and on the subway by 7:00 am - off to another day at the US Open. Only this time we had the grounds passes - which is basically general admission to any of the courts except Arthur Ashe. The gates don't open until 10:00 am, but we happen to know a guy who was going too so we went early with him - good thing we did - we got front row seats!! We watched tennis all day. We didn't leave until 10:30pm. I really liked these tickets. I would recommend getting them for one day. We saw the #5 player - Davadinko, we also say Robby Ginipri (USA guy) and Jo-Wilfred Songa! It is such a different game sitting that close to the court. The tennis balls would hit the board right in front of us - it was so great! 15 hours of tennis- can't complain!!

The last match kept stopping for rain so around 10:30 we decided we should leave to go and get dinner. John and his wife, who were our friends we knew, came to dinner with us. We ate at a sports bar, The Joshua Tree. Great place! Highly recommend it!

SATURDAY

Today was the sad day - we had to leave. Our plane didn't leave until around 5:00 so we met up with my cousin Kellen, who attends NYU, and he and his friend Kristina took us around Centeral Park. I think we were in the park about an hour and a half and we really didn't see that much of it. It is HUGE! But so great!

Here we are at the Castle in the park. Really cool!

We decided to walk down 5th avenue and check out all the "high roller" stores. OOO I loved Harry Winston! We also ate lunch at the famous Serendipity. Of course, we had the frozen hot choclate. Look how big their menus were. Hello?!? Thanks Kellen for showing us around!

Well, it's over - but we came home with so many great memories. There is so much to do there and we could have stayed another week to do it all. Oh well, I guess that means we have to go back! Fine by me! I keep telling Jake that we are going back next year for more US Open action! I really want to see Roddick play!

We really missed Walker but he did really great at Megan's and my moms. Thanks guys - we really appreciate all your help while we were gone:)