New York, New York!

Andrew had to go to New York for work, so we decided to make a vacation out of it. He went out on Monday morning and I flew out on Wednesday night. We got a lot of great recommendations from friends and family and we had a lot of things that we wanted to do while we were there. It was a great trip and I had a difficult time narrowing down the pictures to post, so I'm just warning you that this will be a very long post.

One of the best things about New York is the food! And you all know how much I love food. So I decided to dedicate an entire post to just the food that's why you won't see any food in this post.

I decided to take a red eye flight out there, hoping it would help the long flight go quickly and that I would be able to sleep better. I was a little nervous, but it worked out great. I really liked the late flight and would definitely do it again.

I got in early Thursday morning and went to the hotel. Luckily Andrew hadn't left for work yet, so we were able to get some hot chocolate before he left for meetings. I then headed down to Rockefeller Center. I love the Today Show and I wanted to see if I could catch some of the taping. By the time I made it down there they were done filming outside, but I was able to see them filming inside. It was exciting to see behind the scenes.


If you look close enough you can see Al Roker sitting in the chair interviewing the guy from American Chopper.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to see them filming outside, and I wasn't able to see Matt Lauer, so I decided to try again the next morning. Unfortunately I realized that I like to sleep more than I like the idea of seeing them filming. So again, I didn't make it there until they were done filming outside. This time I got to see a better shot of Natalie Morales, but sadly again, no Matt Lauer. I will definitely make it a point to go see them again someday.

The idea was that while Andrew was working on Thursday and Friday I would spend the day shopping and going around the city seeing the things that I wanted to see. But there were a few things that stopped that from happening.

1. I got really sick just before I left. I had a really bad cold. The flight in made my congestion worse and left me with a really bad ear ache. My cough also became a lot worse. Being pregnant, a cold, even a small one, really wipes out every bit of energy that I have. I quickly realized that if I wanted to have any energy to go and do things with Andrew at night, that I needed to rest during the day. So I ended up spending a lot more time sleeping and relaxing in the hotel room than I planned on.

2. I also underestimated how tired it would make me to walk around the city. The subway scares me and taxis are so expensive, so I tried to walk everywhere. I would often get to where I wanted to go, and then have no energy to walk back so I ended up having to take a taxi. So again, I ended up not going to half the places I wanted to. I had huge plans to take tours and go shopping and so many other things ... but none of it happened!

I did make it to one important shopping destination, H&M. This store was huge and they were having a sale (double bonus!)

Our hotel was pretty close to Times Square, so we walked through there a couple of times. They have recently closed off a lot of the streets in Times Square so it's much easier to get around. They also have lounge chairs set up and everyone is just hanging out.

I've realized that in some pictures I look pregnant and some pictures I just look fat. I think this is a fat picture.

We didn't make it out to the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, but we did walk around Battery Park and take in the beautiful view.

We walked around Ground Zero and found this beautiful mural dedicated to the firemen.

I was in New York in 2004 and it was great to see the progress they have made since then.

Andrew helped me figure out the subway system, which made it a lot easier to get around the city. And everyone was really nice. Everytime we would get on and there was no room to sit, someone would ask if I wanted to take their seat. Ironically one time it was the lady sitting 5 feet away and not the Priest sitting right in front of us. There were definitely perks to being pregnant on the subway.

If it took too long for the train to come, I tried this, but it never worked.

One of the coolest things we did was go to Chelsea Market. A friend recommended it and we loved it. It is a super cute market with a lot of great little shops and amazing food!

They had this great fountain inside. (it's the stream of purple water behind my head)

Saturday night we went to see Phanton of the Opera. I had never been to a Broadway play and I had never seen Phantom. It was so much fun and I loved the play!

We had to wait in line in the rain.

What a fun night!

On Sunday morning we had a couple hours before we had to be to the train station, so we decided to walk around Central Park.

I'm not sure why they were all here, but this is what we had to walk through to get in. And who said Central Park isn't safe?

We then went to the train station to catch the train down to Baltimore to see Andrew's sister, Hillary. I meant to get a picture of us on the train, but forgot, so I got these pictures at the Baltimore train station. We loved the train ride, even though we couldn't sit by each other for the first half of the trip. It was a much better way to travel than flying.

Andrew took this picture because he said it describes what took place most of the trip. Sadly, I have to agree.

It was such a fun trip to New York. Even though I was sick it was still nice to get away and relax somewhere other than home.

We love New York!