NYC Girls Trip (Better Late Than Never)

Last weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to go to New York City for the day with 2of my closest girl friends from college, Nora and Lacosta. We actually talked about going last year, and Nora and Lacosta did go.....on November 6th. Yep, Collette's birth date. I had just been to the doctor and she had said that I probably wouldn't have Collette for another week or two, so I totally toyed with the idea of going along, but for some reason (????) the girls (and Dr. Reitz) refused to let me come!! HA! In fact, I called them from the hospital while they were in route to NYC. So THIS year, we picked a date that worked for all of us--the Saturday before Thanksgiving, as an early Christmas present to ourselves and each other.

The only drawback to our plan was that LL was on call last weekend, in addition to being on baby duty, but my awesome SIL Taryn offered to watch Collette while LL had to work, so we figured we'd be all set. I actually drove to Harrisburg on Friday night after LL got home from work, around 9:30pm. Collette was already in bed, so it worked out great....until LL got called in for an emergency at 4:00am!! Guess who got to go to work with Daddy!!! Oh well. He and the client were very understanding, and apparently Collette had a great time!

Nora, LC, and I left about 7:00am (they are NOT what you would consider early birds)and we drove to New Jersey, and hopped on the train to NYC. Our first order of business: the TKTS office, where you can get 50% tickets to Broadway shows for day-off performances. The line wasn't even too long, and we were able to get tickets for West Side Story. So fun!

After that, we decided to do some sight-seeing. LC really wanted to see Ground Zero, so we went there first. Or, at least, we tried. The subway line we wanted was partially down and we ended up riding all the way to the Bronx because there were no stops! Oh well.

Lacosta and I at the DeKalb Avenue stop, waiting to get the proper subway stop:


Hey, we were in NYC with no agenda! Who cares if we took the extended route? Finally heading the right direction:


Ground Zero is definitely under construction. You can't even really tell the towers were there; the memorial construction is in full swing.


We were able to go the the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site which was really neat.

We went to Times Square:


Saw lots of downtown sights, including the Macy's Christmas Decorations.




After that, it was time to see West Side Story.


It was incredible. SOOOOOO good.

There was a Broadway museum right by our theatre, and they had one of the New Years Balls on display. Very Cool.


We walked to Rockefeller Center, and tried to see the Christmas tree, but even though it was in place, it was still all in scaffolding. They did have the star tree-topper on display, though:


And we got to see the statue and the ice skating rink, so that was fun.


After that, we walked through Chinatown and Little Italy, and ate dinner in Little Italy. The food was awesome. Can you believe I don't have any pictures of the food?!? What's happening to me? LOL

We followed up our dinner with some shopping. We didn't buy a lot, but we looked at lots of cute stuff. I did find an awesome handmade poncho for Collette for Christmas, at a little shop called White Llama (I know!!). The couple is from Peru, and makes all of their own stuff. Really, who could resist a lavender poncho with white llamas on it? :o)



This is all the closer to the Statue of Liberty that we got! :o)


Nora and I both found fun winter hats, which we got to wear right away, because it was COLD! Here we are rocking them in the train station:


It was a perfect girls day. :o)