Our Biggest Big Apple Adventure Yet!

"Every day in New York is different. You never know who you're going to meet, what you're going to learn, or what you're going to step in."

I heard that so-funny-because-it's-so-true quote by Anderson Cooper on a TV commercial and just had to use it for this post! We're back from our biggest Big Apple Adventure ever and I'm excited to tell you all about it. We had an amazing time and were pretty sold on making this longer weekend trip a tradition. With only a few minor shake-ups in our plans, we managed to see and do everything we wanted to except taking C to Toys R Us in Times Square. Good thing there's always next year :)

So if you know me, you already know that I have a few zillion pictures from this weekend. To avoid crashing your computer or mine, I've just picked the highlights and broken them down by each day we were there.

THURSDAY, OCT. 13

We arrived around 4 pm, checked into our hotel and had some dinner. Then J headed out to go see Book of Mormon while C and I had a pajama party in the hotel room.

 The view from our hotel window. It was damp and foggy on Thursday night so it added some extra character to our view!

FRIDAY, OCT. 14

It was wet and rainy so we decided not to venture too far from the hotel in case the weather got really bad. We did get up early and head to Rockefeller Center to see the Today Show, though!

 I got to fist-bump Al when he came by where I was standing! Due to the stroller, I was unable to make it through the crowd to be on camera, but J and C were on!

We headed uptown after breakfast to wander through FAO Schwarz.

 This is just a picture of our hotel with Times Square in the background. We were on 7th Avenue between 55th and 56th streets. A few blocks south of Central park, and a few blocks north of Times Square. Perfect!

 The birthday boy getting ready to have some dinner and beer at our favorite brewery, located in the Empire State Building!

 Cornhusker Lager - yum!

Crabcakes - double yum!

SATURDAY OCT. 15

Finally some sunshine! We strapped on our walking shoes and hit the sidewalks for the long journey down to Ground Zero. Luckily it's a beautiful walk through some really fun neighborhoods. And of course, seeing the 9/11 Memorial was beyond worth the walk.

 Being lovers of the city, we're huge fans of HGTV's Selling New York. This is one of the Real Estate companies on the show.

Greenwich Village = my favorite neighborhood

The firehouse used in Ghostbusters is in Tribeca

 Feeding Cheerios to some pigeons

The National September 11th Memorial:

On our way back uptown, we stopped at our favorite pizza place.

 I couldn't resist. 

Seriously? Only in New York.

 This is Times Square, if you couldn't tell :) We were trying to get to Toys R Us but it was even more packed than it usually is because the Wall Street protestors had come up to demonstrate in Times Square. There were police officers wearing riot gear walking up and down the street and a police helicopter hovering over-head. We were literally smashed shoulder-to-shoulder and I had my finger in one of J's belt loops so we wouldn't get separated. We ducked out at the very next block, needless to say. Pretty scary, but 10x more so when your baby is in a crowd like that with you.

SUNDAY OCT. 16

Sunday was another really pretty day. We had until noon to check out of our hotel, so we got some breakfast and spent the rest of the morning playing in Central Park.

And with that, we picked up our traditional smoothies from Jamba Juice and hit the road. We had the best time we've ever had in New York and as always, can't wait to go back. It was really nice to come home though :)