The Big Apple!

Kerry and I just celebrated our decade of marriage by taking a little getaway to NYC this past weekend. We jumped on a plane shortly after Caleb's 4th birthday party and left the boys behind with Nana & Papa for 3 days. Just a short plane ride to JFK and as we were leaving the airport, I saw what I believe to be was Regin Philbin's driver. His sign read R. Philbin. I just assumed and it excited me. My first star siting possibly? I kinda wanted to wait around, but kept walking. We grabbed our first NYC cab and let me just say that NYC cab drivers believe they are invincible. It was somewhat magical this experience, yet I was also hoping that we would make it alive into the city! We actually rented an apartment from a complete stranger using www.airbnb.com. Kerry found it and we researched the site and many options to find one located near Hells Kitchen. The gal met us at her apartment, gave us a run down of the small quarters and said goodbye. We were then off to find some dinner. We got carried away just walking around town and probably did so for about an hour before landing at a little Italian spot called Mario's Trattoria. It was a good find and surprisingly not expensive.

Sunday I wanted to grab breakfast at Dean & Deluca. The place of employment for Felicity, one of my favorite shows in college. I have to admit I got a little giddy sitting there! We then headed over to Times Square to pick up our NY City & Hop on Hop off passes. Times Square is like nothing you have ever seen before. It somewhat reminded me of Vegas, but not quite. Advertising galore, people, Broadway shows, people, restaurants, people, shopping, people, plenty of street vendors, people, a 4 story Walgreens and ToysRus to name a few. Did I mention people? Yikes. We got on our first Hop on Bus and headed over to Empire State Building. All of these sites we visited were part of our pass, so it totally was worth the cost rather than pay for everything on its own. This offered an amazing view! Of course, I had Sleepless in Seattle flashbacks that I kind of wanted to recreate, but Kerry said no. We walked over to the 9/11 Memorial Site, but didn't have an opportunity to see it. It was not part of our pass, but we got to see WTC1 in current construction. Once finished, it will be the tallest building in US. We saw some memorials around the area which is always neat to see. We decided to attempt Statue of Liberty which included a nice ferry ride over the Hudson. It was pretty muggy in the city, so a nice breezy ride was totally necessary at this point! Lady liberty was gorgeous, especially up close. Once off the boat, we headed back up to Times Square to visit Madame Tussauds wax museum. Now, we probably wouldn't have stopped here had we not had the pass. Wax, lifelike figures of your favorite stars and sports figures. We snapped some pics with our faves and headed back to Hell's Kitchen to meet up with an old friend from AZ who had recently moved to NY. We ate at 5 Napkin Burger and then visited a speakeasy bar that was featured on Drinking Made Easy called Just don't tell. The entrance is through a phone booth in a hotdog shop. Its rather funny to watch people watch you enter this bar because its not well known in the city, its somewhat secretive. We had a few drinks and called it a night.

Monday was our last full day in NY, so we grabbed the Hop On Bus and drove around the city, down to Central Park. Its neat to hear all of the history from these tour guides, facts I did not know about before visiting, like how John Lennon was shot for example. We did not see a ton of Central Park, but it was gorgeous. So lush and green. Its weird to look down from the Empire State Building and just see this block of green amongst all of these skyscrapers. We hopped back on the bus and hopped off at St John Cathedral of the Divine. Breathtaking to say the least. Walking through I felt like I was at the royal wedding. It was spectacular. The architecture is outstanding. We grabbed a late breakfast across the street and demolished some tasty crepes before hopping back on the bus over towards 30 Rock. We had a NBC studio tour which was pretty cool, got to see Brian Williams NBC newsroom, Dr. Oz set and SNL. We grabbed a quick lunch at an amazing sandwich shop called wichCraft and wichCraft it was. I just found out Tom Colicchio from Top Chef is the founder of this tasty shop. Makes more sense now. Simply delicious. Kerry and I couldn't stop eating them, they were so good, probably the best we ever had. Kerry went as far to say it was better than In n Out. What? We then checked in for our grand finale in NYC, a taping of the Jimmy Fallon show. It was so much fun!!!!!! The set appears so much bigger on TV, but they manage to fit a few hundred in that audience or so it felt waiting to go through security! Elmo was a guest and the audience got the new Rock N Roll Elmo's! Woohoo! Andy Samburg, drummer from Pink Floyd and the Shins were on the show. It was very cool to see. We walked right out of there and over to Fedex to mail those home. Walking around the city with those would have been a nightmare and there is no way we would have got them on the plane either. Smart thinking Snyders. We were famished and just kept walking around the city hoping to land on a good spot. I wanted Chinese and Kerry did not. We kept walking and walking and walking til finally crossing paths with an Asian Fusion restaurant so we had a seat. Turned out to be quite decent. Kerry ordered some duck and I picked a wrong dish, but it was still satisfying. After dinner we continued to walk. I wanted to enjoy some gelato, but it seems when you want something, you cannot find it. I mean, how many blocks did we walk and not come across any gelato? I see it all day long, but not at night? We ended up getting PinkBerry which was very tasty anyway and headed home.

Tuesday was our last morning, so we headed over to 30 Rock to pick up our Late Night with Jimmy t-shirts (the shop was closed after show) and finished our souvenir shopping. We caught a taxi and headed back home. If you are looking to relax, this is not the place to vacation. I love to walk and I didn't realize how much it would exhaust me day after day. You just have so much to see, that you never want to stop. One thing I didn't expect about NYC is that I never thought I would feel like a foreigner in my own country. We did not hear much English outside of tour guides and employees of attractions. Not once did we ever find an American to snap our photo. We loved it and can't wait to visit again someday.