Worth the Wait!

Rick and I have been planning to celebrate one of our anniversaries in NYC for a long time.  Finally, the timing was right.  Happy 16 years!

I absolutely love the artwork everywhere in the city.
Reminds me so much of all the time I spent in Chicago as a teenager.
We decided to take the red eye to save a little on a hotel as well as one day less of planning and organizing where our children would be.  It was rough for me.  Even Rick, who can sleep anywhere even on a hard floor with no pillow, couldn't sleep.  Every half hour we were interrupted by the captain, "Turbulence ahead, please buckle your seat belts."  Wait, why does he think anyone is not in their seat?  We are trying to SLEEP!  Our plan was to go to the hotel, drop our bags and go enjoy the city until our room was ready.  We arrived at the Chambers Hotel at 8:00 a.m.  Rick asked if our room was ready and surprisingly they said YES!  Joy!  We crashed for four hours of hard sleep.  Best power nap ever.  I really needed it, I was actually so sleepy that I fell asleep in the cab on the way to our hotel.  So not me.  I need a pillow and a bed and my earplugs.  Rick said I was snoring.  Seriously?

We woke up starving and headed straight to Mariella's Pizza.  Perfect!

We had to do a few touristy things while there.  We started with the Empire State Building.  

Very cool.  I love the history behind all of the buildings there.  Rick loved the picture of the Irish immigrants sitting on a beam hundreds of feet in the air, just taking a lunch break.  No ropes or safety harness.  That blows me away!  I get nauseous just standing close to the edge.

Rick totally surprised me and bought something before I did.  Wait, what?  I even waited a day until I made my first purchase.  I loved how relaxed we both were.  

We had to walk around Times Square and see at least one show.  I picked Mama Mia because it is so upbeat, and I love the music.  During the finale I said, "I forgot to tell you this is where the audience has to get up and dance."  Rick just smiled, but stayed seated while I clapped my little heart out.

We enjoyed delicious burgers at The Counter just before the show.  And how great, Mickey and Minnie showed up.  I love how random everything is in a big city.  

The next day, we took a cab straight to the Dean and Deluca Market in Soho.  Everything there is amazing!  We tried something new there every day.

A picture of all of the yummy olives for our niece, Olive.

Dun, dun dun nahhhh!  (Is that how you spell it?)

The chocolate babka I had been dreaming about since I had it a year ago, when we were on a girls trip.  

It was every bit as delicious as I remembered.

After the feast we started shopping.  Rick was texting Kim and telling her that I was high on the babka and he was scared for what was coming.  She said, "just stay away from the shoes.  She'll feel fat from eating that and won't want to try on any pants."  He replied, "too late." Too funny, Kim knows me so well.  I did go straight to the shoes and found an amazing pair of boots.  I honestly wasn't going to buy them.  When I took them off Rick smiled at me and said, "get them!  that is why we are here."  Oh how I love my man!

We walked literally all day.  All over Soho, China town, Little Italy, and back to Soho.  Rick was such a good sport about shopping.  I asked him to come in the Lulu Lemon dressing room with me.  He sat down and saw all of the clothes lined up to try on.  He said he thought to himself, "those can't all be hers, someone must have left them here."  Umm, it's true, they were mine. 

 But I am a fast dresser and narrowed it down quickly to one pair of pants and one shirt.  

Thanks for your patience Rick.  We continued to walk around Soho and after about five hours, Rick looked up the street and said, "Wow, this goes on forever!"  It was beautiful.  

We headed back to the hotel where Rick took a quick power nap before dinner.

We decided to splurge on an authentic Italian dinner at Scalinatella.  It was just what we had imagined.  We loved watching all of the people, the waiters, the bus boys, the diners, the hostesses, everything. All I can say is I was laughing so hard when Rick said it felt just like the SNL skit of all of the Italian waiters who kept kissing all the women in the restaurant.  Everything we ate was delicious, but the cheesecake was over the top fabulous!  We were both making "yummy" sounds.  

The next day was the most thrilling for me!  As soon as we woke up we headed to Central Park in our running gear.  It has been a dream of mine to run around the park with Rick.  But, that morning I pictured us running for a while, then stopping to look at something cool, then running some more, and repeat.  I should have known better.  Rick said, "there were just too many carrots out there."  We love to pass people and try to keep up with serious runners.  I'm not a marathoner, I just love a fast 10K.  We ran as fast as we could and passed all of the runners except a few.  One girl came up on us, passed us, and I said, "Wow, beautiful legs!"  We kept her in sight for a long time, then Rick put on the pressure and we passed her back.  I wanted those legs to be mine!  We only let one get away during the six miles, and there was no way we could catch him.  It was absolutely my favorite part of the trip.  I had butterflies in my stomach all day.  I am very grateful we are both healthy and can exercise.  

It brings me serious peace!  Luckily, Rick feels the same.  

  

We ended up waiting until 4:00 that day for our first meal.  After the run, we got ready and headed over to Rosa Mexicano for some gourmet Mexican food.  We had heard the guacamole made table side was good.  It was amazing!  I love eating a good meal after earning it from exercise.

This is the chicken tortilla pie.  Wow!  It was so tasty!

Rick ordered the chicken enchiladas with a chocolate mole.  Incredible.  

We'll definitely go back if we are ever in NYC again.

I love all of the sculptures, and cool architecture everywhere.  

These divers were just below the stairs in the restaurant.

Lastly, I have to mention the yogurt parfait from the market near our hotel.  

So fresh, so delicious!  We ate one every day we were there.

We both agreed the best part of the trip was having no schedule.  We laughed because we kept trying to make it to some great bistros for brunch, but didn't wake up in time.  It was absolutely perfect.  I loved being with Rick every moment of the day.  One of my favorite things about Rick is his sense of humor.  He has a dry sense of humor with impeccable timing.  He can make strangers laugh in a heartbeat.  I loved watching him enjoy the city and the people.  

Happy 16 years to my soul mate!

Our hotel was so cozy and quaint.  Loved it.