Were you like me as a kid on New Year's Eve? Did you stay up late, eating too much and playing games, then count down while watching Dick Clark, until the magical moment that the ball dropped? Didn't all those people on Times Square look like they were having sooo much fun? Yeah, I thought so too. That's why, when we moved to NY, I thought for sure we had to do the "Times Square on New Year's Eve" experience. I had Travis convinced by Oct. So we booked our flights, our hotel, and our hopes on a great trip. Sure, I would be eight months pregnant, but we only had this one chance to do it before we had kids. And so it began....
We took the red eye from Phoenix to New York City on Tues, Dec. 30. When we walked on the plane I thought how nice the first class looked, until I realized it was the whole plane. The pilot announced that it was just two weeks old and had just been flown from Switzerland, where it was made. Sweet! I could actually rest my head, believing I wouldn't get lice! The individual t.v. screens were great, but I thought I'd be sleeping. No such luck.
We flew into JFK airport around 6:30am and snagged ourselves a Jamba Juice for breakfast
with energy boosters
. The airport itself was so nice I had to snap a pic.
or two.... :)
From there we hauled our luggage to the Airtrack that took us to the first subway station. We boarded a dirty, old subway for about 20 min., going through what can only be described as the scariest ghetto. Then had to get off to catch a different subway. This one was nicer, but after about 30 min. on that one, we again had to switch subways. Keep in mind that with each switch, we are lugging 4 suitcases up multiple flights of stairs. Travis doing most of the lugging. Remember, I'm eight months prego. While waiting for one subway I saw a big squirrel on the tracks. How interesting. Wait a second, this squirrel was missing his bushy tail. Ahah, it was indeed a big, fat rat! Shudder. It took about 2 hours to get from the airport to our hotel.
We stopped at Grand Central Station, emerged into New York City, turned a corner, and there was our hotel! It may as well been heaven. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt.
Nice, huh? We apparently had lost our senses when we booked the hotel. We mistook our bank account for our rich uncles. Sigh. Nothing to do about it now. They graciously let us check in 8 hours before check- in time so we could shower and take a two hour nap.
(This pic was actually taken on our way home, hence the sunburned-looking, but really wind-burned faces. Foreshadow of what's to come..).
So what do you do first on an adventure to New York City? Why, eat at Chipotle of course! We were starving and didn't know what else would come our way, so we snuck in for a burrito. I didn't know when I'd be eating next, so I stuffed half of mine in my jacket for later. Classy.
We made our way to Times Square and there were already masses of people getting their spots secured. It's not even 2pm. The cops were out in full force and were letting people into the barricades. We were really close to the ball, and we didn't know what else to do, so we joined a swarm and got into one of the barricades.
One reason I chose this spot was because we were right next to the Charmin restrooms! Problem: they closed them at 4pm and didn't reopen until midnight. What the ??? It wouldn't have mattered anyway because by 4pm, the cops stopped letting people back into the barricades. We were stuck. And so we stood..... and stood..... and stood. We didn't know the temperature, but found out later it was about zero or below that. We were both uncontrollably shaking. My feet were numb after a couple of hours. I had hand warmers but they didn't do as good a job as I hoped.
We took this around 3pm. Don't we look so naively happy? The ball is on top of the Toshiba signs. It looks small, and it is, but we are actually pretty close to it.
We made friends with a family from AZ that brought their three kids. The kids seemed less than thrilled to be there. The dad was able to get some McDonalds right before the cops stopped letting people in. They graciously shared a thing of french fries. Travis's dinner. I ate my burrito around 6. Knowing there were no restrooms, I didn't dare even look at water. Around five I asked Travis if this was the definition of miserable. He said he thought we hit that over an hour ago.
I know it's blurry, but at 6pm, they shot off a bunch of fireworks and began the hourly countdown til midnight. We also did the countdown to random cities like Moscow, Russia and Santiago, Chile. They also started playing music then. A few hours before midnight they had their star performances, but it was lame because the stage is way in the back and only faces a small amount of people. Plus, the performers only sang for about 10 min. each. Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers, and Lionel Richie were there. We "danced" aka: moved around to try and keep hypothermia from setting in. So why didn't we leave?? It was right before six that I almost started crying and begging to leave (Trav later tells me he would have happily obliged), but a song distracted me and I reasoned that this was why we planned the trip!! How could we peter out? It was still a constant dilemma in my mind. Pure misery or warm hotel? The answer seems so obvious now.
This pic was taken 15 min. before midnight. Notice the glazed eyes, fake smiles, wind burned skin. We had now stood in the freezing cold for 10 HOURS!!!
Can you see the tiny ball all lit up?
The big moment..... (please don't ask why I turned the camera- my brain was as frozen as my body) Enjoy the kiss! I'm surprised we didn't get stuck together like the kid licking the pole on Christmas story!
To be honest, I was so busy video taping, I didn't even watch the ball drop!!! How lame. The moment was exciting, but definitely not worth it. Trying to get back to the hotel was maddness. It was the only time I was worried about my stomach/baby with the crowds. Somehow we moved our stiff, frostbitten legs the .7 miles back to our hotel. The whole time we were walking I just kept thinking, " How the heck did we just do that???? Seriously." For the rest of my life I will wonder how I survived that night. How I stood for 10 hours, in zero degree weather, 8 months pregnant. Freakin' miracle. The hot shower could have never lasted too long. Trav thought he could just warm up in bed- not so. He had to thaw out in the shower after me. A week later I was to see pictures of my family sitting in their hot tub in Arizona on New Years Eve. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! Trav and I made a vow that WE WILL NEVER BE COLD AGAIN ON NEW YEAR'S EVE!!! (reference Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind- just tweaked a bit :)
The next morning, we couldn't help it, we slept in. We finally got out of our hotel and down to the ferry for the Statue of Liberty around 10am. The monument passes were sold out and the line to board the ferry was way past the partitions made to organize the line. And so we stood in freezing cold, windy weather for over an hour. Novel. Did I mention that we hadn't gotten anything for breakfast? Not to worry, I had brought along our airplane snacks! Travis munched on sweet potato chips and I got a Dorito mix. Nutritious and delicious!
We couldn't go inside, so we just walked around and admired, along with the millions of other tourists. Trav was amazed at how many Spaniards there were- in general on the whole trip. I was just amazed that I heard more foreign languages than I did English. There was a cute little boy on the ferry whose mother wanted to take his picture by the open window. But he kept protesting in a thick English accent that he was afraid the boat would tip and he would fall out. The look on his face was hilarious- he was totally convinced he would just fall right out.... reminded me of some siblings I know :)
The Manhattan skyline is behind us- particularly the Financial District.
From the Statue of Liberty Island, we went to the Ellis Island Museum. This is just a cool display they had that had faces on it from one angle and the flag from another angle.
They also had a computer that you could type in an ancestors name and see if they came through Ellis Island. I knew my great-great grandfather came over from Sweden in the early 1900's, and sure enough we found him! Bror Lindblom. It's the clearest picture we could get, but he is the first one in the list.
We also found another relative, Nils Lindblom. I thought that was so cool!
This is upstairs in the registry room.
This is just the main display you see when you walk in.
Next, we visited the Financial District. Below is a picture of Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers once stood. It's just a construction site right now, so it would be cool to come back when there is a memorial built.
This is the front of the New York Stock Exchange. Man how I wanted to go in there! You could see lights flashing inside from all the monitors and stuff but the whole area was fenced off so we couldn't get close.
Throughout the trip we used the subways often. Travis was a pro at figuring out which ones to take and I let him take charge. He said it brought back memories of Spain. While most subway stations are dirty, Grand Central has quite the look to it. On the walls you can kind of make out the kaleidascope show they are doing. It was a seasonal thing.
Ok, right before we came on this trip, we watched that movie, Serendipity. Anyone seen it? So cute- and so when we saw the Waldorf Astoria Hotel I was way excited. We joked that we should just go inside and take the elevators to the 23rd floor. Haha. I guess I could also mention that we tried to eat at the Serendipity restaurant but they weren't even taking reservations until next week and it was a three hour wait when we got there. Bummer!
We went to Rockefeller Plaza and saw the 6 hour line to ice skate.
Had to take a pic under the famous Christmas Tree.
I forget which talk show always shows this building- is it David Letterman? I tried to order tickets for his show two months in advance, but never heard back.
We walked around 5th Ave. and looked in various shops like the M&M store. Then we went to Gershwin Theater at 5pm to try and get tickets through the lottery system to see Wicked. They drew 13 names out of a few hundred. Lady Luck just hasn't been on our side. So then we decided to eat out at Planet Hollywood. They said it would be a 20-30 min. wait. An hour later we were seated. But do you see what we are seated next to??!!
That's right! The actual suit and dress that Edward and Bella wear to the prom in Twilight! Haha, I actually asked the waitress who took our picture to make sure and get the display in it! I'm such a nerd! (And yes, I realize my beanie is on in a restaurant. That thing didn't come off during the whole trip. Vanity has no place in freezing cold weather! And scary hat-hair was hiding underneath it!)
After dinner we called it a night and went back to the hotel because I wanted to wake up extra early on Friday to try and get on the Today Show! Well we weren't as early as I'd hoped, but we got on t.v. nonetheless! The lady in the purple jacket is the weather lady and you could see us as she did her report. They put a monitor out so you can see if you make it in the shot.
We switched spots to be behind the glass during a segment that Lester was doing about Facebook.
With the two hour time difference, we were able to call our families to tell them to watch for us. My only regret is that I forgot a poster!! I was going to write something like "Towaga came from AZ to say hi!" hoping that it would catch their attention. OH WELL! :)
After the Today Show we walked to the Empire State Building and passed the NY Public Library. I don't know- I thought that was cool!I was pretty easily impressed the whole time :)
We bought the audio tour and suffered through high winds to get an idea of the layout of New York City. It's just crazy how high the Empire State Building is. Even crazier that the Twin Towers were taller! Behind Trav is where the Statue of Liberty is.
You can see the Chrysler Building in between us. That was actually right where our hotel was too.
Next we went to..... can you guess???
Probably not- because the stairs are all covered up!!!! GRRRR! I was so stinkin' mad!! Seriously, I was irked. I was sooo excited to take a picture in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art because it's such an amazing building and the stairs are what makes the front! But noooooo, they had to do construction. Hmpf! I know this is not a normal thing to be annoyed about, but it made
this pregnant lady mad! Ok, moving on...
Not that Trav loves armor, or anything, but I had to take his picture next to
something. I should have waited for the nude Roman figures... haha.
This is a famous painting by David that I remember studying in art history class.
This is a painting by Georgia O'Keefe that my 5th graders studied during art masterpiece, so I thought it was cool to see the real thing!
This is a self-portrait of Picasso.
This is the famous "Main Hall". So has anyone read "The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?" It's a book that I read with my 5th graders. It's about a girl and her brother who run away and live in the MET. I can definitely imagine getting lost in this place. It is incredibly huge. We walked around for hours and didn't even begin to see all the wings of art and pictures it has. Totally overwhelming.
Well my feet were numb and tingling after walking around all day- wait make that the past three days. So I hobbled around Central Park, quite dependent on Travis's arm for support. I wanted to do more... I willed myself to do more, but I just couldn't. The baby wasn't feeling right and my legs and feet were swollen. We sat for a while and slowly, very slowly made our way back to the hotel. Along the way we stopped for lunch in a deli (this was when I had made an attempt at Serendipity and the wait was three hours) and stopped in Bloomingdales to use the bathrooms (holy cow that's a huge department store!! Maybe one day I'll get to carry around a Big Brown Bag just like Rachel Green :)
We caught the subway at last and found this going on when we got off. My memory card was full after the little that I got on tape! It was really amazing, but I'll admit that I was very distracted, thinking about all the germs they were picking up on that nasty floor, doing all those tricks. Ick.
We rode the subway two hours back to the airport then sat in the airport another 4+ hours. Trav was ok once we found out that the Utah football game was airing in the airport and on the airplane. I was ok just putting my feet up and reading my book- warm and cozy. Eric picked us up from the Buffalo airport at 1 in the morning!!! What a saint. And I fell exhausted into bed hardly bothering to take out my contacts, while Travis unpacked all his bags and put everything away. You gotta love perseverance! Well, it was an experience. Good, bad, and everything inbetween! At least, we survived.
Ok, I think this is last pregnant pic you're gonna get! Reason: Trav took five others with me looking at the camera and I have a fatty-fat face and can't stand it! Ugh. I know I've been a bit addicted to the chocolate lately, but I didn't realize the toll it was taking on my body! Anyhoo, if it was possible, I'm even MORE excited to have this baby now! We got a crib this morning (Trav is SO excited to have another piece of furniture to refinish!) and we started going to our birthing class this past week. There are 3 sessions stretching over 3 weeks. During this first one they showed two birthing videos. I felt like a guy watching another guy getting clubbed in the "bad area", while I was watching those heads crowning! Yikes! That DOES NOT look fun. Of course, no one said it would be- but still. Don't know how that's all gonna work out. My mom always told me she just tried to remember that millions of other women had done it, so she could too. Still doesn't make me feel better. Anyway, update over. Nursery pics coming soon! :)
