New York City: We went. We saw. We conquered the subway system.

Cameron and I celebrated our approaching 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY by getting away to New York City in conjuction with a business trip he is currently having right now.

We left on Thursday morning together, I came home on Monday morning and he'll be home tomorrow morning.

So, the Big Apple is FANTASTIC!!! I admit I was quite petrified of the place before I went, not really knowing what to expect from the city or it's inhabitants, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you think about the city too long, you find yourself thinking that you could just stay and be quite satisfied.

Thursday we had time to get to our hotel, freshen up and eat before our appointment with the Phantom of the Opera. We ate real New York food our whole trip. Nothing was familiar and the flavors were incredible in every single thing we ate. I'm not kidding. My first meal was pastrami on rye from a small deli we found along the way. YUM!
Our initial desires regarding this massive place was simply to see two Broadway shows and the Statue of Liberty, but as I poured over guidebooks the night before our trip it expanded to include much, much more.

Friday morning we hopped on the subway and headed downtown. Our first stop was to see Ground Zero. It's being filled up with a new building now, but the surrounding streets look hauntingly familiar.

We had to get Cam's picture in front of the New York Stock Exchange, of course and stumbled on the treasure of the old Federal Hall and got a nice free chunk of NY and US history.
We were both very touched by seeing the Statue of Liberty. Did I mention that it rained ALL DAY on Friday? It didn't dampen our spirits at all, just our picture taking ability. We both brought raincoats, thankfully and held up just fine.

After the Statue of Liberty ferry experience, we ate an incredible pizza in Little Italy. My side was crushed plum tomatoes, torn basil and fresh buffalo mozzarella and it tasted like warm heaven. Cam ordered barbeque chicken. It was good too, but I definitely won this one.

Next we visited the Museum of Modern Art. This is a really large canvas painting of the USA by Jasper Johns, I think. My favorite here was Hope II by Gustav Klimt, however, we quickly came to the conclusion of what we suspected before: modern art is not for us.

However, musicals are for us! We loved Wicked! For not knowing any music and no plot line before hand, I can honestly say that it was truly entertaining and not to be missed.

Saturday we did a bit of exploring before heading to the Bronx and Yankee Stadium.

We bought huge breakfast sandwiches from a street vendor and sat in these lawn chairs that are scattered throughout a street in Times Square.We hardly had to figure out which train to use as we were surrounded by Yankees fans.

We went the Metropolitan Museum of Art after the game. We ate hot dogs on the steps of this massive place.This BEAST of a place was an absolute dream come true for me. I was in history heaven, art heaven...I was so happy...until they closed the museum at 9 o'clock and I honestly cried because we hadn't even finished the first floor! Cam dried my tears by telling me we could come back the next day, that it was up to me. Before we went home, though, I thought we should hit the Empire State Building since it was open til 2 AM.

Big mistake.

Although the views were spectacular they did little to off-set the 2 1/2 hour wait just to get into the elevator. It was a miserable wait, all on our feet. We only kept our spirits buoyed up by being grateful our kids weren't with us in such a situation. Here's one view from the 86th floor:

Look for Sunday and Monday's photos tomorrow...I'm done for today.