Highlight of our trip #1-NYC

I L.O.V.E the city. I grew up outside of NYC-you could see it lit up at night from the golf course up the street from my house. As teens we would take the bus in and spend the day hanging out in The Village, checking out all the funky shops and boutiques. I wanted Dea to experience some of this, too. (she saved up her back -to-school shopping for this) Last year we trekked through the Village and on up to Broadway for Mama Mia! but many of those old shops, bakeries and that one cool place to get a burger were gone! :( As I found out this year, I had apparently bypassed a huge section of very cool and unique shops by a block. We discovered it this time around but unfortunately it was at the end of our day! Oh, well. We'll make it the focal point for the next trip.

We started our day early, taking the train from New Jersey into the city-about 45min. (Lo spent the day with grandma and Pops). We got into Penn Station at about 9:30 and made our way on 34th over towards Broadway to find some cool shopping, iced coffee and a baked goodie.

Ms. Posh Jr.
We were told that there was a lot of action going on in Bryant Park-Flee markets, street performers, music...but it was pretty dead. A big green with tons of tables and chairs set up all around it but not much else. There was a stage set up on the green where a Broadway montage was going to be performed but that was later in the day. We decided to hunt down the New York Life building (Huz is a Financial Rep. with them) to see if there was a public viewing deck. ( FYI-Don't waste your time ever going up into the Empire State building!!! You'll loose 3 hours waiting in line to be corralled at the top, fighting to get to the railing for a view. And if you have little ones, forget it. They won't be able to see much.) We spent A LOT of time trying to find the building. Dea had mixed up the address she found on the Internet the night before and we wound up on a wild goose chase. Apparently no one in NYC knows where the frigging building is.
"You know, the one with the pyramidal gilded roof !?!?!?

It takes up the whole block??!?!"

"Lady, ya have to give me the street names or numbers-I don't know the building names."

Um.....if I knew the numbers or names I wouldn't be imposing on your smoke break, Officer...

Anyway, after much backtracking and circling around the West 40th's/Ave. of the Americas/Madison Ave./Rockefeller Center area, someone suggested calling 411(information) to get the address. I hadn't heard of 411 since I was a kid!!! I didn't know that it still existed! So with correct address in hand we bolted down to 26th! and Madison where we finally found the building.

Once there we went through much "official" and security laden hoops to have a tour of part of the building. The security guy was extremely nice and it wasn't until later that I found out that giving tours to random moms and daughters was a rarity. We went through many of the lobbies and halls, all with the original wood floors and wood worked walls. We goofed around in a couple of conference rooms and got to have a view from the CEO's lobby windows on the 33rd floor.

The guard was very informative and it actually was an interesting tour. We wished Huz could have been with us! The view and tour was worth the effort in finding the place.

We spent the rest of the day making our way down to SOHO/Bleeker St. to explore and find an outdoor restaurant to chow down in. I finally unearthed the cool boutiques I knew were lurking there. We hurriedly perused a few before racing to catch the subway back up to Penn Station to make our train home.
My hair+humidity=POOF!!!

Someday I would love to spend 2 or 3 days in the city around Thanksgiving. I found 3 amazing, eclectic, and arty and places to stay The Chelsey Star , Ye Old Carlton Arms, and The Gershwin. They would make a great base for spending time in the city. It would be so much fun to both spend the holiday with family and go on a shopping spree for all our Christmas gifts!

Another FYI: If you're planning to walk 8+ fast paced miles in New York City in a day, wear your most comfy shoes.

My Dansko sandals are crazy comfy for everyday stuff, but apparently not a day in NYC.