We did in fact find the big apple in New York!

The “Big Apple”! It’s just out side Rockefeller Center past the skating rink at the LEGO store!

We had settled in to watch TV for the night. Our kids were all tucked into bed. Our youngest especially likes to drift off to sleep listening to us watching TV. Often if we have taken to long to settle into our shows  we usually hear a tired and dreary voice call out, “are you guys going to watch a show?” It reminds me how much I don’t like being the last one to bed either. As a kid I too loved listening to my mom (my dad worked night shifts) putter around the house or watch TV after I went to bed. So there we were, kids off to bed ready to queue up our show, when low and behold we caught a glimpse of the movie “Working Girl”. Do you remember that show? As my husband likes to say in his best Antonio Banderas voice, “Melanie Griffith” was in it with Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and Alec Baldwin. I’m sure we saw Working Girl in the theatre when it came out but we had forgotten that Joan Cusak was in it and we just love her lately in Shameless. After we had gotten over the laughable teased backcombed hair and the beige huge computer screens we realized the movie was set in New York City. Part of what I love about traveling is when you recognize places you’ve been. Not only is it exciting, it gives context to the movie you wouldn’t normally get. As soon as we saw (in our best Antonio Banderas voice) “Melanie Griffith” cross over to New York on the Staten Island Ferry we both let out a, “Hey, we were there!” Yup, we were in NYC back in January of this year. Then I realized I haven’t posted any of the photos from that trip nor have I told you about the two fabric stores I went to. How can time just zip away like that? So thanks to (in my best Antonio Banderas voice) “Melanie Griffith”, I can right this wrong.

We only had two days in New York and my husband and I were determined to hit as many places as we could with the time we had. We ran from place to place Amazing Race style checking off each location from our bucket list. Unfortunatel,y even though my my husband and I were born in the prairies, we have become quite soft about winters and greeted New York wearing our little West Coast little mitties and little toques. New York was FREEZING!!!!! Our West Coast mitts and toques did not cut it. We had to buy the largest scarfs you’ve ever seen and Thinsulate mittens. Not matchy, matchy fancy but much better. Warm is GOOD! Luckily, I had warn legging on the plane so I was able to wear them under my pants. Anything to stay warm! geez louise it was cold brrrr! As you can see as I’m standing in Times Square!

Our hotel was great and they did warn us of the weather, we just didn’t believe them until we went outside. They seemed to be wishing for warmer weather as the high got to -7c and the low was -15c!

Let’s see,  Where to start? We stayed in the Garment district.

First we went to Times Square, then we walked through Bryant Park and had a little chat with Gertrude Stein. I was glad I had read all those books about her in art school otherwise we would have had nothing to talk about! That would have been embarrassing!

Then we made out way to Grand Central Station. See that building in the back ground, the Chrysler Building. Just take note of it, I’ll be mentioning it later.

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I have to admit every once in a while I come across a land mark that takes my breath away.  You know it’s something to see but then unexpectedly, it’s more than you imagined. The Golden Gate Bridge was one and so was Grand Central Station, especially the ceiling but unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture it in a photo.

We took the subway, which wasn’t a take your breath away experience but you gotta ride the subway when you’re in New York! We headed for Pins and Needles, a fabric store and one that deserves a post just on it’s own!

Next we waked over to Park Ave, by Central Park…

…and over to the Guggenheim. I loved seeing this building, again back to all those art history classes! They were showing Picasso’s Black and White but we were also able to see a Manet, a Renoir, a few Cézanne’s,  a few Chagall’s and a Van Gogh. It was unexpected but significant to finally come face to face with some of these pieces. However, I have to admit what struck me the most is that they sold snow globes of the Guggenheim in the gift shop. Funny and weird all at the same time.

My husband was posting on Facebook while we were on our trip and one of his friends suggest we meet at a bar not to far from our hotel, called Stitch.

Our friends that had gone to New York the November previous suggested we see the Empire State building at night, which we did. Remember that building I told you to take note of, the Chrysler building? I have a confession to make (I might add we didn’t learn about it in art history)… I thought the Chrysler building was the Empire State building. I’m not sure why, I guess maybe because of the stylish hubcap design at the top I liked the looks of the Chrysler Building more? So there we were at the top but wait, what’s that building over there… I thought that was this building. I’ve got it all straightened out now!

After that we headed home to our hotel.

Which had this amazing live wall of plants.

Day two we had decided we wanted to try and go to a taping of Jimmy Fallon only to find out they were on hiatus.

So we trucked over to CBS to see if we could get into the Late Show with David Letterman but they too were on hiatus.

We were kinda bummed and we were getting hangry (when your angry because your hungry). We ended up at a dinner where all the serving staff sang karaoke. It was weird to have a server take your order, sing a show tune and then bring you your breakfast… but fun!

Once we had taken care of the hangrys we went back to Rockefeller Center to see the skating rink.

Plus we also got another chance to check out the murals in Rockefeller Center. They are amazing but this mural… it’s a crotch shot! What can I say I live with preteens. Ha!

Next we made our way through Central Park.

When my husband wanted to take a photo of me in the park it was just way too cold. See what I mean by the biggest scarf ever!

We did see a cardinal however. I’ve never seen one other than in pictures – beautiful!

We walked by the Dakota building where John Lennon lived and over to the Museum of Natural History.

We only went in the lobby, which was amazing…

and very impressive. I wish we would have stayed longer or a least went in but we knew we only had time for so much.

We made our way over to Soho and visited Purl Soho, again another store that deserves it’s own post.

Then over to the Staten Island Ferry…

…where we passed back and forth by the Statue of Liberty.

We ended the trip visiting the 9/11 memorial. It was closed but we made it to Ground Zero and that was plenty.

I think what stuck out the most in my mind about New York is how when I looked around the neighborhoods it reminded me of Sesame Street. Foreign looking compared to the small town in Alberta around me when I was a kid but how familiar it felt because of shows like Sesame Street,  Spider-man and Law and Order.

I was a little astonished how familiar New York felt and by how much I expected Oscar to pop out of a garbage can and yell, “get outa here!”

Which is exactly what we did the next day, it was short trip but it was sweet!