What I did on my Anniversary Vacation! By, Heather Feather

Warning: This is a lengthy post cause I had way too much fun!

For our wedding anniversary this year we decided to take a trip (sans children!) to.....New York City, the Big Apple!!  I had actually never been so I was super stoked.  This was a view of the city skyline as we were coming in for a landing. 

We stayed at the fabulous Marriott New York Marquis smack dab in the middle of Times Square, it was an AWESOME location!

We splurged and upgraded our room view to be of Times Square, totally worth it!  If you look closely on top of the colorful stacked billboards you'll see a little white ball.  That ball is the one they drop every New Years!  At night we'd watch it morph into different colors and right underneath the ball a large, "2011" would light up.  

Pizza wars go on between NYC and Chicago so how could we leave NY without ever trying their pizza? We have to know what the Chicago deep dish is up against right?  We ate 3 HUGE pieces, they were good but we'll see....

We took a tour of Central Park via a Pedicab.  This park is amazing!  When you are in the thick of it, you have no idea that right outside of it is screaming trains, honking cabby's and police sirens.  I totally recommend the tour of this park!

JFF (just for fun), this is where Jerry Seinfeld lives.  Gorgeous building don't you think?  He has an amazing view of the reservoir within the park.  I guess it's NY's version of a "lakeside villa". 

Do you watch TV and movies?  You do?!?!  Well then you'll recognize this fountain from Seinfeld and Enchanted.  I noticed a lot of local musician enjoy playing here. 

Now onto the Late Show with Daaaaavvvidddd Letttermannnnn!  Um, we had lame guests so it's really only cool to just say we've been to a taping is all.  The afternoon we went it was Caroline Kennedy and some other lame dude I've never heard of on a show I've never watched in my life.  I think if better guests were on we would have thought this was much cooler of an experience.  Moving on..... 

A landmark worthy of it's name, The Empire State Building.  This buildings history is phenomenal and I'm so so happy we got tickets to go to the top and view all of NY and parts of Jersey:)

Any Kardashian fans in the house?  I admit, I do watch their shows on the E! network.  So, I had to go find their store in SOHO.  Yeah, don't bother, their store SUCKS!  They had very little selection, 3 racks and 2 tables is all and it was all WAY overpriced for the cheap looking crap that was in there.  I did try a dress on, but it would have taken way too many accessories to make it look right and that's just too much fuss for a SAHM.  I left empty handed, I'll be surprised if they can keep the rent on this location seeing as Burberry was two doors down and is worthy of their price tags!  However, fun shopping in SOHO, lots of unique shops. 

We were so fortunate to be in NY when Bin Laden was killed.  The very next morning we high-tailed it down to Ground Zero just to see history unveil itself.  You'll notice several satellites behind Mr. D.  Every street surrounding Ground Zero was chalk full of media as you could only imagine.  It was a surreal feeling just to see and feel the intensity behind what had occurred the night before.

One of the new World Trade Center bldgs emerging.  I'm still a little confused though because the original plans called for 7 buildings and they still talk as if their is 7 but only 5 will be completed.  I never got a good answer on this. 

All along the construction walls people were posting articles of the Bin Laden killing, crazy.

Onto a happier note, it's the Naked Cowboy!!!!  No, he's not really naked, he wears tighty whiteys.  He's an icon in Times Square so I was so happy to get a photo op!!  We saw him a few days later again with Larry the Cable Guy (voice of Mater) who dressed exactly like him, they were filming something. 

We dined at some FAB-O places!  The above was at a restaurant called Eleven Madison Park.  The restaurant is interesting, you choose ingredients you like and let the chef be inspired to bring you something, it's a surprise.  However, this night we actually chose to do the chefs tasting menu.  Supposedly it was only supposed to be 7 courses that ended up being more like 17 courses!  I had to take a pic of one of the dishes that came out (above), they are goat cheese lollipops that are dipped in beet powder then flash frozen, wicked yummy!  I could have ate mine, Mr. D's and the people sitting at the next table!  Aren't those cute?  You know you are going to copy those for your next summer gathering, am I right? 

Another place we dined was a place that was featured on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on the Food Network.  All I have to say about the above pic is, watch this clip:

Toro Tartare is an amazingly, fantastically, yummy, yummy dish that everyone should go experience!  And while you are at Morimoto, the bathrooms are so high tech and gorgeous, take a camera into the stall, you'll thank me:) 

We tried to see the Today show but they were covering the windows but we did see Al Roker pop out of the building but I was a little embarrassed to ask for a photo with him, I'm kicking myself now.

Any "30 Rock" fans in the house?

We went to the top of the Rockefeller Building, that is the Empire State Building behind us.  The view from up here is voted as being the, "Best View in the City".  It definitely has a much cooler view of Central Park, I'll give it that. 

We took a Waterway Cruise one day, we passed the Staten Island Ferry.  It's a total iconic piece of NY I had to snap a pic of it. 

We took time to enjoy the arts of the city via "shows".  One night we dined at the Grand Tier restaurant (in the pic) at the Metropolitan Opera House before being seated for our opera performance.

Ok, for future reference, DO NOT waste your money on any other Opera than the MAJOR productions.  We made the mistake of seeing an opera that had one stage set up and 3 characters.  It was a way too modern take on a Greek tragedy that bored the crap out of us.  However, the Opera House does do something cool, there are little screens in front of each chair that you can choose a language to have the opera interpreted into.  I was able to follow along fully while reading it all in English, brilliant!  We'll go back, but only for a main production, not a "quickie on the side" type performance.

Hey, who are those über looking tourists?  Oh, it's Mr. D and myself!  Look for the dude in the blue t-shirt w/the chick in the black coat snapping a photo of us on the large screen in Times Square, that is us!!

So how do you go to NY and not see Lady Liberty herself??  She is so much more beautiful in real life!

This is a full sized replica of Lady Liberty's face inside the visitors center.  FYI:  If you are ever planning a trip to the Statue of Liberty and want to view NYC from her crown, you need to get those tickets at least a year in advance.  However, there is no elevator up to her crown so if you have bad knees, get dizzy easily or have claustrophobia issues, it's not a trek for you.  It's a winding, tight staircase all the way to the top.  Mr. D and I were only able to get tickets to the top of her pedestal in which she stands, it's still cool from up there too:)

President Obama came for a stop one day to lay a wreath at Ground Zero so you can imagine the traffic, or lack of.  They closed off so many roads that day our best option was to take the subway.   

To end our trip we saw Wicked.  Totally loved it, totally recommend it!  We also saw The Addams Family starring Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith, Frasier's wife of Cheers/Frasier).  It was a super cute production as well.

I'll just throw this pic in....What's up Sean John?

So raise your hand if you read through this entire post, anyone? 

I had a fabulous time, it was great to get away and not have to navigate an airport w/several children, carseats, strollers etc...  Thank you Mr. D for making this trip possible for us, love you madly, mwah!