The Big 5

Ben surprised me a few months ago with a trip to New York over our 5-year anniversary. I was so excited since I have never been here and wanted to do one last thing before baby #2 arrives.  We left Claire with Ben's mom (my family was in Powell) and headed off for 5 days.  It was a perfect trip.

I decided against taking my big camera on this trip because I wanted as little to carry as possible (already carrying a 3.5 lb baby and 25 extra pounds). We got our first point and shoot together, this baby, and I loved having it.  It was nice to not have to worry about keeping track of the big one, keeping it safe, especially with having other people taking our pictures all the time too.

We got in around 6pm, went to our hotel to drop off our bags, and then right back to Times Square to see it at night.  So cool to see for your first time.

We stayed on Utah time, which meant we didn't get up until about 10am and get going around 11am or noon.

We started at The Empire State Building, which was awesome.

The weather, by the way, was great. It was HOT in the subway, but luckily it was cloudy and rainy some days so it kept it pretty cool.  We only had one sunny hot day outside.  Pretty lucky for July in New York!

Grand Central Station:

The Asian lady who took this picture wanted a picture with us after, saying we were a "lovely couple."

We didn't do much shopping (I'm not much of a shopper), but when I saw Zara, I had to go in.  I got me one shirt and Claire one shirt.  I did well considering all that I really wanted.

That evening we went back to Times Square to Madam Tousseux's Wax Museum. I had never been to one and we had a great coupon.

**Tip for traveling cheap State-side:  Buy the Happenings book for that state. We got the one for New York for $5 and used it a lot! We saved $20 on our tickets to the wax museum and used it a few times for food, getting 2-for-1's.

He's my favorite.

And they used to be:)

Friday, we went to The Statue of Liberty.  One of the highlights of course.

Then to the World Trade Centers.  I never knew that there were 7 World Trade Centers, and that all went down.  They are rebuilding most of them but are replacing the 2 main ones with this one:

The Survivor Tree: was the only tree that survived all that happened on 9/11.

The 2 pools in place of the 2 towers:

That evening, we went to Little Italy and ate at Lombardi's. We had heard lots of people tell us to go here and also to Grimaldi's. So we decided to try both and see what we thought. Very close, but Grimaldi's won.  SUCH GOOD PIZZA.

Saturday, we started at Norma's for brunch (to-die-for eggs benedict and killer blueberry pancakes). We splurged a little ($~20 per plate) since we had heard great things and celebs like to hang here :) Didn't see anyone, but we sure felt cool.

 

After Norma's, we went to The Lion King (our other splurge). It was the BEST. I have seen Wicked and Phantom, but this was my favorite. So much fun. 

 

We walked around a bit and then got in line for the Shake Shack. YUM. Worth the wait. 

 

 This was outside our hotel in Brooklyn (the New York humidity and rain didn't do great things to my hair... oh well):

Sunday we started at Central Park (which is SO HUGE!). My belly, pelvic bones, and lower back were pretty much shot by this day so we weren't able to do a whole lot of walking around the park.  We saw the Bethesda Terrace Castle and the Great Lawn.

Then got some famous hot dogs:

Then saw the pretty temple:

(Our evenings at the hotel were spent watching the Olympics, by the way. We love them.)

Monday we started at the Brooklyn Bridge (with our light luggage towed by Ben):

And then went to Grimaldi's:

 

The line was worth the wait again.  A big thanks to Erin Burton for all the yummy suggestions of places to eat!

Such a great anniversary! I am lucky to have Ben in my life, that's for sure. He is the best husband anyone could ask for. When I think of people who I think are "close to perfect" in this world, he is number one on my list. In all honesty (and in all annoying-ness, as it sometimes is).  I couldn't have chosen a better companion for me and father for my children. I am so lucky!