Christmas in New York

Jose and I like to fly by the seat of our pants. So I am not surprised that we sent our anniversary in New York when 5 weeks ago we had no plans or dreams of going. One night Jose stayed up late randomly looking things up on the Internet and found an affordable trip to New York. He casually told me about it the next morning and much to his surprise I jumped right on and the next thing we knew we were headed to New York.
We spent a lot of time in Time Square. Our Hotel was just one subway stop away and we saw three show while we were there so every night we would take in the excitement. We saw In the Heights, Phantom of the Opera and Spamalot. All good shows but In the Heights was excellent.

We saw this more than once so we had to take a picture. I guess it really didn't much matter because no one waited for the walk sign before they would go.
We went to Ground Zero while we were there. It was a very moving touching experience. The museum was great but the best part was a tour that we took. I would recommend it to anyone. I guess they had problems with people sharing inaccurate information on tours so they got together and the coalitions of the families of the victims decided that the only people who could give a tour justice were people who had been affected personally, whether it be survivors, or someone who lost a close family member. We have two guides, a mother who lost her son and a fire fighter who had been presumed dead but his family found him three days later in a New Jersey Hospital. It was a very touching, moving experience.
We had lunch at the Carnegie Deli. I'm not much for pastrami but it was good. Luckily Jose was there to help me. There was no way I could ever finish it on my own.

There is nothing better than Christmas in New York. We spent a ton of time at Rockefeller Center too. The tree is beautiful and it was fun being there.

We stayed at the New Yorker Hotel. I loved it. When we made the reservations we got their cheapest room, which wasn't much bigger than a closet and didn't even have a window. Jose told them it was our anniversary and asked if we could get an upgrade. We were lucky they weren't very busy that week and we were upgraded to a room the the 39Th floor with this amazing view. We could even see lady Liberty herself.



Jose and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. There were some great views of the city.

We stayed just down the street from the Empire State Building. Every night I thought I really need to take a picture of it at night but I kept putting it off. So the last night I walked out of Macy's and there it was in all it's glory waiting for me to take a picture. I walked to the corner for a better angel and raised my camera and before I could push the button the lights shut off. It was midnight strait up. I guess they don't leave the lights on all night.

Battery Park

I love the New York attitude. Even the signs had one.
On our anniversary we walked through Central Park. It was beautiful and cold. I loved this shot of the city. It has been a wonderful 8 years . Thank you Jose for the best years of my life.We found this rather large bird right outside The Boat House.

Before we left we looked at the weather report and it was supposed to be about 40 degrees and raining. I kept sawing I wished it would be 10 degrees cooler and snow instead of rain. I got my wish. It couldn't have played out better. We were standing on a bridge and very large fluffy snow started to fall . It was beautiful. The snow brought out my inner child. I started to run around catching the snow flakes on my tongue.


Jose has perfected the art of the self portrait. Some of the best pictures of us are pictures he took.
It was a wonderful vacation. We had so much fun. All of that aside. We didn't have such a great time coming home. It only took us 22 hours. Because of problem after problem we missed our connection in Phoenix and of coarse it was the last flight of the night so we had to stay the night in the airport. One of the best moves of the night Jose took pillows from the first class section of the plane because we knew what was ahead of us. All in all we had fun. It's all about attitude. We had a great time and a good laugh. PS Never...Never... Never Ever fly US Airways.