Lost in New York

New York City!

Heather and I spent 5 days in NYC. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn at Times Square. I even took a picture of it. If you look at those tall buildings in the background, ours is the red part of the building. We were on the 29th floor, on the backside, looking out on 39th street.


But I am jumping ahead a bit.

Several months ago Heather thought we should go on a trip. I suggested NYC and she loved the idea, so we just decided to do it and made it happen.

Mommy needed a vacation from this...

The plane ride went flawlessly. I even sat next to some interesting people. Here is Paul Taylor, the smooth jazz saxophone player. You can hear his stuff on any department store elevator.

Then as I was waiting for my plane in Baltimore, I ran into this kid.

Yep, from Suzuki Camp in SLC. His name is Tyler and he is from South Dakota. He thought I was completely nuts when I asked him to take a picture with me. I actually think he was terrified.

Then Joseph sat next to me on the way to NYC. He was a riot and we talked the whole time. He was surprising his girlfriend who is moving to LA. They have been together for 5 years.

Joseph, just propose to her already. Get a ring on QVC or something. GEEZ!!!

The guy next to him is Daniel Lewis and he is a Stake President in Albuquerque and an excellent hotel selector. That's right...he stayed at the Fairfield also. I shared a cab with him, and Joseph tagged along. Since President Lewis? Mr. Lewis? Dan? was going for business he paid for the ride. Wow! Things were working out great for me. He probably thought I was stalking him because we caught the same elevator going down and then I followed him and talked to him incessantly for the next 10 blocks before I got distracted by red velvet cake and said goodbye.

Heather's flight was a Memphis nightmare on Delta, so she switched to Continental and flew into Newark instead. Her luggage stubbornly refused to go to Newark and meandered aimlessly to Laguardia.

We did the whole tourist bus thing the next day and here are some of the sights.


Heather didn't have any change of clothing, so we did some shopping...which would constitute a perfect vacation for my sister. My perfect vacation is not having anyone call me Mom for a couple of days. It worked out perfectly for both of us.


We then met our cousin Lindsay for some shopping in the afternoon. **Look Lindsay!...your wildest dreams have come true and you are now on MY BLOG.

I learned a few things about Lindsay with this visit. 1. Her inner beast has emerged, so watch-out. You don't mess with a gal from Brooklyn. 2. Garrett is stroller trained. His hand has an exact spot where it goes in traffic, so it is pretty much there all the time...and 3. She does not like sushi.

Plus, you can always buy any 3 year-old's affection with chocolate milk and cookies.


In the evening we did a bus tour, and befriended Lukas. He is from Germany visiting with his much older parents. He sat with us and we talked the whole tour and then he came with us to dinner. While at dinner, the luggage delivery guy called and was about to leave the hotel because Fairfield Inn would not charge her bag to the room. I threatened the delivery guy with a large tip to not leave, but meet me on the nearest corner. I retrieved the bag and finally got rid of that stinky smell in my room made Heather very happy. Heather now had a change of clothing, plus four bottles of shampoo, four bottles of conditioner, 8 pairs of shoes, 2 bars of soap, 3 bottles of perfume, blow dryer, clothes, clothes, clothes, and some clothes, along with her bathroom sink.

We went to a piano bar after dinner and it was pretty tame. I requested "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and the guy did a gorgeous rendition of it. No one had ever requested it there before. I thought that was cool. Plus I couldn't think of anything else... besides "Eensy, Weensy Spider", which was probably a little too cutting age for this crowd.

Look at that bag. Perfect delivery. No doubt about it.

The art museum was awesome. We thought so, as did the 645,398 other people who were there as well.

We absolutely took in a Broadway show, thanks to the generosity of Heather's boss. Wasn't that so nice of him? If you happen to be in Arizona, get your eye needs taken care of at Nationwide Vision. **There, that now pays for my ticket to the show, seeing as how I have a million readers to my blog, especially in the greater Phoenix area.** Wicked was fantastic and I am glad I had the opportunity of experiencing it.

They need to have sing-along Broadway shows.

Just a thought.

We got out a lot later than we thought: 10:45. Then it took a while to walk back to our hotel. We also were starving, so we grabbed some burgers at the Shake Shack and took it back to our room. Isn't Heather's purse simply fabulous? It was an awesome shopping find in the village. It only cost $80.

I found a purse also...from Goodwill...IN MANHATTAN! $8.

This is Heather in her Ghetto chic ensemble, riding the subway. The pendant on her necklace says...wait for it.... "Heather"

There are some fun signs in Manhattan, Upper East side. I especially liked the guy walking in front of us putting menu flyers on fences, next to that red sign. Cracked me up. I think he was doing it just out of spite.


Manhattan is full of wild life. Look really, really, really closely in the trees.

Look Mom! I'm in Harlem.


The Brooklyn bridge. Holy cow it was hot, except when we were over the water.

Then we tried to make our way to Central Park but it wasn't easy. Did you know the train schedule is totally different on the weekend? Plus, there is a tendency to have parades on the weekends as well. We were standing because it was crowded and at 34th street, 80 Dominicans shoved into the cabin...just breathe farm girl, breathe. Then at Rockefeller Center, 100 more Dominicans were going to somehow get into our cabin. Bail! Bail! Bail! I would liken it to the parlor games where you try to stuff 20 large marshmallows into your mouth. That is what it was like at 34th street. Then you had to put 30 more in at Rockefeller center. After our brush with sardine-like death, we started walking up the stairs and the upper floors were vibrating. It was intense. I guess those Dominicans really know how to throw a party. Yikes.


The Yankees played the Red Sox on Monday and Heather and I went to the game.

Holy crap, it was hot!


Heather was texting work stuff on her phone a lot while I watched the game. Then we started talking about it and she got a bit animated about what was going on, etc. Then this guy sitting in front of us joined into the conversation, because he was trying to see if Heather was talking about her boyfriend. I looked at him and starting laughing. Oh my heck! He was hitting on her. Then I looked at Heather and she was shutting him down and didn't even know she was doing it, because she had no clue that he was hitting on her. I told her, "Heather, HE IS HITTING ON YOU!"

"Huh?"

"Really, he is hitting on you."

Look, I took a picture of him. He is the guy in the bottom corner with the sign and the spoon. Pretty cute, huh? Probably looking for a trophy wife. ;)

Really, Heather needs to learn how to flirt. She is terrible. Anyone out there...please help my sister. And if you are a guy and you are interested in her, just tell her real slow..."I... think ...you ...are... pretty. Can we go....out?"

So, I don't know what the deal is, but luckily he lives in Queens and she lives in Arizona. I think she will be okay. He is a little old for her, don't you think?

I suggested we leave a little early. I didn't want to have to stand on the train all the way back to Chinatown. Heather was confused. She had no idea that it was the 8th inning. She had no idea that the Red Sox were winning. I asked her if she ever really came to the game. Hello? Cody would kill you, sistah! By the way, the Red Sox won, 2-1. Ha ha!!

Dinner in Little Italy. Yum!


On our last day, our legs were so tired from walking, we just went to a movie, ate lunch and caught an early cab to the airport.

It was a lot of fun and we made some wonderful memories together. Thanks Heather. You are the best.