NYC Wrap-up

*  WARNING - this is going to be a long one, so if you're in a hurry come back later! :)

TGIF!  I always dread weeks after vacation - they seem to drag on FOREVER!  Since I finally found time to upload the rest of our NYC pictures, I thought it would be a good time to fill you all in on what we did Friday, Saturday, & Sunday while we were there (I already posted about Thursday here). 

Friday we had originally planned to go to The American Museum of Natural History; however, we all got a late start so we decided to just use this as a shopping day instead.  This actually worked out very well because it ended up raining on Sunday so we went to the museum then.  Back to Friday - I got to go to my beloved Bloomingdale's as well as Belly Dance Maternity (FYI, like everything else, maternity stores are WAY better in NYC than in Nashville).  The husband got to go to a few places he wanted to visit as well, including the NHL store (a woman must have been involved in designing this store because it had a Starbucks inside - this was my saving grace).  I didn't buy anything at Bloomingdale's (they don't have a maternity section apparently); however, I did almost get Abby her first North Face (yes, they totally make them in 0-3 months!) until the husband talked me out of it.  We decided that it was silly to get her one for her first winter since we really don't know how big/little she'll be and there's always the potential that it wouldn't fit until it was too warm for it.  But don't you worry - she will definitely have one next year now that I know they come in teeny tiny sizes!

If you tell me this isn't the cutest thing ever, I might just call you a liar (j/k)!

One of my goals during this trip was to find 2 dresses - one to wear to my high school reunion and a baby shower and another one for my other baby shower.  I totally succeeded at Belly Dance.  I think I probably spent an hour at least in the dressing room trying to narrow down what I wanted.  In the end I couldn't pick just two and went home with 3 instead.  Here are the ones I got (sorry, I can't make them any bigger)and I can't wait to wear them - they all look SO good on and are SO comfortable!

Found here - paired with red pumps & jewelry - yes, please!

 

Found here - this was the last dress I tried on and my absolute favorite of the 3.

Found here - this was the husband's, Van & Mandy's favorite.

So funny story about maternity shopping.  Van & Mandy were both off work on Friday so they were able to hang out with us all day which included dress shopping.  I don't think Van or the husband were too terribly excited about this, but they were good sports and went along with Mandy & I.  A little background info on Van - he works with stocks (I don't really know exactly what his job entails), is super duper smart (i.e. he didn't really study much for his ACT and still made a 34 on it and went to Vanderbilt) and successful, and is exactly what you would think of when you hear the term "frat boy" (I mean this is in the best way possible seeing as how I myself was a sorority girl and the husband was also in a fraternity).  So we get to the maternity store and Van begins helping me pick out clothes and we determine that he's REALLY good at it.  Like so good, that I think if he ever decides he wants a new career he could totally pass as a personal shopper for preggo girls.  Once it was time to try on the clothes and have my fashion show (I'm not lying when I say I tried on clothes for an hour - I probably had 25 things back there) he had to make sure that everything I tried on was perfectly fitted on my body (i.e. all of the seams were in the right place, etc.).  So now that I'm reading this, it doesn't seem so funny, but it was really funny to the other three of us and the sales girls, too, while it was actually taking place.

Anyways, back to our Friday (don't worry, Saturday & Sunday won't take nearly as long to get through)...Mandy had also made us reservations for lunch weeks ago at Serendipity 3.  If you've never heard of it, they're known for their frozen hot chocolate and sundaes and let me just tell you that they are both divine (their real food is pretty yummy as well, but if you go, please be sure to save room for dessert or you will be really sad).  Between the four of us, we had a regular frozen hot chocolate, a frozen mint hot chocolate, the Forbidden Broadway Sundae, and a piece of lemon ice box pie.  They were all HEAVENLY (although I'm pretty sure I gained 5 lbs alone from this meal, but it was well worth it IMPO).  But be warned, the sundaes and the frozen hot chocolate are the size of your face - don't believe me?  Well I took a picture just to prove it!

 

Famous Frozen Hot Chocolate

Forbidden Broadway Sundae - if I would show some will power I might not have

that double chin that's beginning to form. :)

We wandered around some more after lunch around Rockefeller Center (it was SUPER crowded because of fashion week) and then had a late dinner at Shake Shack - mmmm...more yumminess and don't judge me for totally getting a black & white malt with my dinner after my above mentioned dessert from earlier in the day.  I'm sorry, but you just can't go to Shake Shack without getting a milkshake!

Saturday, the husband and I got up and ventured out on our own for a few hours.  Mind you, it was also September 11th so everywhere we went there were little reminders of what had happened 9 years ago.  It was a little eerie to be in NYC on the anniversary of something so awful.  We went to Greenwich Village and SOHO for a little more shopping.  We made a quick stop in Little Italy to pick up some mini cannolis and mini eclairs and then headed into Chinatown for purse shopping.  Purse shopping was very hard to come by this year because there were cops everywhere.  No one wanted to actually take you to see the purses (they just wanted you to pick yours off of a sheet of paper).  Finally, after being told "No see" by several "vendors", I responded with "No see, no buy!"  This began what seemed to be a six mile escapade around Chinatown to go see my potential new purse.  After about 30 minutes of walking sprinting/pretending to window shop as cops passed, we arrived at our final destination and I got the 2 beauties below!

My black "Gucci" and my brown "Prada"

Saturday night Van, Mandy, the husband, and I met up with some of our friends who were also in town for dinner at Via Emelia.  It was YUMMY (and really affordable).  If you ever make it there, please get the tortellini alla panna - it was seriously the best pasta I've ever put in my mouth!  We had planned to go down to Chelsea Pier after dinner to watch them release the lanterns into the Hudson as a memorial for all who were lost in the WTC, but we didn't quite make it there because we were all in food comas.  But we were able to see the lights from where we were that were shown up in the sky where the towers used to be and we could see the Empire State Building really well which was lit up in red, white, & blue (sadly, I didn't get a picture of this - I had planned to take it on our way home, but we ended up taking a taxi instead of walking so I couldn't).



Our group at dinner - Rick, Anne, Mandy, Van, me & the husband

Sunday we got up and packed and headed to brunch at The Cook Shop.  We started off with their bakery basket which had the best coffee cream donut I've ever experienced in it.  Seriously, I could live off of these if I had to!  They also had really good white cheddar grits - mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about them!  After brunch, we went to The American Museum of Natural History because it was cold and rainy.  Now I will admit that the husband and I are not really huge museum people.  We enjoy interactive museums, but if there's a lot of reading you better believe we're going to lose interest pretty darn quickly.  With that being said, we were both pretty disappointed in our museum choice.  There were a few exhibits (i.e. the dinosaurs, human evolution, Dum-Dum) that we enjoyed, but for the most part we were pretty bored.  I felt like I was on a school field trip and needed to write a paper at the end about something that I had learned.  We also thought that the flow of this museum was pretty confusing and hard to find your way around.  For instance, Van left us about 45 minutes into our trip to use the restroom and we didn't find him again until 3 hours later.  I think we're both glad that we went to this museum, but we definitely won't be going back to it. :)  Once we left the museum, we grabbed a quick lunch/dinner at the other Shake Shack (yes, with all of the food choices in NYC we ate here twice - it's that good to us) and then it was time to pick up our stuff, say our goodbyes, and head back to the airport.  We were both exhausted by the time we made it back to Nashville, but we had a great trip with great friends and can't wait to go back again. 



The husband with Dum-Dum from "Night at the Museum"

Wow, if you're still here you deserve a prize.  I knew this was going to be a long post (hence the warning at the beginning), but I didn't quite expect it to be this long!  This weekend we're off to Raleigh, NC for my 10-year reunion and to visit the family!  I hope you all have a great weekend!  See you Monday!

**  Oh yeah, while I'm on a role - here's the 28 week bump-date.  It was taken on Sunday, 9.12.10.