Family Fun

This past weekend the girls in my family came to visit - my Nanny, my sister, and my mom. We had so much fun despite all of our adversity (me and my son on antibiotics, people almost missing the plane, a bit of cold weather, and a wallet left in a cab). We spent a packed weekend doing all the city has to offer - or.....all the decent things the city has to offer.

Thursday
We toured our neighborhood, walked through midtown to see all the major sites, and then ordered some classic New York pizza. My mom even made me take a picture in the grocery store. If that is not excitement from a southerner, I don't know what is!


Friday
We got up much too early to go see Live With Regis and Kelly, which I was not super excited about seeing in the first place. But out of love for my sister I endured the line of beautiful, dolled up girls to go to the show. Much to my surprise I really enjoyed it! Other than the annoyance of having to clap ALL THE TIME, it was a lot of fun. Regis wasn't there, but Brian Gumball was the co host. Kelly was super friendly and hung out with crowd during commercials talking and signing autographs.



After we left the show we went to Pier 83 and took a 3-hour boat tour around Manhattan. I had done this before with Steve and Sally and it was equally enjoyable this time. Our tour guide was great and it was a good way to see the city without using your legs! And as you can see my Nanny bought the sponge statue head gear. This was my sister's highlight of the weekend - she wouldn't take it off.



Saturday
Well our original plan was thwarted by the rain, so we decided to go explore China Town for knock off designer goods. I had actually never done this to the level at which we did on Saturday. I had partaken of the 6 T-shirts for $10 or the occasional hat vendor on the side of the road....but I was not prepared for the back alley, lock and key, purse hunt that we were about to embark on. The first shop we went in, Tiffany was ushered to a secret set of stairs behind a door in the wall. She reluctantly looked at me so I went with her. After winding down a set of stairs past a random couch, we entered a room that was already filled with other women rifling through knock off handbags. I was absolutely floored. We bargained for a price, failed, so continued on our way through the hundreds of other stores in the area. We followed another man four blocks to a back alley, down a set of stairs where there wasn't even a store! This is where I started to have second thoughts about this whole thing. But we persevered. Our last and final stop sealed the deal. We were lead down the first flight of the subway, into a door on the side of the steps that had a padlock gate and locked door. At the time I was not aware that they actually locked the door behind us. Luckily here we were successful because my conscience was starting to bother me now....it wasn't until after this that I started to think about the legality of this. The man actually had to call a friend outside of the door to come unlock it and let us out. So the crazy part is...you have to go through all that for the handbag, but the Rolex is out in the open. Go figure. We headed home after that and ended our night at a great local Italian Restaurant near Columbia.

Sunday
We got started by going to the Brooklyn Tabernacle. The service was great-but personally I loved it because I actually got to listen to the sermon! I haven't done this in weeks because of my son an his aversion to nurseries! But since this was such a well equipped church, they had a room for my son to crawl and play in that had a live feed of the service. It was such a blessing to me.

After the service (we actually had to cut out a bit early) we headed to see Hairspray on Broadway. It was really good. The best cast show I've seen since I've been here(well...other than les Mis maybe), lots of dancing, great music and a good message (unlike Mamma Mia!). Overall we had a great day.

Monday
My sister and I enjoyed a leisurely walk on Broadway and a good breakfast at a local bakery.
She hopped on the bus by herself and headed toward the airport.

Overall-I think the weekend was a hit.