Holla in the Big Apple

We've been home from New York four full days now, and I've been crazy busy trying to get work and my general life back in order. I recognize this post is late in coming, but I'll try to give the shortened recap here.

We flew on the red-eye to NYC and arrived at the M's apartment Friday morning about 7:15. We changed into some real people clothes and took the subway down to Rockefeller Center to see Jessica Simpson perform on the Today show. The picture above has her in it--she's the one that looks a little bit like an angel. After the show we were waiting by what we're pretty sure was her limo and noticed we were standing next to honest-to-goodness paparazzi man. Conversation ensued, and we got to hear all about how "photos of women are always worth more than men, etc." I could not stop giggling because Mel kept asking the funniest questions! We taught them the lingo of celebrity names--J.Simp, A. Simp, etc... and a funny mustached man countered with Hil Duff and Hay Duff. Oh the wonderful world of stars.

Remember how I said it rained and rained and rained the whole time we were there? (See post three below.) After we got out of Wicked it was pouring cats and dogs. Luckily, a little street vendor passed by selling umbrellas--it may have been the best $5 cash money spent on the trip.

Saturday night we all saw Hairspray! together. Oh man, it was a rocking good time. (Especially with the emotional connection we have to the closing song and Benji from "So You Think You Can Dance." We had to stand outside in the rain for 15-minutes before they let us into the theater. My entire shoes and socks and pant bottoms were soaked through the whole show. But a funny, funny time nevertheless. We're excited for the movie to come out next summer!

The M's go to church in the Manhattan temple, so it was really cool to get over there and check it out. The ward certainly had a different blend than our Sugarhouse ward. After church we rode the Subway to Soho to catch up with Mel and Nici for some lunch.

Monday was our "the tourists do New York" day. Luckily, the sun came out and it was a PERFECT day. While riding the subway downtown to hit the Staten Island ferry, Ground Zero, Wall St, etc. our subway station seemed to have lost power. We sat in our subway car for 45 minutes praying we wouldn't have to get out of the car and climb through the cold, wet, dark, rat-king infested tunnels to get out. Long story short (because I may blog about this later), we got out. We were being pretty melodramatic once we got out--and thanked this fireman by promptly asking if we could be in a photo with him.

We rode the Staten Island ferry... you guessed it... to Staten Island and back. It was pretty fun and we almost had a rendevous with some Brits... Our own little Euro Adventure.

The formatting on all these pictures is about driving me crazy. Blogger isn't so good about letting you organize them and I can't figure it our for the life of me! Grrrrr.

Regardless, we shopped, we subwayed, we ate, we ended up in Times Square 4 of our 5 nights there. We just had the most wonderful time.

The morning we flew out of NYC, Krista and I wandered over, in, around, and through Central Park. I've been to NYC at least six times now, but I've never explored the depths of the park. It was really awesome!

All in all, we just had a wonderful time. Special thanks to our wonderful hosts, the Subway Administration for sending us perfect subways and trains on our stressful day of departure from Long Island, the pizza shop one block from the M's apartment, the rat king for leaving us mostly alone, TKTS for letting us buy cheaper tickets, and the shady man on Canal Street who sold me by boosted Citizen jeans.

Isn't there a song that says, "New York, New York, it's a hell of a town?" One way or the other, I definitely agree.