Holidays in New York City

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I've been to NY so many times with my family, but never managed to spend the holidays there. Technically, I still haven't, seeing as we got here right after Christmas and we are leaving the day of New Years Eve. JUST missing it all. I'm in the middle of planning my huge wedding, so my father decided to send us on a little "pre-honeymoon treat". Well, not really "send" because he's with us too, and my step mom! It's a nice little double date to the big city.

We're staying in one of my all time favorite hotels, the Trump International Hotel & Towers. The people here are wonderful, as we've been coming here for years. We lived here for a few months while I had a corrective back surgery for my scoliosis as a child, and everyone has remembered me ever since. The people who keep this place going are like family to me, so it's always a wonderful and emotional time to reunite with them. Especially as they all meet my wonderful husband to be. Did I mention how amazing the spa is here? The massages are divine, the gym is really comfortable, and they sure do

know how to give a proper mani-pedi!

This trip, we've done lots of things, which are mostly food and theater related. We ate at the "Petrossian" (which almost didn't happen due to a kitchen fire on our originally reserved date). The caviar there is amazing, and of course we always leave feeling "happy", as the vodka is amazing too. We tried a few other places, but the best ones that stuck out were of course the finest Japanese food you can get here in America, "Sugiyama", as well as the BEST French restaurant in North America, "La Bernadin". The food at each of these places in phenomenal. The plum wine at Sugiyama is home made, which gives it the most unique of flavors. At La Bernadin, you should prepare yourself for a long meal, as their 9+ course meal menu selection is THE MOST EXQUISITE food you'll ever come across here in the North East. We also stopped into one of my favorite sushi places, Blue Ribbon Sushi, but were strongly disappointed to see that their prices were raised outrageously in comparison to the quality of their fish. It just isn't worth what they want you to pay

for.

Along the way of these fine dining spots, we had to stop in and get a bite to eat with the famous "soup Nazi" from Seinfeld. The soup man has some of the most interesting flavors of soup as well as the perfect bite to eat when it's cold and rainy (which it sure was while we were there!) Speaking of weather, we kept hoping for snow, but none came so far.

Besides food, we ventured around Broadway's city light streaked pathways and flashing bulbs to see some of the best theater in town. One of our first productions we went to was, "The Book of Mormon". If you are easily offended or strongly religious, I don't recommend this show AT ALL. If you have a good sense of humor though, and not one that's easily torched into flames, you would probably really enjoy this show. The music was unexpectedly great as well! Next, we went to see, "Kinky Boots". This show was PHENOMENAL. SO much fun to watch and the leading characters were some of the best performers I've seen, especially in drag! Then we went classical into one of the most beautiful set

stages I've seen to date, with carved wood, on stage seating, and real candle chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. This was the setting for, "The Twelfth Night", performed by imported actors from Shakespeare's actual Globe Theater in London, England. It was simply the best acting I've seen in my entire life. If you don't enjoy Shakespeare now, after seeing this performance you SURELY will LOVE his works!

We did a bit of shopping in Manhattan among the stores, but didn't find much we wanted to spend our dollars on. Though, we did enjoy running through F.A.O Schwarz for Joel's (my husband to be's) first time. Don't forget all of the little side markets and vendors along the way and the beautiful site of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center!

We closed our trip with a carriage ride through Central Park before our flight home to Florida. It was a cozy and beautiful sight, especially as the ponds froze over and the ice skaters gracefully glided across the rink in the middle of the surrounding sky high buildings. We never did get to see that snow though, until we were pulling down the runway in the plane

heading home. Go figure!

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