New York is such a buzzing place, it's so exciting, there's so much to do and the views are awesome. The night Mum and I arrived we took ages to find our accomodation, we got so lost, and yet after 1 day we felt totally confident getting our way around. The grid system is the way to go. It's so easy to get used to. We sussed our way around thanks to the sightseeing bus which took us on a route downtown. The big attraction of this area is to see Ground Zero. It's just a massive construction site, you can't [View Full Entry]

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The trip home was uneventful. I blow through Immigration and wait patiently for my luggage. And wait, and wait, and wait. It doesn't come out on the conveyer belt. What the hell is going on? The airline couldn't have lost my luggage again, could they? Guess I shouldn't have waved goodbye to my luggage in NYC...lol. I go to the lost luggage counter at American Airlines and they tell me my luggage is in...can anyone guess?...Toronto. WTF? I ask why my luggage didn't go on the plane with me to Dallas and they tell me that someone forgot to put it [View Full Entry]

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Another day walking everywhere and looking at everything. Asked the doorman at Cartier where we should go eat and he suggested the Jeckyll and Hyde Club. What a cool place! It's like Disney's Haunted Mansion with food! We were greeted by "the World's Worst Butler" and he escorted us to our table. From there we could see the small stage and interact with the performers moving throughout the place. Nothing like seeing a male castmember aka "explorer" do a snake dance to Brittany Spears in front of a huge statue of Zeus. Bring cash though. This place does not take credit [View Full Entry]

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Went to the theater district to take Piper to her first Broadway play. We saw Spamalot! with Clay Aiken (from American Idol). Had amazing seats- front row, center aisle. The cast was fantastic - I couldn't believe they pulled off all the Monty Python gags from the film, even the Black Knight! Mark ended up part of the show near the end - the cast actually brought him up onto the stage of the Schubert Theater and presented him with the "Best Peasant Award." They even worked his full name into a song in honor of him. The gag involved some [View Full Entry]

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Dates 10th - 15th October 2008 New York Tony has always raved about this amazing city and was adamant that it would be our first stop…And what a memorable one it would be! Our hotel, DREAM, was close to Central Park overlooking Times Square. It was to be the most expensive 5 nights we could imagine but worth every single dollar! We threw ourselves into exploring the city by foot at first then opted for the open top tour bus in order to visit attractions like the Rockafella, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and get a glimpse of the contrasting districts [View Full Entry]

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The United Nations Yay! I'm back and heading out with Mourad to go see the United Nations. I can actually check this off my bucket list . To my surprise Mourad suggests we take the subway. I guess he had enough walking while I was in DC...lol. The trip down to the UN doesn't take too long but the walk from the subway station takes longer than expected. Oh well, so much for not walking much today. The building itself doesn't look all that impressive. In fact, it looks kind of old and run down. Not what I was expecting. To [View Full Entry]

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Our first day... First stop - FAO of course! Piper has been looking forward to this for years. She's saved her allowance, highlited the latest catalog, and is ready to see this wonderland for herself. Her enthusiasm wanes a bit when she realizes we intend to walk there. She perks up when we hit those magical doors. [View Full Entry]

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Spent the post-FAO hours left in the day sightseeing and walking around. Central Park was beautiful. Piper wanted to climb on all the rocks - difficult in a jean skirt and Crocs but where there's a will... [View Full Entry]

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After being back for a month we have finally got around to typing up our New York blog. Only one more blog to go, Long Beach and the Queen Mary. We arrived in New York early on the 16th, the QM2 docking in Brooklyn in sight of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Sadly the QE2 had left us and sailed on to dock elsewhere. It took a few hours to disembark, pass through customs and find a cab. The cab took around 45 minutes to travel to our hotel Inn414, which we found was only a few minutes walk [View Full Entry]

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Took Piper Lee to NYC for her first visit and our first trip back post 9/11. I love this place. You somehow move faster and feel more alive here than anywhere else I've been. We drove, more just to do it once than for any other reason. I didn't count on the personal impact of driving from New Jersey heading towards NYC, looking across the water and not seeing the Twin Towers. I sat in the passenger seat, tears rolling down my cheeks. They were missing and my unconscious knew it. Of course, we managed to exit the tunnel and take [View Full Entry]

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