One Year Anniversary "Gift"

Our anniversary day was pretty low-key. We watched our Pirates get trampled by UNC on Saturday then Sunday was spent at church then football watching in the Man Cave. We thawed out and ate our top cake layer then had (early) dinner at Outback. We chose Outback for 2 reasons: 1. We had a coupon and 2. Hawaii is considered to be on the Australian continent so we were "returning" to our honeymoon location.

For our anniversary "gift" to each other we decided to spend the weekend in New York City. I absolutely LOVE NYC. I could not live there but I do love to visit and live the fast-paced life for a little while. We booked flights, hotels, a show, and excursions and were ready. We left right after work on Thursday for a flight from Raleigh to NYC. We arrived kind of late but the city lights were beautiful. We slept in and got up for a 2 hour Circle Line cruise around the tip of Manhattan. I've never done this before and it was awesome!

When we finished the cruise we went to Central Park, had a hot dog, and watched a random game of softball. These are the kinds of things that are so much cooler in big cities! We walked down Fifth Avenue to see all the fancy stores (and the Apple Store with a dedication to Steve Jobs -- touching), acted like kids in FAO Schwartz, felt real out of place next to Tiffany's, and rode the metro for kicks. We then went up to Top of the Rock which was awesome. (I've also never done this one, we always went up the Empire State Bldg.)

That evening we saw Cirque du Soleil's Zarkana at Radio City Music Hall. Radio City is amazing anyways but Cirque was so cool. (Blake LOVED it. Wants to go see another. That's the real achievement.) We hiked it back to the hotel then decided we were too tired to get up and try to be on the Today show... we slept in. Saturday we had breakfast in Times Square, subwayed down to the Financial District and saw Ground Zero. The 9/11 Memorial tickets are sold out until November so we couldn't see much but it was important to visit what we could. It was a very different experience this time than it was 2 years ago -- not as moving because you couldn't actually see the footprints of the buildings. We also saw the protesters by Wall Street (I'm sorry... I don't have the patience for that.) And then we headed to Chinatown. We walked through Chinatown and ended up having lunch in Little Italy (awesome!). And then spent about 2 hours roaming Chinatown shops and making drug "Coach" bag deals. Blake got into the haggling with those Chinese ladies -- fun stuff! We came back uptown, rested, and headed to Times Square for dinner. 

There's nothing like Times Square at night (pic is from the daytime). We had dinner at TGI Friday's overlooking the craziness below and I got a Junior's carrot cake cheese cake for dessert/breakfast.) We came home Sunday morning so we could get the puppies and get settled before Monday was upon us. We thoroughly enjoyed our little vacation and look forward to getting away again soon.