NYC 2018: Part Two (And Game 10!)

So last time we talked, we recapped Part 1 of our NYC trip, which means today we're recapping Part 2! And yes, an entire week occurred between the two because the nesting phase has kicked in which means I'm organizing ALL.THE.THINGS.

What's funny is my dad texted me after reading part one to tell me that he's eager to hear what happened in part two. Silly man. :)

Like I mentioned last time, I made a full blown itinerary for this trip, and after the first day and a half, we were completely zonked. These Texans are just not used to the amount of walking New York requires. We tend to sit on our rearends and drive. 

That being said, Saturday morning was a (much needed) slow morning. It also happened to be the morning of my 30th birthday! I didn't have breakfast planned since I didn't know what we would feel like doing, but as it turns out, while mom and I were at Frozen, the men went and got supplies. So when I woke up Saturday morning, I woke up to breakfast in bed and a big bouquet of birthday flowers!

And by breakfast in bed I mean a garden omelet and fresh watermelon :)

We all ate, relaxed, got ready, and then donned our Yankees gear and headed out to the stadium for Game TEN!

By this point, you all know what this means, but juuuuust in case we have a newcomer...

My dad and I decided back in 2015 that we would go to 10 out of state stadium games as part of my bucket list before I turned thirty. And on my thirtieth birthday, we hit all ten! And we factually checked the birth certificate and actually had a couple hours to spare! (An afternoon game and the time change were in our favor!)

Hi there Yankee Stadium. 

And as you can see from the bottom of the picture, we attended with half of New York City. Seriously, I was FLOORED at how many people were in attendance at this game. It was unlike anything I'd seen before. 

Mom and I got to walk in the stadium behind none other than Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. We considered ourselves some pretty lucky women!

We finally made it in to the stadium a little after the game started. I'm telling you - SO many people. 

I know this isn't the old Yankee stadium, but something about being here made me all nostalgic for history. And I don't do history. 

Across the outfield they had a line-up of all the retired Yankees numbers. We quizzed my dad and he was able to name the players for the majority of them without any help! It's like he grew up a baseball fan or something...

Now - here's the part of the story where I'm kicking myself. Behind all those retired numbers was a historical monument to all the greats (such as Mantle and Ruth). What I didn't know is that the monument closes 45 minutes before the game starts. So unfortunately we weren't able to see this, and I know my dad would have loved it, so I'm still kicking myself for it. ULTIMATE TOUR GUIDE FAIL. 

But we still managed to eat hot dogs and have a good time nonetheless!

Even Susie's smile looks kinda genuine! She was a good sport that afternoon :)

7th inning selfie -- I can't believe it was our LAST game of this lil journey!

Game 10 - Tampa Bay Rays vs New York Yankees - June 16, 2018

We didn't stay for the whole game since we 1) had to get home and get changed for our next event, and 2) knew if we left the stadium with the same amount of people we entered the stadium with, it would have taken us three hours. 

So we took one last look at Yank Stadium, high-fived at a completed challenge, and headed back to the apartment. Only after stopping at the store for some gelato. You know, to have at the freezer in the apartment... just in case.

So, if any evening of this trip had to be a "fail," I would definitely say it was Saturday night. And I'm allowed to say that since I planned everything :) 

After freshening up, we went to Southern Hospitality for dinner. I thought, hey - birthday girl could use some fried chicken for dinner, and my mom/sister and I went there back in 2013 when we visited NYC. Here's the deal: it has definitely gone down hill since we were there 5 years ago. I get that it's 'JT's restaurant' and everything, but you cannot claim to be a southern restaurant and serve fried chicken that is painfully dry. I mean none of our meals were that good, honestly. So, I hate to say it, but if you are headed to NY anytime soon, I would not recommend you eat at Southern Hospitality. Too many other yummy options to choose from!

All smiles! ...before they brought out the food :)

After dinner, we headed to see Aladdin. We had high hopes for this show because, well, it was Disney after all, but also because Jeff and I actually saw Aladdin in Australia and LOVED it.

See? All smiles ... before we went in...

Y'all. It was NOT good. We considered leaving at intermission. 

Granted, we are a tough bunch of critics. My whole family is musical and I grew up in a dance studio. But even Jeff (who is not so much on the musically inclined) was less than impressed. (PS - you should see how cut throat we get when we watch DWTS on Monday nights.) The acting was bad, the dancing was not together, and I honestly wanted to take a bathroom break every time Aladdin had a solo. It also very much lacked that 'Disney magic' that you see in every other Disney show. I don't know - it just made me sad.

And you know what else was sad?

After leaving that lackluster performance, the exit we took from the theater put us out on a different street, and when I looked up I realized I was standing in front of the Nederlander. 

What is the Nederlander you ask? 

Oh - just the theatre where I saw the greatest Disney broadway show to ever see a stage. 

That's where we saw Newsies back in 2013, and I had tears in my eyes the whole time simply because it was SO. GOOD. 

So remembering that glimpse of goodness after leaving Aladdin just twisted the knife a bit. 

But alas, we headed back to the apartment, finished off the gelato, and called it a day!

Sunday morning was a bit of a wild card. Jeff and I had a birthday brunch that started at noon, and mom really wanted to see Ground Zero, so the couples split ways mid-morning. However, we split only after I made a run to Dunkin Donuts because it was Father's Day and my dad's blood type is DD+ and Jeff could eat donuts every day of his life. So, we had another quiet morning before another busy day!

Jeff and I decided to take the long, scenic route to the birthday shindig by taking another stroll through Central Park. We grabbed coffee, people watched, and (being as this trip was one week after the gender reveal) talked about what we wanted to name our little girl :)

We got to Ryan's party - in a really fancy old speakeasy by the way - and had a blast. We ate good food, had good cake, jammed to an incredible playlist (I'm looking at you Now Hits of 2000), and played with a photobooth! Plus, I invited two of my work friends from Dallas who now live in NYC - so it was a little reunion too :)

After the party, we headed back to the apartment to meet up with my parents and get refreshed for our last big evening in the city. And after Saturday night being a fail, I am happy to report that Sunday night was a huge success.

We kicked off our evening with an early dinner at Carmines. Y'all - best Italian food I've ever put in my mouth. And I've been to Italy! 

Okay, so it was probably comparable to Italy, but seriously - I will never make another trip to NY without going to Carmines. The whole menu is family style, so between the four of us we split spaghetti bolognese and chicken parmesan, and we had enough food to feed a small army. I'm not kidding when I say that Carmines' spaghetti bolognese was the best I've ever had. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I went to take a picture of the portion size and Jeff made a sneak attack at the last minute :)

After we ate as much as we could (and cried a little when they took away our leftovers), we took a 5-minute walk to the Stephen Sondheim Theatre to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

Alright, here's the deal: when I was first researching/inquiring about what shows to see, a few people told me about this one. And my response was very much "but I have no idea who Carole King is." However, I listened to the album on spotify and was SHOCKED with how many of her songs I knew! That girl must have written like half of the 'oldies!' 

So when I told my dad about the musical he, of course, knew who Carole King was, but when I played some of the album, he got SO excited! And I knew then and there that I wanted to take him to see that show for Father's Day. 

We 'splurged' and got seats on the front row of the balcony, but it also was a much smaller theatre than Aladdin/Frozen, so everything just felt more intimate. 

Eeks! It was go-time! 

Y'ALL. It was SO. GOOD. Seriously - if you are looking for a feel-good, family-friendly musical -- this is it. And if you're going to NYC and you're above the age of 50? It's a must-do. I mean we didn't want it to end! Plus just watching dad beam and snap his way through the performance gave me all the feels. (Cause let me tell you - none of us were beaming and snapping during Aladdin!).

I seriously can't say enough good things about this show. No, there was no "Disney magic" (it wasn't even a Disney show) - but it really didn't need any. It was good acting, a good story, and some fantastic music/vocals. In fact, I just decided I will be listening to the soundtrack at work today.

So, Saturday may have been a huge fail in the food/show department, but Sunday DEFINITELY made up for it!

On Monday morning, Jeff had to hop a 6a flight to Florida for work, but the parentals and I didn't fly out until Tuesday morning, so we had a whole extra day! We kicked off Monday with something I've been wanting to do for FOREVER...

We did brunch at the Plaza. ;)

The ceiling of the Palm Court. Not a bad view at all! 

This trip had many highlights, but this right here was definitely top three for me. We spent almost two hours just drinking coffee, feeling fancy, and talking about life. We had a really great time. And let me tell you - we ate like we hadn't seen carbs in years. Pancakes, french toast - all of it. 

I mean - look. It's kind of starting to melt, but my chocolate chip pancakes had a chocolate made "Plaza" emblem on top. Not too shabby for Katy!

After brunch, we had time to kill before heading to our hotel. (We also had a super early flight out on Tuesday morning, so we decided to stay in a hotel right by the airport Monday night to eliminate the travel from the city on a weekday.)

We were throwing out random options of things to do, but we knew mom REALLY wanted to go to the Museum of Natural History. So that's what we did. And I'm pretty sure we were there for nineteen hours. My mom is obsessed with history, so she reads any and every plaque there is. So that combined with the monstrosity that is that museum meant Dad and I had to kick into survival mode. 

This was the one picture I took at the museum:

I thought it might resemble what I look/feel like at the end of this pregnancy. And because I'm documenting this 14 weeks after I actually took the picture, I can confirm that I'm well on my way :)

After surviving the museum (and again, feeling like my feet were about to fall from my body), we grabbed a quick lunch which just HAPPENED to be right by our gelato place. 

So we indulged one last time and then headed to the airport hotel, where we all curled up on the bed and watched Newsies (the broadway show version) on Netflix. The perfect way to end a trip to New York City. :)

And that's a wrap! Seriously one of the greatest trips I've been on and one I'll remember forever :) Thanks for hanging in there with me! Have a wonderful Monday, everyone!

Until next time,

Katy

NYC 2018: Part One

OH HEY. 

Man, this past weekend was such a good weekend. It did nothing but rain on Saturday, which was all the excuse Jeff and I needed to not ever leave the house. He watched (an absurd amount of) football all day, and I made significant strides on house organization. So we were both happy campers!

Today's little recap is WAY overdue, but I still want to make sure it's captured and documented and all the things (reading back about past trips is one of my favorite reasons to have a blog), so you're just going to have to pretend we went to NYC last week, not almost three months ago :) 

This little trip came to fruition in a roundabout way, honestly. At the beginning of the year, my dad and I were looking at the baseball schedule to decipher Games 8-10, knowing we needed to hit Game 10 by the time I turned 30 (this past June). We knew we wanted to go see the Yankees at some point, so my dad threw out the idea of going to see the Yankees as Game 10 ON my birthday. I thought it was a great idea!

Then my friend Ryan (we met at Baylor but he now lives in NYC) emailed about how he was turning 35 this June, was doing a big ole shindig for it, we were all invited up to New York and it happened to be the same weekend. That just made the idea a little greater. 

THEN I was thinking about how it's my 30th birthday weekend AND Father's Day weekend, so maybe dad and I should bring our plus ones and make an extended little weekend out of it. At this point Jeff had only been to NYC for about 8 hours (for a long layover), and my mom is always down for some shows, so the idea became even greater. 

And alas, the 30th birthday/Father's Day/Game 10 trip was born (and planned). 

And what do I mean by planned, you ask? 

I mean I made this here lil itinerary. Because I rarely do things without an itinerary. Just ask my sister. She loves to make fun of me for it :)

Honestly, it was a great itinerary (if I do say so myself), but it was jam.packed. Fully planned days and walking pretty much everywhere just about wore us all out. We slept hard each night. It's also why I'm only going to recap half of the trip today.

Nevertheless it was SUCH a good weekend and I loved that Jeff and I got to spend quality time with my parents. I just really like them. :)

Okay, so let's get started. 

We all took mid-morning flights on a Thursday from DFW to LGA, and landed around 3p. From there, we took a (terrifying, near death experience) cab ride straight to our Airbnb. When my mom, sister and I went to NYC back in 2013, we stayed in a hotel in Midtown and I absolutely LOVED the location. An Airbnb turned out to be cheaper for the four of us, so we found one in Hell's Kitchen (not far at all from Midtown and our other points of interest) and were quite pleased!

After getting settled, we walked to our first dinner reservation at The Smith. I reached out on Facebook for food recommendations (you people feel strongly about your NYC eats, by the way) and this was on the list. 

Plus, two of us thought it would be cool if the Smiths ate at the Smith!

...Okay fine. I was the only one who thought it was cool. 

While it was my first time trying this place, it definitely will not be my last. We had reservations (and I'm really glad we did!), so we walked right on in and sat down. All four of us had a little something different but it was all wonderful. My only complaint was it was quite loud. And I know, I know, it's a restaurant in NYC - what do I expect? But still - having a conversation was a bit challenging. 

So we took pictures of each side of the table instead! :)

The Smiths at the Smith! WHAT a knee slapper. 

Mom's fries showed up right before it was picture time so dad thought they needed a moment in the spotlight too.

After dinner, we planned to walk past Central Park, down Broadway, and straight into Times Square before heading home. We made it to the corner of Central Park and Broadway before dad and I had to stop again. 

Cause look what we found! 

We can spot it miles away y'all. It's basically our spiritual gift.

If you're headed to NYC soon, the place is called Grom and I would highly recommend it. We liked it so much we went about 3 or 4 times during our trip. I'm SO glad calories aren't a thing on vacation. 

<Note: this is likely also why my doctor asked how I gained so much weight in the first trimester if I was so sick all the time.>

We continued our walk down Broadway until we hit this beauty.

Hey there, Times Square. 

This tourist trap gives me life every time I see it. The colors, the sounds, the flashing blinking lights of so many advertisements at once I can barely be marketed to by any of them... it's all just so mesmerizing. 

But you couldn't PAY me to stand there on New Years Eve. Nope. Not a chance. 

They're so stinking cute.

At this point we just walked in some random stores around the area (the Christmas shop, M&M Factory, etc.) and found a shop that let us load up on Yankees gear for that weekend. 

And then? We were beat. We walked home, got in jammies, watched TV and went to bed at a reasonable hour. Y'all - this is part of the reason I love traveling with my parents - my inner grandma doesn't have to pretend to be hip or cool or anything. Inner grandma can go to bed at 10p and is fully supported by the family. YES, Lord.

On Friday morning we woke up fairly early and were out of the house by 9a. We had a big day ahead! Being that 1) I love itineraries, and 2) Jeff had never been to NYC, I took my tour guide job very seriously. He needed to see all the things. 

And sure, you basically can't ever see all the NYC things unless you actually live there, but hey, a girl can try. 

Our first stop was Sarabeth's for breakfast. Another highly recommended location and another HUGE win! It is located right across from Central Park, has really delicious breakfast food, and is a cute little restaurant where you can easily talk to the other people at your table. :) Man, I'm starting to realize that my inner grandma is really coming out to play...

After Sarabeth's, we headed out to get lost in Central Park. Which is easy to do, by the way. Every time I come to New York, I will always carve out a portion of a day to walk through the park. It just makes me so HAPPY. Just walking around. There's just so much to see (from skylines to nature to people) and so much ground to cover.

And so many bridges to pose in front of! Also, I thought my mom and I took a picture in front of the Home Alone bridge back in 2013, but we actually were mistaken. Jeff did serious research on this, y'all. We did find the actual bridge, and you can still take a picture of it, but you cannot stand under it. Because it's now a swamp. So, just in case you were curious (probably not), this indeed is just a random bridge.

We talked, we strolled, we took pictures - and we located about 50% of the Central Park bathrooms. Ah, pregnancy. 

One bathroom, however, ended up being in the Central Park Zoo - of which I had no idea was actually a thing. I have been to Central Park several times, but had never come across the zoo inside. We didn't partake in any animal watching, but we did find a coffee shop, which like ice cream, makes my family (namely me and my parents) stop dead in our tracks. 

Waiting for our coffees :) 

OH, and we also found a gift shop. Jeff went to the restroom and met up with us in the shop later, and by the time he got there I was holding a stuffed lion that I just could not let go of. Maybe because I had a stuffed Simba that I slept with for approximately 15 years of my life. Maybe it was because I'm pregnant and feeling all nostalgic. Maybe it was because it had big brown plastic eyes that melted my heart. Either way, the hubs bought it for me. :)

Last day of my twenties and I'm in Central Park with an iced coffee and a cute little stuffed animal. I am a happy human. That will probably always be part kid.

Speaking of which, just in case you're wondering, no this stuffed animal is not for my unborn child. His name is Louie and he sleeps with us. You know what else sleeps with us? Our pregnancy pillow. And our two large dogs. Man, Jeff is a lucky man. 

We continued to stroll and found Balto - a statue and story my family doesn't let me live down. Long story short, when we went to NY when I was little I made my family walk ALL OVER that park until we found the blasted Balto statue. The movie had just come out and I was dead set on finding the statue. I guess they didn't have park maps back then? 

We climbed rock mountains...

Enjoyed the pretty park benches...

Made friends with headless people...

Y'all. So you could obviously hear these people talking to each other, and my mom was all like "where are those voices coming from? How are they doing that?" 

Precious Susie. She thought they were robots. Or maybe she thought they were actual headless people, I'm not sure. 

You could spend an entire day in Central Park, but alas, we only had a few hours before we had to head to Rockefeller Center. It was Top of the Rock time!

I've done the Top of the Rock almost every time I've been to New York, but it just never gets old to me. 

Oh, and we totally took (and bought!) the tourist pictures. When we do NYC, we DO NYC.

Then for our candid one, we tried to recreate this infamous picture:

<source>

How'd we do? :)

We'll just call it the modern day version :)

After hearing the history, watching the videos, and taking our awesome pictures, we headed up to the top! 

 The city is a beauty, I'll give her that. 

Pardon Jeff's excessive squat. When you have tall man problems you tend to cover up the Empire State Building even if you squat like a normal person. 

However, while so many people were waiting "patiently" for their turn at the window, Jeff had tall man perks and just took his pictures above everyone's head.

Our little girl is going to be SET y'all. She'll be able to perch up on those shoulders and see the world :)

We then went to the very tippy top (did you know there are actually three levels?) which has no glass. Every other time I've come to NY it's been bitterly cold and windy, so the top levels have always been closed. But not in June!

Same location, but a little different weather conditions and attire from this one we took 4.5 years earlier... :)

After we saw all there was to see, we headed back down and through the NBC studios gift shop where it took serious restraint to not buy all the Friends paraphernalia, as well as things like this:

And all the women said Amen. 

And all their husbands rolled their eyes.

We then headed straight out of the building to see the Radio City Music Hall, and then around the corner to grab some sweet treats at Magnolia Bakery.

Y'all. At this point, we were exhausted. We had pretty much walked ourselves silly. So we got our treats, went back into Rockefeller, found a Starbucks, and sat our little selves down while we rebooted on cupcakes and coffee.

Not pictured: Dad's banana pudding - because he ate it before we even checked out.

And honestly - Magnolia was good and much needed at the time, but I've had better treats in my day. You just can't really beat baked goods from the south. 

After we got back on our feet (and cried a little from the pain), we headed back to the apartment to freshen up for dinner. Thanks to your recommendations, we set out for John's Pizzeria (commonly referred to as 'the old church that now sells pizza'). John's doesn't take reservations, and there was quite a line when we got there, but we really only waited 20-30 minutes for a table. 

We then devoured delicious pizza in a really cool atmosphere. I would definitely recommend this place (and I do think it's worth the wait). It's an old cathedral type building, and we sat on the second level so we had some really cool architectural views. 

Too bad dad was more interested in the pizza view. :)

After dinner, the boys went back to the apartment to watch baseball while the girls had a date night! My mom bought us tickets to Frozen on Broadway for my birthday! The theatre was about 5 steps away from the pizza place, so we excitedly just hopped on over!

This show is fairly new so I want to give you my honest thoughts: 

GO SEE IT. 

It is a true Disney on Broadway masterpiece, and I can say this because my reviews of the Disney show we saw the next night are far from beaming. But this one. MAN. The music was good, the theatrics were great, we laughed, we oohed and aahed, and just when you think you are so beyond sick of "Let It Go," Caissie Levy knocks it out of the park and makes you wish you could rewatch it over and over again. 

OH, and spoiler alert here, but in case you aren't happy enough when it ends, you get snowed on and it makes the whole audience turn into giddy five year olds. 

See? Giddy. 

And in the event you thought it was just a little snow... 

It's basically a full-on blizzard. Bless the sweet souls who have to vacuum after every show. 

We walked back to the apartment, and at this point, I thought I had completely run out of gas. Just call me the little engine that couldn't. BUT, after we got back to the apartment, we learned that Ryan and the whole gang were right around the corner from where we were staying, so Jeff and I went to say hi.

And when I walked in everyone had party hats and yelled happy birthday :)

I have good people. 

The faces of a freshly 35 year old and an almost 30 year old! Love sharing a birthday month with this one. He does life really well.

I wrapped up the evening with a Schmackary's ice cream sandwich (complete with candle) and a really happy heart. 

It was an extremely exhilarating (and exhausting) last day of my twenties. The next day, I woke up to a whole new decade :) 

But that's enough for today. More on that later this week. 

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Until next time,

Katy