Other Fun while we were in New York City

It was great staying with Christian and Amy while we were in NY.  Their kids were their the first 2 nights and the second night Bonnie was there too.  She took them back to her house to spend a week with her.  On Valentine's Day we went out to dinner and had Indian food and then came back to these delicious deserts that Amy had made.  Christian and Amy met and started dating in Pittsburgh while we lived there -- so we knew Amy before any one else in the family did.  It was fun to spend time catching up with them.  They love living in the city and don't mind the small quarters and creative ways space needs to be used with that style of life.  They don't have a car and take public transportation everywhere.

On Sunday morning I met up with my friend (also from our Pittsburgh time) Ella.  She just happened to by in the city with her boyfriend celebrating her birthday.  It is always great to see her! We met at grand central station and then went to breakfast together.

Saturday night before meeting up with Christian and Amy Jake and I had some time to kill, so we took the subway to ground zero to see the new world trade center.

We also walked around Time's square a bit and spent some time in the Toys R Us there.

On Sunday we had tickets to go to the broadway show "Beautiful-the Carol King Musical"

The show was SO good.  I absolutely loved every minute of it and didn't want it to end.  The actress who played Carole King had the audience convinced she was really her by the end of the show.  The music was so good and the story inspiring and touching.  I would definitely go again if I had a chance and I would put this at the very top of the list of best musicals I have seen.  Jake loved it too -- He wasn't already a Carole King fan like I was, but definitely was when he walked out of the theatre.

That night we moved to a hotel -- The view was great -- but that sadly was the only thing about the place that was.  Jake had dropped our luggage off earlier in the day and thought it looked fine, but when I walked in I wasn't convinced.  He got the room on hotwire and supposedly it was a 4 star hotel…. ummmm no way.  When we enter the lobby there was a man sitting near the elevators in his own vomit continuing to throw up on the floor and all over himself.  That was my first impression -- so not a good start.  When we walked down the hall I was concerned because it looked more like a one star place and NYC is known for bedbugs so it didn't look like a place I wanted to be.

Here are a few shots of the rest of our room - and on top of these things -- it was drafty and we were on the 29th floor and there was a really loud whistling noise because the window wasn't doing its job. The room was cold and the noise would have been terrible to try and sleep with.  Jake didn't mind all of the cosmetic issues with the room like I did, but he was definitely not happy with the window issue. He called the front desk and made them change us.  At first they lied and said there were no other rooms available, but after he insisted suddenly there was a room.  It wasn't much better but at least there was no draft.  Jake decided that it wasn't worth my grumpy mood about the hotel and called hotwire and explained the situation -- how the hotel had been listed as 4 stars but obviously wasn't.  Hotwire was great let us arrange for a different hotel instead. We spent the next two nights at the Crowne Plaza in Times Square and it was extremely nice.