NYC 2008

Last weekend I had the awesome experience of going to New York with my 2 sisters and my mom! This was our second trip to the Big City. Our last trip was 2+ years ago, so we were definitely due! Unfortunately, the other "Tucker girl", Amanda (Tyler's wife) couldn't join us because she just had a new baby! (I guess it's fortunate, but her missing the trip was unfortunate--you get what I mean!) I'm going to mix in the fun stories with the pictures so bear with me! This is as much for my 'journaling' as it is for your entertainment. My mom ended up taking most of the pictures of us girls so she's not in very many of them. Lame on that!
This was the three of us in the back seat of our cab on the ride from the airport to the hotel. This cab ride was one of the craziest I've ever been in! Melissa and Natalie were both nauseous by the time we arrived at the hotel, due to the erratic driving of our driver. We were laughing our heads off, though, and texting my mom in the front seat about how sick they were getting. Lucky for me, I don't get motion sick.

This was after arriving at our hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in the financial district of Manhattan. It was nice place to stay. Good beds, good location and FREE hot breakfast in the morning. They may not be excited to have us back, however. While enjoying our FREE breakfast, my mom decided that the biscuits were a little stale for her liking. She decided it would be a great idea to split it in half and put it in the toaster. KIDS DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! It left huge crumbs in the toaster which would, of course, be a HUGE fire hazard in the toaster. The next toaster patron was me. You see where this is going? Smoke! Fire! Smoke alarm! Fire trucks! Fire fighters! (Melissa, the single-and-looking sister missed out on that since she decided to sleep late). Natalie, not realizing, who caused the 'situation' had some choice words for the dumb-@&*$ who put a biscuit in the toaster. After quietly slipping into the elevator to avoid being 'caught,' we had to tell her that her own mother was the dumb-@&*$.

The sisters with kids had to have their picture taken with Elmo when we ran into him at Times Square.

The night we arrived, we saw Legally Blonde the musical. If you like the movie (we LOVE it) you will love this musical. I think I heard that it is shortly closing, though. We really liked the show. It was Melissa's favorite of the trip. 'Woods comma Ella' is an honorary sister now.

After a busy day shopping, we saw Disney's Little Mermaid on broadway. There was about 10 new songs in the stage production and they were great! The effects and music were awesome. We all loved this one. It was Natalie and my mom's favorite!

All of us in Times Square. I think now would be a good time to comment on our shopping. A good portion of our fun shopping was done on Canal Street in China town. I'm not even embarrassed to say that we went there 3 times. OK, maybe a little embarrassed, but it was fun! Anyone who has been there knows that there are secret back room in the stores where they keep all of the designer handbags to sell. There are also 'finders' on the street who find out you are interested and take you to a waiting mini van down the street with shelves of bags inside. This is all part of the fun for us. We were actually kicked out of our first 'mini van' because we were taking too long. Big mistake on their part! We also got kicked out of one back room for taking too long. It's a big decision people! It takes more than 3 minutes! I bought 3 purses and I was the third place shopper!

Natalie bought a new sweatshirt and forgot to take off her new purse! He he. I had to post this one! She affectionately refers to her purse as "the cutest purse purchased." I bought it for her for her birthday which is this Sunday!

On Saturday, we saw a matinee of Monty Python's Spamalot. Yes, this is the one starring Clay Aiken. We got the understudy. What's up with that, Clay?!? This was such a funny musical. The voices were amazing and I laughed my head off! This was my favorite.

After Spamalot, we had dinner at the Olive Garden in Times Square. While waiting for our table, we were looking out the window and noticed the bird (see above). It was an injured pigeon and it was very entertaining to watch people almost step on it and almost trip on it over and over again. (I guess you had to be there.) The bird eventually flew away after almost crashing into the window trying to get airborn again. So we had an early dinner and didn't have any more shows scheduled for that night. Hmm what to do... see another show! My mom and Natalie decided to just shop around Times Square and then head home early. Melissa and had other things in mind. She REALLY wanted to see Grease, so she did. I wasn't that excited about that so I got a half price ticket to see Spring Awakening since I had heard great things it. The music was great, but the subject matter is definitely for ADULTS ONLY! There is also some choice language. I just heard today that this one is closing in January. I guess the economy is hitting Broadway hard too, although every show we saw was packed.

We sadly had to go back to the airport on Sunday (after one last trip to Canal street and a quick trip to Central Park). Our flight was oversold so we gave up our seats in exchange for a First Class ticket on a flight 3 hours later and a $200 voucher! Nice! It was so great to be in First Class on such a long flight. The food is actually really good. Who knew? So we got home LATE, but it was worth it. We had such a fun trip and only got lost on the subways a couple of times!