M& E in NYC - Day 5

Saturday November 26, 2011

Our last day in New York City :(
The time went so fast - there is so much we didn't see, but we did so much!

Another 'no alarm' morning - but we got going as soon as we woke up so we could get a few things in before we left for the airport.

We stopped for a walking breakfast - croissant and breakfast burrito that would could eat while we walked. We hadn't been to the largest Toys R Us yet, so we made our way to Broadway to take a quick trip in. The Ferris Wheel is fun to see. Favorite toys make up the 'cars', including the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine and the classic red and yellow cozy coupe.

Still wanting to do some shopping, we went to Bryant Park where we saw little gift shops. We looked around a bit, had a delicious cookie and watched skaters on the Bryant Park pond. Another beautiful fall day in the city for outdoor fun.

We started back to our hotel and I was still on the hunt for some Christmas gifts and I only had an hour so we decided to split up - the only time we've been apart for five days - other than Earl's parade bathroom adventure! Earl headed back to the hotel and I went back to the shops - the scene of the crime the day before. I found what I was looking for and headed back to the hotel.

We stuffed and tucked as much as we could into our bags and checked out of our hotel. We highly recommend the Four Points Sheraton Times Square for your NYC travel needs. Friendly staff, comfortable beds, small hotel so easy to access your room, close to subways and Times Square adventure!

We are public trasportation pros, so we decided to take the E train (subway) to the airport. I love my 'smart phone' and tracked the whole ride to Jamaica, Queens. From there we boarded the AirTrain to Terminal 3 and our Delta flight. After an HOUR in the security line with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones slamming a fifth of Jack Daniels behind us, we made it gate 17 to await our flight. We had time to eat lunch and charge phones before we boarded our 4:13 flight. Earl would like to thank Delta for giving him Exit row seats on all three flights - and the person who would have to sit in front of him thanks you too!

We landed in cold Minneapolis and made our way home. We got some food and cuddled up on the couch to watch ourselves on the Martha Stewart Show and the beginning of the parade - which got me chocked up knowing I was there to experience it all!!

Earl and I are so thankful for getting to spend this time together. We had an AMAZING time! I was sure Earl would hate New York, but he really liked it! There is so much history here, which he enjoys. He talked a lot about 'next time' so I'm pretty confident there won't be another 17 year gap for me to get back to NYC.

We are also very thankful to Grandma Judy for coming down to take care of the boys and then take them to Grand Rapids for the Thanksgiving weekend. She earns extra points for doing all this with Dayne recovering from strep. THANK YOU for always being there for us family!!

We are leaving now to get our boys! I can't wait to hold them tight and tell them all about the adventure of M&E in NYC!

M&E in NYC - Day 4

Friday November 25, 2011

Today was a sleep in day! No alarm!

We didn't have Friday planned - we left it open to do what we hadn't yet and see what we still wanted to see. That was a great unplanned plan! Due to the rain on Tuesday and Wednesday there were things we had planned to do that we couldn't do - so we did some of them on Friday!

We headed out from the hotel and walked to the theater to get show tickets - after finding that the seats we hoped to get were three times more than we expected or wanted to spend we moved on.

We did some shopping and helped commit a crime. Yes, that's right I was an accessory to a crime of accessories! I was looking at some scarfs and as I leaned in to see what was on the top level a man came from my right side and leaned in and grabbed a stack of silk scarfs on the bottom shelf. Earl said "He just stole those" and I said "yep, and I just helped him!". As I leaned in I created a block for him to come in from the side and grab!

Wow! That was exciting... what to do from there?!

After spending the past three days walking and walking and standing (for 5 hours) and walking we were ready to SIT! We decided the top deck of a bus sounded like a great idea! First we grabbed some lunch at Rockefeller Center and then hopped the City Sites Bus. This is the way to see the city! The weather was georgous with temps in the 50's. As we moved our way through Manhattan a native New Yorker pointed out the sites and gave us facts. Did you know that the building in Times Square where the ball drops is 26 stories and 25 are empty! They make 30 million dollars a year on the outside advertising that they don't need to rent the interior space! The tour took us down to lower Manhattan. We hopped off in SoHo to find a bathroom - which are availiable in most of the 194 Starbucks! We shopped the vendors a bit and got on the next bus. Our next hop off was at the South Street Seaport. We tried again to get Broadway show tickets at the TKST booth - but decided to keep the evening unscheduled.

We walked down to Pier 17 and enjoyed the view of Brooklyn across the east river and the view of the Manhattan skyline behind us. After watching a bum get carted off in an ambulance and eating raw chicken from street vendor (yuck) we waited for the next bus.








The guides on the bus were so fun to listen too. As we made our way back uptown we passed through Chinatown and past Little Italy - New York is an International tour! The sky was a beautiful pink and blue and was the perfect backdrop for photos of the Empire State & Chrysler Buildings. We arrived back to 5th Avenue after dark to the twinkling lights on every tree and building! Simple stunning!




Next adventure was heading to the Top of the Rock! Top of 30 Rockefeller Center. We had about an hour wait for our time to head up so we walked around a bit enjoying the hustle and bustle of the area. The scaffolding around the big tree had been removed so we could see the full beauty. The electric boxes at the bottom were fun to see. We will be watching the tree lighting next week Wednesday.

At exactly 6:25pm we entered the que to head up to the roof! We made our way into the elevator and the lights went out! and the whole elevator shaft lite up blue as we zoomed up 68 stories! It was so cool! The view is breath taking! As far as you can see the lights glow in every direction. It was fun to see the sites from above that we had been seeing from the street and by bus. We spent about an hour at the top and made our way back down.

Time for dinner! We spotted Bill's Bar & Burger earlier in the day and decided that sounded good. We had a nice waiter and enjoyed burgers and drinks! After dinner we decided to use our night tour tickets and catch the last run. This meant more walking to catch the bus at the stop in Broadway.

We got the last seat in the back of the bus - remember this is open air, top of the bus only seating. We thought the tour might be what we saw during the day, but in the night light. It was way more than that! Before we knew it were were crossing the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn. The bridge has two levels - we were on the top - WAY up high over the East River! The views were awesome! Brooklyn on one side and Manhattan on the either. What a great night for a wonderful ride.

Our bus brought us back to Times Square which was packed with people on a Friday night! After our nightly stop at Duane Reade for 'soda' pop and snacks we headed back to our hotel for our last night of sleep in NYC. Have I mentioned how comfortable our bed is?! We've been sleeping great and waking up to the view of the city our our window.

Tomorrow M&E must leave NYC :(

M&E in NYC - Day 3

LET'S HAVE A PARADE!

Today's Timeline:

4:44am - Alarm goes off (I got a full four hours of sleep!)
5:10am - Alarm goes off again - (four hours of sleep isn't enough!)
6:00am - We hit the streets to find our parade viewing location (7th ave between 42nd & 43rd)
9:00am - Earl leaves our spot to use the bathroom - he meets new friends while waiting 'on' line
9:30am - I get our first view of the parade arriving in our area!!!
11:30am - SANTA arrives in Times Square!!! The parade ends.
11:45am - we get back to our room to see Santa arrive in Harold Square on tv

Noon to 2pm - napping (for Earl) and photo dumping (I took over 300)

2:00pm - leave the hotel and grab the subway (we are subway skilled now!)
2:30pm - Arrive on Wall Street - get first view of the new freedom building
2:45pm - stumble upon "Occupy Wall Street" - offered a free meal to occupy
3:30pm - enjoy a burger for Thanksgiving lunch
4:00pm - get in que for the 9/11 Memorial - go through security
4:30pm - enter the 9/11 Memorial - taken by the water falls and names of those lost
5:30pm - leave the Memorial - we will never forget
5:45pm - stop at Starbucks to warm up with a coffee
6:00pm - Board the Staten Island Ferry to take a ride in the harbour to see Lady Liberty
7:00pm - Arive back in Manhatten and grab the subway 'home'
8:00pm - back to 'our' part of town - find Sunshine deli closed - explore area for food choices
9:00pm - Back at our hotel - order Turkey Dinner from room service - yum
10:30pm - SLEEP

Day Details:

Yes! 4:44am.... for a moment I thought that maybe watching it in our hotel room would be a better idea! But NO WAY! Get up, get going, get out on the street!
We were going to watch the parade closer to the start, around 77th street, but decided to stay down closer to our hotel. We grabbed breakfast and found a spot on 7th Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Street. There were already people lined up along the barricades and behind them - so were were third row - but we were behind lots of kids so we would be able to see. We were with many people from Hawaii who were there to watch their Hawaii state marching band - all 400 members! The Hawaiian people are very friendly... just like Minnesotans! Which is why were were dooped by a family from Boston that arrived after 7 and pushed their way in front of us! I wish I would have told them to get behind us! But that dang Minnesota nice stopped me and there they were! grrr.... oh well!

At 9am the parade left the Upperwest side to make it's way past us in Times Square. At the same time Earl announced he had to use the bathroom! The crowd around us was HUGE and I didn't know how I would save his spot - so I spread out and stood my ground to save our spots! It took him over half an hour to get back from the store on the corner. He made friends in the bathroom line and they had fun timing how long it took people to get in and go. If you made it out in less than a minute there would be applause! Earl made it back just after the parade reached our area.

How was the parade LIVE in person - AWESOME! AMAZING! FANTASTIC!
The balloons are HUGE and so fun to see coming down the street - we were on a corner so we also got to see them make the turn from 7th Avenue to 42nd Street.

The parade ended about 11:30am and since we were only three blocks from our hotel we went back there to catch the end of the parade on tv. It was fun to see what we just saw on the street on tv.

Since we had such little sleep we decided to rest - Earl slept, I uploaded all 307 pictures I had taken during the parade - even exhausted I think I was too excited to sleep - I think I rested a bit.

About 2pm we got going again. We left our hotel and took the subway to lower Manhattan. We emerged from the subway at the site of the World Trade Center. When Earl realized where we were he got an instant pit in his stomach. It's a somber place to be, but an honor to b there. We wondered a bit trying to figure out where we wanted to go and as we walked we stumbled upon "Occupy Wall Street" they offered us dinner to occupy with them - we chose not to. We went across the street and I had a burger for Thanksgiving lunch!

We had tickets for the 9/11 Memorial at 4:45pm. When I booked our tickets way back in September I looked up the time the sun would set on November 24th and chose a time where we would be able to see the memorial in daylight and after dark. After we went through security and entered the memorial I was overtaken by the grief of the site. The pools are huge and as you think of all that was lost there and as you read the names the enormity of the tragedy is heartbreaking. I had been to the top of the World Trade Center when I lived in New York, so being back and the building was gone tug at me too.

We started at one pool and walked all along each side. Even though I didn't know anyone who died, as you walk by and touch the names you think of those you love with the same name and feel so blessed for those you have in your life. This was really an amazing way to spend Thanksgiving day. We walked around both pools and touched names on every side - I felt I had to walk around each side to honor everyone named there.

After a quick stop at Starbucks to warm up with some coffee and hot chocolate we started walking toward the Staten Island Ferry. We took the FREE trip from Manhattan to Staten Island to get a glimpse of Lady Liberty and the skyline. It was fun to see Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Manhattan lit up at night. The boat ride was fun too!

We took the subway 'home' to our hotel. Earl was craving a peppered turkey sandwich from Sunshine Deli, but when we found it was closed for the holiday we decided to see if our hotel restaurant was still open. It was and they had a special Thanksgiving turkey dinner so we ordered it up by room service and finally had our holiday meal! It was delicious!

We have so much to be thankful for!
- Earl and I are thankful for each other and for this time together
- We are blessed beyond words for the boys that we get to share our lives with
- The birth parents that chose us
- Our families that are always there for us (and during this time Grandma Judy and the whole Berglund crew for caring for our boys)
- Jobs that keep a roof over our heads, food in our fridge, gas filled cars in our drive and all the other things we take for granted each day
- For God's love for us

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

M&E in NYC - Day 2

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EARL!

After a full 7 hours of sleep - which was wonderful - we woke up early to go and see Martha!

We walked from our hotel on 40th Street to Martha's studio on 26th Street. It wasn't raining, so it was a fun walk. We should have stopped at a street food cart for a breakfast sandwich, but not knowing how long it would take us we keep walking until we got there - so on no food we went into Martha's delicious smelling studio!

We waited in the audience holding area until being brought up to the studio. It was interesting to watch the system - when we came in we were given a ticket and they wrote a number on ours, and others had colored lines. They called people in by their ticket indicator - who knows what meant what! We were the last group to go in and were seated in the very last row on the far left side. Being the back was actually very nice - we could see EVERYTHING!



Today's show was LIVE! Hope you caught it! If not, it will replay on the Hallmark channel today and maybe tomorrow. It will be online next week. On today's show Martha answered viewers questions about Thanksgiving dilemmas and side dish ideas. The set was crazy busy with so many people taking care of every little detail. We heard from viewers at home that we were show on tv several times! So if you watch look for a big guy in a pink shirt and you will find Earl!

As we left the show were were given Martha's new book - 'Martha's Entertaining - A Year of Celebrations' it's a 430 page, $75 book! We had to go back to the hotel to drop them off - they were too heavy to carry all over the city. Earl enjoyed the reason to come back to the room... he is snoring as I type this - it's his birthday so if he wants a nap he can have one!



After the show we headed down 7th Avenue. Since we didn't eat breakfast, and Martha's sweet potatoes were making even Earl drool (he doesn't like sweet potatoes) we stopped at a pizza place for a slice. Earl's first New York Pizza - he liked it! As we sat in New Town Pizza it began to POUR rain! Earl used the opportunity to enjoy another slice!

We were four blocks from Macy's - THE Macy's, we we stepped in to shop for Parade souvenirs. I found some fun stuff, including a book I wanted to get for the boys.

After Macy's we came back to the hotel to drop off the books, recharge our batteries, and plan for the rest of the day - and nap (or blog!)

Tonight we are off for more fun... including the NBC Studio Tour and then to the Parade Balloon Inflation!

Day 2 - Continued:

After Earl woke up from his nap we headed back out - destination 30 Rock and the NBC Tour. It was a fun experience. First we saw the studio for Dr. Oz, then the studio for Football in America. Next we got to go into the Saturday Night Live studio - lots of history in that room!

Following the tour we went outside to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas Tree and skating rink. The Christmas Tree still has scaffolding around it while they finish putting on the lights and we couldn't get near the rink because the rumor was that Justin Bieber was going to be down there. As the teen girls began chanting "Justin, Justin, Justin" we go the heck out of there!

We grabbed a hot pretzel from a street cart and walked down 5th Avenue enjoying the snazzy stores decked out for the holidays. We stopped into FAO Schwartz to check out a few toys.

We were at Central Park so we began to walk west to head toward the Balloon Inflation. We walked past the horse and carriages and said "no. no thank you. no thanks." and continued walking and then Earl decided that heck yes, we were going to take a carriage ride! So we went back and met up with Mehmet (the driver) and Fury (the horse). Mehmet offered us a deal instead of the regular loop he would take us up closer to the balloon inflation - so we met on a price and away we went. The carriage kept us nice and protected from the wind that had kicked up and the blanket kept us cozy and warm. Mehmet gave us fun information and facts about Central Park as we drove through - and Fury got us to our destination quicker than we could have walked it. Not to mention a carriage ride in Central Park is romantic memorable thing to do with your honey while in NYC! Earl fed Fury at our drop stop and we were on our way.

We found out way to the que for the Balloon Inflation and got our first glimps of the GIANT balloons! They were laying on the ground all along 79th street and continued onto 81st streets with the Museum of Natural History in the middle. The huge crowd walked along the side walk to see the balloons inflated, covered with mesh and held down with sand bags (so they don't blow away!). When they first came into view I got so excited that we were here and seeing them for the first time! They are HUGE! and so fun to see! A definate 'must do' if you are in NYC for the parade.

When we saw the last balloon we left the massive crowd and headed to Cafe Lalo for Earl's Birthday dessert! I was so excited to see Cafe Lalo because it was the location used for a scene in my very FAVORITE movie You've Got Mail. I LOVE You've Got Mail staring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. In the movie Meg's character, Kathleen Kelly, is waiting to meet the person she has been online chatting with, and instead in comes Joe Fox, played by Tom Hanks - a man who has made Kathleen's professional life miserable - I won't give it away - watch the movie - I have 3 copies if you want to borrow one! ...anyway... It's a tiny little coffee shop with a case loaded full of beautiful desserts! I chose a frosted white cake filled with strawberry, while Earl chose a chocolate peanut butter cake and a chocolate milk shake. And just for good measure, we took a piece of Amaretto Tiramisu to go and enjoy when we got 'home'. After a few photos we grabbed the subway back to our hotel.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a deli to grab a sandwich - yes, we ate our dessert before dinner! Oh my gosh, I had forgotten how much a love a roast beef in New York. Delish! Sunshine Deli has hooked Earl in with their peppered turkey sandwich - he is going to have to come back to New York to visit when he can't find such goodness back home - which is fine with me! Before we knew it, it was midnight and we had to get some sleep for tomorrow is the big day! The Parade!!!

M&E in NYC - Day 1

Tuesday - November 22, 2011

This day I've been counting down to his finally here!!

Since Dayne had me up most of the night I was tired, but ready to go at 4:30am

Earl and I left home at 5am - Grandma Judy was in charge of sick baby Dayne and getting Carson off to school.

As our flight was about to take off I saw a little boy a bit younger than Dayne looking over his seat. He put his finger up his nose (just like my D) and I began to sob for my sick boy! You know that quiet sob you try to hold in?! Mommy guilt was in overload! I knew he was in good hands with Grandma Judy, and I knew he would be feeling better by the end of the day, but I missed him and didn't want him to be sad without me. But, we were on our way!

Our first flight was to Boston - we scored exit row seats! Roomy! From Boston on to New York's JFK airport (again, we worked our Minnesota nice and got roomy exit row - Earl's long legs appreciate that!)

From my research I knew our transportation plan once we landed - we were taking the AirTrain to Jamaica Queens, then the Long Island Railroad, and finally the subway to our hotel. This was going to be the fastest way to get into midtown Manhattan - and it worked GREAT! We landed at 1:30 and we were in our hotel room at 3:10.

Earl is sure the subway station was designed by short people! He's 6'6" and is almost touching the ceiling in many areas! The people are in droves - he felt a bit claustrophobic, but did great!

We emerged from the subway to land in Times Square! In rainy, Time Square!
We walked the few blocks to our hotel and arrived at the Sheraton Four Point Time Square, checked in and found our room on the 19th floor. We have a very nice room with a view out the front of the building. We have arrived!


We changed quickly and headed out for the evening. We stopped by the concierge to ask how to get to Radio City Music Hall - he told us the way and offered us an umbrella. We walked the 10 blocks up and 3 blocks over in the rain! But it didn't dampen our excitement of being on the streets of New York City!

Radio City Music Hall - the lobby was beautiful! We grabbed a 'soda' (pop) and hotdogs (the first food of the day!) and made our way into the theater - I was chocked up as we walked in - so pretty!

The show was AMAZING!!! Everything I hoped it would be! We had great seats and we could see the full stage and all the effects on every wall and ceiling! I loved the 'Christmas in New York' scene and cried during The Nativity scene, it was so beautiful.



After the show we took some photos, visited the 'lounge' (restrooms) and headed back out in rain for dinner. A fb friend of Earl's suggested Patsy's for Italian. It was fairly near by so we made the wet walk. We arrived and felt very taken care of by the Patsy 'men' (all men except for the hostess and the coat check lady). We had delicious meals - I had chicken in a lemon wine sauce and Earl had sausage and peppers. Earl felt there could be a mafia hit at any moment, but it was a nice family Italian restaurant. We later read that Patsy's was a favorite restaurant of Frank Sinatra.

We popped up the umbrella again for the 16 blocks back to our hotel. We stopped to get another umbrella since tomorrows forecast calls for rain again. A quick stop for snack and 'soda' paid for with a $20 bill I found on the floor in the store (thanks dad!) and back to our hotel.

We are ready for a good nights sleep and day 2!

Pre NYC

I've been planning this trip for a year... well, more than a year! I've always wanted to be in NYC for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (bucket list) and while watching last year I said I WOULD be there next year. Since 2011 was the year I would turn 40 I felt that was a great reason to just do it!

I knew I was going to be there - I didn't know who would be with me! Earl was willing to give the role of being my travel partner to someone else - anyone else! But, this summer he decided to join me! And I was very excited to show him the city that I love!

I booked the trip in July! I watched Priceline.com for days and days and did lots of research and one day pushed the "book it" button (or whatever you do to make the purchase!). We are parents of two kids - booking and paying for a trip four months ahead of time seems a bit risky - who knows what might happen - yes, we bought trip insurance!

I'm not sure a day has gone by that I didn't do some research or read something about traveling to New York and attending the parade live! I enjoy doing that - Earl calls it obsessed!

Who was going to watch our boys? We weren't sure, but we were confident someone would! Grandpa & Grandma Berglund were given the 'honor'! Grandma might have thought otherwise when she arrived to our house on Monday the 21st to find a very sick Dayne! After his fever spiked and we called into the doctor we were encouraged to bring him to the ER of Minneapolis Children's Hospital (40 minutes from home). As we buckled Dayne into the carseat I said "Goodbye New York" as I was sure we were dealing with something that might not be a quick fix - the nurse had us go in to rule out meningitis! How happy we're we when he tested positive for Strep! Something we could medicate and get Dayne feeling better quickly. He got an injection and a Popsicle and we headed for home! That was a three hour 'hiccup' in my travel eve plan - but that's ok, my boy needed me and I felt so much better to get him the care he needed. He didn't have a great night, so there was little to no sleep for momma... but I can sleep on the plane, right?!!