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just_karynOK, here I go...a recap of our New York Girls Weekend 2006 trip...
Friday
Deb and Kelly had slept at my house Thursday night (we got about 2 1/2 hours sleep) so that we could leave by 4:30am to go to Charisse's house, where the limo was picking us up. We had tickets on the 12:00 flight, but were hoping to fly standby on an earlier flight. We arrived at the airport at about 5:30 and were able to get seats right away on the 7:00 am flight since it was pretty open. YAY!!! We arrived in New York at 10:00 am and made our way to our hotel. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton at Battery Park and they could not have been more accommodating! We thought we would have to stow our luggage with the front desk, but they got us checked in right away so we were able to get all settled in and unpacked. Then we all met up and went to lunch at an Italian place called Roc in Tribeca. The film festival was going on so there were lines of people everywhere, but really, NY is filled with many people anyway!!! After lunch (I had a lamb/mint ravioli with asparagus in an olive sauce) we went to Chinatown where our adventure really began.
We were all enjoying the crazy vendors and their large knockoff purse selections - Coach, Louis Vuitton, Prada and more. We found some secret back rooms to the shops and found addtional purse selections that we hadn't seen and at one point Christina told the man we didn't want his fake purses, we want the "real" stuff. So, he tells us to follow him, and foolishly we did. We went around the block and down about a mile and then stopped in front of an old, very old, brick building that didn't look like it was kept up. We followed him inside and up 5 flights of stairs (2 people from our group stayed downstairs in front of the building)...Christina, Kelly and I went upstairs with this man. We stopped at a metal door with about 5 locks on it and we entered. Inside there were walls of purses. We looked at them and Christina (she's a Psychologist) proceeds to tell the Chinese man that she is "very disappointed in him...she had expected honesty from him and instead all she is seeing is fake" Kelly and I were trying not to laugh, but part of us thought, oh no, we will never be seen alive again! So, we left and are down a flight of stairs when a Chinese woman comes down and tells us to come back up that she has the "real" thing. We follow her up again and she removes a piece of cardboard covering a door and unlocks many locks and we enter a very HOT room lined with many purses. Still fake, but the best immitations we've seen and we each purchase a purse. We head back downstairs and are thankful that we are alive. On the way down we passed a room that someone was entereing that was full of Chinese people and mounds upon mounds of garments that they were putting into bags. A true sweatshop. Daphne and Deb were very glad to see us emerge from the building and we quickly returned to the main shopping area on Canal Street to find the other two members of our group. That whole trek was probably not very smart, but we sure did have fun!!! After shopping, we were all going to head back to the hotel. We were trying to hail 2 cabs to take us back, but we quickly found out that cabs do not like to drive down to battery park because in the time they drive down there they could have several smaller riders and make more money. So, 4 of our group got a cab to take them and Kelly, Deb and I walked all the way back. We kept thinking we would find a cab that would take us, but to no avail. We did pass the Twin Towers location on our way back so we stopped to take a look and it was so sad. I have been there before, but it just breaks my heart every time. There is a list of all of the names of each person who lost their lives at the Twin Towers, The Pentagon and on the Flight that crashed in PA. So very sad. Back at the hotel we decided to go out to dinner as a group and ended up at TGIFridays since it was within comfortable walking distance. Had a good time and good food. Went back to the hotel and laughed and talked into the morning. Ended up going to sleep around 1:00.
Saturday
Woke up around 6:30 am and began getting ready for the day. We had all decided to walk to Starbucks (about a mile) and then head out sightseeing and shopping. We spent the day wandering around shopping. We went to Century 21 and found a few things we just couldn't live without...Kelly bought 6 pairs of flip flops...that girls has an obsession with flip flops!! We took some pics in the store of some ridiculous outfits...including a $550.00 jacket (on clearance) that had Christmas garland around the sleeves and down the front and clumps of fruit sewn on in random places. All in the name of couture!! I don't think so!!! Anyway, returned back at the hotel around 5:00 pm to get ready for our big night out. We headed out to see The Color Purple!!!! We went to the 8:00 show. It was completely fabulous! Couldn't have been better! Absolutely fantastic, I would recommend everyone see it!!! Anyway, after it was over we all met up at the front of the theatre and we were escorted to the stage door where we got to meet all of the big stars in the cast!!!! We took pictures with them and got their autographs in our programs. It was so much fun and they were all so very gracious! They told us that there is an off-broadway show of The Color Purple coming to Chicago next year. I can't wait to see it again! After all of that we went to dinner with the cousin of one of our "people" . She lives in New York and is an Investment Banker on Wall Street and is the reason we were able to meet the cast after the show. One of the cast members is her client. We went to a Cuban place and I had the best food ever! I had never had Cuban food before, but I LOVE it!!! Anyway, it was very interesting to speak with Shawna about her experiences during 9/11. She had been at a meeting uptown and wasn't in her office. She lost many, many friends that day and told us about many people who are still dealing with such horrific emotions even still. It was very interesting to hear the thoughts of someone who experienced that tragic day first hand. My heart really goes out to all New Yorkers and I am really glad that they have banded together to rebuild that area. Got back to the hotel around 1:00 am and Deb, Kelly and I began talking and before we knew it the clock read 5:00 am! Can you believe it! We talked all night!!! So, we went to sleep and ended up getting up at 10:00 when the other girls called us to see where we were!
Sunday
We walked to Starbucks once again and made the trek to the West Village area and to Greenwich Village to find the Gray's Papaya hot dog stand. Had hot dogs with sauerkraut and carmelized onions on them and a papaya drink...really very good! The hot dog actually had the best taste of any hot dog I've had and living in Chicago, we've had some hot dogs! I still love Chicago style hot dogs because I like the celery salt and different vegis that we put on our hot dogs, but the Gray's Papaya hot dog was very good and I'm glad we went! So, we continued shopping...can't get enough I guess. We took the subway a couple of times and ended up back in Battery Park later on. We enjoyed sitting by the water and looking out at the Statue of Liberty. Some of the girls had taken the boat architectural tour and had stopped off for massages. (I might have been with the wrong group!!!!) No massages for us! We did have just a fun and relaxing day though. Sunday night we got ready and went to the Gotham Comedy Club...it's rated the #1 comedy club in New York. We saw 4 or 5 acts and they were all pretty funny. Two of the guys had been on Comedy Central. Made it back to the hotel around 12:00 and ordered a pizza, we hadn't eaten since the hot dog earlier. Paid $33.00 for a 12" pizza through room service! Crazy! Once again, it wasn't Chicago style pizza and not at all worth $33.00, but we did enjoy it anyway!
Monday
Awoke at 4:30 am and got ready to take the subway to Rockefeller Plaza. Deb, Christina, Kelly and I all made the trek to be outside in the plaza for the Today show on NBC. We got a great view of what was going on and Al Roker did his news right in front of us at one point. Katie Couric and Matt Lauer were doing a segment with Giada DiLaurentis from Food Network who I just LOVE. It was tons of fun and totally worth getting up early for! We took some pictures and headed back on the subway to the hotel. We were back by 10:00 am and all went to the hotel restaurant to have breakfast as a group. The other girls were awake and moving by then! Had a fabulous breakfast. After breakfast we made a quick jaunt back over to Battery Park where some finished their shopping with the wandering street vendors and then we headed back to the hotel to make our way to the airport. We had a 2:00 flight and got to the airport at 1:00 pm. Cut it kind of close, but then it turned out our flight was delayed an hour anyway, so it worked out perfectly. Our flight was normal and we all hugged and parted ways in the O'Hare airport. We promised to do another Girl's Weekend in 2008...we are thinking possibly San Fransisco. We'll see. I was sad to see our group split up, but so very glad to be home and get some sleep!!!!
*************************
We certainly had a full trip, tons of walking. I know now why New Yorkers are thin!!! I have never laughed so much in my whole life! Such a great group of women and I look forward to us all getting together again...It's not often that we all get together at the same time. New York is not even close to being as clean as Chicago is, and the people are really quite harsh and sometimes downright rude, but there is so much to do I would definitely go back!!!
Friday
Deb and Kelly had slept at my house Thursday night (we got about 2 1/2 hours sleep) so that we could leave by 4:30am to go to Charisse's house, where the limo was picking us up. We had tickets on the 12:00 flight, but were hoping to fly standby on an earlier flight. We arrived at the airport at about 5:30 and were able to get seats right away on the 7:00 am flight since it was pretty open. YAY!!! We arrived in New York at 10:00 am and made our way to our hotel. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton at Battery Park and they could not have been more accommodating! We thought we would have to stow our luggage with the front desk, but they got us checked in right away so we were able to get all settled in and unpacked. Then we all met up and went to lunch at an Italian place called Roc in Tribeca. The film festival was going on so there were lines of people everywhere, but really, NY is filled with many people anyway!!! After lunch (I had a lamb/mint ravioli with asparagus in an olive sauce) we went to Chinatown where our adventure really began.
We were all enjoying the crazy vendors and their large knockoff purse selections - Coach, Louis Vuitton, Prada and more. We found some secret back rooms to the shops and found addtional purse selections that we hadn't seen and at one point Christina told the man we didn't want his fake purses, we want the "real" stuff. So, he tells us to follow him, and foolishly we did. We went around the block and down about a mile and then stopped in front of an old, very old, brick building that didn't look like it was kept up. We followed him inside and up 5 flights of stairs (2 people from our group stayed downstairs in front of the building)...Christina, Kelly and I went upstairs with this man. We stopped at a metal door with about 5 locks on it and we entered. Inside there were walls of purses. We looked at them and Christina (she's a Psychologist) proceeds to tell the Chinese man that she is "very disappointed in him...she had expected honesty from him and instead all she is seeing is fake" Kelly and I were trying not to laugh, but part of us thought, oh no, we will never be seen alive again! So, we left and are down a flight of stairs when a Chinese woman comes down and tells us to come back up that she has the "real" thing. We follow her up again and she removes a piece of cardboard covering a door and unlocks many locks and we enter a very HOT room lined with many purses. Still fake, but the best immitations we've seen and we each purchase a purse. We head back downstairs and are thankful that we are alive. On the way down we passed a room that someone was entereing that was full of Chinese people and mounds upon mounds of garments that they were putting into bags. A true sweatshop. Daphne and Deb were very glad to see us emerge from the building and we quickly returned to the main shopping area on Canal Street to find the other two members of our group. That whole trek was probably not very smart, but we sure did have fun!!! After shopping, we were all going to head back to the hotel. We were trying to hail 2 cabs to take us back, but we quickly found out that cabs do not like to drive down to battery park because in the time they drive down there they could have several smaller riders and make more money. So, 4 of our group got a cab to take them and Kelly, Deb and I walked all the way back. We kept thinking we would find a cab that would take us, but to no avail. We did pass the Twin Towers location on our way back so we stopped to take a look and it was so sad. I have been there before, but it just breaks my heart every time. There is a list of all of the names of each person who lost their lives at the Twin Towers, The Pentagon and on the Flight that crashed in PA. So very sad. Back at the hotel we decided to go out to dinner as a group and ended up at TGIFridays since it was within comfortable walking distance. Had a good time and good food. Went back to the hotel and laughed and talked into the morning. Ended up going to sleep around 1:00.
Saturday
Woke up around 6:30 am and began getting ready for the day. We had all decided to walk to Starbucks (about a mile) and then head out sightseeing and shopping. We spent the day wandering around shopping. We went to Century 21 and found a few things we just couldn't live without...Kelly bought 6 pairs of flip flops...that girls has an obsession with flip flops!! We took some pics in the store of some ridiculous outfits...including a $550.00 jacket (on clearance) that had Christmas garland around the sleeves and down the front and clumps of fruit sewn on in random places. All in the name of couture!! I don't think so!!! Anyway, returned back at the hotel around 5:00 pm to get ready for our big night out. We headed out to see The Color Purple!!!! We went to the 8:00 show. It was completely fabulous! Couldn't have been better! Absolutely fantastic, I would recommend everyone see it!!! Anyway, after it was over we all met up at the front of the theatre and we were escorted to the stage door where we got to meet all of the big stars in the cast!!!! We took pictures with them and got their autographs in our programs. It was so much fun and they were all so very gracious! They told us that there is an off-broadway show of The Color Purple coming to Chicago next year. I can't wait to see it again! After all of that we went to dinner with the cousin of one of our "people" . She lives in New York and is an Investment Banker on Wall Street and is the reason we were able to meet the cast after the show. One of the cast members is her client. We went to a Cuban place and I had the best food ever! I had never had Cuban food before, but I LOVE it!!! Anyway, it was very interesting to speak with Shawna about her experiences during 9/11. She had been at a meeting uptown and wasn't in her office. She lost many, many friends that day and told us about many people who are still dealing with such horrific emotions even still. It was very interesting to hear the thoughts of someone who experienced that tragic day first hand. My heart really goes out to all New Yorkers and I am really glad that they have banded together to rebuild that area. Got back to the hotel around 1:00 am and Deb, Kelly and I began talking and before we knew it the clock read 5:00 am! Can you believe it! We talked all night!!! So, we went to sleep and ended up getting up at 10:00 when the other girls called us to see where we were!
Sunday
We walked to Starbucks once again and made the trek to the West Village area and to Greenwich Village to find the Gray's Papaya hot dog stand. Had hot dogs with sauerkraut and carmelized onions on them and a papaya drink...really very good! The hot dog actually had the best taste of any hot dog I've had and living in Chicago, we've had some hot dogs! I still love Chicago style hot dogs because I like the celery salt and different vegis that we put on our hot dogs, but the Gray's Papaya hot dog was very good and I'm glad we went! So, we continued shopping...can't get enough I guess. We took the subway a couple of times and ended up back in Battery Park later on. We enjoyed sitting by the water and looking out at the Statue of Liberty. Some of the girls had taken the boat architectural tour and had stopped off for massages. (I might have been with the wrong group!!!!) No massages for us! We did have just a fun and relaxing day though. Sunday night we got ready and went to the Gotham Comedy Club...it's rated the #1 comedy club in New York. We saw 4 or 5 acts and they were all pretty funny. Two of the guys had been on Comedy Central. Made it back to the hotel around 12:00 and ordered a pizza, we hadn't eaten since the hot dog earlier. Paid $33.00 for a 12" pizza through room service! Crazy! Once again, it wasn't Chicago style pizza and not at all worth $33.00, but we did enjoy it anyway!
Monday
Awoke at 4:30 am and got ready to take the subway to Rockefeller Plaza. Deb, Christina, Kelly and I all made the trek to be outside in the plaza for the Today show on NBC. We got a great view of what was going on and Al Roker did his news right in front of us at one point. Katie Couric and Matt Lauer were doing a segment with Giada DiLaurentis from Food Network who I just LOVE. It was tons of fun and totally worth getting up early for! We took some pictures and headed back on the subway to the hotel. We were back by 10:00 am and all went to the hotel restaurant to have breakfast as a group. The other girls were awake and moving by then! Had a fabulous breakfast. After breakfast we made a quick jaunt back over to Battery Park where some finished their shopping with the wandering street vendors and then we headed back to the hotel to make our way to the airport. We had a 2:00 flight and got to the airport at 1:00 pm. Cut it kind of close, but then it turned out our flight was delayed an hour anyway, so it worked out perfectly. Our flight was normal and we all hugged and parted ways in the O'Hare airport. We promised to do another Girl's Weekend in 2008...we are thinking possibly San Fransisco. We'll see. I was sad to see our group split up, but so very glad to be home and get some sleep!!!!
*************************
We certainly had a full trip, tons of walking. I know now why New Yorkers are thin!!! I have never laughed so much in my whole life! Such a great group of women and I look forward to us all getting together again...It's not often that we all get together at the same time. New York is not even close to being as clean as Chicago is, and the people are really quite harsh and sometimes downright rude, but there is so much to do I would definitely go back!!!
