New York, New York

So, how lucky were we to spend 3 days in New York.... KIDLESS?!?!  Lucky, oh so lucky.  

We had arranged for our girls to stay with their grandparents for a long weekend, but didn't really have any plans of what we were going to do.  Originally, up until the morning we dropped them off, we thought we would just stay local and go into Philly for meals and entertainment.  But, at about 8:30 am on the first day of our freedom, Dr. Fabulous announced:  "I got us a hotel in New York."  

And just like that, we were whizzing down the New Jersey Turnpike to dump the girls off and hop a train into the heart of Manhattan.  

 That's what I'm talkin' about.

Anyway, I haven't been in New York in about 10 years.  Dr. Fabulous grew up in North Jersey and went into New York quite often as a young adult for the night life.  He also lived in Brooklyn Heights for about 18 months.  He moved out a few weeks before 9-11.  I, on the other hand, had only been in the city a handful of times and would never be able to navigate on my own as a complete and utter suburbanite through and through.

We stayed at the Warwick (which is all kinds of Old Hollywood gorgeous!) right in Midtown.  We were steps from Central Park and Fifth Ave, and a short walk to Broadway and Radio City Music Hall.

We walked so much over those three days.  I'm talking about 12 miles total on FOOT.  My legs felt like they were going to fall off by Monday.  We were really able to cram a lot into those few days:  Dinner at Maxwells followed by "Rent" the first night.  The second day we went for a 3-mile run in Central Park, had Italian coffee then a New York style bagel and proceeded to St. Patrick's church to light a candle for the girls.

We paraded down Fifth Ave which really highlights the dichotomy of New York - you have the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich.  There are homeless humans on the streets with their feet literally decomposing on their body from advanced diabetes, people starving and picking through trashcans and you can step literally right over them en route to buy a Prada bag ( I did neither by the way-  the stepping over people or the Prada).  I could write a whole existential post on this issue and it was a difficult sort of thing to ignore, but I'm not going to go there right now.

What I do love about New York is the massive amount of diversity and culture and energy, something sorely lacking here in suburbia.  I mean, no where else would you see a protest for "Topless Women's Rights" in the middle of Bryant Park complete with about 30 topless females (surrounded by hundreds of men taking photos of them).  I mean, really.  Even if I HAD topless rights, I don't think I'd be acting upon them.  No one wants to see that hot mess.

After spending Sunday walking through SoHo and Tribeca, stopping for a lunch of cuban food and mojitos, we continued on foot to the W hotel and had some drinks at the bar overlooking the World Trade Center site and the building of the Freedom Tower.   

The Memorial was incredible.  Beautifully done. I'm still at a loss of words to say more.  Simply, beautifully done.  

After a long day we ate at the highly overrated Buddakhan.  Honestly, as swanky as its ambiance is, we had much better food from the Hallal food truck the next afternoon (which also had a line just as long as a Steven Starr restaurant).  

Our last day there we wandered the Museum of Modern Art, conveniently situated right across from our hotel.  It's just spectacular.  

The pieces below are not necessarily our favorite pieces, but Good Lord, to see a real live Picasso, Cezanne, Van Gogh or Monet is pretty freakin' awesome.   Check it out:

There was more... much more.  Anyway, it was wonderful to get away for the first time in over a year with Dr. Fab and I'm dreaming of going back - and taking the girls!