EXILED FROM CHINATOWN: the girls take on the big apple! THE END!!! p.25

[xoktenox]

OMG I've never been to Central Park, I'm missing out! That place is gorgeous I've never seen so many pictures of it before. I did recognize a lot of places from Enchanted. And I think that picture of you where you're doing the Zoolander impression looks like its from Home Alone: Lost in New York. The part where Kevin meets the bird lady.

I need to get my butt to Central Park! Looks like you guys had such an amazing time.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

What a great Central Park update! It looks like such fun!

Strawberry Shortcakes were totally my icecream of choice in the cafeteria as a kid. Good times!

Dawn- love your sun dress. So cute!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Great photos of Central Park! Looks like you had a great time!

about your Zoolander pose! Love that movie!!!

Thanks for the James Marsden clips -- he is just yummy and has the best smile EVER!

 

[redlight]

Love the central park pictures. That's a fabulous sun dress. Where did you get it? I think that's the smallest dog I've ever seen!

 

[KatGarcia]

I would like to start by saying....I have a HUGE crush on James Marsden!!!

So would you belive I have never seen the Alice Statue or Strawberry fields! Crazy I know. But the World of Disney Store is about 4 block's from Central park so I plan to check those of my list ASAP.

My favorite part of Central Park is right behind the bandshell. KC & I call it "the spot", it's cozy with benches and we used to hang out there a lot when I lived uptown.

Great pics all around!

 

[joy13]

Central Park is so pretty - I hope to get there someday! I was only in New York for 2 full days last summer, so I just saw it from the distance.

 

[jwwi]

Dawn,
Great pictures of Central Park. It looks crowded, I guess it should be since it looks like such a beautiful day. I love the fountain, and all the references to Enchanted are so cute. The Alice statue is really cool too. Did you go to the Top of the Rock?

 

[MagicShell]

Thanks for the tour of Central Park, I bet it is amazing to be there. I love Enchanted, I am glad you pointed out the different parts used in that movie. The Alice in Wonderland statue was great as well. My daughter would love to see that.

 

[KristinAnne]

Great pictures!! *Love* your dress!!

 

[MA pigletfan]

another awesome update lady!!! i have never spent too much time in central park..i need to change that..your pictures are great!!!
and yes..a little over 3 months to go till wedding..YIKES!!!

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

I'm all caught up, I loved seeing all the interesting spots around town.

Your faces are too funny!

Central Park is beautiful, and well kept. I'm sure it's more lovely to se in person.

Anna thinks of the coolest pics to take, she deffinitely has a real eye for it.

 

[LISAMWDW]

Good stuff! Looks like fun! Can't wait for more!

 

[punkin413]

Somehow I missed your update until today. I love your museum pics - how fab to be able to see all those "real" things up close! I would love to go to the "Night at the Museum" place!

yeah, i wanted to go there too but we didn't have time. if i ever get ray to NYC i'm sure we'll go there. he loves that kinda thing!

Great update! I love all your pictures of Central Park! It is such a beautiful place. It's neat to see all the different areas.

thanks! it was beautiful....i wanna go back!

Aw I loooooved your pictures!!! Central Park's my favorite part of the city, along with Rockefeller Center. Gorgeous. And you saw THOTH!!!!! He's somewhat of a Central Park celebrity... he has his own website and everything, it's hilarious! I'm glad you had a good time walking around the park. You can just get lost in there and escape from the city for hours and hours Can't wait for more!

thanks! i think central park is my favorite part of the city, too. it's not the most impressive or the most memorable, but it was my favorite. i wish i could go there any time i wanted to! so funny about that thoth guy! i had no idea he was famous. i was actually more impressed with her than i was with him. apparently she's called the pink angel - she's on his website now.

Great updates!! I love that fountain in Central Park - I think it was in One Fien Day - one of my fave Clooney films!!!

thanks! i bet that fountain has been in lots of movies. it's SO pretty! it's so funny....now that i've been to NYC every time i see a movie that takes place there i'm like, "I KNOW WHERE THAT IS!!!!!"

loved, loved the Central Park pictures!!!!

thanks!

OMG I've never been to Central Park, I'm missing out! That place is gorgeous I've never seen so many pictures of it before. I did recognize a lot of places from Enchanted. And I think that picture of you where you're doing the Zoolander impression looks like its from Home Alone: Lost in New York. The part where Kevin meets the bird lady.

I need to get my butt to Central Park! Looks like you guys had such an amazing time.

oh, you would love it! you need to get over there sometime soon!

What a great Central Park update! It looks like such fun!

Strawberry Shortcakes were totally my icecream of choice in the cafeteria as a kid. Good times!

Dawn- love your sun dress. So cute!

thanks! i've ALWAYS loved strawberry shortcakes. they're my favorite from the ice cream man for sure! luke knows i like them and anna tells me that whenever he sees anyone eating one he always says, "that's dawn's favorite." thanks about the sundress. got it at kohl's!

Great photos of Central Park! Looks like you had a great time!

about your Zoolander pose! Love that movie!!!

Thanks for the James Marsden clips -- he is just yummy and has the best smile EVER!

it was so nice there! it was really my favorite area of the trip that we visited. i love zoolander, too! my brother does magnum and blue steel PERFECTLY! i agree about james marsden's smile. SUCH a cutie.

Love the central park pictures. That's a fabulous sun dress. Where did you get it? I think that's the smallest dog I've ever seen!

thanks! i got the dress at kohl's sometime in may i think. i can't remember how much it was but not a lot.

I would like to start by saying....I have a HUGE crush on James Marsden!!!

So would you belive I have never seen the Alice Statue or Strawberry fields! Crazy I know. But the World of Disney Store is about 4 block's from Central park so I plan to check those of my list ASAP.

My favorite part of Central Park is right behind the bandshell. KC & I call it "the spot", it's cozy with benches and we used to hang out there a lot when I lived uptown.

Great pics all around!

i'm with you on james marsden!!!!!! he's so cute. so jealous that you can walk to central park from work! i wish i could do that. we didn't go to "the spot"....will have to check that out next time.

Central Park is so pretty - I hope to get there someday! I was only in New York for 2 full days last summer, so I just saw it from the distance.

it was really pretty! put it on your "to do" list for next time!

Dawn,
Great pictures of Central Park. It looks crowded, I guess it should be since it looks like such a beautiful day. I love the fountain, and all the references to Enchanted are so cute. The Alice statue is really cool too. Did you go to the Top of the Rock?

thanks! it was crowded but i don't remember thinking about that one time. and usually i'm really irritable with crowds. but they were so spread out that i didn't notice. you will see about top of the rock soon.

Thanks for the tour of Central Park, I bet it is amazing to be there. I love Enchanted, I am glad you pointed out the different parts used in that movie. The Alice in Wonderland statue was great as well. My daughter would love to see that.

you're welcome! i loved the alice statue - heather (hlrababy) just sent me a picture of rob pattinson (edward in twilight) filming a scene to another movie there!

Great pictures!! *Love* your dress!!

thanks! i got it at kohl's for around $20 i think.

another awesome update lady!!! i have never spent too much time in central park..i need to change that..your pictures are great!!!
and yes..a little over 3 months to go till wedding..YIKES!!!

thanks! you'll have to take a trip to central park next time you're in NYC. you'd love it!

I'm all caught up, I loved seeing all the interesting spots around town.

Your faces are too funny!

Central Park is beautiful, and well kept. I'm sure it's more lovely to se in person.

Anna thinks of the coolest pics to take, she deffinitely has a real eye for it.

central park was just gorgeous! very well kept and surprisingly clean. and yes, anna is really good at pictures. i feel bad that brooke and i are in more pictures than here but she just loves taking them!

Good stuff! Looks like fun! Can't wait for more!

thanks! it was a blast!

 

[punkin413]

i wanted to kind of clarify something before i move on. all of these pictures were taken with my camera, but anna had my camera a good bit of the time. that's why i'm in a lot of the pictures. i just didn't want you guys thinking i was handing someone the camera to get pictures of myself! anna's camera broke like 2 days before our trip and she loves taking pictures so i just sort of let her have the camera most of the time. it was fine by me because i knew she was taking pictures of stuff i wanted anyway!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

so after our awesome visit to central park, we rode the subway back to the hotel for a quick break and to freshen up for our evening. anna snapped this of my re-doing my makeup....i had no idea she took it!

this one i might've known she was taking.

we were headed for rockefeller center that night to go to top of the rock. top of the rock is the observation deck at the top. we opted to do this instead of the empire state building because you can SEE the empire state building AND central park from the top. i know it's sort of expected to go to the empire state building but i don't like that you can't see the building itself because you're standing on it. plus central park is blocked by the rockefeller center so i liked this much better.

i had bought our tickets before we even arrived in NYC through the website. you can pick the time you want to go up and that's what we did. we were scheduled to be there at 6:50, i believe. we wanted to be able to see the city in the daylight and after sunset.

on the way to rockefeller center, only a few blocks uptown....

for some ODD reason we had trouble finding where we were supposed to go. the map i had seemed to say that it was on one street but it was the next street over. kinda funny because the day before we had run into it without even trying! we actually went in the wrong side of the building but the security guard there told us exactly where to go. here we are in the gorgeous lobby....

brooke said she felt like this was a prom picture. she was asking where the corsages were!

as soon as i showed them my ticket we were in with no wait. the only wait we had was waiting to get our picture taken before we went up, which we totally forgot to look at before we left!

the elevator ride up is soooooo cool! it's 67 floors and the top of the elevator is made of glass, so you can see how high you're going. they also have a display sort of playing on the glass on the ceiling of stuff from NBC over the years. it was REALLY cool! here's a video i found on youtube.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L--16_CzNaQ

my sister has the same feeling about heights that i do about birds - she HATES them! she wouldn't look up during the elevator ride. i kept telling her it was really cool and she just shook her head no.

there are actually 2 floors when you get up to the top, so some of the pictures will be taken from the first and some from the second. both views are absolutely gorgeous!

the north side with central park......

brooke wanted to use the telescope things and we were trying to figure it out here. i have a degree in business/paralegal studies and brooke has a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology but we struggled to figure out the telescope thing!!!

as you walk through the middle to get to the south side you walk through a room that tracks your movement with lights. the kids were having a BLAST in here!

the south side with the empire state building...see liberty in the distance? she's tiny from up there!

there is something major missing from the above picture: the twin towers. they would've been standing at the south end of manhattan. rockefeller center is almost 70 stories tall. the empire state building is about 100 stories tall, which is really weird to me because it looks about the same height as rock. center! the twin towers were about 110 stories so they were bigger than both.

we hung out and just looked at ALL there is to look at. it was amazing!

this guy has a really good video of top of the rock. it starts with him getting on the elevator and goes through him looking all around the observation deck. he also explains where everthing is: brooklyn, queens and the east river on the east side and new jersey and the hudson river on the west side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_KJDb_ny5k

something kind of funny that we discovered on top of the building was that our cell phones didn't work up there. it's very odd to me.....seems like our signals would be excellent from that height! this is anna frowning because she can't call chris from top of the rock....

brooke got a map to tell her which buildings were which.....

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32524277&postcount=255

 

[punkin413]

i turned around at one point and anna was taking a picture for somebody else. she's so funny when she does this. she doesn't take just one picture but like 4 and after she takes the first one she goes, "hold on....let me take a few more!"

a closer look at the empire state building....

this is the top of times square.....

i had to get another one of central park. look how big it is!

as the sun started to set i took lots of pictures. all of these are looking over the hudson river towards new jersey.

finally the sun went down and the lights at night were soooooo pretty! my pictures are okay but don't do it justice at all.

they had the empire state building lit up in red, white and blue for memorial day......

with the flash it's kind of hard to see it, but the empire state building is over brooke's shoulder.....

after we enjoyed the sunset and the night lights, we headed back down to the lobby. very cool light fixture!

we made our way back to times square because we had a 9:15 reservation at blue fin, which is right on times square. here's brooke outside the restaurant....

this restaurant is SO pretty inside, with lots of textures on the walls and lights and mirrors. here we are sitting at our table.....

brooke got some saki. i like saki but i like it cold, not hot. i don't know how she can drink it but she loves it!

i got a passionfruit cosmopolitan. anna wanted a picture but there was this strange girl in the background......

.......so we did it again.

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32524297&postcount=256

 

[punkin413]

the beginning of this update is on the previous page.

i got a ceasar salad for an appetizer and anna got lobster bisque.

both were good. our server sort of made the bisque at the table by dumping the meat into the soup.

at some point these guys came down the stairs and started playing music. it was great!

brooke got three different kinds of sushi. i don't remember what she got but i know one was spicy crab because i tried it.

i'm not a big sushi person. i've heard that people either base their taste on texture or scent. i'm a texture girl and i've never liked the texture of sushi. brooke let me try some of hers and i think what bothers me is that there's so much stuff in my mouth i can't taste anything! maybe i need mini sushi rolls.

i got sauteed east coast halibut with lemon herb gnocchi, petite portabello mushrooms and jumbo lump crab.....

OMG.....this was SO good!!!! it was probably the best piece of fish i've ever eaten.

anna got grilled branzini with sun dried tomatoes, white beans, olives, capers, escarole and preserved lemon......

she liked it but i think the skin on the fish kinda freaked her out.

we got a pineapple dessert to share which i don't see on their menu right now but it was SO good! it came with pineapple ice cream which was really good.

the three boxes to the left are after-dinner chocolates.

we left out of the W hotel lobby, which is connected to the restaurant. the roof is made of water which was really cool.

brooke was doing a little dancing on the way out.....musta been the saki.

we had seen a karaoke bar nearby so we went to check that out after dinner but stopped in times square for a few pictures.

there was a girl nearby that was SERIOUSLY modeling for her friend who was taking pictures of her. it was so hilarious. she looked so silly in a sea of people in times square taking modeling pictures.

brooke thought she'd try her hand at modeling in times square but she got the giggles.

finally, a good shot. this is what that girl looked like that we had seen earlier.

seriously?

now this is the real brooke....

right after this picture was taken this homeless-looking guy came up behind brooke and put his arm around her and slurred, "you gotta take a picture with me." it scared her to death - she almost jumped out of her skin. luckily there was a policeman right behind the guy and he grabbed him and said, "let's move along." so crisis avoided.

we were cracking up after though!

we walked over to the karaoke bar and they were done with karaoke for the night, so we headed back through times square to the hotel.

a couple more pics!

back to the hotel and to beddy-bye for us!

tomorrow would hold a very memorable day for us in NYC....both good and bad!

 

[hlrababy]

I am so terrified of heights that I don't know if I could do that!!!! It looks beautiful up there, but I would really, really have to calm my nerves first!!! lol!!!!

 

[joy13]

What great pictures from the top of the Rock!!!!! When I was in NYC my friend said that cell phones don't work because you are higher than the cell phone towers. I wouldn't have known that either! That restaurant looks really nice and LOL with Brooke and her modeling!

 

[AussieAngel]

What a fun night!!

I looooove Top of the Rock! Your sunset photos are beautiful! Visiting Top of the Rock was one of my favourite parts of our trip - we went up there first thing in the morning and it snowed while we were up there! So magical! Lots of happy memories up there.

And dinner looked delicious! Especially your caesar salad - look at all of that parmesan cheese, yum!

Thanks for another great update!

 

[shannon47142]

what a fun night
it seems like you did a great job with planning the trip!