Wednesday, August 1, 2012

New York City Weekend – A Cache, a Show, and a Proposal


Forgive me for being remiss about posting this past week and weekend! It has been one of the busiest, most exciting weekends of my life, and I promise to give you all the best details. Our visit to New York City was supposed to be my birthday present from Dan (tickets to see Newsies on Broadway!), but by the end of the trip, it had turned into something else as well…

Around the City:
Dan and I arrived at our hotel, the Yotel, just before 11am on Saturday. Our room was a very cute, tiny cabin, with a bed that turned into a couch and glass bathroom walls. (You can read a full review soon) It took only minutes to organize our things and head back out to the elevators.


Our first destination of the day was Time Square. Within ten seconds of us reaching the main area, we ran into Spike Lee, who was walking to the theater where he is directing a play. I would not have known who he was, but Dan pointed him right out. :)

As we wandered around, we stopped at a cool music store, the M&M store, a couple New York gift shops, and the Element store. I have always been a huge fan of Element clothing, so I was really excited to find a whole store dedicated to them! Lunch was a tiny little pizzeria with mouth-wateringly good pizza. I’m drooling just thinking about it again.


After lunch, we decided to find a nearby geocache. It was a cool hide near a small memorial to fallen firefighters. It took us a bit to find the cache, but we both felt quite proud of ourselves when we figured it out. (Info on geocaching is in my previous post) Happy with our shopping purchases and geocache, we headed back to the hotel to clean up for the evenings events.

Dinner and Drinks with Family:
One thing that happens when you have a large family is that you usually have family members scattered throughout many major cities. For me, NYC was not an exception. On this visit, I got to meet up with my cousin Anne and her boyfriend Lee.

Since they live in the city, they had some great suggestions on restaurants, and we met at a little Thai restaurant called Wondee Siam. The food was fantastic. We listened to the Four Square suggestions and ordered food from the main menu and the “Secret” menu, sharing them among us. (If anyone is interested in finding this restaurant, there are many locations. We were specifically at Wondee Siam I.)

Dinner took less time than we planned, so after eating, we went a few blocks over to the Pony Bar. They had a great selection of beers from local(ish) breweries, and Lee mentioned that it is a favorite bar of the Daily Show cast. Unfortunately, it was too early for cast members to be there, but we still had a great time and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere.

Newsies:
Dan and I’s next stop for the evening was an 8pm showing of Newsies. I’m not going to lie, I was giddy with excitement when we got to the theater. I have loved the movie version of Newsies since it came out in the early 90s. My best friend and I had childhood crushes on the two main actors. She loved Jack Kelly (played by Christian Bale), and I loved Spot Collins (who had an awesome slingshot!).

Ready to watch Newsies!

You can read my full review of the show, but for now, I will simply say that the show was FANTASTIC! They picked a great cast, and the theater itself was beautiful. Dan enjoyed it as much as I did – except he did not know all the words to the song, so he could not sing along with me. :)

The Empire State Building:
Our final destination for the day was the Empire State Building. Dan had asked to see this spot in particular and wanted to go up at night to see the city lights. I thought his interest (he bought tickets in advance) was a little unusual and wondered if he might have something important planned. However, I had never visited the Empire State Building before and decided to wait and see what happened. Besides, I love the movie Sleepless in Seattle; so really, how could I not want to visit?

After checking into the building on Four Square, my first thought as we walked through the building was, “Wow, these lines could be HUGE! I’m glad Dan thought to come late at night when there are less people.” LOL

When we reached the terrace level, the view was really spectacular! The night was mostly clear, but even the clouds were neat to watch as they whipped past. Since there was a virtual geocache for the Empire State Building, we wandered over to the location where the secret “tool” was supposed to be. The information needed to claim the cache was easy to find, and I got some great shots looking out at the city.


Dan and I wandered around for a while longer, locating our hotel and Time Square in the distance. I was starting to wonder why Dan was being so unusually quiet when he said he had a fun question for me. I responded with a casual “OK”, and as I leaned over to look at something below, I heard him ask, “Will you marry me?”! When I turned around, he was kneeling one knee with a ring in his hand!!

I am sure I stood there with my mouth hanging open for a few seconds before I ever so gracefully responded, “Oh my god, are you really proposing to me?!” SMH (smack my head) I was so surprised/excited that he was proposing that I completely forgot to answer him. Haha! When I remembered the normal protocol of proposals, I quickly blurted out an excited squeal of a “Yes”!


The rest of the night was a wonderful blur of calling parents, texting friends, posting pictures to Facebook, and so forth. We were so blissfully happy that a bike cabby was able to con us into taking a $70 ride back to our hotel. LOL

I never knew you could do so many exciting things in one day! It was definitely an unforgettable weekend, and I have lots of fun things to remind me of it all, maybe you will spot a few of our keepsakes on our Christmas tree or at our wedding. Of course, the best one is now on my hand, and I have not been able to stop staring at it!

My New Shiny

1 comment:

  1. Awww!! Congratulations to you both! What a fabulous and fun day!!

    ReplyDelete