NYC Trip Day 5

Tuesday was my last full day in NYC. Sniffle. I really wanted to go to a Broadway show, so we woke up and made our way to Times Square to wait in line for discounted tickets. I had to snap this giant champagne bottle for Jenn since it's her favesies.

For some reason, all the giant signs on top of signs on top of signs on top of people stacked on people in Times Square reminded me of scenes from Wall-E when the earth became unlivable. Interesting, no?

After we snagged our tickets (I had it narrowed down to If/Then, Of Mice and Men or Matilda. And Matilda won! Aka, didn't cost an arm+leg), we made our way to the New York Public Library. EEEEE!!!!!

I could've spent days in here. Except I was super overwhelmed by being around giant crowds by this point.



Luckily for me, there was a children's literature exhibit to check out!

From NYPL we went out for dinner before our big show:



The show was absolutely amazing. I can't believe Matilda was played by a nine year. What were you doing with your life at nine? Starring in a Broadway show? Probably not... dang. The set was amazing, giant scrabble like letters framing the stage. It was fun to pick out different words, whether they were intentional or not. There was a library set that was amazing and had Shhhh and Silence hidden in the letters. I laughed, I teared up. It was easily the best money I spent on the entire trip.

From the show, it was back to Susan's to pack and get ready for an early departure. Unluckily for me, I woke up at about 2am with the stomach flu and spent the entire trip home curled in the fetal position trying to not die. :(

I do have to thank Susan profusely/immensely/ridiculously for being my tour guide and hostess for the week. I wish SoDak was even a tenth as cool as NYC so that I could repay the favor to her, but I'm sure we'll meet up somewhere else cool someday (hopefully soon!)

NYC Recap Day 2

You know how half of Day 2 ended up in NYC (or if you don't feel free to re-read my race report), but after the race we hung out a bit and made our way back to the city to shower/de-stink. Saturday was the day that EVERYTHING I WANTED TO DO fell on. I realized on the way out there that it probably wasn't likely for me to see the author event, newbery festival, while also traveling back to Susan's to shower, eat, recover slightly. The author I really REALLY wanted to meet, Rainbow Rowell, is from Nebraska, so I'm sure I'll be able to see her again soon! Right, right?

Susan wanted to take me to a super awesome taco place but by 1:30 or 2 I was ready for IMMEDIATE FOOD IN MY FACE, so we hit up Blockheads for some mexican and margaritas. The food was just okay, but I remember it seeming like it was the most delicious food I'd eaten in years. 

After lunch, there were a group of NYC runners that were meeting up for drinks after their whiskey run, so we headed over there. Where I ordered the largest beer in the world, apparently. Cheers?


I got to meet Baker, who I've been following on twitter for....possibly ever?,  and Abbe, his super awesome fiance and stellar guacamole maker (p.s. next time I come, I'll be making a date with a bowl of your guac, k?), and Alyssa who I follow on twitter, but because she's wearing a giant fur hood, I didn't even recognize her. Derp.

Anyway, everyone was super duper nice and I learned what my first tweet ever was:



Pretty fitting, let's be honest.


Oh so this is what you look like without a fur hood on! Neat! :)



I then managed to invite us to crash Baker, Abbe, and friends' sushi dinner (sorry blame the giant beer please!) and had some pretty stellar sushi. We had big plans to go out with some of Susan's friends until we made the mistake of going back to her place to get ready and suddenly we were both in our pajamas and I couldn't have been convinced to leave the couch for a trillion dollars. Oops.

More college basketball it is!

NYC Recap Day 1

I got in to NYC Thursday night, slightly later than I had expected after a delay out of Chicago (here's my surprised face) and having to wait forever for the bus to make my way toward Susan. Once I made it to Susan's 'hood I finally accepted defeat and asked her to start walking toward me. I was starving (I had major turbulence on both flights so my stomach was upset, and I hadn't eaten since a banana and a breakfast bar, ugh) and ready to be done traveling for the day.

She took me to Shake Shack for immediate burgers and beer and all was right with the world. 10pm dinner? Why not. We caught some basketball and called it a night.

Friday was my first full day in the city and we started it at Alice's Tea Cup which is just absolutely adorable and if I have a daughter, her bedroom will likely look like this. We then were scoffed at by our table neighbors for ordering coffee instead of tea. Whatever.

After lunch we made our way to packet pickup, and some touristy stops along the way.

I was really tempted to go ice skating at the Rockefeller Center as I've always wanted to, it was gorgeous weather, and it's on my list of goals for March, but after calculating the fee and rental I decided that just watching was good enough. :)

Packet pickup was quick and I shockingly didn't find anything I needed for a 20% off discount. Susan offered to carry my bag and when we got back we realized that we didn't know who's bib was who's. I told her I wouldn't be mad if she set me a monster PR (and I would "gift" her a PW in exchange). Luckily we remembered that mine said W.S. for shirt size, and hers just said S. Crisis averted (I guess).

Empire State Building.

Then we set out for some more of our walking tour of the city (this is ill advised the day before a race, FYI).

Grand central station

And then we made our way over to Brooklyn.

Probably my favorite building: the Beekman Tower. 

They were filming something on the steps but we couldn't recognize anyone, so we're not sure what. Bummer.

And the Brooklyn Bridge!

Me and Susan! 

This is as close to the Statue of Liberty as I got. At least I chose to match her outfit.

And then it was time to find some food, so we settled on some amazing pizza in Brooklyn. We ate all of this minus to slices. Mmmmm. Pizza.

We made our way back to Susan's to watch more basketball and for me to elevate my feet against the couch, per usual. Our mileage tally for the day: 9. Uff da. Just a little more than I normally do. Haha.