My New York Trip

[ashea]

Got back from New York last night, late - wanted to write out the highlights of the trip while it's all still fresh in my mind!

• Arrived in New York on Friday around 6:00 p.m. We took a cab into Brooklyn and found my sister's beautiful and fun apartment. Hugs and chatting all around! Dropped our stuff off and headed to dinner where we had all manner of nommy eats. Caught up with family, enjoyed talking and watching the bride and groom to be!
  
• Caught a car to the Eastgate Tower Hotel in east Manhattan. Beautiful rooms, great area! Watched a movie and went to sleep.
  
• Saturday - the day of the wedding! Woke up, did nails, did toes, hung out at hotel until it was time to catch a cab over to the Brooklyn Art Museum. Ran upstairs to where the ceremony would be and hung out behind the screen with everyone who would walk down the aisle.
  
• My sister looked *beautiful* She wore a gorgeous, strapless gown. The skirt flared out and came down above her ankles. It was striped with adorable, slightly-ruffled detail from top to bottom and had concealed pockets. She wore BEAUTIFUL red shoes punctuated with crystals, matching the color of her lips. Her veil was very vintage and ADORABLE. It was a headband with a small white bow, underneath which sat a piece of pretty netted, see-through lace that fell prettily across half of her face. She looked stunning and the whole ensemble just screamed 'Chrissy'! I couldn't stop smiling every time I looked at her, I was so happy to see her and be a part of her special day.
  
• The ceremony was brilliance in action. The guests were given 3D glasses and boxes of movie popcorn on every seat. A pre-wedding trailer played showing clips of famous wedding scenes from the film world - everything from The Princess Bride (MAWWAGE!!!) to the Muppets where Kermit and Miss Piggy get hitched. When the procession started, everyone walked in to the Star Wars theme song. I took my place to the left of the stage and the Bride and Groom came in, beaming. I held Chrissy's bouquet, which - to me - was a metaphor for the whole shindig: lovely white flowers nestled quaintly in a red and white striped popcorn box - elegant and so much fun! The Bride and Groom exchanged vows, rings and their fist kiss as husband and wife. It was wonderful!
  
• After the ceremony, everyone enjoyed cocktails and hor d'ourves while the reception was set up upstairs. Pictures were taken and mingling happened!
  
• Everyone headed back upstairs for an excellent dinner. The bride and groom kicked off the reception with their first dance. After that, the night was filled with nothing but smiling, singing, dancing and carousal. The party ended around midnight. We all said our farewells to the bride and groom and headed back to the hotel. It was the best, most fun wedding I've ever attended.
  
• Sunday - Up and at 'em! Stephen and I got dressed for the theater. I have wanted to see 'Wicked' ever since my friend Sami introduced it to me - long before it became popular. The trouble was, it was sold out, and Sunday was the only time it would play while we were in New York. We were going to try to get tickets anyway via cancellation line. We grabbed a cab down to the Gershwin Theater and hung out in line for about an hour until the booth opened up. It didn't look like we were going to get tickets before the production started - but once we got up to the window, lo and behold, there were several seats available. We had the choice of sitting on the very back row - OR - Orchestra Seats, about 7 rows back from the stage. Option B, please! Filed in, found our seats, marveled at our seats, I was beside myself with joy. The first chord of the Overture struck and I was sure I was going to cry from joy. But after that, with the exception of the intermission, I was fixed on the show, my hand never leaving Stephen's. It was - indescribable. It was perfect. We even got to see the original Nessarose! Stephen quietly told me, 'Happy Early Birthday' after the show - best birthday present I could have ever received <3 I bought myself a 'Defy Gravity' shirt, a witch hat necklace and some nice Elphaba perfume from the store afterward. As we were walking out, we saw the cast of the show signing autographs!
  
• Since we hadn't eaten all day, we decided to find food - but not before walking to Times Square! We snapped some photos and walked over to a sushi joint next to our hotel. Aside from the show, I think that was my favorite part of the day - just walking all over New York with Stephen. So much to see and do!
  
• Monday - Grabbed breakfast at a diner near the hotel with Gregg, my mom and Scotty. Can I just say that a New York bagel is NOT like any other bagel on the planet? SO much better...we then caught a cab over to the Museum of Natural History and spend the day looking at fossils, dinosaur bones, marine exhibits, and some the BIGGEST chunks of crystal I've ever seen! We split up after that and took my little brother out to sushi - he did pretty well with the cooked rolls! We got to try authentic New York cheesecake, which mom and Gregg brought back for us as a present o.o I think that's probably the best thing I've ever eaten on the planet! We said goodnight to the family and headed to sleep.
  
• Tuesday - Woke up and said goodbye to the family - they were headed off to Washington DC by train that day. Meanwhile, we packed up our things and checked out of the hotel. They held our luggage while we popped back into the city to explore some more. We saw Rockefeller Center and the Diamond District. Ran across 'Sex and the City' being filmed, so we watched that for a while. Went into FAO Schwartz and hung out at the Nintendo store. Grabbed some authentic New York pizza for lunch (NOM NOM...!). Went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and caught a cab to JFK airport. It started to get really pathetic towards the end of our trip because we were so sleep deprived the whole time, we fell asleep anywhere that we sat still for more than 5 minutes. So we were zonked out the entire trip over to JFK. Airport stuff happened, treated to a nice dinner by Patty, boarded plane, plane got us from NYC to Austin, got home, passed out.
  

And that was my trip in a nutshell! Pics to come, I just wanted to write this all out because I didn't keep my journal while I was there - too busy!! We will DEFINITELY be going back again, what an experience!!