New York : Day 1

NEW YORK concrete jungle were dreams are made of there's nothing you can't do, now your in New York these streets will make you feel brand new big lights will inspire you, lets hear it for New York, New York, NEW YORK!!!! Yes I did listen to this song every single morning while I was in New York, it is just such a great place, I hope to live there one day for a year or so. This time it was just a quick little visit with the parents! The night that we arrived we had dinner at Sardi's with the entire tour, it was a very fun place and man the food was delicious! I had spinach cannolis that were drenched in the most divine white wine sauce for an appetizer, east cost crab cakes for my main course and New York cheesecake for dessert it was all fabulous!

Sardi's is famous for all the caricatures of famous people that have eaten there lining all the walls of the restaurant. After dinner one of the head waiters showed us one of his favorites and had us guess who it was. It is of the only celebrity that didn't sign his real name, he signed the name of one of his characters he played in one of his movies can you guess who it is, its pictured above .... I am proud to say that I guessed it right, it is Robert De Niro!









This is our hotel, The Marriott Marquis, located right smack in the middle of time square. The lobby is on the 8th floor and there is a Broadway theater located on one of the lower floors. The elevator system is quite intriguing, you type the floor you are going to on the number pad and it tells you which elevator, A-L, will be going to the floor next. The elevators themselves reminded me of little space pods you might see on a sci fi movie.















The next morning after a wonderful breakfast at the hotel we were ready to tour upper Manhattan. We had the most excellent tour guide ever, his name was Jim and he knew everything there ever was to know about everything in New York. He knew which buildings all the celebrities lived and knew all the stories and scandals about everything and everyone, so he gave us a very interesting tour. Our first stop was at the Lincoln Center and the LDS temple happens to be right across the street. I had heard lots about the New York Temple and had always wanted to see it, so it was a great way to start the day!


This is the Dakota where, On Dec. 8, 1980 Mark David Chapman, a crazed fan, ended the life of one of the World's great musician / songwriters John 'Ono' Lennon. As John and Yoko returned home, the gunman approached them and shot Lennon to death. Then he casually laid down his gun, sat on the step and read a book. John had just autographed his record 'Double Fantasy' for Chapman just hours before the assassin returned to kill him. Ono still has an apartment in the building. The Strawberry Fields memorial was laid out in memory of Lennon in Central Park directly across Central Park West. Every year, Ono marks the anniversary of Lennon's death with a now-public pilgrimage to the memorial.



John Lennon and Yoko Ono September 1980.





The memorial to Lennon in Central Park.



This charming little street is in Harlem, it is one of the last of the original wood apartments. it reminded me of the street that Rocky lives on in the first movie.





This little gem of a manor was at the top of a hill just on the other side of that charming little wooden street, this is the Morris Jumel Mansion. The house was built eleven years before the Revolution, in 1765, by British Colonel Roger Morris and his American wife, Mary Philipse. The breezy hilltop location proved an ideal location for the family's summer home. During the war, the hilltop location of the Mansion was valued for more than its cool summer breezes. With views of the Harlem River, the Bronx, and Long Island Sound to the east, New York City and the harbor to the south, and the Hudson River and Jersey Palisades to the west, Mount Morris proved to be a strategic military headquarters. Washington made his headquarters here at the mansion during the fall of 1776. President Washington returned to the Mansion on July 10, 1790, and dined with members of his cabinet. Guests at the table included three future Presidents of the United States: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams. Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox were in attendance as well.











Everything that my mom taught us about Southern architecture this summer back in Savannah and Charleston came in handy when touring this house, they used all the same elements. I'm glad she taught us all about Southern interiors in the summer, it made it so exciting to see them used in each of the rooms



This was the room George Washington stayed in





That afternoon we took a much needed nap in order to prepare for our first night out on the town! Since our hotel is located right in the middle of time square this is what it looks like when you step outside of our hotel, its so awesome to be right in the middle of it all!







This was right across the street from the main entrance of our hotel, I absolutely have a deep passionate love for this store and its four levels of amazing awesomeness.

Tonight we dined at Chez Josephine, a wonderful little french restaurant. Josephine was a show girl who adopted 12 children, one of those children started this restaurant and named it after his mother as well as decorated it in her honor.



















We all got the butternut squash soup as an appetizer to warm our cold little bodies from the inside out, it was absolutely freezing all day long today! But the soup hit the spot and was absolutely delicious!



Mom and I were in the Southern spirit so we both order the fried chicken with divine sweet potato fries and blueberry cornbread it was sooooo good!



Then we headed over to the theater to see our first show the Addams Family!! This is the play that I was the most excited to see. (I know the picture above I am in a different outfit and its the day, I had to take it the next day since we didn't have time the night we saw it.) It was an absolutely wonderful performance, I loved every second of it! Nathan Lane did a fabulous job as usual, it was a hilarious production.





Afterward our tour director had set up a Q and A with some of the actors, talk about sweet! We got to talk to the boys that played the little brother and the boyfriend, the lady the played the crazy old gradma and a couple of the chorus dancers. It was really interesting to see what they said about being a Broadway star. We of course couldn't take pictures but I did steal one of what the set looks like up close as well as a few sneaky ones of the theater.