mood: great
listening to: Il Divo

Hello all! Dustin and I are back from New York! It was a fabulous trip...I only wish we had had more time! Juls & Lee were fabulous! Lee, m'dear, it was so great to finally meet you...you are more adorable and sweet than I had ever imagined! Juls...you are a super lucky gal, and I am so glad you and I got to spend more time together. We would be dangerous if we lived closer! ;)

This will be a long post, so bear with me! :)

Saturday night D & I arrived at La Guardia close to 10. Juls & Lee picked us up and took us back to their apartment for the night. Juli made a great arroz con pollo, and we got a chance to catch up. (for pics of the apartment, click here and here.)

Sunday we were off to Midtown Manhattan. We took the train to Rockefeller Center and walked through the concourse there and out to street level. We walked down Fifth Avenue and saw Cartier, Tiffany, Trump Tower, St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Thomas' Church, FAO Schwartz, and more. We then headed to Central Park, went to Lincoln Center, and walked through the Theatre District. We also walked through Macy's and past the Empire State Building and Radio City Music Hall. The line was way too long to actually go up to the observation deck...maybe next time. We then went to Carmine's for dinner and went to the Ziegfield Theatre to see Star Wars Ep III. We finally got back to the apartment about 2am! We were all tired (after walking close to 7 miles), but it was a blast and well worth it. :)

Monday we slept in a bit, and Juli went and got us fresh NY bagels. They were the yum. :) She & Lee then took us out to Long Island to see Dustin's grandparents. They live in this adorable little community. It actually reminded me a lot of Beaumont. They had small pine trees and azaleas, and it just looked liked Beaumont. I loved it. They have a really nice house, and Grandma had snacks waiting for us when we arrived. We visited with them and went to a community party they were having for Memorial Day. They then took us to eat in Port Jefferson at Danford's. The weather was super nice down at the docks. Juls & Lee were waiting there for us and joined us for dinner. After a good seafood dinner, we went back to Queens.

Tuesday Lee had to go back to work, so Juli took D & I back to Rockefeller for a private NBC studio tour. The page that took us on the tour (Jen) was from Round Rock! She had actually just gotten back from Texas. She took us to Conan O'Brien's studio, the Saturday Night Live stage, NBC Nightly News, and NBC Sports. We were in awe of how tiny the studios were! I knew they wouldn't be huge, but they were soooo small! She took us down to the floor of the SNL studio which you don't get to do on the normal tours. It was so cool standing on that stage. There is so much history there! We also found out that the news tickers and control room images behind the desk on the Nightly News are actually pre-recorded and looped. The control room repeats every 45 seconds and was recorded back in '99. Before we left, we stopped by the NBC Experience Store and I picked up a couple of items. Then it was off to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. We were a bit disappointed because they were at capacity for the museum, so we only got to walk around the island. It was beautiful, though, and the ferry ride was great. We returned to Queens, and Juls & Lee took us to Green Field Churrascaria which served Brazilian food. There was a buffet to get your sides from, and then waiters walk around with swords full of meat and they offer you a large variety of meats throughout your meal to try. It was super yummy. :) We then got some ice cream and went home.

This is, of course, the short version of the trip, but at least you can get an idea of all the cool stuff we got to do. To see all of the pictures from the trip, click here.