NYC is Awesome Sauce!!!!!

Now I'm sure you are all like, "Oh. My. Goodness. Enough with the New York City talk!" While I'm sure at this point we've probably ruined all desire for anyone to go to NYC ever from all our incessant talking about it, I promise this is the last post via blogger or facebook regarding our trip.

So here we go....

TOP 10 AWESOME PARTS OF OUR TRIP---

1. LCD Soundsystem Concert
I mean, come on! What's cooler than arriving to NYC and going to a concert at Madison Square Garden a mere few hours later?! Mitch and Vanessa were huge fans of LCD Soundsystem and got tickets for the 4 of us to go. Apparently it was a pretty big deal too. This was LCD Soundsystem's retirement concert so not only was it completely sold out, it sold out within minutes of going on sale. LCD Soundsystem asked their fans to all wear black and white, and pretty much everyone at the concert followed their wish.

Here's us before the concert. Mitch and Vanessa were nice enough to humor me and let me take pictures wherever we were at. I know, what a tourist!

Here's a picture of the final moments of the concert. All the balloons came down from the ceiling. It was awesome.

The concert was so much fun. It's always amazing to hear people live and they did not disappoint. We had fantastic seats by the aisle and it was so fun to see people dancing up and down the aisle all night long. We even got to see Arcade Fire. The concert started at 8 and ended at like 2 in the morning! I thought it was so cool that LCD Soundsystem performed so long because they were clearly trying to give it their all and give back to the fans.

2. Seeing Family
Mitch and Vanessa were so wonderful to let us stay in their fabulous apartment! They live in East Village and their apartment is awesome!

Here's a picture of the outside of their building:


The elevator opens right into their apartment. Here's the kitchen:


Here's their living room area:


To the left, past the kitchen table is their office area. I wish I'd taken a picture of the bathroom because it's totally cool and modern. Also, there are 2 bedrooms. I should have taken a picture of those too. Oh, well.


Here's a picture of Mitch and Vanessa. It's not the best picture of Vanessa because her eyes are closed, but I needed a picture with both of them in it.

It was so fun to hang out with them. We don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like, so it was particularly nice to see them, their life, and catch up.

Though it makes me laugh, because I'm sure when people look at Mitch & Vanessa, and Jared & I, I'm pretty confident I know who they think the siblings are! :)

3. Getting Lost
Really, what would a trip be without a classic Jared/Lindsay getting lost story?!

So this one really is a doozy. So it was our first full day in New York and we hadn't figured out the subway system yet. We were coming home from a show and it was our second time riding the subway and first time coming back to Mitch/Vanessa's place. It was around 11:45 or so when we got on the subway and we knew we were supposed to take the F train back to their place.

Well, I knew we were around 5 stops away or so, and it felt like a long time on the train and then none of the stops seemed familiar to me. Jared was half asleep and when I told him nothing looked familiar, he said to stop worrying. But after a bit, we started to think something was weird too, so the next thing we know, it said Brooklyn! We were like 2 stops into Brooklyn!

Yep, folks. We weren't even in Manhattan anymore! So I immediately get all huffy. Luckily, we were at a stop where there was an attendant on duty, so she told us that it was an easy mistake to make, because it just so happened that the F train route had maintenance from 12 am to 5 am that day only and the train had been rerouted to the A train route.

Okay. We can handle that. So we waited for the next F train to go back to Manhattan which came about 1/2 hour later. Then when we got off the stop, there were 2 exits. We got off the one exit {when really we should have taken the other}. Immediately we looked around and were like, "Nothing looks familiar." Great. So Jared starts walking and I follow and after what feels like forever, we've made our way back to the very same spot we got off the subway.

Super. We made a gigantic circle. By this time it's like 1:00 AM.

And then it starts to rain.

By this point, I'm getting fed up, so I ask Jared for the exact address of Mitch's place rather than following him around like a little puppy. He's like, "Don't worry about it." I'm like, "Yeah, I'm worried. I want to know the address. He's like, "It's either on 2nd Street or 2nd Avenue."

Huh?

2nd Street or 2nd Avenue?

That's when I'm really fed up and I decide that we should call Mitch. In fact, I'm not walking anymore until we call Mitch. Never mind that it's 1 in the morning. Let's just call!

That's when Jared's like, "I can't."

Huh?

What?!

Can you all see the writing on the wall?

Yeah, I could too.

Jared was then like, "I can't because the phone is dead."

WHAT?!!!!!!

He continued, "You know, I had to do all my facebook posts. And I HAD to "check in" at Billy Elliot and then the phone died."

Grrrr.....Needless to say, I was not a happy girl. It's totally late, it's raining so we're soaked, we don't know Mitch's address at all, AND our phone is dead.

So then I'm furious and we ask someone at the gas station and they don't know because they say it's 17 blocks away.

I'll spare you a play-by-play, but we continue to totally walk in circles, further and further away, we witness a huge fist fight right by us, we see the creepiest people, I'm all sorts of back and forth between livid and totally freaked out.

Oh, and I'm crying and telling Jared that while I said I wanted a full New York experience, I did NOT mean that I wanted to try my hand at sleeping on the subway seat like a hobo.

Finally, we found Mitch's place though and walked in at 2:30 AM!

That's right.

2:30 AM.

I think it goes without saying that I told Jared that under no circumstances should he let the battery run out on our phone again.

As you could tell with the plethora of Facebook posts the rest of the week, it fell on deaf ears.

He said, "Don't worry babe. Now that we got lost, we totally know where his house is now."

Hmph.

4. Famous Spaces & Places
I can't believe the massive amount of stuff we managed to see and do.

We saw Rockefeller Center:


The Empire State Building at night. Look at that view!


Times Square:

Central Park {Here we are at the Bethesda Fountain}:

The Museum of Natural History {Look, it's Dum Dum, Carson!}:


The MOMA {Museum of Modern Art}---Here's Jared geeking out in the Typography section:


So cool to be seeing the actual famous paintings like this one:


Jay-Z's book cover, anyone?!


We saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island:



We also saw Ground Zero and the new Freedom Tower. Apparently there are over 20,000 workers and they are building a floor a week in order to have it ready this year by 9-11-11!


In addition, we also walked through Battery Park, Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo, the East Village, Harlem, the Upper East and West sides and explored everything in between.

5. Broadway Shows!

We also had the opportunity to see 4 Broadway shows! The first show we saw was Billy Elliot.

Billy Elliot was amazing. I loved it.

The second show we saw was That Championship Season. It had Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Jim Gaffigan, and Brian Cox in it. It was absolutely amazing to see these men act. I wasn't in love with the play itself though. I thought it was still totally worth going to though, just to see these guys act in person.

The 3rd show we saw was Mama Mia. We all felt like we needed a sure thing after the one the night before. You know, the type of show that is across the board a surefire hit. Mama Mia did not disappoint. It was fantastic!

Here's us at Mama Mia:


And finally...

Who has 2 thumbs and had a rockin' birthday?!

This Girl!!!

That is, she had a ROCK OF AGES birthday. For our final show, we saw Rock of Ages, an 80's butt rock musical. Mitch and Vanessa went with us too. It wasn't what I expected, but I think everyone enjoyed it and had fun.

6. Celebrity Mania
We saw an insane amount of celebrities during our stay in New York.

Spotted: (Sounds so Gossip Girl of me!)
Helen Mirren walking into NBC studios
Kathie Lee and Hoda at the Today studio
James Franco, Maria Menounos, Booker T. Jones, Jimmy Fallon, The Roots at Jimmy Fallon
Lucas Haas
Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Noth, Jason Patric, Brian Cox, Jim Gaffigan in That Championship Season
Anna Wintour walking out of That Championship Season
James Earl Jones outside of Driving Miss Daisy
Donald Trump at Trump Tower having a press conference
Mos Def on the streets in Soho

Here's Jack Bauer himself:


And Jim Gaffigan:


And Mr. Big (AKA Chris Noth):


Okay, so this is where I totally dorked out, big time. Chris Noth was out there for awhile, so when he was near me, I quickly turned around, and hissed to Karen, "Take a picture, take a picture of me!"

When I heard James Earl Jones' voice, I thought to myself, "Oh my goodness! It's Darth Vader!!!"

Brian Cox:

Donald Trump---Can't you picture him saying, "You're Fired!"


One of the coolest celebrity sightings though was seeing Mos Def. We were just walking along when we heard this lady start gushing, "I love you so much!" We turned around and we were standing right next to Mos Def! Jared was like, "Oh my goodness! It's Mos Def!" He immediately starts trying to get the camera to open on the phone. We asked Mos Def if we could take a picture with him, but he said no. You could tell he was in a hurry. He shook our hands though and we talked to him for a second.

7. Shopping

We didn't do a whole lot of shopping on our trip, compared to the massive amount of sightseeing we did, but we still managed to go to...

Dash...
Well, in hopes of seeing one of the Kardashians! Unfortunately, it wasn't in the cards for us.

We also went to Chinatown and Little Italy in hopes of finding purses for us girls and souvenirs for our kids. Surprisingly, none of the bags were calling my name, so I came home bagless. I know. What a shame.

The funniest {well, funny now, but irritating at the time} shopping experience was when we went to buy a soccer shirt for Carson in Little Italy. It was a shirt we actually went BACK to Little Italy for because we knew Carson would love it. When we were in the store, Jared tried haggling the price down on the shirt. He was being a bit obnoxious about it, until finally the lady said, "No shirt for you!" and promptly refused to sell the shirt to him, even at the original price! I know--it was like the Soup Nazi, except she was the Shirt Nazi! Needless to say, I was miffed, and Karen actually had to go and buy it from the lady later, since she wouldn't sell it to Jared and I anymore.

And what would a trip to New York be without going to Tiffany & Co! Despite trying on a $78,000 ring, I decided that I would NOT be mortgaging my house to acquire it! :) I did manage to get something fun though.


And here's Jared at his "Tiffany's"---the Apple Store!!!



8. The Food
Of course every good trip requires you to eat your way through it!

First up.....

I'm just kidding. We didn't eat there. Jared wanted to take a picture of it and be like Michael Scott on the Office.

We ate at Boca--

Momofuku Noodle Bar--While it wasn't Mitch's restaurant he works at, it was one of the other restaurants his boss owns, so we got a feel for the type of cuisine he makes. The food was AMAZING!!!! We seriously got everything on the menu. I've never been so stuffed---except when we went to Momofuku Saam Bar a few days later and also had everything on the menu. Anyways, they were so cool there and you could tell how much they liked and respected Mitch.


Let's not forget the Shake Shack--I regret not going there more than once...


Carnegie Deli---isn't that sandwich disgusting?! But I guess Jared and Brad were up to the challenge. They did have the best cheesecake ever though! {And we should know because we tried cheesecake 3 different times during our week...}


Oh, and Doughnut Plant! Best. Doughnuts. Ever. I'm not saying this lightly people. After all, I do live by Viera's! I have 3 words to say about Doughnut Plant. Creme Brulee Doughnut. MMmmmmm!We also got to go to Roxy Diner, Stardust diner, got Dim Sum, brunch at the Eatery, amongst other places.

9. The People
One of the most fascinating things about New York is the people. They aren't kidding when they say that it is a Melting Pot, that there are literally all types living in the city. It was so fun to just people watch and see the street performers, musicians on the subway, the rich mommies walking through central park, the "hipsters", the business people going to work, the different ethnicities and all the different languages.

When we first got into town we even saw the largest pillow fight ever! People were walking all over carrying pillows!


Look at this artist. He was amazing! It didn't even look like a pencil drawing. It looked like a photograph!


Oh and here's the naked cowboy--he actually has a speedo on...but seriously. New York is crazy!

10. Jimmy Fallon
Of course, I would say Jimmy Fallon was a definite highlight of our trip. Jared did a thorough job talking about it. It was so fun because it was so unexpected.

Here's our Spit-take Champions:



It was also fun because Mitch, Karen and I got to be backup dancers for Booker T. Jones during his number. I thought it was cool that we all got to be a part of the show in some way. I did tell Jared though, "Karen, Mitch, and I were on TV too and you don't see us posting about it every 5 seconds!" :)

Now if you've actually read this whole post, you are just too kind because it's a crazy long one. I'll leave you with this last little gem though.

So Tuesday morning Mitch and I are hanging out on the couch and Jared comes out from the shower with a way-too-small towel wrapped around his waist, no shirt on and his spit-take towel draped on his shoulder. Then he hands me the phone and says, "Will you take a picture?"

Mitch and I were like, "........................"
We literally sat in stunned silence for a minute.

Then we busted up laughing. Actually laughing is too tame of a word. We burst into a loud guffaw!

I was like, "You want me to take a picture of you in nothing but a loin cloth and your spit-take towel on your shoulder?" He's like, "No! Just from the torso up, I'm going to post it on Facebook."

You want to what?!

What the??????

That's when I was like, "Ok, that's enough. This is where I draw the line. I'm shutting this down."

Mitch and I started laughing so hard again. I was like, "This is why you can NEVER be famous. Here you are, ready to take off your shirt, and yet nobody's compensating you for this. Heck, no one even ASKED you. I'd hate to see what would happen if someone asked!" :)

So funny.

Anyhoo, this post is FINALLY coming to a close. That's our NYC trip in a nutshell. I can honestly say that it was one of the best trips I've ever taken!