*After working on this post for several days now (started last Sunday afternoon), I've determined this will be a multi-part post. It's just too long to include everything in one post and it's taking forever to get it all edited like I want it. So, I give you Part One...
We started planning this trip back in the summer after the flights to NYC jumped significantly one evening as we were pondering a trip to NYC in July. We were also pondering some other destinations but when we made the final decision that we would forgo a "big" trip this summer and wait until Christmas I just knew we had to go to NYC. I had been three times before Mark and I married, and he took me in 2005 for our 1000 day anniversary. I know, he's awesome. That was his first trip to the city and he absolutely fell in love with it. We went again in 2009, but all of my/our previous trips have been in the summer months. I couldn't wait to be there to actually see all the sights that Christmas movies make feel so familiar - Rockefeller Center, Macy's, Radio City Music Hall and the famous Rockettes.
Let me also mention here that this trip is sort of a late celebration of a pretty big birthday Mark had last December, as well as Christmas this year, and our 8th anniversary (which was this past Tuesday). We've also allowed it to carry over for Valentine's Day for this year, and then Mark surprised me with another visit to see Eva (I'll describe in Part Two) which is my birthday present for this year! :) Thankfully Mark and I both agree that the memories we make when we take "us only" trips are so much more of a treasure to us than any presents we could buy.
I like to try to detail everything in a chronological format, just to help us remember as we look back at this post in years to come (we referenced my last post several times to remind us of restaurants, etc.). I also always have people ask us about our "itinerary" or what we did while we were there. Rest assured I could attach our very organized and color coded spreadsheet, but I'll leave that to your imagination if you know Mark and me very well. We won't travel any other way - it maximizes our time and leaves us absolutely exhausted from the fun every time we travel.
We left on Saturday, December 18th and I won't say much about our travel experiences other than that the security processes in the Atlanta airport were as bad as I expected. Mark and I were both tagged to be scanned and frisked - while other people walked calmly through the metal detectors and on to their flights.
We arrived to our destination, the Hotel Chandler, via the calmest cab ride I have ever experienced, and found the staff and environment to be welcoming, charming, and quite nicely appointed. The hotel is about three blocks from Macy's and the Empire State building and the nearest train station. Definitely somewhere we'd recommend to anyone planning to visit the city.
We realized quickly that we had left our major toiletries bag at home (when we left at 4:30am) so we had to make a trip to the CVS around the corner for several necessary items. We also took this opportunity to grab our favorites - milk and coke zero - which we could stash in the mini-fridge they brought to our room upon request.
After we got settled, we headed out for our most "unplanned" night of our trip. The only priority was to go to Macy's to see the Christmas window-scenes, SantaLand, etc. We didn't really think about the fact that we were heading out on this adventure at 7pm on the last Saturday before Christmas - there were people EVERYWHERE. Macy's was just unbelievably decorated for the holidays - when we walked in a couple of days later Mark asked me if I knew they had red carpet. It had been so crowded on that night we didn't even see the floor!
On Sunday morning, we slept in a little (considering we were actively shopping at midnight after having gotten up that morning at 4:00am), and then made our way via train to Brooklyn. We found the most delicious Mom&Pop bagel shop and deli - La Bagel Delite - and devoured perhaps the most delicious bagels we've ever eaten. I don't normally photograph my food, but I couldn't help snapping these bagels to show how much cream cheese was slathered between the bagels. They go ahead and sandwich the bagel halves around the cream cheese for you so all you have to do is take a bite - the portions below are the halves we couldn't eat because these were so yummy, rich, and huge! We'll be visiting La Bagel Delite again for sure!
This was my bagel - cinnamon rasin bagel with cinnamon/rasin/walnut cream cheese (the light brown fluffy stuff in the middle). Oh. My. Goodness.
And then we made our way to the Brooklyn Tabernacle for their noon church service. You may remember that we visited this church for the first time in 2009, but we determined then that we'd never visit NYC again without scheduling our trip over a weekend so we could go back again. We were super excited to worship there on the Sunday before Christmas, but were even more excited to discover several weeks prior to our trip that their Christmas musical production would be occurring that afternoon as well. We were grateful that we decided to attend the noon church service since we didn't have to leave the building and stand in the line (that wrapped around the block) waiting to enter for the 3pm musical performance.
Church at BT was as amazing as we remembered - this place is so full of the presence of Almighty God and to markedly empty of the distractions that cloud most church experiences in my lifetime. These people really worship in "spirit and truth". I watched a sweet young man in a wheelchair in front of me, hands lifted high, worshiping and praising God with such passion and excitement. If most of us are honest with ourselves, we only get that excited at football games. Pride is much more apparent in a church pew than a stadium seat I fear. I sometimes wonder if these people's lives have been different from mine, maybe they've been delivered from serious addictions, or self-destruction. Could it be that they have a greater appreciation of their redemption so they worship with a more passion, with a bigger view of God? Am I so "churched" that my pride is bigger than God's redeeming work, therefore leaving me worshiping with a smaller view of God and a bigger view of me? Pondering...I always leave the Brooklyn Tabernacle pondering.
I am including this picture mainly for myself (and for those who may be curious about what their sanctuary looks like - this is only a small part of their beautiful facilities) --- you can't see the sweet young man I referenced earlier, but I can. In my mind I know where he was sitting - just behind the sweet little boy in the bottom right corner - and I don't ever want to forget the image of him worshiping as we all should. In spite of his apparent physical weaknesses, his obvious joy and spiritual strength was inspirational to me.
And for you music junkies...I sing with a mixed ensemble at church and we perform a lot of music from the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. They have a recognizable style and it's fairly centered in the gospel/soul genre. So you can imagine my surprise when the worship set at the service included Hillsong's "Mighty to Save" and Chris Tomlin's "Our God" from the Passion 2010 CD (which Mark now refers to as "the God fight song" by the way). I cannot even put in in words...the unbelievable privilege to be part of a 1500 member congregation chanting, "...and if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us, and if our God is with us, then what could stand against..." Nothing. Like. It.
After the church service and awesome Christmas musical production, we ventured to what has become one of our very favorite destinations in New York City - Little Italy. Last visit, we ate at two fabulous restaurants on quaint little Mulberry Street, but this time we tried a new one called La Nonna. As usual, the Italian food was yummy and was priced reasonably. The charming man who enticed us to come in stopped us on our way out to ask where we were from. When we answered, "Auburn, Alabama" he about jumped out of his skin with excitement and gave us a hearty "War Eagle", then he shared that Cam Newton and his family (sans his infamous father) ate there while they were in town for the Heisman Trophy ceremonies. Who knows if that is actually true, but he was certainly quick with this response to hearing of our beloved hometown. We got a kick out of it for sure! The picture below is of nothing in particular, other than the lights strung across Mulberry Street that signal to me and Mark that we are close to our beloved Little Italy.
And finally, on our way home Mark wanted some hot chocolate so we stopped in the Dunkin' Donuts around the corner from our hotel....which also happened to house a Baskin Robbins. I decided that despite the low temps, I really wanted to try the red velvet cake ice cream. If you haven't tried this flavor, find a Baskin Robbins immediately and try it. It was perfectly flavored to mimic red velvet cake - complete with a ribbon of cream cheese icing. YUM.
All those words and pictures, and I am only through the second day of our trip. :)
Stay tuned for Part Two....
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