2 months later...

So I know most of you don't even care to know the details of the NY trip that was 2 months ago, but I'm writing it for myself. I want to write all I can remember for now, so I can look back at this with fond memories. So here it goes-another attempt at recalling my wonderful trip to New York.
Day 3-12/30/04
Since we were on vacation, of course we slept in again. Once we rolled out of bed, we hopped on the subway and headed downtown. We stopped at Starbucks to grab some breakfast and then ate on the subway on our way to Ground Zero. We were a little disoriented and didn't know exactly where we were going, so we wandered around a bit before figuring out where to go. My sister had seen Ground Zero six months after 9/11 so it had changed a lot since then. Now it looks more like a construction site rather than a place where such a disaster occurred. Here are 2 pictures from across the highway.


Some other closer pictures of the construction area:



This was taken down where the trains come in by the site:

While we were walking around this area, I couldn't help but think of how many people were running away from the place we were all so eager to see. There were a lot of tourist in the area all wanting to catch a glimpse of a place that had been a disaster area 3 years ago. All the memorial pictures that had been put up were just a reminder of 9/11, and it wasn't something I wanted to remember, even if I hadn't been directly effected by the event. People around us were recalling where they were when the tragedy had occurred, and of course Lindsey, Ine, and I all remembered where we had been when we first heard about it. There were also many people trying to make a dollar by selling photos of the towers before and after. I think we were all ready to leave after the visit, so we headed to South St. Seaport to get lunch. We did a little browsing in stores on our way there. We all had pizza for lunch, then we took some pictures.



We had tickets to see Rent that afternoon, so we headed back uptown to Broadway. We had chosen to see 'Rent' since 'Chicago' had sold out on the cheaper seats! The best part about seeing 'Rent' was that Drew Lachey, former member of 98 degrees and brother of Nick Lachey, was playing one of the lead roles. Now I was a little skeptical not knowing how well he'd do, but he did a tremendous job. I was very impressed with his theatre ability and we all really enjoyed the show. Here we all are before the show:

While we were waiting, I also saw Drew get out of a car, thank his driver and walk in the theatre. It all happened so quickly that I didn't get to meet him, but it was still pretty fun to see him walk right past us.
Ine and Lindsey also took some illegal photos before the show of the set. Here is one of them:

We also tried to use our voice recorders on our phones to record some of the music, but it didn't turn out too well! Here we are later taking a picture by the sign advertising 'Rent' starring Drew Lachey:

After the show, Lindsey and Ine were ready to get out of their heels. (I was smart and wore flat boots. Who cares if they looked so much taller? I had comfortable shoes.) We went back to the hotel and changed clothes.
We had plans that night to meet up with Tiffany and her friends that had just arrived earlier that day. It was Tiff's 21st birthday and apparently on their trip the flight assistant decided to give her a lot of free drinks...funny stuff. We all met up at Chevy's, a mexican restaurant in Times Square. I know, you're thinking why did we get mexican food in New York? Well, it was actually pretty good. Tiffany of course ordered up a big margarita for her birthday.

When we told the waitress it was her birthday, they brought her a big sombrero and ice cream.

After we left Chevy's we had to keep a close eye on Tiffany. She was a little tipsy and we had to make sure she didn't wander off. We wanted to ride the party bike so we talked to one of the drivers. He gave us his cell number and said to call him later and he'd come pick us up. We decided to go try and ice skate at Rockefeller Plaza since Beth and Amy really wanted to go. Well, the line to skate was over 2 hours long, so that idea was out. We did try and buy some 2005 glasses, but Beth was trying to make a deal (6 pairs for $10) and we knew that wouldn't happen. After walking around some more, we decided to call it a night since we were getting up early to go to the Today's Show the next morning. That did mean no party bike, but we figured we might try it another evening. When we were walking up to our hotel, we saw a rat on the sidewalk--fun, huh? Once we got inside, we asked the guy at the desk a number we could call to get a cab since we would need one at 4:00 a.m. We weren't sure how easy it would be to get a cab at that time, so we figured it'd be smart to call ahead. We headed up to our 4th floor walk-up, and went to sleep. More to come when I feel inclined to do so...

p.s. In case you're wondering how I even remember this much about a trip that was 2 months ago, Ine took some notes and shared them with me. So thank you Ine for being a note taker, something I've never had the patience to be.