NYC Fall 2017-Part One

On Friday night/Saturday morning I got back from three days in Washington D.C. 

It's always so fun to see the city through my students' eyes. 

I teach in a super rural area, so some of these students have never been outside of the state. 

They were thrilled to be away from home for three days and have the opportunity to see what life is like in the city. 

While D.C. was a blast, today I'm sharing my fall trip to New York City!

About a month ago Alex and I headed to the Big Apple for a few days. 

We had a packed agenda to start, but we actually ended up with a lot of free time. 

It was slightly rainy on our way, and we caught a glimpse of this beautiful rainbow!

We arrived at our hotel around midnight and were up in only a few hours to head to the Today Show. 

I RSVP'd ahead of time, and the Today Show website even had a countdown when I logged into my account. 

We made it outside of Studio 1A right before 7 am to find an EMPTY studio!!!

There were other people with signs, and we were all asking the security guard nearby where the Today Show was. 

He said they didn't show up today.

Booo!!!

My dad had told me that there was a big golf tournament that weekend and they wouldn't be airing the Today Show on TV, but I never expected it would be cancelled completely, especially since the website still had our countdown to arrival. 

So, we walked around and decided we wouldn't let this dampen our morning and headed towards Times Square.

We stopped at Ellen's Stardust Diner. 

There was no line; we walked right in, got a table and ordered our food. 

It's a diner with live entertainment. 

The staff sings Broadway songs and even climb up on the tables to strut their stuff and belt out their tunes. 

The tables are crazy close together, but they do a great job of pulling the table out when they seat you, so that you have enough room to squeeze through and sit down. 

We left and headed up to Central Park. 

The service is ridiculously fast at Ellen's Stardust Diner. 

We were only inside eating for maybe 30 minutes. 

By the time we came out there was a line to be seated. 

They don't take reservations, so it's first come, first serve.

We had a ton of time to walk around and explore. 

I love Central Park so much!

We walked around a little bit, it started to rain, so we ducked into Starbucks and then came back out to explore some more!

Here we are exploring!

We left Central Park in the afternoon to head over to see Alex's sister and her boyfriend in Brooklyn. 

We hung out at their place for a while and then left for Little Italy to grab dinner. 

We've eaten at some great places in Little Italy, but I wanted to try someplace new, and unfortunately, we left disappointed. 

We fell into a trap of the salesman luring us in.

It looked good, so we thought we'd try it out, but I wasn't a fan of my Fettuccine Alfredo at all. 

We won't go back, and hopefully next time we will find a better new place.

We left dinner in just enough time to make it to see a comedy show with Alex's sister and her boyfriend. 

It was one long day. 

The picture is blurry, but here we are at 33,559 steps when we got back to the hotel. 

The next day we were going to go to a Broadway show, and I was going to run in Central Park; however, Alex woke up with a migraine, so he went back to bed, and we got a late start heading out. 

We first stopped by to see Dylan Dreher from the Today Show's apartment complex. 

Amazing!

If I had to live in NYC I think I would choose to live in the Financial District near where she does. 

It's SO clean, unlike the rest of NYC!

There are so many families with little ones and everyone is exercising!

Freedom Tower!

We headed north on the subway, hopped off to take a stroll past Kelly Ripa's town home. 

Gorgeous like always. 

There was a lady walking her dog across the street, so I didn't stop and take a picture; although I'm sure she knew we were tourists!

We raced down to Serendipity!

Alex's sister and boyfriend met us for dinner at the one and only Serendipity. 

Such a cute quaint place. 

They have the largest menu's I've ever seen!!!

I ordered one of their well known frozen hot chocolates!

Yum!!

Unfortunately, our order got lost in what I believe was a mix up of waiters/waitresses changing in and out. 

People came and left and we were still sitting there without our food. 

They really apologized and gave us dessert on the house. 

I got the apple pie sundae!

Alex wanted you to see just how big this sundae was, so he put his fist beside it. 

The sundae makes his hand look tiny!

Alex got the Strawberry Shortcake Sundae!

After dinner we enjoy a little bit of Times Square at night before heading back to our hotel. 

Beautiful night view of the city!

We needed to make it to bed early because the next day we would head to Live with Kelly and Ryan!

My goal was to be in line by 6 am, and I will be back tomorrow to let you know how that worked out!

Stay tuned for Live with Kelly tomorrow!