I Heart NY

A few weekends ago we flew to NYC for a quick trip to visit Yankees Stadium before it closes (this is the last season.) The Eggerts get our thanks for planning the trip, it should go as no surprise to anyone that Chuck was able to get 40 people to attend the game (half of which I think were from CA!) Of course, you know me, as soon as anyone plans a trip I'm in (then I just work on convincing Taki - ha!)

We took a redeye out to New York on Thursday night and were checked into our hotel by Friday mid-morning. Nikos let us take a two hour nap at the hotel and then we were off to explore the city (with the limited time we had.)

First up, Central Park. We stopped by the Heckscher Playground - the largest of Central Park's 21 playgrounds (note, I did not get this information from our pathetic horse carriage tour guide -- more on this later.) There was a ridiculous amount of nannies pushing around Bugaboo strollers - seriously, I think we counted at least 20 of the strollers. Of course this fact forced me to tell Taki that if we lived there we would fit right in (since we had the stroller and all.) Being the Rain to my Parade, Taki pointed out the fact that we wouldn't quite fit in since we didn't have the nanny to go along with the stroller. Details.

After hanging out in the playground for a little while we explored some more of the Park. 

Obviously, it was exhausting.

We got caught in a fabulous thunderstorm (sorry no pictures, I didn't want to ruin the camera!) Even with the purchase of our two $5 street umbrellas, Taki and I ended up pretty soaked. Luckily Nikos was snug as a bug underneath the raincover on his stroller.

After walking back to the hotel and changing into some dry clothes we settled into some great seats in the lobby bar/library and enjoyed the rain.

Apparently, the rain washed off all of my makeup. Here I am trying out Jessica Biel's latest look..au naturel.

Suited up for dinner!

And where do we go out to eat - pizza, of course! We headed to John's Pizzeria in Times Square. We were told it was one of the Top 3 pizza places in the city (sadly, Taki didn't get the names of the other two or I would have suggested a trifecta.) The location where we ate was once the Gospel Tabernacle Church and it was amazing - sadly, the pictures do not do it justice. With over 400 seats, it is also the largest pizza place in the U.S. 

Niko samples a piece of the pie. He liked it but I think he agreed with us, Gioia is better and it can't hold a candle to Nat's! (Well, that last belief is mine, maybe not Taki's.)

After pizza it had stopped raining so we walked around Times Square before heading back to our hotel. Nikos liked looking at all of the lights but he loooved people watching.

Saturday morning we met Beck and Jayme for breakfast and then hopped on the subway to go to the game.

We met up with everyone at Stan's across the street from the ballpark and Gina insisted I take this picture with Nikos and a beer. Bad influence.

Beck crashes the family picture.

The game was loooong. Five hours and thirteen innings.  Niko was great for the majority of the game but during the last half hour we had to use some creative parenting to prevent a meltdown. I'd blog about our methods but they aren't necessarily PC.

The masterminds - Gina and Chuck - after the game.

Shot of the new stadium (right across the street.)

On the walk back to our hotel from the subway Nikos passed out. I got lots of points from passersby - which I assumed were directed at knocked out Nikos, but looking at this picture, maybe they were commenting on how I was unintentionally rocking the Jessica Biel look again. No rain to blame, apparently sitting in the stands in the blazing sun for five hours also does a number on your makeup.

Did I mention that Taki and I are very fancy and had not one but TWO nannies stop by our hotel room to babysit Nikos on Saturday night?? True, if you look closely at the head nanny (pictured below) she may look suspiciously similar to my cousin Kristin, but this is just a bizarre coincidence. Obviously Taki and I are wealthy enough to employ two nannies, we might as well pack our bags and move to New York now!

With Nikos in my cousin's...err, I mean my nanny's...capable hands, we headed out to dinner with Jayme and Beck and than met up with the rest of the crew at the rooftop bar at the Empire Hotel. Who's fancy now?

 
Sunday morning was filled with grandiose plans of visiting Wall Street, Ground Zero, the Brooklyn Bridge...etc, etc. What we ended up doing was enjoying a leisurely breakfast, visiting FAO Schwarz and wrapping up with a highly informative (ha!) horse carriage ride in Central Park.

As soon as we walked into the store Nikos lunged at this pink dog. It was very cute. Needless to say we didn't buy it. Not because it was pink, but because we already had too many carry-ons for the plane.

Our nannies, Kristin and Tara, met up with us at FAO and captured this picture of Niko in a Harry Potter hat. The dork that I am, I was very excited to be in this section. I almost bought him a Gryffindor scarf but than realized it wouldn't fit him until he was approximately 6-8.

They also captured a picture of Nikos after he was crawling on the floor at FAO and his knees and really the entire half of his leg was filthy. I told Kristin "whatever you do, do not let Aunt Beth see this picture!" For that reason I will not add it to our blog...

Here's a shot of Taki and Nikos on the horse carriage through Central Park. Nikos probably looks a little bored since the driver, who was supposed to be telling us things about the Park, was barely giving us anything. I practically fell out of the carriage trying to listen to the rickshaw driver next to us pepper his riders with fun facts. Taki, on the other hand, probably looks annoyed since we are paying $42 for a 20 minute ride through the park where we not only learned nothing from our driver, I think we actually got stupider. Yes, I said got stupider.

Sensing my bitterness (and his upcoming small tip) the driver connivingly (is this a word? I told you I got stupider) took the most unflattering picture of me ever. Either that, or I will find out at my big ultrasound that I am pregnant with sextuplets, and then I will not feel so bad about this horrific picture.

And a good time was had by all! It was so great to meet up with friends and see family in such a fun city. Of course, I am already planning our next trip. :)