NYC at Christmas

Mom and I went to NYC as her Christmas present from Jackson and me. We saw the sights, did a lot of walking around and did some tours. I'm such a nerd because I was more impressed by Ernst & Young (another Big 4 accounting firm) having the EY illuminated on their building. I took this picture from the TOP OF THE ROCK. Note: if you go to NYC, go to Top of the Rock and not the Empire State Building. TOTR is so much better for seeing the sights.
We visited the Rockefeller center tree. It was gorgeous as always.
The best part of being on top of the rock is being able to see the Empire State Building all lit up!
We saw the Rockettes.
Mom was getting cross at people running into her. She was not used to crowds.
I loved these huge Christmas light strands.
Mom in front of one of my favorite things: the big ornaments!
The Radio City Music Hall was really something inside. It was so pretty.
Mom and I ate at Junior's Restaurant in Times Square. It was so good!
This is where the ball drops on New Years.
The lobby of Radio City Music Hall.


The view of Columbus Circle from inside the CNN: Time Warner center.
A view of the city from the water.
Again.
The building with the cranes on top of it is the new Freedom Tower-- where the twin towers used to stand.

I finally got to see Lady Liberty! I had been to NYC multiple times and never saw her so I was so excited to see that big lady.
We took a little stroll around Central Park and I thought the sun coming through the trees made for a gorgeous shot.

Ok, so here is what we did:
Wednesday night: We picked Mom up from the airport, baked chocolate chip cookies and headed for bed.
Thursday: Mom and I caught the Amtrak train to Penn Station. We rolled our suitcases through the city to our hotel. We went to check in under "Petefish" and the woman asked me when Peter would be arriving. HA! She misunderstood my last name. We just laughed and laughed. We left our bags there and headed for our bus tour. We saw all of the uptown sights and froze our butts off. Oh it was so cold. We went to the hotel, cleaned up, ate dinner at Qdoba (yes, you read that correctly. HA!) and headed to see the Rockettes. It was such a good show. SO GOOD! I loved it. I didn't know how I would feel about it, but it was wonderful. We went to the Top of the Rock (see the photos above) and took in the sights from above. We walked around seeing more of the store windows and Christmas displays and then slept like logs.

Friday: We woke up, ate breakfast at a yummy little bakery and headed to the NBC studios for a tour. It was really cool to see how television is such an illusion! We did a lot of Christmas shopping that afternoon. Our bus tour also included a boat tour so we decided to check it out. We were so excited that it was a heated boat!!! That really matters in NYC in December- it was darned cold. We loved seeing the city from the river (see photos above). We took a cab from the water to Macy's and shopped almost all of the 9.5 floors of departments. It is the largest store in the U.S. and was awesome. I usually hate Macy's, but this one was worth it. We did even more shopping on 5th Avenue after that and then grabbed dinner at a diner. Yes, don't go to a diner. What a bust. We should have done Qdoba again. :)

Saturday: Mom was sick of walking. We did a lot of walking. We went to Central Park to attempt a walk and she sat down on a park bench declaring that she was done. GRR! We ate breakfast at a lovely cafe where we sat next to some nice farmers from upstate New York. We grabbed a cab and headed to Grand Central Station. It was pretty cool to see it, but it was so, so, so, SO busy. It honestly brought new meaning to someone calling a busy place Grand Central Station. I was amazed. We rode the train to New Haven, CT and walked around Yale's campus. I don't know that Mom was as excited by the campus as I always am. I love that school. We drove back to Boston and did some sight-seeing around here. We went to dinner, had some laughs, grocery shopped and came home. It was nice to be back in the slower pace of Boston. I really never thought that I would think Boston was a slow pace kind of place, but NYC will do that to you.

Today we have not done much at all. The weather in Boston is cold and really rainy so we made it a lazy day. Jackson made a great breakfast, cooked chili for our lunches, and made dinner. He's the best! We've watched shows on the DVR, football and napped. It has been nice to slow down after a few crazy days in the city.