New York, I Love You

As many of you know, we recently returned home from a wonderfully fun week in The City, The Big Apple, The Big Enchilada (I made that one up), New York City.

This post has had a slight delay on it because there is so much to share that we needed time to reflect on what happened as well as game plan for what we'll say.

We stayed in the Upper West Side, near Columbia Medical School. About 171 st. The Washington Heights Area. We definitely feel we had a different experience than most tourists because most tourists never make it up that far. It wasn't as crowded or noisy and its the sort of place where people live. I liked it. Plus it housed the National Track and Field Hall of Fame!

Know this: There are five distinct smells that at any given time, without warning, you will smell. And you will always be smelling one. They are: Food, body odor, garbage, perfume, sewage.

It was a special time.

The following is a look into what we experienced and how we did it. Enjoy.

Central Park-by Manda
Wow. Acres of trees, grass, and trails right in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. Central Park was quite a sight. We spent most of our day there on Sunday, AFTER we walked 60 blocks to get to it. Just walking through the Park is an experience, but I especially loved when we found Strawberry Fields and the John Lennon memorial "Imagine" within it. The pensive mood there really opened my eyes to the legend that John Lennon truly was. The entire Park was very serene as the business of the city lied just outside it.
On Tuesday, we visited Central Park again, this time to make a splish and a splash. We discovered the Lasker Swimming Pool, which is an ice skating rink in the winter, and the best part was you only needed a lock to enter - it was FREE! We caught some rays and enjoyed the cool-down after a humid, sweaty walk from the Subway. We didn't think a lot of tourists knew about this because we sure didn't until we looked it up, but you should definitely spend the afternoon there if you ever have the chance.



The Met-by Manda
This museum is incredible. First of all, it's HUGE. We were there for at least three hours and I don't think we made it through every exhibit. We saw priceless works of art: Picasso, Van Gough and Rembrandt. They had armor and temples and paintings, oh my! After the first hour or two, we were getting pretty hungry and quickly realized there was a cafeteria downstairs. We both had a piece of coconut curry tilapia with rice, one apple, some green beans and a roll and the total was $33.47! WHAT??? Pretty sure it was a CAFETERIA, which means NOT restaurant-quality food, and we paid 15 bucks a plate?! Ridiculous.
The museum was worth the money, the cafeteria was not.



Broadway-by Matt
I've never been a big fan of musicals or shows that are centered around singing. I don't really know why but I just haven't. I mean, who doesn't enjoy The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast, but, The Sound of Music? Not so much. I've always heard that when in NYC seeing a Broadway show is a must...and I was open to the idea.

We heard that a handful of shows offer a ticket lottery before each performance. Our friends, the Staples, had won Wicked tickets 3 times in a row, so we thought we should put our name in and see what happened. For those that don't know, Wicked is the story of the Witches from the Wizard of Oz and how they came to be. The line was long and I'm guessing about 300-400 people were there vying for 20 or so tickets. The chances of hearing our named called was slim at best. Name after name was called and I kept making sarcastic comments to myself about getting picked. Then..."Matthew Sanchez..." I was in shock! I think I was the only winner that didn't scream hysterically. I didn't even turn to hug Manda as I just walked up to the front to claim our tickets. I don't think I've ever won anything of that caliber before. Just winning the tickets was a great moment of our trip. Then came the show...

We won 2nd row tickets! Tickets (that I'm guessing cost about $200 each) we got for $25 each. I was excited. The show was amazing. The actors were great and I couldn't believe they could do it all without stopping or laughing or anything. They sang and danced and it was such an entertaining show. BUT, it was the singing that got to me. Ya know the kind of singing you hear when the person's voice sort of runs through your body like electricity? That was it. It was so awesome! There's something about live music that just does it for me. The story itself was so clever and well-done and in the end, I think I had been turned into a Broadway fan. Manda and I felt so lucky to be there and be a part of the top grossing Broadway show of all-time. I still have the songs going through my head. I can't wait to go back and see more!

Mid-Town-by Matt
This is the area people tend to think about when they ponder New York City. It houses so many of the sights. The Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Times Square, 5th Avenue shopping, Rockefeller Center(NBC), Broadway, Applebee's...so much going on. This is the area of the city that is definitely the most crowded and the noisiest. But there's so much going on, you barely even notice. I am convinced that describing this via the written word can never do it justice. You just need to go. There's nothing like it.






Times Square is a treasure in of itself. Saying that it's a sensory overload is just the beginning. So much to see and do. I loved M&M's world, Hard Rock Cafe, ESPN Zone, Candice's Irish Pub, but it's so fun just to sit and look. Like in the below video, there's chairs and bleachers out in times square. An area of the street has been closed off for people to hang out. We also went and saw 500 DAYS OF SUMMER in a real life NYC movie theater. The movie was very funny and very good. It is recommend by both of us. This is the area with the only Cold Stone in the entire city. We visited this cold stone on three separate occasions. Again with the ice cream! And somebody forgot to tell the architect of this Cold Stone that people need more than 1.3 inches to move. Nevertheless...Chocolate chocolate mint mint is very nice to me.






Yankee Stadium-by Matt
On Wednesday we made our way via the subway to the Bronx. The Yankees were playing and Manda and I wanted to be a part of it. I made sure to set my lovely wife straight...it wasn't the Tennessee Blue Rays the Yanks were playing but the Toronto Blue Jays. :) The Yankee Stadium is amazing. This is its inaugural season and it really was a cool place. My brother Jeff would appreciate the many, many flat screen tv's that seemed to be everywhere for the crowd to see the game. I had been to the old stadium, which was built 100 years ago and was pretty much a piece of junk. The game was so much fun and it was an experience to know how much history the Yankees organization has. AND it was such an experience to buy a mini-baseball cap full of ice cream! Manda is truly happy when she has ice cream. It a magical substance.

We got lucky in the fact that the sun was hidden and it was nice and cool. Otherwise, Manda may have turned into a very unhappy girl with sunburn all over her. Our seats were out in the bleachers with all the crazy fans and their chants. Yankee fans really are different than any other group of people. They have no censor over their brain and would do anything for their team to get a win. It took extra innings but in the end the Yanks won 4-3.



The Subway-by Matt
When you're out and about in the city, you often get tired of walking everywhere and don't want to fork out the cash for a cab. What do you do? Take the subway! The subway is a gem. Well, a rather crowded, smelly, hot gem. It can take you anywhere you want to go or get you really close. It's cheap (relatively) and convenient but it's not without a downside.



There is the occasion when you get on a subway and there's nobody on it. You can sit down and sprawl out and don't have to stare at someone pretending to be Jay-Z. However, the majority of the time the cars are packed! and people are all so different. Sometimes I look around and think..."wow, now I know what a melting pot is all about." You may see a businessman, a biker, a group of girls going out on the town, beggers, lost souls, and you will have the rare sighting of a smiler (see Manda.)

I definitely love the subway and wish we had an equivalent in the SLC.

The Empire State Building-by Manda
Two hours in line, $20 dollars, another 30 minutes in line and two elevator rides later, we got to the top of the Empire State Building on Friday night. When I stepped out of the elevator, I thought I had left New York and entered some other America where I was the only one who spoke English. That didn't even bother me that much. We opened the doors to the viewing area into a three-foot diameter of people on all four sides of the building. Suddenly the two hours in line didn't seem so bad - at least I could move. There were so many people at the top (hogging any/all free space for sight seeing) and I experienced my first frustration with the overpopulation of NYC.



Eventually, I got my wits about me and dove into the first vacated spot I could find. It was a battlefield this other America, and I had to be aggressive. After a brief visit on each side of the building accompanied by a few snapshots of each side of the city, I was ready to jet outta there. We took the stairs to avoid the line for the elevator (this really wore my dad out) and at the bottom, I wondered why my experience didn't quite match up to Annie's in Sleepless in Seattle. The view of the city really was incredible from 86 floors up, but I'd recommend this adventure on a weeknight in a season that isn't so jam-packed with tourists.

A Few More Pics






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Our trip was so great. We loved the fact we could spend so much time together and see such amazing things. Thanks goes out to Robert and Lindsay Staples and letting us stay in their apartment while they were out in El Salvador saving the world. When you want a place to stay...just let us know! :)


We'll be back!