"Start Spreading the News!"

Brennan and I just got back from a perfect trip to NYC!!! It was so much fun. We dropped Anna and Abby off for their first day of school Wednesday morning and drove to the airport. We spent the day on airplanes and in airports and finally arrived at my brother Davis's apartment late that night. He lives in a great apartment on the upper west side. The next morning Brennan and I rode the subway to the south end of Manhattan and saw the Statue of Liberty and then walked up through the financial district on Wall Street.

From there we walked up to the Trinity Church (the one from the movie National Treasure) and then walked over to St. Paul's Cathedral and what used to be the World Trade Center. That was quite a thing. I was sort of caught off guard by my emotions there. St. Paul's Cathedral is a church directly across the street from the WTC and miraculously, in spite of endless debris, didn't lose one pane of glass or sustain any other damage. It became a refuge for rescue workers who would come in and rest on cots or just try and make some sense of the horror they were experiencing across the street. The cathedral has a large alter with pictures of all the victims and lots of quotes from the church staff and rescue workers which brought it all home to me. It was powerfully moving and then to cross the street and see the huge expanse of construction with a big fence and signs with names of victims that seemed to go on forever was pretty sobering.

Our next stop was China town which is always fun. We bought a few souvenirs for the kids and then walked through a little bit of Little Italy. Davis's roommate had told us that the Yankees and Red Sox had a day game that day so we decided to ride up to Yankee Stadium to see if we could get tickets for the game. After a long subway ride up to Yankee Stadium we walked around trying to find tickets. It was sold out and everyone was walking around looking for anybody selling. We sadly gave up on getting in and consoled ourselves with the fact that at least we got to see and stand right outside Yankee Stadium. We crossed the street to peruse the shops full of everything Yankee and when we turned the corner a couple of big guys walked by and whispered, "How many tickets you need?" as they kept walking. A little confused and unsure of what to do Brennan turned around and said, "Two." One of the guys casually turned around and without looking at us told us to go into the nearby store. Once inside he offered us two tickets for $100. Brennan kept looking at me and I kept telling him this was his call. There were signs all over saying "Beware of scalpers selling counterfeit tickets." The guys were pushing Brennan to buy and he came super close, but finally declined and we walked out. Two seconds later another guy approached and when Brennan told him he wanted two tickets for $50 he told Brennan to follow him. I wanted no part of this and stepped into a deli wondering if I'd ever see my husband again. The guy led Brennan around the corner and then kept going. Brennan told the guy he had to get back to his wife, but the guy ignored him and kept going. Shortly thereafter, another guy pulled up in a Mercedes SUV and rolled down his window. He held out two tickets which the first guy handed to Brennan and Brennan handed him $50. I gratefully saw him walking back towards the deli and he told me what had transpired. I thought he was joking at first but he wasn't. I suggested we go home and shower. We nervously went to the gate at Yankee Stadium and much to our relief were let in and found our seats and of course, had a hot dog. It was a fun game and quite an experience!

We rode the subway back to Davis's where we freshened up and met up with Davis and his girlfriend, Melissa. The four of us rode the subway up to Flushing Meadows to Arthur Ashe stadium for the Tennis US Open. We watched Maria Sharapova breeze through two sets against Casey Delacqua (sp?) and then James Blake vs. Fabrice Santoro. Wow, what a match! Santoro is ranked 45th and Blake is ranked 6th, but Santoro chased every ball down and almost always returned it even if it meant lobbing one up to buy himself some time. He was old school and totally a showman. Blake was not amused but we and the rest of the audience were and most of us ended up cheering for the Frenchman over our own Blake. It went down to the wire in 5 sets and Blake finally managed to eek out a victory. It ended around 12:30 and we got home around 1:30. What a night. We sat by some really fun people and all of us laughed hard and cheered even harder. It was picture perfect weather and we'll remember it forever.

Friday morning we slept in a little and then walked up to Central Park. We walked around for awhile marveling at this enormous peaceful oasis in the middle of the busiest craziest city we've ever seen. We then found a subway station and went to Rockefeller Plaza. We walked around there, went to the American Girl store for some gifts for the girls, and bought a lemonade at "Hello Deli" from Rupert (the guy that's always on Letterman.) After that we cruised the subway down to Soho where we walked around and ate at Cafe Habana. They have this Mexican grilled corn which is to die for! Yummy. We walked around some more and then rode up to Museum of Natural History and explored in there for awhile. It was amazing, but it would take 4 days to see everything there!

We went back to Davis's, changed our clothes and then met Davis and Melissa at Carmine's for a great dinner. After we ate Davis and Melissa put us in a cab and Brennan and I got to go see "Wicked." I have heard countless people rave about this show and wasn't sure if it could live up to all the hype. Yep, it did. It was honestly amazing. We both thoroughly enjoyed every second of the show. The story is so much fun and completely unpredictable and the music is just...wow. Loved it! We met up with Davis and Melissa again after the show and we walked around Time Square and got to see Davis's office. Then we went to Cafe Lalo (the cafe in "You've Got Mail) for dessert. We went to sleep, woke up, said goodbye and headed to the airport for another full day of travel.

Eliza and Josh (my sister and brother-in-law) stayed with our kids along with their own little Abe who is 7 weeks younger than Ben. Somehow she managed to keep everything running smoothly at home until Friday evening when my parents picked them up and kept them healthy and happy until Saturday evening when we got home. The kids had so much fun with Josh, Lize, Abe and Grandpa and Grandma. I was worried about Benny, but he had a blast and didn't seem to miss us nor did he punish us when we got home. We had so much fun together, Brennan and I. We also loved hanging with Davis and Melissa. We got to see and do so much in a short amount of time, but mostly it was fun just to be together and remember why we fell in love 10 years ago. Good times.