Survived New York......Not without a bit of drama of course

I thought about doing this NOT ME style but that will take WAY to much effort.



I had SO. MUCH. FUN. in NYC.....even with an unexpected bit of drama.



We got there around 6AM. I had not slept much on the bus and I was SO tired but there was not much to be done about that. We were dropped off at Rockefeller Center and told to meet back at 8 that night. We got lucky with beautiful weather all day long. The first thing we did was hop the subway to head towards the ground zero area since all of the shops were still closed.


We took the subway all day long...some of the people on the trip wanted no part of that but it really was not bad at all, yeah some were dirty but we did not have any trouble getting where we needed to be and we were able to see so many more parts of the city that way.


The World Trade Center is actually under construction to be re-built right now. It was kind of a bummer not to be able to see it due to construction fences up everywhere. The one thing that I thought was SO cool was the St Paul's Chapel which is directly across from where the Twin Towers stood was left unharmed after the attacks.



We spent some time in a store called Century 21 which had a lot of designer clothes and shoes at a more reasonable price. I bought one little bathing suit cover up for Mallory (Kate Mack brand) but I was not about to go nuts there because I needed to save my money for......

PURSES

We hopped back on the subway and headed into China Town. This was where the real fun began....as SOON as we got up onto the street they started. And by THEY I mean the purse people. They walk around the streets mumbling under there breath and this is what you BARELY hear....."Coach, Chanel, Prada.....Coach, Purses?? Chanel?" Seriously....all just so you can barely hear them. Once you make eye contact they give you a "look" and you kind of nod and the next thing you know you are in the back of some shady parking lot in a kidnapper van with no windows filled with purses. It was awesome. At one point I was so excited to be following someone through a parking lot that I tore a hole in my jeans on some rusty van and barely avoided a nice case of tetanus. That however was not the best part about shopping in China Town. The best part was when we followed some guy into a shop, went behind a curtain, down a hall and then he OPENED PART OF THE WALL to reveal another hallway that lead to a room full of bags. You could not even tell it was a door. These people are pretty serious about not getting caught...they use walkie talkies to find out if it is safe to bring people in. Scandalous!!

Once I scored my 2 "Pradas" and a pair of Chanel sunglasses we headed back to the not shady part of our day which was lunch at Hard Rock and then shopping at Macy's.

Feet are starting to hurt by now.

We capped our day off with a quick visit to Central Park which was super pretty and then headed back towards Rockefeller center to grab dinner quick somewhere and wait on the bus. One last stop into an AWESOME cupcake bakery that thank GOD is not in my city and then we were ready to go home.

And then the drama started.

About 10 after 8 one bus has shown up along with the owner of the company. Apparently when our awesome bus driver Rudy went to start the bus that my group was on it did not start. And we had to spend the night. A lot of people were pissed because by this point everyone was so tired and just wanted to go home. But what could we do, better it broke down here than in the mountains in PA. The owner of the company was awesome....she put everyone in a hotel just outside of the city and paid for it. We ended up not getting home until 7PM instead of 7AM.

One complication of spending an unexpected night.....clean undies!! Thank goodness that I am super smart and am always prepared but SOME people....who shall remain nameless....because they did give birth to me had to ride home commando and SOME people who shall remain nameless but might be related to me in other ways might have turned their skivies inside out.

Once I got home I pretty much turned right around and went out again.....yes I AM a rock star thank you......how could I not go and see THIS GIRL who came into town. So I capped my night off at a Mexican restaurant with her and This other girl I kind of like.

Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure if you made it this far.....

Group pic with our awesome driver Rudy I'm the one under the B.

Mini Van (not to be confused with the kidnapper van that was also visited) full of goodies....you can barely see me, I'm the blue shirt with her head in the van.
Happy Monday!