Back Next Week

For Christmas ‘ 07James had told me we were going out of town. Excited I tried to press for the location of our getaway and tight lipped he remained. It wasn’t until the night we were supposed to leave that he gave me a plane ticket with the location JFK NYC printed on it. OH MY GOSH! Are you serious? I LOVE NEW YORK!! We had a flawless flight, we took the red eye which gave us time to sleep and hit the ground running as soon as we hit NYC. We got into town around 8am and though it was too early to check into our hotel the hotel was kind enough to allow us to keep our bags there so we could start out tourist jaunt. Our first stop, The World of Disney NY, a 3 story Disney Mecca.

The store was decorated in Christmas glory and had NY Specific Disney swag which made me very gleeful. We had walked around for the duration of the day and decided that Nintendo World, a must see, could wait until later that evening. It was in the Disney store that I had noticed that The Little Mermaid Musical was now on Broadway in NYC. I had heard about it’s opening in Colorado and never dreamed I would ever get to see it. I had asked James multiple times if we can talk to the hotel concierge and see if there were any tickets at all (in NYC it’s very difficult to get tickets to a Broadway show before Christmas) he obliged and to my dismay ALL tickets were sold out. We walked around the city some more, I had just watched the Will Farell movie Elf for the 10^th time (which takes place in NYC) and the holiday decorations in the movie vs. the holiday decorations in real life did not disappoint.

From the windows of the Macy’s store (a famous holiday tradition) to the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center the city was a total dream. Thankfully it wasn’t as cold as previous years (it remained a steady 55 degrees) so heavy artillery in winter clothing was not necessary. We checked into our hotel and rested for a few hours when we received a knock at the door. Upon opening it I was SO excited to see one of my best friends Dwight and his then fiancé Colleen. James had coordinated with them to come to NYC so we could spend some time together. We had made a plan to go to dinner and Nintendo world that night. We walked to the pub had a fabulous dinner and as we were walking to Nintendo I didn’t realize James was steering us in another direction. Since my sense of direction leaves much to be desired I followed the expert. Unbeknownst to me we were heading in the opposite direction and they torturously stopped in front of the theatre housing the Little Mermaid Broadway Spectacular.

I asked to get a picture in front of the sign and it was there James revealed yet another surprise. TICKETS! Oh I made a beeline in there so fast you would have thought it was a matter of life and death. The show did not disappoint, it was beautiful, the music was amazing and the story did not take away from the magic of the original cartoon, if anything it enhanced it. The next day we actually hit the Nintendo World. It was so much fun and a must see for any Nintendo enthusiast. A brief history of the company was showcased along with a museum type display of the original consoles and Nintendo how it has changed through the years. Another noteworthy thing about NYC is the food! Don’t waste your money on expensive restaurants; chances are the deli you pass on your way to TGIFridays has way better food at way better prices. For food reviews, I would suggest chowhound for the best of the best. While we were there a local told us about this cart serving Mediterranean food near our hotel that had an upwards of 2-3 hour even late into the night. We passed by it and the lines we atrocious. But he was not kidding, it was right next to our hotel, so we went to our room to relax and watched the line for the cart below us. We waited until the line died down and sent the guys to get some food to enjoy in the comfort of our room. All in all, New York City at Christmas I highly recommend and would love to go again.

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alerie & I were in Oregon City to visit family, so we drove into Portland and to a few other cool places. Their house was beautiful.

View from the back porch

We drove to Tillamook to see the the Tillamook Cheese Factory, really great cheese and ice cream there, although they apparently have trouble keeping their most popular cheddar in stock. The drive was scenic, great views and  photo opportunities along the coast near there.

Portland is great — lots of cool things there like Voodoo doughnuts and shopping in the Pearl district. We stopped at Moonstruck chocolates and picked up some chocolate animals.

Can vegetarians eat these?

Also they have Powell’s, a huge book stor. I can’t even explain how big this place is, but here’s the directory;

The last thing I want to mention is Burgerville. At first it looks like any other fast food place, but the menu is amazing. There’s fresh fish, and the menu changes depending on what is in season. Strawberries were in season when we were there, so Valerie got a Strawberry and goat cheese sammich

Suprisingly it was delicious

We had a great time, and can’t wait to go back to see some of the stuff we missed.

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