Ding Dang Dong

NYC day two. I didn't sleep well. I'm a light sleeper and I didn't have my fan. But, due to a little thing called technology I used a noise app on my phone to mimic the sound of a fan. But, my body wasn't fooled and knew it was a fake, hence the bad nights rest. Also, my feet were already hurting and we didn't even check out of the hotel yet. I'm complaining, aren't I? I'm sorry. All in all it was another successful day in The City!

^^^Because I forgot to add this picture to day 1's post. The line was wrapped around the building. But, we waited. It was worth it, just in case you were wondering.

^^^We started off day two walking to Central Park.

^^^Ain't much better in here, kid.

^^^Is this the bridge where Harry and Marv get arrested at the end of Home Alone 2? We humored ourselves and pretended it was.

^^^"KEVIN! You spent $967 on room service!"

^^^Have I mentioned before that we like to entertain ourselves?

^^^New York's most exciting hotel experience!

^^^That's me waiting for a limo to pick me up to see Duncans Toy Chest: "five floors of cash"

^^^For you readers who haven't seen Home Alone 2{shame on you!} this is the Plaza Hotel.

^^^Where Kevin reunites with his mom. AKA Rockefeller Center.

^^^Lunch at Eataly. Next time you visit NYC...GO THERE! So good.

^^^After lunch we started heading towards the High Line and stumbled through this neighborhood...

^^^...and I wanted to live here. So charming. Also, probably very expensive. One can dream, right?

^^^The High Line is an elevated park built on a 1.5 mile section of the former New York Central Railroad, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan.

To be quite honest the High Line really wasn't all that exciting. Although, it was nice to avoid traffic lights. I'm thinking in the summer it would be more enjoyable. Also, at this point we were getting tired, sore and cranky. So, it's possible we just weren't in the right frame of mind{and body} to fully appreciate it.

Next we stopped at a Starbucks{they're EVERYWHERE!} to grab a coffee and then we were off to Penn Station. Let me just say, Penn Station the Sunday after Thanksgiving is madness. I don't know whose bright idea it was to not inform the passengers of the track their train would be arriving on until TEN MINUTES before boarding...but that's how it works. Needless to say it was an every man fends for himself kind of situation. The important thing is that we made it on the train. Phew.

It's become sort of an Olsen family travel tradition. ;)

Next year we will make sure to go when the tree is lit.

"What city is that over there...?"

"It's New York, sir."

You'll have to bare with me. I sort of quote Home Alone, like, all the time. Even when it's not Christmas time.

So, Steve asked me what I wanted for my birthday/Christmas. I had the brilliant idea of combining both birthday and Christmas gifts{perk of having your birthday close to the holidays} so I could get a mega gift.

"I want to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway." said I. You see, it's been on my bucket list for a long time now. This meant going to New York City. Duh. Steve agreed it would be fun. {he's a good man that Steve} The best part is we were able to use Steve's hotel reward points and stay overnight near Times Square for only $70! Score! See Steve, all that traveling to Detroit {*chuckles} paid off after all!

I'll start off by saying we had SO much fun. Or as the elderly lady that was on the train with us would say: "What a hoot!" People watching/eavesdropping on other peoples conversations is a favorite past time of ours. It doesn't take much to entertain ourselves. As you can imagine, we tried to insert the phrase "what a hoot!" as often as we could just to giggle to ourselves. This is the stuff healthy marriages are made of, people. Okay, not really, but what I'm trying to say is getting away from reality to just be silly and have some clean old fashioned fun is good for the soul. And, it's good for your marriage, too. NYC was the perfect place to do just that.

Shall we get started then?

^^^As you can see I was very excited for our upcoming adventure. Adventure because we are were practically NYC virgins. I was so excited I felt it merited taking a selfie. "I could look worse..." I tell myself.

^^^We parked in Hamilton, NJ and took the train into Penn Station. It's the way to do it! After witnessing all the traffic jams we were high-fiving each other for choosing public transit.
Isn't he so debonair?

^^^We stayed on 40th Street. Within a ten minute walk we were in Times Square or the Broadway District. Perfect!

^^^"I'll have an extra large bed, a TV, and one of those little refrigerators you open with a key..."

^^^After we checked in at the hotel we had lunch before heading over to the show. We each had two slices of pizza and a coke. Our total came to $6.50. It was delicious. Who says you can't eat in NYC for cheap?!

^^^EEK!

^^^The Majestic Theatre was built in the 1920s. It was beautiful. I was just so happy.

^^^We ordered some cab sauv. Naturally it came in sippy cups...we can't be staining the carpet! Genius! And it doubles as a souvenir! Don't ask how much we paid for a "sippy" of red.

 ^^^Happy sigh/wine buzz is starting to take effect

^^^I just love this man. Like, so much. <3

 

^^^The chandelier moved up and down. I was impressed. Also, did you know the word chandelier originated from the French language? If you already knew that, then pretend you didn't because I was impressed with this little trivia tid bit. 

FYI: The Phantom of The Opera was written by a French man named Gaston Leroux in the early 1900s. It is the longest running show in Broadway history. Pretty cool, right? I highly recommend this show! I may or may not have teared up during the show. The story is lovely, the music is beautiful. I also may or may not have been a bit buzzed from that cab sauv. The origin of tears is still up for debate.

^^^There's not very many picture of us together. We felt shy about asking people to take our picture. Everyone seemed to be in such a rush! Now that I think about it, we didn't take anyone else's picture either.

^^^I wish we would've taken more pictures at Tolaoche, an upscale Mexican restaurant in Manhattan. The chef, Julian Medina, was the runner up winner of Iron Chef in 2011. The food was superb. It was the best guacamole I have ever tasted. And the flavors in the tacos made my mouth do a little jig.

¡Buen provecho!

^^^There were more than 100 tequilas in stock at Tolaoche. Enough said.

^^^After dinner we bundled up and walked walked walked.

^^^I told Steve I wanted to see the Rockettes next year for my birthday/Christmas gift. He just rolled his eyes. ;)

^^^I was SO disappointed the tree wasn't lit yet. :( We missed it by four days. All the more reason to return to NYC next year!

^^^Saks on Fifth. We were in here for about two hours no lie. It was quite the experience.

^^^There was an entire floor{10 floors total} dedicated to women's designer shoes. Dear Lord have mercy.

 ^^^This shoe? $1,700. 

^^^Times Square baby!

^^^I don't know why I made him pose in front of the Olive Garden sign in Times Square. We didn't eat there on anything like that...but since I don't have many pictures of Steve, here you go!

^^^The city that never sleeps

^^^My first hot dog from one of those little street stands. It was good.

And that wraps up day one of our adventures in NYC! It was so nice being able to stay out late and go back to a hotel to sleep rather than traveling back home. By the end of the day a hot shower and soft bed was calling my name. Will we have enough steam to continue on to day two? Stay tuned to find out.

The Bramble Banks

Also known as the Outer Banks.

I figured it's about time I share about our lovely family vacation to Hatteras Island, NC. It was a first time for us all. All as in all twelve of us. Two sisters and a friend flew in from Montana. All five Stayer sisters together at last. Add the two Steves, two dogs, two parents, two grand parents and a partridge in a pear tree. My mom was on cloud nine. It’s been close to a decade since we have all gone on a family vacation together. I know what you’re thinking. This could go well or poorly. It went extremely well! And I’m not being sarcastic.

And whose bright idea was it to bring the dogs anyway? This is where “bramble” comes into play. Is this a real word? I don’t know. I think it is. What I do know is the terrain is very cactus/desert like in the Outer Banks. At least where we were staying. Not at all dog friendly. There were little prickly tumbleweeds everywhere. They got stuck on the dogs paws, they stabbed us in the feet {mostly my dads feet}. It was a pain literally and figuratively speaking. My dad called them brambles. Just so we’re clear. By the end of the week we were calling them brumbles {blame the alcohol?}.

We had fun. Lots of fun. Plain and simple as that. I don’t think I’ve ever been as relaxed in my entire life as I was on this vacation. There was nothing to do, people. Nothing. Like the only touristy thing we did was go see a lighthouse. And we didn’t even climb up the stairs to take in the view because we are a} too cheap b} scared of heights c} ain't nobody got time for that.

Our day looked like this:

9 am-2 pm: rise and shine, drink coffee, eat breakfasts made by the father, drink mimosas, apply sunscreen, go the beach, drink mojitos/gin and tonics/beer/wine/whiskey and cokes, walk back to the house to make fluffernutters, go back to the beach, take a nap, talk about life, throw around a football, play catchphrase, jump in the waves.

2 pm-6pm: get tired of the beach, make more coffee, go to the pool, re-apply sunscreen, try to get dad to say the word “bramble” or "brumble", grab a beer, go in the hot tub, take a shower, drink five glasses of water, apply aloe vera, put on something nice.

6 pm-midnight: Go out to dinner, order a water, eat seafood, take pictures of each other/yourself/the scenery, go to DQ for buy one get one 99 cent blizzards, change into comfy clothes or swim suit, resume drinking alcohol of any variety and/or coffee, sit around and argue about what we should do next, play a game such as apples to apples “winner takes a shot” version, have drunk conversations about how going back to work and reality will suck, laugh until your sides hurt, go night swimming in the ocean, go in the hot tub, go to sleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. Insert happy sigh {here}.

Repeat for seven days. And that's all you really need to know.

And since pictures speak louder than words…

 

 ^^^this is how one does a road trip with a dog. well pardon me, jake.

^^^safety first :)

^^^vacation= mimosas every morning

^^^take me back there

^^^the man who made us breakfast. thanks dad!

 

^^^he's all mine folks!

^^^daily DQ run

^^^mojitos

 ^^^sand bar

^^^crazy crowds

^^^Leesha "book worm" Stayer

^^^yep, I'd say this is about 4 o'clock-ish

^^^"now wave to the camera..." {???}

^^^proof of night swimming. also right before I went down and camera drowns. miraculously iPhone survives.

^^^i like turtles

^^^ <3

^^^cape hatteras lighthouse

^^^harvest moon

^^^amaw & poppy

^^^the kids table

^^^mandy. always the character

^^^don't ask how long it took to start this fire

^^^i just don't know

^^^because this makes me laugh out loud. every. time.

^^^what happens at a beach fire, stays at a beach fire

^^^on the road again

^^^the end.

We are already tentatively planning a trip for next year. It was just that enjoyable.