I surprised my wife with a trip to New York City for mother's day, and we had a great time! We flew in via Northwest airlines into LaGuardia. No delays at all. We were met by a Limo driver named Vladimir. He was a Russian immigrant (who came in legally) and has lived in the US for 25 years. He was very polite and a good driver. He dropped us off at the Marriott Marquis.
This is really a nice hotel, but the elevator system kinda sucks. It's confusing. When you walk up to the elevator, you type in your floor number (check in is on the 8th floor) and the panel tells you which elevator to get in. There are no buttons on the inside of the elevators, and the lights on the interior do tell you which floor the doors will be opening at, but there are no indicator lights on the outside of the elevator to give you an idea of when your particular elevator is going to open. We waited as long as 15 minutes on more than one occasion. That is our only complaint about the Hotel. We had a view of Times Square, which was incredible from our 41st floor room.
After checking in, we decided to walk around Times Square. Just next to the hotel was an Italian restaurant called Sophia's where we had a decent lunch, not excellent, but not bad either. I had a "hollow spaghetti" dish with proscutto and tomato sauce. Tess had a pasta dish with proscutto and a cream sauce. Their house Chianti was the best part of the meal. I've forgotten its name.
After walking around Times Square for a couple of hours, we went back to our room and got ready for the show "Wicked". It's an awesome story of how the Wicked Witch of the West became who she is. Very entertaining. After the play, we ate at Bubba Gumps. Good fried shrimp. We have this little tradition where we eat at a BG's if there is one in town. So far, we've eaten at one in NYC; Monterey, CA; and Oahu, HI.
The next day, we walked over to 5th avenue and walked thru many, many stores. Actually bought some stuff, but I had to tell Tess "no" when she wanted a fur coat from Sax Fifth Avenue-it was just a bit over our budget ($43,500.00!!!!!)
After lots of walking north, we turned around and walked thru part of the southern side of Central Park and got some Ice Cream. We then ate lunch at O'Brian's Irish Pub. To tell the truth, we were disappointed there. The Shepard's pie was good, and Tess got a tasty turkey club, but the atmosphere wasn't Irish at all. They played modern pop music the whole time. However, the Guinness was good!
We then retreated to our rooms to get ready for "Lion King." There were no surprises there-the story paralled the Disney movie, but the singing, music and costumes were incredible! Our son would have loved it! If it's ever in your town, it's worth the money.
After it was over, we ate sushi at Ruby Foos on Times Square. It was incredible sushi. Every bit as good as the stuff I got in Hawaii. It was very crowded though. We only had to wait 10 minutes for a seat, but felt like a sardine.
The third day we took a cab up to the Met. This place is incredible. We spent 4 hours there and were too exhausted to go on...we'd probably only seen 1/3 of the exhibits. The next time we go, we'll just spend a couple of hours at a time looking at specific exhibits.
Dinner that night was the best of all. Molyvos Greek restaurant between 55th & 56th and 7th was awesome. The appetizers were incredible (hummus and a yogurt paste). I had 2 glasses of ouzo (sp?)-it tasted like licorice and burned going down, but I never even felt tipsy. Of course I a roast of lamb that was to die for with an orzo/vegetable medley. And their Baklava is great. Tess had some of the best chicken we've ever tasted.
For the trip home, Vladimir again met us for our leisurely drive back to the airport. And again, our flight from LaGuardia to Memphis left on time and landed about 10 minutes early.
We had an awesome time, and would love to go back again with our 6 year old soon.
