The Staggs Family: The City that Never Sleeps

CSU played at Stony Brook in Long Island on Saturday, so I got to go to NYC. Yay! I absolutely love everything about that place: the crowds, the traffic, the smells, the excitement...it's awesome! (I told Chad that I wanted to move there, and he told me I'd have to get a new husband first. Boo.) Chad and the other coaches had to stick with the team, so we wives stuck together. We weren't in the city long (only about 6 hours) but we were determined to squeeze in as much as possible. In that short amount of time, we visited Battery Park, Ground Zero, ate Chinese food in China Town, visited three back rooms on Canal Street in search of designer knockoffs, rode the subway twice, bought Gracie presents at FAO Schwartz, stopped by Serendipity 3, ate ice cream at Dylan's Candy Bar, stopped by the Met, and ate dinner at Tony DiNapoli's in Times Square. I'm still exhausted. Unfortunately, the next day's game did not go our way, but we still had a great time. Here are a few pictures from our brief visit to the Big Apple.

Lady Liberty

I actually did get to see my husband in Battery Park but the picture was so bad, I couldn't put it on here .

This picture made me think of the movie One Fine Day where Michelle Phieffer and George Clooney's kids miss the boat. I thought of different movies all day.

This sculpture was in the actual WTC plaza before 9/11. They moved it to Battery Park after the attacks. The round concrete in front of it is the Eternal Flame in memory and honor of that day. It was lit on September 11, 2002.

Ground Zero.
It's amazing how different it looks than the last time we saw it (4 years ago). You can hardly tell that anything is "wrong." Last time we saw it, there were still plaques and memorials everywhere, and traffic wasn't allowed so close to it. Now it just looks like an ordinary city block that's under construction.

The tall building in the middle was the last building to fall in the attacks, and it's the first one they are rebuilding.

With the toy soldiers outside of FAO Schwartz. I bought Gracie this adorable stuffed lion, and she ended up being scared of it. Go figure.

Serendipity 3
The wait was 45 minutes, so no frozen hot chocolate for me. Boo!

This picture was taken at Dylan's Candy Bar (a HUGE candy store owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter). These portraits were made entirely of jellybeans. It was pretty amazing.
On another note, while we were in the cafe, there was a birthday party being held. The kids were leaving with huge bouquets of balloons, a bubblegum machine, and a paint can full of candy. Solmaz followed them to the cash register when they paid, and it cost $3007.00! For a little kid's birthday party! I guess that's what you should expect on the Upper East Side.

I got really excited because the window displays at Dylan's Candy Bar were the dresses from last season of Project Runway. The designers had to make dresses out of materials found in the Hershey's store (which no longer exists).

Times Square is amazing at night!

Solmaz and Wimberley

Me and April

All the girls at dinner.

At lunch on Saturday before the game.
We ate in this little harbor town called Port Jefferson. It reminded us of the little town from the movie Hocus Pocus. We wanted to stay until Halloween!