Family and Friends Come for a Visit

This past weekend was very exciting and exhausting! My brothers Preston and Phillip, sister Liz and friends Erin and Melissa came to visit.  This was Preston’s second time to visit us up here.  My sister and her husband hadn’t been up here since 2004 when Phillip’s brother and I marched with our high school band in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

This was Erin’s and Melissa’s first time in New York City. Liz and I went to Carson-Newman with the girls and have stayed good friends since.  In fact, Melissa caught the bouquet at Liz’s wedding and Erin caught the bouquet at mine. Pretty cool.

Melissa and Liz

Erin and I

Everyone except Preston flew in on Thursday morning. After another job interview in midtown (!) I met them at their hotel and we came back to our apartment for some lunch. On Thursday evening we went to a Yankees game. This was the first time I’d seen Yankee Stadium and been to a game. I’m not much of a baseball fan (unlike my bro-in-law Phillip who also went to a Mets game on Friday) but I enjoyed socializing and making fun of the drunk people behind us. For those wondering the Diamondbacks won the game in overtime. 

On the subway (everyone's least favorite part of NYC) going to the game! 

First Yankee game as New Yorkers!

Beautiful Stadium

This is what my ice cream came in. What a cute little helmet!  

Friday (although it seems like multiple days) was filled with lots of walking and subway riding.

 We went to the 9/11 memorial. Right now it’s surrounded by fencing while the rest of the buildings are completed. Eventually the area will be open and you’ll be able to walk up to it from the streets.

Memorial for the victims of the North Tower

Afterward we met up with Chris near his office on the lower East Side to have lunch. If you ever travel to the city one piece of advice I have to save money (and to just eat at better restaurants in my opinion) is to walk away from touristy areas where it’s super crowded and pricey. There are great restaurants in the city many of which are hidden gems.  (Ask a local when deciding where to eat)

After lunch we made our way to Central Park which stretches an impressive 843 acres. This “Imagine” emblem is in honor of John Lennon who was shot and killed a few blocks outside of Central Park while walking home with his wife Yoko Ono.

Considering the events in Boston (which my family lived for a year while my dad was getting his master's) I thought this piece of Lennon's song was fitting. 

Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say 

I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one

I hope some day you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Getting back to our time in Central Park, it was a beautiful day and the flowers on the trees were blooming.

This was the first time the Sneed siblings were together since the wedding back in January!

We walked to the boat house (which has been in a lot of movies such as 27 Dresses and Enchanted to name some of my favorites. Central Park is one of the most filmed locations) http://www.centralparksunsettours.com/central-park-factbook/films-shot-in-central-park/

P and Liz chilling in the park.

We then made our way to Time Square. I must admit I’m not a fan of Time Square because it’s super crowded. It is a must-see though when you come to New York.

Afterwards we walked a couple of blocks to Rockefeller Center for an afternoon snack of coffee and cupcakes from Magnolia bakery and to rest our feet.

Vanilla cupcake, blond roast coffee and a hummingbird cupcake as well. Liz's chocolate one not pictured. We ended up sharing all three and having to throw some of them away because they were so rich!

Afterwards, Preston, Chris and I went to see  “Lucky Guy” on Broadway. http://www.luckyguyplay.com/ This was Nora Ephron’s last literary work. She was the screenwriter of such films as “Sleepless in Seattle”, “When Harry Met Sally” and “Julie and Julia”. The play was very good, well written, well acted and well made. It tells the story of journalist Mike McAlary who worked for the New York Post and Daily News who won the Pulitzer Prize shortly before he passed away. It covers his life along with some major news events of NYC during 1987-1998 such as the crack epidemic and cases of police brutality. Tom Hanks was incredible! I love the intimacy of broadway shows. 

On Saturday we had more of a low key day (which was a good thing since we were all exhausted from the day before). We made our way up to the Plaza hotel near Central Park again, just on the other side of the park from where we were the day before.

The Plaza (who's thinking about Home Alone 2?)

The beautiful chandelier (rates per night begin at $650, yikes!)

Then we walked to Grand Central Station for some lunch. 

100 years of welcoming travelers to the Big Apple!

Erin, Melissa, Phillip and Liz enjoying lunch at Junior's.

Yes that is an onion ring on my wrist, they were GINORMOUS, but yummy!

Side dish or accessory? 

And before you and Mayor Bloomberg get on to me for indulging in some deep fried goodness keep in mind that we walked over 36,000 steps those two days. Preston had a pedometer app that calculated our steps. I always say NYC is the original stair master. 

We walked along Park and Madison Avenues and walked by iconic/way out of our price range stores. We made our way to the Empire State Building (Erin and Melissa went to the top, while the rest of us walked around the area and met up with them later)

You might remember the scene from Elf ?

 

Finally we made our way to the iconic Macy’s store on 34^th  street. 

If you watch the parade on Thanksgiving the performances take place and are recorded in front of the store on Herald’s Square. This store has 10.5 levels and covers an entire city block! I actually find it difficult to shop here because it's so hard to figure out where to go. So much stuff and so many options!

  

After doing a little bit of damage at Macy's we made our way back to Lil’ Frankie’s (one of Chris' and mine favorite places) for pizza, stopped for gelato nearby and then made our way back home.

Yummy margarita pizza 

Peppermint stick gelato! Yum!

It was wonderful having visitors and spending time with family and friends! So much fun to show them around our city. I'm excited about having more visitors soon!