New York, New York --- Day One.

Well I made it about 2.5 weeks until I got my customary "new environment sickness". Happens every time I go somewhere new for an extended amount of time--sometimes its a cold, sometimes bronchitis. This go around its a major sore throat--Yay me! But hey, its the perfect reason to stay in bed and edit far too many photos from our weekend in the big apple!

 Getting to NYC is a breeze from here. We drive about 50 minutes to New Haven, then take the train in to Grand Central Station. The train ride is about 1.5 hours, but it goes pretty fast, especially when you're with your best friend (yeah I'm a cheese-ball). Plus, most of the conductors let military ride for free, so we only had to pay for one ticket for me instead of two for the both of us.

 Who cares if it was only 9:30 in the morning--We had been up since 4:30, so it was plenty late enough in the day to indulge in chocolate chip cookies and lemon squares from Magnolias--wouldn't you agree?

 I was quite upset when we turned the corner to see the facade of St. Patrick' s completely covered in tarps and scaffolding, and only more of it inside. Apparently they're doing some serious cleaning and renovation over the next couple years. I was sad Joey didn't get to see it the way it normally looks. We still managed to get some gorgeous glimpses of the beautiful church though.

 A neat special exhibit outside Rockefeller Center

 You know what I'm smiling about? FREE tickets to the Museum of Modern Art for Active Duty Military and their dependents---that means we already saved 50 bucks on our weekend! Boo-yah!

 It was Joey's first time at the MoMA and he loved it. He couldn't believe how different Starry Night looks in person compared to all of the reproductions we're bombarded with on a regular basis.

 The Kate Spade flagship store!

 That sweet husband of mine treated me to some grown up jewelry from Kate Spade--I love my new gold bangles!

LOVE him.

 All of the performers in Central Park are too fun. I tried to get Joey to whip out that yo-yo but he wouldn't go for it.

 This handsome guy was showing off for everyone at the zoo--these may be the only photos I took with the telephoto lens, but it was totally worth lugging that heavy lens around all day!

 Talk about a dangerous situation.

 Beautiful pony, Mallory!

 Hooray for iPhones and being able to get directions for spur of the moment decisions!

 I haven't been to Times square in 2.5 years. And let me tell ya what---I think I've had my fill for at least another 2.5 years! Its cool and all, but its not really our thing. Though, I think Joey did like that he was able to go to the Fossil store in Times Square and shop for a new automatic watch at 11:30 at night.

 Last time I was in NYC I had some of the best penne vodka near Times Square, so we decided to go there for dinner---boy do I love some good penne vodka! And of course we had to get calamari. We also got cheesecake at Juniors, but I decided not to share those photos because its beyond obvious that were are at least three hours past our bedtime. We're totally going to be those people that eat dinner at 4:30pm when we're old. 

After a very packed day we went home to our hotel, nursed our sore feet, and geared up for day two in Mighty Manhattan!