Herrow New York

On Wednesday night we arrived in New York City to stay with one of Tyler's best friends and college roommate Zack. Zack actually lives right across the river in Englewood, New Jersey about 1.5 miles from the city. He has a nice new apartment and is enjoying his job of managing the Brooklyn Diner on 57th street. We were lucky enough to sit in for dinner one night and breakfast the next morning. Delicious! Zack is doing a great job managing the restaurant and we felt like celebrities getting wine and dined by New York's finest. We met so many people at the bar who made our experience even more fun!

Our first night in the city we went out to walk along 5th avenue to Rockefeller Center to see the lights, decorations, and the Christmas tree. We got out of the parking garage and started walking down the street where we saw limo after limo after limo lined up on the side of the road. We got to Paris movie theater and were stopped by security guards because people were coming out of the theater. Turns out it was the movie premiere for Its Complicated with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin...So...Who comes out of the theater? Meryl Streep! Followed by; Martha Stewart, Steve Martin, Jon Krasinski from the Office, Gayle King from Oprah, Tina Fey, Rita Wilson (Tom Hank's wife), Judah Friedlander (whom Zack got a hug from), Caroline Rae and I'm sure many more whom we didn't see or recognize! What a way to start our NY trip.

Across from the tree is a lighted snow flake display that performs a light show synced to the theme song from Home Alone. We continued down to Times Square for dinner and sight seeing. The next day Zack had off so we went into the city in the afternoon. Zack's dad, Steven, owns Deerstag shoe company. So Zack brought us in to tour the office. It just so happened that members of his dad's band had band practice that night! We sat in for about 8 classic rock songs and had our own little private show. The set ended with Rockin' in the Free World! We went to Macy's to see the windows and met up with Rachel's former co - worker Liz for a dinner in Little Italy.

The next day we met up with Zack at the restaurant and waited for him to get off work. We went to a couple bars in the city and came home to watch Home Alone. The last morning we went into work with Zack at 7 am! Reason being is we didn't want to drive ourselves or take a bus and we were meeting Tyler's Aunt Val, Uncle Bill, Cousin Kate, and Emilia (The Griswold Family) for a day in the city. The restaurant doesn't open til 8 so we got to see everyone set up and prepare for the day. After breakfast we met up with the Griswolds and rode the ferris wheel at Toys R Us in times square (got the Scooby Doo car), went into the New York Mets Clubhouse store, walked through Bryant Park, had lunch, and explored many parts of the city. We had a lot of fun with them. We met back up with Zack after work and returned to his apartment for hot spiced apple wine cider, apple pie, and Christmas movies.

Unfortunately this was our last big city stop :( But the trip isn't over yet! We returned to Port Jervis to spend the next two days with the Griswold Clan. Tomorrow (December 15th) is Rachel's birthday, so we're off to celebrate for our last day on the road...