1 year anniversary

We flew to NYC for our 1 year anniversary. Quick documentation:

Friday--get up at 3:55 am. Fly to LGA. Check-in at hotel and check our luggage at baggage counter. Grab a hot dog and italian sausage from a street vendor ($16 yikes!) and head to the subway. Go south to the Museum of Sex. HOLY SMOKES--that was a cool museum. So much info!! Went into basement for a drink and chocolate. Fun.

Went to Little Italy. Ate late lunch. Not very good. Went to Ferrara's for cafe mocha/latte and sample desserts. WOW. Some of the best italian desserts I've had. Napoleon was our favorite. Went to Chinatown. Bargained about purses. Went into back alley shop...didn't have what we were looking for but sure felt like we were doing something illegal--especially when they pulled back the black curtains in the "nail salon".

Caught the subway to the Stanton Island Ferry. Rode over at sunset. Got beautiful pics of the state of Liberty. Gorgeous. Stayed at Stanton Island about an hour in the terminal then rode back over to Manhattan and saw the skyline at dark. The new world trade building is breathtaking. So beautiful, and so many emotions.

Tried to find the right bus out of Stanton station...talked to a cop who led us in right direction. We missed bus time and another wouldn't arrive for 20 min. Took taxi to the Stanton Social. 2nd HOLY SMOKES this was delicious. We had drinks upstairs before we were seated. So trendy and I didn't feel dressed appropriately, but my Wife didn't mind. We were seated then ate some of the best food ever. Tuna, pierogis, cashew chicken rolls, and kobe philly cheesesteak. Dessert was doughnuts with three dipping sauces. They brought us champagne for our anniversary, and a cupcake with dessert. So sweet.

We got back to the hotel late...got to our room and they had assigned us 2 double beds. Not working. Went back downstairs for a king bed. Key card didn't work. I sat at door of hotel, my Wife went downstairs to discuss. She came back with key that words. Fell asleep QUICKLY...very long day.

Set 9 am wake-up call. Ordered room service coffee/mocha. I surprised my Wife and brought a BITE of our wedding cake. She loved it. Got ready and went to NBC experience store. Walked to Central Park. Had a wonderful time watching people. Rented a paddle boat and floated for an hour. PERFECT. Loved this a lot. Walked back to hotel, stopped in bar for a drink to take upstairs for getting ready. Opened our gifts to each other for our 1 year anniversary. She gave me a sweatshirt I had been DYING for since last year. I.LOVE.IT!! Before we went to NYC she had given me my main gift--a canvas of my favorite wedding photo and a card that made me cry. I LOVE it SO much!!!

We were hurried to get ready...made it to the Brasserie on time. Had dinner--escargot, french onion soup, scallops, and steak. We walked to Times Square before cutting over to our play. We saw the Book of Mormon. HILARIOUS!!! Not for the faint of heart---such a religious satire. Afterwards we walked through Hell's Kitchen. Walked to the Yotel--the place was dead. I drank some water then we walked to the XL Club. It's attached to the new hotel called the Out--they deem themselves straight-friendly. We were told to get in line and have our ID's ready. As we approached the bouncer/security checking ID's he asked how many were in our party. We said two. He said he was sorry but on Sat nights we must have a male escort to enter. WTF???? We couldn't believe what we were hearing...AT A GAY BAR!!! We turned away and even had another security guy shaking his head in disbelief. A woman stopped us just a few feet away and asked what just happened. She said she lived just down the street and had been wanting to go to the bar. After we told her what had just happened, she couldn't believe it. She was shocked. I tweeted Chely Wright about it, and she retweeted it to her 27K+ followers. I had four others retweet it. Such discrimination. I hear that the women bars sometimes do the same thing in NYC. Crazy!

We finally gave up and went back to our hotel room. Got a drink at the bar then went up to our room for some sweet time.

Sunday morning we were so tired but we got up and got ready. We headed down to Ess-A-Bagel and got some DELICIOUS bagels (cheddar cream cheese for my Wife, and cream cheese lox for me + a chocolate cream cheese to share) Lovely. We walked to Times Square and took in all it has to offer. There were SO many people!! I've never seen it so packed. We saw the Naked Cowboy!!! We grabbed a passion lemonade at Starbucks and headed back to our hotel to get our bags and leave for the airport.

We had a layover going and coming in Baltimore.

I cannot thank my mother in law enough for this perfect two day trip. We are so blessed to have her support, love, and desire to see us happy. We spent more than we intended to, but we are both so very grateful.

Happy 1 year anniversary to us!!