What I like about you- NYC

Will you be mad at me if I admit that I am not in LOVE with NYC?  Now relax... I didn't say I didn't like New York, cuz I do.  I just don't LOVE it like the rest of the world does.  Some people actually kinda get mad when I tell them this.  I swear they do.
This got me to thinking. (uh-oh)

Here are a few random reasons people are generally mad at me:
Take a deep breath.  Based on previous reactions, these are kind of a big deal. 

1.  I have  never seen the movie "The Godfather". 

 Any of them. 

 I don't even know how many there are.  Are there four? 

I have no clue. 

 As a matter of fact, I have never seen "The Lion King" or "Shrek" either.  Are you gasping yet?  Some people actually gasp when I tell them this.

2. I don't really care about fancy jewelry.  I'm totally uninterested in it.  I don't want it and don't understand why others are obsessed with it.  When I tell people this they are shocked and kinda angry.  Then they try to defend their stupid jewelry to me.  I don't care. Its a total waste of money. I find great pleasure in wearing a $10 necklace.  When I lose my cheapo necklace, I just buy a new one.  No big deal.  If I lost a $300 necklace, I'd be upset.  If I lost a $4000 ring, I'd probably need anxiety pills. 

3. I don't like carrot cake. 

At all. 

What is it?  I don't get it.  Why are there veggies in my dessert?  I might even HATE it.   I think I lost a friend a few years ago because we disagreed about carrot cake. She liked it and I didn't.  There was no way we could be friends.

Okay back to NYC  

The Empire State Building- view from a rooftop bar

Here is what I like about it:
So its a big diverse city with lots of tall buildings and 10 million people living in like 2 square blocks. ha ha.  It has lots of cool restaurants and a huge park in the middle.  There are taxis and trains that will take you anywhere remotely near Manhattan fairly easy. There are street vendors on every corner and everything is open almost 24 hours a day.  The theaters are the best in the country.  The talent that I have seen at the shows in NYC beat any other city in the world! 

Beach bar at the Pier- overlooking brooklyn bridge

On that note.... Here is why I don't LOVE NYC like others do:

I don't need anything open 24 hours a day.  I personally get up early and sleep at night.  Seems unnecessary. Go to just about any other city at 4 am on a Saturday night.  Everything is closed.  This is how it should be.  Go to bed people!

I don't really know where everyone is going in NYC.  There are taxis everywhere, but it is hard to get one.  Everyone always seems to be on the move.  Where are they going?   Honestly.

Lets move on a bit.

The sports bars in NYC suck.  Yeah I said it.  There are no good sports bars in the city. Find me one that compares to the awesome ones in Chicago, Philadelphia, or Boston and I will retract this statement.   Until then... I am stickin to my story.

No booze on Sunday til noon.   What a dumb rule.  I get it.  New Yorkers are cool.  They go out to dinner at like 10 pm on a Saturday night.  They stay out til 4am.  They sleep in on Sundays until noon. Then they hit brunch somewhere cool in the west village and do unlimited champagne for the afternoon.  It works for them.  Not for me.  I am on vacation and would love a bloody mary with my 11 am breakfast/ lunch.  Ill repeat:  Dumb Rule.


Two other gripes:  Trash everywhere and everything is under construction.  If you don't get it, go visit.

typical times square at night

Okay are you mad at me yet?  

With all that said... here are a few wonderful pics I have from our last two trips to NYC.  Yeah, we have been there twice it the past few months and of course we had an awesome time!  

brooklyn bridge

The biggest puffed rice machine.  Sitting in the middle of union square

The naked cowboy. 

View of Central Park and the upper west/east side

Ryan eating his corn

Vino for lunch





Recap time:  I like NYC; You remind me of fancy jewelry.  

ps: if you are my long lost carrot cake friend, I want to say I am sorry.  Maybe we can make amends someday...over cheesecake.



Next stop is Halloween in VEGAS!!!



 

The Charleston Glitch

The famous Charleston Bridge!

We totally hit the the "lucky" jackpot while we were in Charleston this weekend.  Now I don't mean the slot machine jackpot, I mean the stars were all aligned and everything kept falling perfectly into place.  We literally just had plain "luck" on our side (and a computer glitch).  

Now the luck actually started a few weeks ago at home when we purchased our hotel.  As we were searching for a good deal for a room in Charleston, we found a hotel on Hotwire that was practically too good to be true.  It said we had purchased a 4 star hotel in the city for $32 per night!! The retail price for these types of hotels in this area are between $200-$300. It appeared to be a mistake... so we booked it anyways and held our breath. 

Okay lets fast forward to last Saturday when we checked into the lovely "French Quarter Inn".  The lady at the front desk sort of chuckled and said "oh, you guys are one of the Glitches."  We said yes and she handed us our keys with a joyful smirk. 

Just like that.  $32 for a 4 star hotel.  Thank you Hotwire.

Since it was super early in the morning, our room wasn't ready, so we had to leave our bags with the bell desk.  They said they would deliver them to the room once it was ready (I know it sounds like a dumb detail to share with you, but it is important to my story).

Moving on... the weekend gets even better.

So the front desk then pointed us to the free breakfast .  Now this wasn't just any free breakfast. It was a complete spread filled with detox water, French pastries, and of course: unlimited champagne all morning.  Oh Lord, at this point we knew we had really scored on this hotel!

The Breakfast Buffet

The lovely patio

Alright, after several rounds of the bubbly, we decided to see a few sites.  Our first stop was a carriage ride through the city.  We walked up to the barn and literally a carriage was ready to leave with no waiting!  Guess what else? The clerk gave us a discount just because I told her I thought I had a coupon! As u can tell, I sort of get excited about the little things.

Our Carriage Ride

another carriage

After a fun filled afternoon in the city, we eventually we made our way back to the hotel where we noticed our luggage had not yet arrived in the room.  No big deal-but I called the front desk and they said they would bring it promptly.  They also casually mentioned there was a free wine reception in the lobby. 

What ?  More free stuff?  Okay.

We practically raced down to the lobby for the wine reception which was basically another gourmet European style buffet.  I mean, how much more could this hotel give us?  It was getting ridiculous.   We chuckled to each other as we toasted our wine on the patio and simply feeling overly privileged. 

afternoon wine reception

lots of options

Eventually the wine reception was over.  I checked back to the room.... NO LUGGAGE YET.  Geeze, what did they do, sell them?  Hmmm.  Now it has been 10 hours since our original check-in.  We arrived at 9 am and it is now 7 pm.  I kinda wanted my suitcase.  So I called again.  I even offered to pick it up myself. 

They apologized for the delay and informed us they were sending a complimentary bottle of champagne to the room and removing all valet parking charges.  

freebies

Ridiculous just got more ridiculous.  Lets break this down:

*We only paid $32 for one of the nicest hotels in the city
*Unlimited champagne and gourmet breakfast from 7-11 am
*Wine and cheese reception daily from 5-7 pm
*Free Valet parking
*Complimentary champagne sent to the room

WTF.

Deal of a lifetime.  'Nuff said.

the fountain view

Here is my moral of the story:

Whomever said "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" was a Jackass. 

I'll take advantage of a good Glitch any day!!

Now don't be jealous... I have plenty of horror stories about our problems while traveling.  Did I ever tell you about the time we sat in the Baltimore airport for 7 hours?  How about the time our rental car got towed in Vegas?  Well stay tuned cuz there are plenty of those stories as well!!

 

 

Here are few other pics of our weekend in Charleston:

SNOBS: one of our fav restaurants

shrimp and grits

The patio at The Blind Tiger Pub

Duck at McCradys... this restuarant used to be a brothel, now its run by famous Chef Sean Brock!

The Charleston Market

View of the water...Fort sumpter far in the distance.  Birthplace of the Civil War

Rooftop at the Market Pavillion

Turn up the AC in AC

 

The Beach Patrol House

 

I need to apologize.  Not to you guys for shoving my blog down your throats every few weeks, but to a city.  Yes I wanna tell Atlantic City "I am sorry".  Now if you remember not too long ago, we spent a weekend in AC and I came back and blogged about it.  I believe I named it an "armpit" city.  Yes, I just checked, I wrote an entire blog about how AC is one of the 4 armpits of America. 

The busy boardwalk in the middle of summer

Well, guess what?  I have had a slight change of heart!  You see, last time we visited, it was spring time.  It was too cold out to really enjoy the boardwalk as it is meant to be enjoyed.  On this trip, it was the peak of summer.  All the beach bars were opened, the boardwalk was packed, and the music was pumping.

The newest and best addition to the beach!

Fist pumpers paradise

I think the other reason I enjoyed it so much was because we stayed at the newest hotspot: Revel.  There really is no place better to stay on the boardwalk.  It has the awesome ocean views, a kick ass pool, and some amazing restaurants.  I also learned it is the tallest building in New Jersey!

View from the Revel sun deck

The AC pier!

My favorite food: octopus!!

Yeah its an indoor food truck!

Boardwalk  action

Alright, now AC is still a cheese ball fest, but after our summer weekend there, I realized it CAN be a decent getaway.   I still wouldn't put it in my top ten or even top 20 places, but I may take it off my armpit list.  Let me think about it for a bit, and I will get back to you.

Have you ever seen so many funnel cake flavors??

Typical Jersey Shore style

You can even buy hermit crabs and lizards...not sure why

In case you cant find the beach...




 

So if any of you happen to find yourself in AC for the weekend, here is my advice:

* Stay at Revel or the Borgata. All other hotels were built in the 70's and have not been renovated in over 30 years. 
* Only go in the summer during great weather.  If the forecast sux, just stay in Philadelphia- its only an hour away; you will thank me later for this.
* Two nights maximum!  This will give you plenty of time to lose your cash in the casino, get sick from the carnival food, and blend in with the drunks on the beach.

So that's it.  
Sorry AC... its not you its me

:)



 

The 5th wheel in Miami

So we got this gnome at work.

Yes,  I said "we got this gnome at work".

He is a small plastic (I think its plastic) figurine.  He even has a name:  Joe Hanzle.

And a Facebook page!

Allow me to repeat myself.  We have a gnome a work named Joe Hanzle who has a facebook page.

This is ridiculous.  Yes, I know. 

The gnome takes turns going on vacation with us.  We are so sophisticated we even made calendar in which we "reserve" Joe Hanzle for various excursions.  (props to Melissa for her sophisticated calendar).

Guess who was lucky enough to take the gnome to Miami?  Yep... It was my turn to show him a good time.

This is how it all went down.  I carried around this gnome statue for 4 days on South Beach, Miami. 

This is Joe Hanzle

posing in front of Mango's on South Beach

Somewhere on Ocean Drive

somewhere else on Ocean Drive

He tried his first Mojito

He went swimming

he flirted with the ladies

Ohhh... the Clevelander!

Look mom!  I tried Octopus

followed by jager shots

I am not sure what happened here

or here

center of attention - of course

who are these guys?

coffee for the morning headache

Despite all of our fun with Joe, we actually found a few moments without him:

the boys glowing at Mango's

Some new friends at The Pelican Happy Hour

Ryan and Karen

Light up rings

ahh-- Karen and Eric

But then, we missed him... so he reappeared: 

Joe found a shoe

Eric looking Tuff

We love Joe

So that is how you enjoy a weekend in Miami with a gnome! 

If anyone would like to follow Joe in his future travels... you can friend him on Facebook. 

(Joe Hanzle- for those of you who are a little slow)

After you "friend" him on facebook, you may want to reevaluate your life.  Realize you have just requested the friendship of a gnome on social media. 

seriously


Three things I learned while in Miami:
1. South Beach is possibly the most expensive place in America
2. People of all shapes and sizes like tight clothes
3. Strangers love gnomes!!

Next stop is probably Atlantic City/ Philadelphia (again)- stay tuned!  We also have some potential upcoming trips to NYC, Charleston, Seattle, and LA. 

Jill