“Country” Girl in the BIG City

In my opinion, there is no city in the world that identifies with the Christmas season as much as New York City.

Maybe it’s because the whole season is kicked off with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.  Or, maybe it’s the huge tree at Rockefeller Plaza.  Maybe it’s the shopping.  Or, the Rockettes.  Or, it could be movies like Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, and Home Alone 2.

Whatever the reason, for me, Christmas and New York are nearly synonymous.

And, maybe that’s because until recently, I had never been to New York City so I just didn’t know better.

(This is a bit of a sore subject for my New York born father, who still kicks himself for never taking me to the city.  But, don’t fret.  I earn my street smarts when he instead sent me off to the world’s other most cosmopolitan cities like Sydney, Madrid, London, LA, Barcelona, Florence and Geneva alone.  All before I could legally order a cocktail… in the USA.)

But, this summer, my younger sister took a job in New York City to be closer to her college sweetheart and I had a good reason to finally visit.

With my great friend, Betsy, and sister, Kerry, by my side, we took on the Big Apple.

And, then some!

Kerry’s job is in NYC, but she lives in Hoboken, New Jersey just across the Hudson.  Hoboken has come into it’s own after being kind of dull, sketchy even, about twenty years ago.  It was a great home base for the three of us after busy days in Manhattan.

Here are five other reasons that Hoboken is great:

1. Carlo’s Bakery– We set foot in Carlo’s Bakery not once, not twice, but three times during our long weekend.  TLC’s Cake Boss put Carlo’s on the map and most days it has tourists lined out the door.  But, the treats were so worth the line.In fact, I think Betsy is still having dreams about the cheesecake.

   

   (Fun Side Note: Kerry is taking one of the many cake decorating classes that the bakery offers later this month.  They are making a snow man.  Love. It.)

2. The Food Scene– Carlo’s isn’t the only spot in town that has become “TV Famous.”  We had a great brunch at La Isla which has been featured on Diners, Drive In’s and Dives.  Kerry loves the el Cubano sandwich.  And, if I wasn’t concerned about my ever growing pregnant waistline, I would have been all about the stuffed french toast.  Instead, I was good and had an omelette.

   (Another Fun Side Note: In the last six months Kerry created a popular Instagram account called “Good Eats Hoboken” so she was a great guide for the off the beaten path spots like La Bouche, a super cute french bistro, that was perfect for a working brunch on a Friday morning.  Follow her!)

3.  The Vibe– Hoboken is so close to busy New York City, but it was quite different.  It felt more like a neighborhood.  A little more quiet and less rushed.  It is a great area for young people and couples starting their own families.  And the view of Manhattan?  Pretty amaze

4.  The Price– Kerry took us to a Happy Hour on Friday night and we were blown away by the $3.00 glasses of wine and half price apps.

(Not So Fun Side Note: I sipped on a virgin mojito that cost more than a real drink during the happy hours.  Cool.)

But, in all seriousness, I was honestly pleasantly surprised with the prices for meals, coffee, and more in Hoboken.  It didn’t seem much different than prices in the Midwest.

5. The Path– The PATH is the public transportation system that connects Hoboken to Manhattan via a train that runs under the river and takes a whopping 7 minutes to get from Jersey to Midtown.  This made it super easy to get into the city for days of sight seeing.

Kerry, Betsy and I really took NYC by storm and saw a lot in the few days we were in town.  While Kerry lives and works there, she hasn’t had many opportunities to be a “tourist.”

So, we did the touristy things like Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza and Central Park, but we also did quite a bit that was a little more unique.

Here are a few of my favorite highlights from my first time in one of my new favorite cities:

• The Whitney Museum– The Whitney Museum is a beautiful, modern building full of American modern art exhibits of impressive sculpture, design and paintings. We also visited to Museum of Modern Art which had a fabulous exhibit full of Picasso’s sculptures.And, while I enjoyed both museums, the view at the Whitney was so spectacular and it wasn’t as busy as the super popular MoMA.

• The 9/11 Museum and Memorial– This was so incredible.It is amazing how much has been curated from the day.  Desperate emails, heart wrenching voice mails, belongings like watches and wallets, more and more. You could spend hours there.  The website suggests allowing for two hours in the museum, but that’s no where near enough time.  I really think you need at least four.Yes.  It is sad and I caught my eyes stinging more than once; but, honestly, I walked away very glad that the museum exists for future generations to understand the impact of that day.
• Serendipity– Once flights were booked, Betsy and I started dreaming of all the different places we wanted to go for food and/or drinks.Real New York bagels.  Betsy
  Rooftop Cocktails.  Me
  Pizza the size of our face. Betsy
  Serendipity Frozen Hot Chocolate. MeI have wanted to go to Serendipity for years. Celebrities are sometimes found there. There’s the whole movie thing. And, ever since I saw the famous frozen hot chocolate floating around on Pinterest, I wanted to give it a try.

  Then, I found myself expecting a baby about a month after flights were booked. So, no cocktails for me NYC. With all the free calories to spare and an increasing sweet tooth, I made sure we got reservations at Serendipity for lunch. (I would suggest reservations. It’s a small place and gets busy.)

  

  Serendipity is cute, a little tacky, but still fun.  A good place for little girls or lunch with a group of girl friends.  The frozen hot chocolate was good, but the mint, hot fudge sundae was great!

(We did do cocktails at the champagne bar at the Plaza Hotel and visited a really fun rooftop bar at The Refinery Hotel. Both places were able to make great mocktails for me and baby.)

• The Spotted Pig– I got April Bloomfield’s A Girl and Her Green’s cookbook last spring.  It’s great and full of many almost total veggie recipes.  It’s a really nice book to have with all the garden produce and it would make one think that she must be a vegetarian.  But, here’s the thing.  AG&HG isn’t April’s first cookbook.  The other cookbook? A Girl and Her Pig.And, let me just say, the girl does meat right.So right, that she has won James Beard’s Best Chef award and is one of ten female chef’s to boast a Michelin Star… at both of her humble, down to earth gastropubs, The Breslin and The Spotted Pig.(Side Note: At the Spotted Pig they don’t take reservations and it’s always packed.  We showed up at 5 and asked to put our names in for a table around 7. They honored it, so give it a try!)

And, now… The most exhilarating and, evidently, impressive thing we did in New York City:

We landed seats in the audience for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

It was so cool.

Tim McGraw, Elizabeth Banks and John Glaser were guests.

And, they were all so fun.

My face hurt for hours afterwards from smiling so hard.

Kerry was totally in her athletic element throwing elbows to make sure we got seats and was on a serious adrenaline high as we exited.

And, Betsy?

Well, Betsy cried… Twice.  As he came out to start the show and when he- oh.em.gee!– high fived her.

So, how did we do it?  Here is what we learned:

1. It’s apparently a little tricky.  (Everyone we spoke with was amazed that we got in.  Many New Yorkers we met said they have tried for tickets hundreds of times but it never works.)
2. We owe it all to Betsy.

Betsy loves all things celeb.  (Maybe I should have mentioned that before I told you that she cried at the sight and touch of Jimmy Fallon…?)  So, she knows that a month’s complimentary tickets are released on a specific date at a specific time.  She marked said date and time for the November shows, told her boss she would be late to a meeting (Priorities. Duh.) and hit refresh over and over until the dates we were in town were posted.

She also made an in depth profile, complete with photos, on all three of us.  We really think this helped our cause because the NBC execs were able to see our beaming personalities and made for TV faces… obvi.

Then, about two weeks before the show, she got an email saying we had been selected.  (Cue major dance party!) But, it still didn’t mean that we were totally “in” because they over sell the show to ensure that the audience is full.

So, we arrived to 30 Rock early.  You can’t “wait in line” because they don’t open one up until about an hour before the show but, there is plenty of cool stuff to look at at 30 Rock from the NBC fan store to the Today Show studios and more.  It went fast.

But, it became clear about thirty minutes out that the other people in the hallway were there for the same reason we were and it started to feel a little competitive.

So, obviously we inched closer and closer.

Finally, a woman rounded us up (Which took no effort at all.  We were all right there and ready to go.) and led the mob upstairs where we fell into line to get our ID’s and tickets checked.

After security, they had us wait in a fun lounge where images of past guests crossed the many screens in the room and interns set the tone for a good time.

We didn’t see any one get turned away or kicked out, but they were very serious that they would if they caught anyone taking photos.

But, we have this to prove we were there… and it was awesome!