NYC at Christmas time!

My husband... he's the best, isn't he? Last Thursday evening, we boarded an Amtrak train at Union Station and took a 3 1/2 hour ride up to Penn Station in NYC. For those of you who have never traveled this way, I am telling you, this is THE way to travel! It's relaxing, there are no security/seat beat/flight attendant/grouchy passenger hassles. You can relax in a first class type seat, get a snack from the cafe car or even bring your own food and water on board (and full sized shampoo!). It was such a nice relaxing trip.

While we were on the train, Brad told me where we were staying: the fabulous Library Hotel! This is a small, boutique hotel, located right down the street from the New York Public Library, right in midtown at 41st and Madison. The hotel was absolutely fantastic; perhaps the best part being free coffee/lattes/cappuccino's, bottled water and snacks 24/7. Their decaf cappuccino's became my (twice) daily favorite snack :) All their rooms are numbered by the Dewey Decimal System - we stayed in 800.004, the Dramatic Literature room. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I LOVE books, so this was just the absolutely perfect place to stay.

We took New York by storm and did everything! A helicopter tour Friday morning (if you have never been on a helicopter before, I highly don't recommend it, it's quite scary!); a trip to B&H - the world's most fabulous photography/video/audio store (I managed to spend less than $100 and left without the beautiful Nikon D300... although that was difficult!); a visit to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and head up to the top of 30 Rock; fantastic dinner's at Butter in NOHO and Trattoria Del Arte in Midtown; a visit to the Original Ray's Pizza for authentic NYC pie; a walk hand-in-hand through Central Park; a stroll through the Met; several fantastic shows, including the New York City Ballet's Nutcracker, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (with the Rockettes!!) and the Broadway show Gypsy, staring the fantastic Patti LuPone; a visit to Ground Zero to pay our respects and a visit to Wall Street and the NYSE to shake our fists; several Subway rides and a midnight stroll through Times Square with a giant hot pretzel and fat snowflakes falling from the sky.

Of course, I took a lot of pictures (but shockingly less than 400!), so I promise to post some on here when I get them organized... If you've never been to New York City at Christmas, you have to go. Yes, it's cold. Yes, it's (very) crowded. But the decorations are beautiful and the spirit of the season is infectious!