New York City: Our Second Honeymoon

Well, I guess you can't really describe it as our second honeymoon, since we shared a hotel room with Celeste's parents. But it was certainly fun. After getting dropped off in New York City (see Our Great Adventure Driving to NYC), we had a bit of time to kill before going to see Wicked on Broadway. We got to the city with sufficient time to completely plan our subway/train ride out to Long Island. The public transit in New York is amazing, but we wanted to make sure we got the 11:16 PM train and not the 1:02 AM train. We planned everything out, bought our tickets, and then looked for a restaurant. We ended up eating at Applebee's. Now I know what you're thinking -- "You're in New York City! You can do better than Applebee's!" This is very true. But it was raining and one thing us Californians aren't used to is rain. So we chose what was convenient, and Applebee's was close to the theater. One thing I'd like to point out at this time is that NYC has a law that restaurants must publish nutritional facts in their menus. Long story short: Knowing that a dish has 2,000 calories in it just takes all the fun out of eating -- so I sprung for the 750 calorie dish, and didn't feel bad about dessert.

Wicked was amazing. I really didn't expect much in going to the show, except that it had received great reviews. It definitely puts a different perspective on the Wizard of Oz, which I'd like to watch next time that I have a chance. We're very glad that we went to the show! We also made our train with plenty of time -- enough time, in fact, for a second dessert.

We stayed with Celeste's parents at the Glen Cove Mansion. It was a fun hotel with plenty of activity (there was a wedding and/or party each of the nights we were there). Actually, I think it is one of the only hotels in Glen Cove, NY. (As a side note, Celeste's parents were out there for Doug's 51 year class reunion.) On Saturday, we met with some of Doug's cousins. First, we met with the Bell cousins. We had a nice conversation and Celeste loved looking through the family pictures. It's funny because you could definitely see the family resemblance in some of the pictures. After that, we met with Jane Hollister at her home for a fantastic meal of poached salmon and fresh vegetables for her garden. One of the things I realized from spending time there is how quickly life seems to go. We were able to sit down and really talk for a couple hours. We ate, but we weren't rushed at all. Time just passed by. We talked about everything from family history to gardens to boating to current events. It was great!

That night, we took the train back into Manhattan so that we could go to Swing 46, our favorite restaurant from our honeymoon. It is a little spendy there, but you sure have a fun time. We had a great meal of coconut shrimp, steak, and salad. Then the live music started and we were able to dance the night away. It was our first time dancing since Celeste's injury back in June, so we took it easy a little bit. But overall, it was very fun. We forgot our camera, so I figured it would be fun to post a picture from when we went there for our honeymoon.



The next day, we took it easy. We went with Doug and Sandra to a brunch as part of Doug's class reunion. I think it is safe to assume that we were the youngest people there. We also did a tour of some of the places Doug remembers from growing up. It was a relaxing day.

The next day, we packed up and then home we went. Already looking forward to our next vacation...