NY - Part 1

Well, I'm about a month and a half late but here goes! My first full day in New York was totally overwhelming, fabulous, exhausting and exhilerating! I arrived very early in the morning ~ 5am and checked into the Harvard Club, a private club for Harvard Alumni. I have never been to Harvard but if I had, I would have called this place a home away from home. Deep red carpets, dark wood paneling/flooring everywhere! (not the tacky 80's kind either). There were photos from Harvard all over the place; buildings, class photos, candid shots, some dating back to the late 1800's. It was elegant history steeped with crisp tradition and murmers of wealth everywhere.

I checked into the Harvard Club very early ~6am and then crashed until about noon when I had to drag myself out of bed to see the city that was calling. This was my first time in New York and I wanted to make the most of it!!! Here are a few shots of me and my first glimpse of Times Square!



I had a guided "Sex in the City" tour booked for 3pm (more on this later) so I decided to go out and find a street market as New York is famous for them. **Actually, I should be technically correct here and say Manhattan as I never made it off the island except to get to and from the airport** Well, I walked about 25blocks and found a lovely market that was run by the Firemen of NY city. It was huge and there were a ton of people. I wandered around, sipping my fresh smoothie breakfast and met a neat family from Columbia. The man was a third generation cigar maker so I bought three vanilla ones for my dad to smoke on his fishing trips. (Sorry Mom).

So, after wandering through the market, I realized I had to get all the way back to Central Park from 21st and was going to be in trouble so I thought I'd try the subway. I realized I had no clue where to catch it so this led me to my first "asking a native NYer" for directions. I braced myself for the blunt/rude attitude NYers seem so infamous for but I only received polite help and a big "your a lost tourist aren't you?" smile! Perhaps stereotypes are something Hollywood shouldn't pride themselves for! New Yorkers are NICE!

I digress....The Sex and the City Tour was a riot! We all loaded on 2 buses and drove all over town with an actress as our tour guide. She was very animated and sure knew her stuff. We were paraded past Paris (eeeeeee), Tiffany's (aka Mecca to Manhattan women) and many other places of filming of the series. We had TV's on the bus and we were able to watch clips of the sites we were driving by which helped to tie it all in together. We also had some stops where we could unload off the bus. The first stop was the Pleasure Chest where Charlotte bought her "rabbit" (remember the vibe intervention episode?!). Hehehe. The second stop was to Miranda's favorite bakery, Magnolia. Here is a shot of their famous wares. I felt ill after but glad I got to try one! The last stop on the tour was to Scout, the bar that Steve and Aiden started. It's actually called the Speakeasy and they had 50 Cosmopolitian martinis lined up on the bar when we arrived!
The tour was well worth it for anyone who is a fan of Sex in the City. We even had one poor German guy on the tour...I think his wife dragged him along but hey, he was on a bus full of hot women so who's complaining!!!

One closing shot, how more Manhattan (SOHO to be exact) can you get than this little doggie, taking his mom around to do some expensive handbag shopping...perhaps he got tired of last month's look!