A few months ago, Zach emailed me, Scotty P, Uzi, and his roommate Mike to see if we would all like to go to New York City with him to see his girlfriend in Jersey Boys. The responses were all an immediate yes, but we needed to nail down a date that worked for all of us. One day, we all got an email saying that Zach and Mike had booked tickets for the weekend of July 31. Within an hour, everyone had tickets and we started planning our weekend.
Details are as follows:
Kristy and I flew into NYC on Friday morning and met up at the airport. My sweet cousin Beverly decided to fly in from Syracuse for the day and surprise me, which was really nice of her. We were all really tired from our flights, so we headed to Steph Bishopp's house (who was our VERY gracious host) to take a nap. Upon exiting the Subway right by Steph's house, I did some damage to my toe that left me barely able to sleep. I am fairly sure that I just jammed it, but it was not pretty, as you'll see in a minute. After getting some rest, we headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Beverly used to be an art teacher, Kristy graduated in interior design and at one time, I was an art minor. Needless to say, we all enjoy a good museum.
Here I am with Beverly outside the museum before going to dinner.
I made plans with two of my girlfriends from elementary school/high school who live in NYC now to meet up for dinner. It took some planning, but we went to Motorino's in Brooklyn and it was delicious. Brussel Sprout pizza! Two things that I love! Amazing. Here I am with Kristy, Beverly, and Steph.
And here I am with Courtney and Katie. I could write an entire blog post on them and how I could. not. stop. smiling. all through dinner but I'll spare you that. I will just say that it was more enjoyable than I can tell you to see two girls that I grew up with - who loved me in all my ugly phas
es - and see how they've turned out to be amazing, successful, and happy women. That dinner made up for me not attending my high school reunion last fall.
Then off to Prospect Park to see The Swell Season. By the time we got there, we couldn't get in, so we sat outside the gates and listened for an hour or so. Then we met up with these love birds for 4th meal.
And these two really started hitting it off as well. I couldn't have been more pleased.
And this is where the story starts to get exciting. So. .....
After 4th meal in Brooklyn, we got on the subway going back to Steph's house in Manhattan. We were on the train with about 10-15 other people in our car, laughing and talking about whatever. I specifically remember talking about our
adventure hiking half dome last summer and how I'd rather die than do it again. :) We were a few stops outside of Manhattan still when some people got in our train car. I was facing Steph & Kristy and saw a man walking toward me. I was not prepared for what was about to happen. He sat down fairly close to us and was facing me. He sat for a second I think then proceeded to throw his bag down, walk toward me and get about an inch away from my face and start screaming that he was going to f*** me up over and over and over. Please keep in mind that this was a very large black man who was solid muscle and was not homeless and not dressed like a crazy person. This went on for a few minutes and apparently from what Kristy told me later, I had a look of sheer terror on my face. And he wasn't yelling at all of us girls - it was just me. He went back to his seat talking about slavery and how we don't respect him, and how he knows how to make weapons. All awesome, right? Then he'd get up and start doing the same thing again, inches away from my face. The entire time, none of the people on the train were moving, let alone looking at each other - especially us girls. At the Canal St. stop, Steph B made eye contact with me and said "I think we can change trains here. Do you want to?" I said "yes" and we tried to get off the train as quickly as possible. The worst thing was that we thought he'd try to follow us off the train based on how he was acting. I seriously thought that he was going to kill me. As we exited the train, we literally walked into 6 cops and 2 undercover cops who just happened to be getting on our same exact train from the same door we were getting out of. Steph B immediately told them what had been going on and within about 5 seconds, the guy who had been harassing me was being pummeled to the floor by 6 cops (it took 6 to get him to the ground) and handcuffed. Thank you, first degree harassment and resisting arrest. He was in jail within minutes. We, however, were in the police station until 2am with this dude:
I asked him if he'd pose for a picture with us and when he said no, I just took a photo of him alone. Take that! All the cops were thoroughly enjoying having 3 good-looking ladies in their subway police station and started calling us "Miss California, Miss New York, and Miss Utah." Then I noticed my toe and its awesome purple hue:
And I also want to add that there are very very few subway stations in all of Manhattan and the five Burroughs that even have police stations inside the subway station. God answers prayers, people.
On Saturday we slept in a little and then went for a jog through Central Park with Scott. who had flown in the night before. In the afternoon, we met up at the
Manhattan Temple for an afternoon session with Mike & Zach who had also flown in on Friday night. What an awesome thing - to be at the temple with 5 of your closest friends. We had a little tour of the temple afterward and when Zach said to me at one point when he was kneeling at an altar with me "Please don't blog about this", I knew that I just had to. haha.
After the temple, we went to Magnolia Bakery, picked up some overrated desserts and then slowly but surely made our way to dinner at Land Restaurant. Oh my, the food was amazing. If you like Thai food, please go. And please get the mango sticky rice. You will not regret that decision. Ever. Then after dinner, we made our way down to see Jersey Boys, but mostly
Heather, who is
Zach's girlfriend. You may have seen her before
here.
After the show, she took us backstage and we proceeded to take goofy photos.
Oh, this photo is amazing.
We were in such a good mood at that point, that we decided to take tuk-tuks through Times Square.
And since
Serendipity's is open until 2am,...
The night ended very late. Shocker.
Church on Sunday morning. And of course we ran into random people at church who we know and who don't live in New York City. Leave it to me, folks.
Zach & Heather
The rest of Sunday was spent walking around New York City - and of course we had to pose for a picture at one of my all-time favorite New York sites - and the home of my favorites - the Rockettes.
And Kristy wanted to see St. Patrick's Cathedral, so we went.
Scott left us Sunday night, which was a very sad occasion. So on Monday afternoon, the rest of us went to see the Statue of Liberty. It was Mike & Kristy's first time there and it does not disappoint. I loved seeing all the history on it. I especially loved this poster:
We got pedestal access with our tickets to Liberty & Ellis Island, so when we got up to the top of the pedestal, this was our view.
This was her view - unedited and unscripted.
After seeing Ellis Island, we headed back to Manhattan to meet up with Steph and go to Brooklyn for Grimaldi's pizza. It was delicious of course. This time, instead of braving the subway ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan, we walked the Brooklyn Bridge.
And then jumping photos ensued.
We ended the evening in Madison Square Park with this amazing view of the Empire State Building during 4th meal.
Dear New York, your streets made me feel brand new, your big lights inspired me. Let's hear it for New York.
Love, Me
Dear Bev, thanks for making an effort to come see me.
Dear Steph B, thanks for hosting and for laughing with us. I've said it once and I'll say it again - please let your birthday hurry up so we can play again.
Dear other friends that I was there with, I miss you all. A lot.
xoxoxo
**Kristephanie Zundelac has taken a vow that every summer we will take a summer trip to an island within a state. That can be left up to interpretation obviously, but here is our 2nd year. Last year was Catalina.
