Ellen and I returned from our weekend getaway to Manhattan last night at about 5pm. We were supposed to fly into DTW at 3:30pm, but we missed our flight due to a poorly executed trip to see Lady Liberty. Ellen was more excited about all the shopping in NYC than all the historical monuments and sites. I would frequently point out the Empire State Building from whatever vantage point we happened to be at, and she would just shrug her shoulders and wonder what all the fuss was about it. What do you tell a 16 year old when she asks you why the ESB is such a big deal? I didn’t know, so I would just take a few stabs at it and then let the whole thing drop. I think she might sing a different tune if she would just cough up the 12 bucks to ride to the top and look out over the whole city. That definitely did it for me….although I had long been romanticizing the tall tower because of movies like An Affair to Remember and Sleepless in Seattle.
The weather stunk just as the weather channel had predicted. I kept holding out hope for a miracle, but God decided against it. I’m sure he had good reason. However, despite the fact that it was freezing, windy and rainy we still had a total blast! We literally shopped till we dropped almost every single day we were there. Chinatown, Union Square, Times Square and Chinatown again. We are both experienced in the art of bartering from our days in Kenya, so Chinatown was nothing foreign to us. We looked at thousands of purses, watches, wallets, belts, scarves, rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, hair clips and hats. Each little shop looked just like every other little shop, but we knew better. There were subtle differences between them. The next shop was always the one that might have the hot pink Prada bag that is just slightly bigger than the one at this shop but smaller than the one at the last shop.
It was so great to spend such a long time one on one with each other. We realized that we had never done it before but that we definitely need to do it again. We talked and laughed and ate only bagels, sausages, pretzels, ice cream and candy all weekend. Each of our food budgets only amounted to about $35 for the whole 4 days. I’m surprised we didn’t go into carb-comas. We must have walked well over 10 miles a day when it was all said and done.
There’s so much more to tell, but this post has gotten long enough!
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