The Big Day

Today's the big day - the return trip home. Last night after we got back we dumped out all the suitcases and started packing everything up. I can not believe how much I have bought (well, I sort of can since most of the vacation cash is long gone). I really can not believe how much jam & other food items I bought in Amish Country and Hershey. Most of it is for various Christmas gifts but jeesh, I must have been hungry. By some act of god we were able to repack everything into our suitcases with only adding one new piece of luggage to the mix.

Yesterday was EVEN colder than Thursday. I kept looking for a cute hat from all the street vendors but nothing popped out at me. I bought a new scarf in Chinatown Thurs and passed down my old scarf to Brent (I bought it in Vegas in 12-2001 when it snowed there for the first time in over 7 years and we had NO warm clothes with us!!!). Brent was hoping I'd buy a hat, and then another hat so he could have a hat since he gets all my hand-me-downs. (I did buy a "Prada" purse and a "Gucci" watch this week in Battery Park. Love it!!)

Yesterday we went back to Soho for more shopping, over to Rockefeller Center to watch the ice skaters again and see some of the NBC studios, over to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), up to Central Park, back through Times Square (for the 3rd time!!! We're pretty much over it...) and then we headed over for some shopping and dinner in Hell's Kitchen. (I'm making reindeer ears in front of the Rock Center Tree - I was only willing to surrender one hand to frostbite!!) We had lunch the NY way - hot dogs from a street vendor and they were SO good. (So good we went back and ate two more). MoMA was very cool - we're not into ancient Egyptian pots and stuff like that, so they had more of the Jasper Johns, Van Gogh, Picasso & Andy Warhol that we enjoy. They also have my all time fave painting - Starry Nights by Van Gogh. He was the greatest. Central Park was gorgeous. Their ice skating rink was MUCH nicer than Rock Center, but we were way too cold to fly around the ice so we just watched for a while. Then we headed over to the discount Broadway ticket place to see what shows they had. They didn't have any of the shows we were interested in, so we decided to see a show next time we go to NYC. Next time we're going to fly into NYC and stay somewhere there (you know, plan ahead or something crazy like that) so we'll be able to dress up to the 9's and have a proper night out. We walked over to Hell's Kitchen and found the cutest doggie store with a ton of cute clothes. I got Pips a "I (paw symbol) NY" shirt. It's too cute. We found the best little Mexican restaurant and pigged out before heading back. Today before we head back to Philly we're going to IKEA!!!! The closest one to us is 4 hours away (in Atlanta) so we've never been before. We can't buy anything big but we can look (and then order online!!)

See ya back in Nashville ( insert frowny face here)!