NYC - Day 1

Stefan and I have always wanted to go to New York at Christmas and this was finally our year to do it. I always told people that New York was my favorite city that I had never been to.... I knew that I would fall in love with the city as soon as we arrived.

The day before we left, New York had their first snowstorm and luckily we didn't have any delays with our flight--- we just knew it was going to be FREEZING! As we flew in, the skyline was absolutely gorgeous! As gorgeous as it was, my first thought as I looked at the skyline was September 11th..... such a surreal feeling and I'm sure I'm not the only one that's had that thought flying into the city.

Stefan's cousin Dennis owns and operates a limousine company in the New Jersey/New York area, so he picked us up from the airport and took us the "scenic route" back to our hotel. He was such a nice guy and we appreciated everything he did for us and showed us as he welcomed us to the city.

We got to our hotel and my goodness--- it was BEAUTIFUL! The bellman greeted us "Welcome to the Waldorf Astoria" (just like in the movies!) We made our way up to our room and a few minutes later our luggage arrived... Normally we would unpack right away and get everything situated, but I think we were both so excited that we took off and headed towards the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center.

There were so many people on the streets and admiring the Christmas tree.... Our original plan was to go ice skating, but we were so cold that the idea of skating just wasn't very appealing... So we watched the other ice skaters, and walked around the area, stocking up on scarves, hats and gloves. We thought we were prepared, but until the wind hit us, we realized that two people from AZ could never be prepared for that kind of weather!

After dinner at Cucina & Co. at the bottom floor of Rockefeller, we walked around the area, saw Radio City Music Hall, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and had some hot cocoa and cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery (YUM!). We saw the Today Show studios at Rockefeller and as we were walking around the tree, we saw a proposal. The girl was so excited and was on her phone telling everyone about it as her family stood there equally as happy.

We had tickets to go to the "Top of the Rock" at Rockefeller Center to see views of the city at night, so we made our way up 70 stories (via an elevator) and the views were incredible. It was really windy so we didn't stay up there for too long, but it was a great way to end our first night in the city...