Andrea

Andrea

My kingdom for a pretzel

In no specific order, this is only some of what we did in New York City last week:

  • Looked up
  • Ate Anything and his older cousin, Everything.
  • Went to Rockefeller Center and took in this view from Top of the Rock

new-york-city

  • Got lost. Kinda. Sorta. Totally.
  • Visited my godmother
  • Took a carriage ride through Central Park
  • Went to the Nintendo World Store and morphed Helena

nintendo_world_store

  • Met up with Anything and Everything and ate them again. And again.
  • *burp*
  • Took the wrong subway 139 times.
  • Went to Apple Store a/k/a DIED AND WENT TO HEAVEN

apple_store_nyc1

apple_store_nyc2

  • Went to the American Girl Store and watched a doll get (1) her hair done; (2)  a manicure; (3) a pedicure; (4) a whole new wardrobe; and (5) the life I was meant to have
  • Walked 3,967 miles
  • Visited Times Square and didn’t see even one prostitute

times-square-at-night

  • Rode the ferris wheel at Toys ‘R Us
  • Had the best milkshake of my entire life at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. And by milkshake, I mean two of them.
  • *burp*

milkshake_ellen_stardustdin

  • Went to Anthropologie and fought the impulse to stuff the entire store into my purse and run for my life
  • Saw the Broadway musical Shrek where I fell in love with Lord Farquaad and contemplated how to stuff him in my purse
  • Went to South Street Seaport and wondered if anyone would notice if we moved in
  • Went to the American Museum of Natural History

museum_naturalhistory_nyc

  • Rode the Staten Island Ferry
  • Saw Lisa Bloom on the subway and mistook her for a life-sized Barbie.
  • And, possibly the most exciting … watched the last few minutes of a live taping of Good Morning America from the sidewalk on Times Square. Pressed our noses up to the window and saw Wolfgang Puck cook some veggie-tables and saw Robin Roberts serve them to the studio audience. Noticed the camera man wiggle his finger at Helena and instruct her to stand right up to the window. If you were watching the end of GMA on TV on the morning of April 22 and saw an adorable, bespectacled little girl waving her guts out at the camera, you saw my little peanut. Or, if you were in Times Square on the morning of April 22 at approximately 8:55 a.m., and heard a woman hysterically shouting CALL YOUR MOTHER! ASK HER TO TiVO IT! and heard her husband calmly respond OK! I CAN HEAR YOU JUST FINE, CALM DOWN and the woman shouting OH MY GOD, JUST DO IT! DO IT! AACCKK – IT’S ALMOST OVER, HURRY! HURRY! … I have no idea who they were. Geez, get some couth, people.

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We had a list of potential activities for Helena to choose from and we tried to make the trip as exciting for her as possible because we don’t know when we’ll ever get to New York City again.

But of all the things we did and almost did and never got a chance to do in New York City, there was only one thing that Helena had insisted upon doing from the very start. She begged and pleaded and would have fallen to her knees on the sidewalk beseeching us if a sleeping homeless person hadn’t blocked her way.

And that one thing was to grope the new MacBook Pro.

Wait! That was me. And I hope the homeless guy forgives me.

The thing Helena wanted to do above all else? Buy a pretzel from a street vendor.

Peanut, do you want to see the Empire State Building? The skyscraper that King Kong climbed?

The one he climbed while eating a pretzel?

Want to see Ellis Island? Where YiaYia came to America?

Did the dinosaurs have pretzels when YiaYia was little?

Honey, do you want to see the Statue of Liberty?

I don’t know. Is she holding a pretzel?

So, we approached a street vendor and through hand signals, ordered some hot pretzels and drinks and paid him one arm and 1/2 a leg. The vendor grunted something in our direction that sounded like Blrzzdgzj Juzzweredzf POO! and bestowed upon Helena a pretzel that was bigger than her face and with it, a one way ticket to Nirvana.

She didn’t care that the pretzel only stayed hot for 4.7 seconds before it became an ice cold piece of concrete.

It was a pretzel. From a street vendor in New York City.

pretzel-in-new-york-city1

Next time we go on vacation, we’ll have to seriously think about setting the bar so low that you need a shovel to dig it up and see it. Because honestly? It doesn’t take much to rock my little sweetie’s world.

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31 thoughts on “My kingdom for a pretzel”

  1. Avatar

    I’m so glad we don’t live more than 3 hours away from NYC. If my kids knew there was a ferris wheel in TRU, we’d never get them to leave.

    Glad you had a good trip, even if it was spontaneous.

  2. Avatar

    How COOL is that?? Now you simply must put my # in your cell!! I’d have LOVED to see Helena on GMA!! I’d have DVR’d it immediately!! LOL~she’s soo cute 😀 As for NYC? I almost had a panic attack just looking at that photo of it!! All those buildings soo close together and soo big!!! sorry i’ve missed your IM’s btw…MESSAGE me! I’ll be here today!

  3. Avatar

    How fun! Some day I’ll have to go there. I didn’t know they had so much to do. I thought you just go to NY to get mugged!
    Please be sure to vote daily this week-it’s the last week for the contest-AAARGH!!!

  4. Avatar

    I miss:
    street vendor bagels,
    bagels – no, not a apple crisp, cinnamon crunchy that passes for a bagel in TN – a REAL bagel – like salt or garlic
    Knishes
    pastrami on rye with good mustard – from Carnegie Deli
    Broadway shows

    Thanks for the memories!

    Stan “I grew up in NY but live in Tennessee now” at Scrappers Workshop
    http://www.scrappersworkshop.com/blog

  5. Avatar

    Loving traveling with you!! Funny post and so happy she got her pretzel, lol. Guess it’s kinda like them playing with the boxes the toys come in!

  6. Avatar

    MAN you make me SOOOO jealous! We have GOT to get into the city when we go home this summer. Stan’s mom lives about an hour north, we can just hop on a train and poof – pretzel heaven! THANKS for posting all the fun stuff even if it makes me just a little homesick. Gonna have to go grope me a macbook too!!

  7. Avatar

    Just got caught up on all your New York posts – still chortling.

    So…….what was the hotel like? Did it have the appropriate number of beds? Did all the receptionists try to hide under the counter when they realised it was YOU, the ONE ON THE PHONE!

  8. Avatar

    Hey! *waving wildly* Long time, no see!

    I am *so* with Helena. NYC street vendor pretzels are the BESTEST, EVER. When I was muuuuuch younger and working in Manhattan, I would get one just about every day from the vendor up the block from my office. Also, I’d get raspberry or chocolate filled croissants from the Au Bon Pain up the block from my office. Also also, I’d get chocolate Heath Bar milkshakes from the Hard Rock Cafe which was right across the street from my office.

    I’m fairly certain I could trace the beginnings of my second and possibly third chins, as well as the outward spread of my hips to my time working in NYC. Thank goodness there was no Cheesy Eddie’s vendor right up the block from my office, or I would’ve been in serious trouble.

    This was back in the 80s, mind you, before they Disneyfied Times Square. I took the bus from Jersey each morning right into Port Authority, and let me tell you, the hookers, they were *plentiful* back in those days. Egads.

    Glad you guys had fun! 😀

  9. Avatar

    That’s hilarious about the pretzel. I remember when I went to NYC for the first time (I was 21) I wanted a hot dog from one of the street vendors so I totally get it.

    Your pic of the AMNH brings back memories. We were in that same room less than 2 years ago. Love that place. Glad you had a good time.

  10. Avatar

    Dude, Mayor Koch chased the prostitutes and the porn shops and the peep shows out of time square in the 80’s….

    And that spot where you stood to watch GMA…is exactly where we stand every year to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade! So since you know where it is, meet me there this year….then we’ll walk to the new parade route because it’s changing this year!

    Glad you had a good time-and how was that pretzel?? I’ll bet Helena didn’t crap for a week after eating it!!BLECH!

  11. Avatar

    Holy freakin pretzels!!!! Now that’s what I call a fulfilling snack!

    I was totally laughing because as I read your list i was thinking “oh yes, but did they go to the GMA set and try to get on tv when Sam Champion did the weather??” and there it was, in black and white…surely, you had covered that base!!

  12. Avatar

    Your Helena with her pretzel obsession and my 6 of 8 with her Subway sandwich obsession–they could have some kind of travel/eating show thing, donchathink?

    (LOVE the new header–I wanna design like you when I grow up…)

    Blessings!

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