Took my oldest monkey and my best-est friend on the planet to the big apple to celebrate her 10th birthday... My intentions were to give her and I little bonding time, give her an incredible birthday and a break away from the world of lil monkey brothers and evil lil monkey sister... Her face was the cutest, this look of excitement, nervousness, and wonder always beaming... We rose ever soo early on Saturday, hoped the morning flight, a really bumpy ride... and Air Tran sucks... discount air indeed... yuck.... got into town, LaGuardia is not as new and updated as the Altanta airport, a bit small and crowded... but who cares... caught the bus to Harlem, which is where we were to catch our subway down into Manhattan... Marisa looks around her Harlem digs, looks at me totally confused, "is this New York, cuz if it is.... I don't know why you brought me here!" nooo... silly beans, you will see.... We exited the subway on 51st and Lexington, she looks up and around and says, "awwwww now this is New York!" baby doll hasn't even seen anything yet.... We find our hotel, The Pod- which if you are budget traveling through, is an awesome, awesome hotel... cute, clean, and well super cute... They are able to check us in right away, and from there, we took off walking, walking, walking... we took off in direction of the mecca that is the Chrysler building, and just took it all in.... Grabbed yummy bagels, and pretzels and explored... Hit up the Museum of Natural History which is the coolest! Strolled along Central Park, evening brought us to Times Square, where I had to subdue my lil consumer for her quest had brought her to a shopper's paradise... She didn't want pizza for some reason, opting for some panini's at Pax.. She was afraid heavy food would hurt her stomach with all our walkings... which is true... smart puppy...
Early start to a new day.... grabbed some breakfast and hit up the Statten Island Ferry... seriously cool... I got a kick out of seeing the curve of Manhattan accentuated by the hodge podge of buildings that looked like leggos and trinkets from far away.. Marisa was a nervous wreck on the Ferry, she wasn't sure about the railing... she finally warmed to it all, as she saw the Statue of Liberty.. I mean how often do you get to see that??? Next we wanted to check out the shopping on Canal street and get to China Town... although, being the girls that we are, we found an awesome clothing store, that we spent an hour in trying on clothes. I love my monkey, she is sooo cute, I could just squeeze her all day... She was soo happy trying on clothes, she has horrible taste, I must say, opting for bright ridiculous colors and prints... but hey she is just a kid, she loved this one dress, and was sooo sad, when I had to point out the straps were too long and it wouldn't fit her right... We took off down the street, braving the ridiculous crowds, we made it as far as Little Italy before we had to turn back and catch our train and head back to the airport to leave... But I did find myself an awesome skull ring... which was a must find... won't catch me in a t-shirt, this was my souvenir!
My baby girl, who is sweet and polite had the hardest time adopting the lil level of aggression you have to have just to get from place to place in NY... it was cute, but there were times, she would get so frustrated with me, as I would pull her, literally off the train or the bus, or across a street... my poor babes.... but in all I think she had a great time.. She bought tons of stuff with her birthday money... She wants to go back... She has already planned her sweet 16 trip- Italy??? better start saving my pennies now eh?? I missed my wee monkeys, but it was super awesome to get a trip alone with my big girl... awesome trip!!!!
