Thanksgiving was different, good different this year. Instead of an eight hour car ride to WV or staying at home with far too many leftovers at hand, the Chap and I headed up to NYC with his family. His sister lives in Brooklyn, his parents drove in from the Cape, and we all had a lovely dinner a gorgeous 57th avenue apartment of a family friend. Oh la la!

But before any turkey, we had to fufill my childhood fantasy and check out that tree! Boy were we early – the scaffolding was still being taken down!

In this photo we used our heads in attempt to block construction… almost there…

We spent the day walking around, peeking in windows, and finding that anything we wanted to do was closed. Closed in NYC! A holiday window I was obsessed with we couldn’t find, a winter market not open yet, and museums were upon their closing times. We were a bit confused and settled for martinis near the balloons being blown up for the Macy’s parade instead. A fine option if I do say so myself. This winter goose was my favorite. Chap says its the Aflac duck, but I’m not buying it.

 

Here we have Ronald McDonald picking a Power Ranger in the face.

And Miss Kitty escaping the claws of the KoolAid man.

We saw the mayor up close and personal. That was after seeing Kelly Rutherford, a ragged Drew Barrymore, and a director, Peter Burrs. Celebrity stalking, check, check, check! The next morning we woke up and took a walk down to the Brooklyn waterfront for views of Manhattan. It had been a few years for me and so much had changed! Luxury condo overload. The views were still supreme.

A sunny thanksgiving morning.

This sign is one of my favorite finds of the whole trip! I limited my consumption of eels this trip just because the sign told me to.

We had a lovely dinner with new friends, drank oodles of wine, and went H.A.M. on my apple cake, a personal twist on a family tradition. Apple cake in the Big Apple… when in Rome.

Honestly, I can’t believe that I landed on the childhood favorite after testing three other apple cakes below. The something new was a bit of a disappointment, but I had fun in my test kitchen.

The next day brought more walking, like 12 miles walking, around the city with just myself, the Chap, and his Pops. The other ladies were wedding dress shopping so it was my job to be the cultural enforcer of other things besides sports bars. Barney’s is cultural, right? I hope so, as it took me two days and two store locations to track down their winter windows. I’d read about the Chihuly installation prior to our trip and was obsessed with watching the glass light up to light and music. It was worth the trek.

 Another Barney’s window featured a sort of ice castle. That is 3-6″ icicles cultivated by ice farmers. Yes, there are ice farmers. How is there a need for this?

The final window featured a live ice sculpture carving via chainsaw. Icy cool penguins were in the works.

After examining the ice outside, I stole a quick trip through the icy jewel department inside. What a wonderful store – so well cultivated.

We then spent a few hours at the Met where I was excited to see the stairs to the Vogue Met gala. The Chap was more excited to show me the Temple of Dendur which was also very cool.

Then we ran into the Met’s Napoleonic themed tree complete with gorgeous angels flying about it and made of fabric and porcelain.

Finally, a walk through Central Park yielded this lovely lady and her turtle. She pet the turtle, told him he was a good boy, and read him his horoscope. Aww.

 A quick tipple at the Boathouse as the sun set and the day was done.

We reconvened with the bride-to-be and mum for a bite of dinner, some jazz clubs, and unfortunately missed the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop by minutes of it’s closing.

A very full tourist agenda! Until next time, NYC…