NEW YORK CITY!

Aubrey, a great friend of mine, ran the New York Marathon the first week of November 2010. Me, being the lucky girl that I am, got an invitation to go to New York from my friend Aubrey. I haven't been there for years and thought it would be tons of fun so I said yes. We took a red-eye flight on Thursday and arrived in New York at 5:00am on Friday. Neither of us really wanted to waist anytime in NYC so we quickly hit the streets. Our first stop was the race expo.

I've never seen such a thing. The runners actually had to show id to get in the door. I went around through a side entrance. There were people there from all over the world, literally. Aubrey later told me 400,000 tried to get into the Marathon 45,000 were actually accepted to participate. Fascinating.

Once we left the expo we headed to China town. I ended up buying six purses. Don't freak out they weren't all for me. I bought them as gifts for family and friends. China town was very fun. Afterward we did a little more shopping. I picked up some more Christmas gifts.

That night we went to see Promises, Promises on Broadway. It was a cute story, a little riskae but so funny. Kristin's voice is amazing!! I loved hearing her sing so much! Blew me away.

I was exhausted when we finally went to sleep. I had barely crawled into bed before my eyes were shut and I was sleeping. Saturday was another day in the City. We decided to head down to Time Square and check out a couple of things.

Times Square.

We ate some Pizza...of course.

We went to the novelty stores such as M&M world where they had a new rendition of Lady Liberty. I quite like it don't you think?

After Time Square we headed to Central Park. We rented a bike carriage to take us on a tour. Just because my legs and feet were dying, it was freezing and Aubrey was running the marathon the next day so we wanted to take it easy. The bike carriage was fun. I had to keep asking Aubrey what the bike guy was telling us as he explained some of Central Park's history...I had no idea what the guy was saying. It was kind of funny. Very fun times though, would highly recommend.

Once we finished at Central Park we grabbed some dinner and headed to bed for the big race day. Bless Aubrey's heart. She had to be up at 6:30 or something in the morning to catch the shuttle to the starting line. It was crazy. I spent the day with some of the ladies in her running group. They were great and so fun to be with. We met up with the runners at mile 16. It was an inspiration to watch. There was a blind man running, New York City firemen in their full gear, people much older than I was running along enjoying the course. It truly was inspiring.

Aubrey at mile 16 with another lady from her running group.

Me with a lady from the running group holding a banner I made for Aubrey, run girl run!

So much fun! It was a great trip. Thanks to Aubrey for inviting me and for being such a great friend and inspiration.