Happy Anniversary to Us (last week)! And my parents (today)!

Last Tuesday, August 12, was our 3rd wedding anniversary. To celebrate, Scott told me to be ready to leave by 6 pm. He had a surprise planned, and he did a fantastic job at keeping it that way until the very last minute. He drove us to Arlington and parked in the Ballston Mall. I was surprised, for sure, since the Ballston mall is well, not that great of a mall. But, it has an ice skating rink. I've never been, so I thought maybe we were going ice skating. (Yes, I realize it's August, and that ice melts in hot weather, but I couldn't see him taking me to the Ballston mall for many other reasons...). Alas, we were not going ice skating. He led me into the mall, to the right (away from the Macy's and the flooring store and the jewelry stores...my other guesses once ice skating was ruled out) toward Chevy's Fresh Mex. I thought, no way would he take me to Chevy's for our anniversary! I don't even like Chevy's all that much. Fortunately, my concerns were dissolved when he steered us toward the spa. I love spas! I love facials and manicures and pedicures and massages...and he chose the perfect gift! He got us a couples massage lesson, where we got to learn massage techniques by practicing on one another. It was so relaxing, entertaining, and a great learning experience. Once we finished there (and decided we're going to buy a massage table for home!), we decided together to go to Harry's Tap Room - a local restaurant that serves organic and locally raised foods. We were lucky enough to get the last outdoor table, where we sat in the perfect weather and enjoyed a delicious meal. It was also Restaurant Week at Harry's, so we had a 3 course meal and were able to take leftovers home. I've since vowed that I want to make Harry's Tap Room part of our (minuscule) restaurant repertoire. This was by far our best anniversary yet.

(I purchased a watch for Scott as his gift. It is an Eco-Drive, so it doesn't require a battery, and it's classic enough that it won't be out of fashion next month. He likes it, but admittedly, his gift trumps mine this time. I'm OK with that ;) ).


Happy 17th anniversary to my mom and Eric! There's was yesterday and they celebrated with a meal at Bonefish Grill. Yum!

The city that never sleeps

I had a business trip in NYC July 21-23 and then Scott came up and joined me July 23-27 for a vacation. I had never been to NYC and he hadn't been since he was a kid, and we hadn't had a "just the two of us" vacation since our honeymoon, so it was a much anticipated trip! And it totally lived up to our expectations.

In the city that never sleeps, we barely rested. We toured pretty much all of Manhattan - we did Central Park, the Met, we saw the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall (but didn't go to the top of any of them). We walked...everywhere - through SoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown, Greenwich Village, Times Square, etc, etc, etc. We saw the Brooklyn Bridge and visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and I think the statue was my favorite part of the trip. And, of course, we saw Wicked, which was (ahem) a wicked good show. The Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy show was a lot of fun, too, and quite cheap at $8/person. We ventured to the Bronx only once - to see the (damned) Yankees stadium before it gets demolished.

The city is amazing. It's cleaner and friendlier than I expected in some ways, but the cabs and cabbies were just as crazy as TV and movies depict. I felt safe the whole time (except maybe when we were in the Bronx visiting the Yankees Stadiums, but all in all, I felt pretty safe there, too).

The subway was hard for me to understand (I much prefer the DC Metro for ease of use), but since Scott has a lot more navigation/map skills than I do, we fared well, only missing one event we wanted to do (a walking tour of Greenwich Village).

Our hotel (Hotel Metro) was FANTASTIC and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. I think we paid around $250/night for it, but the room was larger than I expected and clean, breakfast was included, and the service was spectacular. And it was in Midtown, and convenient to the subway and THE Macy's (important when you forget to pack lots of stuff like we did), and again, was a big part of the reason I felt so safe.

I usually try to include photos in my posts, but there are just too many! I'll leave you with some links instead. Enjoy!