NYC Visit

Yesterday I visited NYC.  It's only about 1.5hrs from where I live but still, I don't get there much.  In fact it's been a few years since I visited.

Yesterday a girlfriend and I hopped a bus from our neighborhood and took a jaunt north to see the holiday sights and sounds of the BIG apple!  I always forget HOW much bigger it is than Philly - it's A LOT bigger, I mean MUCHO MEGA!  AND.... there are loads more people.  Especially at this time of year...so many people.  AND... the entire city really gets decked out for the holiday season.

The trip was WAY too short and I felt like I literally ran from place to place all day.  Here's what I saw, a tiny little glimpse of NY sparkle and shine, enjoy!

Horn blower near St. Patrick's Cathedral

Angles lining the walk way to the tree at Rockefeller Center.

Lego depiction of Rockefeller Center at the LEGO store.

Lots of lego sets.

The tree at Rockefeller Center.  The city was getting ready for the tree lighting ceremony later in the evening.

Windows outside Saks 5th Avenue.

Decorated tree at Bryant Park market.

Little ice rink at Bryant Park

Selfies in front of the tree decor

Seriously the BEST cappuccino.  I so love that frothy yummy thick creamy goodness in my coffee and it was practically a soup bowl full.  My friend Karen got one too... and we each treated ourselves to a pastry.
  

American Girl Store.  I used to love buying new outfits for my daughter's American Girl dolls every Christmas.

A brisk walk over to Herald Square.  It was nearly 50 degrees out, balmy for December.  Just right for enjoying a little outdoor chill.

The famous MACY's store from Miracle on 34th Street.

 The holiday windows were not as magical as I remember them.

Had to get the 34th street sign.

We took the escalators all the way to the 8th floor to walk through Santaland.  Last year I walked through the Dickens holiday land at the Macy's in Philly.  You can read that post here.

Santaland is very..."dated."  The coolest thing about making the trek up there to walk through was getting to ride on the original wooden escalators in Macy's.  They are awesome.  You just don't see wooden escalators anymore - I would have taken a photo but they were packed with people.

I took photos of the goofy displays in Santaland to pass the time while the line moved slowly along towards Santa himself.  We didn't continue on thru with the little kiddies to sit on Santa's lap.

I thought the tree was kinda creepy.

We stopped on the first floor of Macy's to make my ONE xmas gift purchase of the day.  Then, we headed off to Times Square.  There was quite a lot of construction going on - possibly re-doing things in time for New Years?

Most of the people who came on the bus with us had come to NYC to see the Rockettes Christmas show Radio City.  SO... since our bus was heading back to Philly a bit earlier than planned to avoid the heavy traffic from the tree lighting, we decided to catch a bite to eat near our pickup spot a few blocks from Radio City.

On the way to the restaurant, we passed by really big holiday displays outside of the different buildings.

First we saw a huge string of Christmas lights that reminded me that our decorations have not even come down from the attic, nor have the Halloween boxes made it from the upstairs hallways back TO the attic... 

Just past the big lights were a big pile of ornaments.

and soon after in the next block were a row of giant nutcrackers.

The displays were as giant as NYC itself.

Here is one of the big nutcrackers up close.

We ended the night with some really yummy and strong mojitos which helped (or maybe not) to get us back to the bus pickup, dashing through the crowds of people already lining up for the tree lighting, we boarded the bus and rode back out of town and back to Philly.

Next time I head to NYC for the holiday season, I think I'll stay over a night and give myself a chance to slow down and explore a bit more and not just rush rush rush.