Wow! Our week certainly went by way too quickly! We departed Memphis airport at 8:45AM Sunday, July 12 and returned to Memphis on Saturday, July 18 at 6:15PM! The hustle and bustle of city life was definitely a change of pace! Averi, as well as all the children, did amazingly well on both flights and all during the trip! I am so proud of them! We did lots of sight-seeing and eating! I think that's where all of our money went...to food! Food is ridiculously expensive in NY! We were total tourists this trip...did the Grayline Double Decker bus tour (highly recommend it!),visited the Empire State Building 86th & 102nd observatory decks, went to the American Museum of Natural History, enjoyed a dinner cruise of NY, and walked some of Central Park, etc... BUT the highlight of the whole trip was seeing Paul McCartney perform live on top of the Ed Sullivan Theater (Lateshow with David Letterman) Marquee! OMG--hundreds of people 3 blocks in all directions just trying to get a glimpse of the Beatle doing his thing! AND Bruce Willis standing about 20 yards from us on a press lift...talk about CRAZY! We also visited Carlos' Bake Shop (home of Cake Boss on TLC) in Hoboken, New Jersey. We enjoyed some cream cheese danishes, cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, shortbread cookies, and scones! Everything was delicious! While we were eating in the bakery, he & the film crew came downstairs, but stayed in the back. Later, Buddy (aka Cake Boss) did step out into the bakery & greeted us, even was nice enough to stop & pose for a picture. He was really nice! As we were leaving, he was doing a photo shoot in front of his bake shop, so naturally I became the paparazzi! Hehe! We also encountered one more celebrity, but was not fast enough to get a picture...Nicolas Cage coming out of Toys R Us @ Times Square! He was alone, no security or bodyguard, or entourage...my brother & his wife spotted him first & told us about it. We were a little unsure if it was really him, so we watched him through the windows. Sure enough, he got into a parked black Rolls Royce guarded by NYPD! I wish I would've had my camera ready! oh well, that's how it goes sometimes! All in all, our family trip to New York was a success! We all had so much fun, but were exhausted at the same time! It's good to be home, but we all can't wait to go back! Even Averi at two and half years old already misses the city! We HEART NY!
