Empire State of Mind

We got back from New York yesterday afternoon.. and we had such a great time! We left last Saturday and flew into Long Island where Paul's grandparents picked us up. We met up with his Aunt Belinda and had lunch. Then we relaxed the rest of the day.
The next day we had a New York Hero for Super Bowl Sunday. For those of you not familiar with the Hero, it was a 4 foot long sandwich!  And it was delicious!  Two feet were "American" with roast beef and other American meat, and the other 2 feet were Italian with salami, ham, and prosciutto. It was a good lunch, and the Giants won, which was a happy time in the Cozzolino/Reilly household!!
Paul's cousin, Melanie, came into town from Philadelphia on Monday. We spent the day catching up with her and hearing about her life in Philly. She works as a cook in an authentic Italian restaurant in Philly. The sous chef she works with is from a small town in Italy and makes some pretty delicious recipes and cured meats. So, we decided we needed to go see for ourselves...
Tuesday we ate at Melanie's favorite Thai food restaurant on Long Island, then rode with her back to Philadelphia. We saw her house where she lives with 4 other roommates, then had a wonderful dinner at her restaurant that evening. We tried the cured meats and had an antipasta for an appetizer. Then, for dinner Melanie ordered her 3 favorite pastas for us to try. They were like nothing I have ever had. They were amazing! Then we had some desserts, but the pastas were my favorite part!
The next day we visited the Liberty Bell then took a bus from Philadelphia to Manhattan.When we arrived in Manhattan, we walked to our hotel, the Hudson. It was beautiful! The attention to detail in the hotel was amazing! Paul said that hotel is where a lot of the models stay. The hotel seemed very exclusive because there was not even a sign on the outside of the hotel; just some bright yellow sliding glass doors that led to a set of escalators that took you to the beautiful lobby of the hotel.  It was wonderful!  And, did I mention it was beautiful?!
That evening we saw our first ever Broadway show, Wicked! On our walk to the show, it began to snow! It was not terribly cold, but being in NYC with snow flurries was the setting fora perfect evening:)  The show was very good.. it probably would have been better had Paul and I not been so tired (Paul had to get an energy drink at intermission)!  We enjoyed it, and can check it off our bucket lists now!

The next day we walked around the city. We saw the High Line, which is a re-purposed railroad that went above the city in the meat packing district. It was no longer being used, so they made it more of a pedestrian area. It was a landscape architect who designed it, and it was very beautiful. We also went to the WTC memorial. It was such a surreal experience. To see the size of the area where the WTCs stood was overwhelming. The memorial was beautiful. It is a beautiful tribute to those who lost their lives.

After that, I was exhausted! Paul and I took a cab to his friend from high school's (Mike Welch) apartment and rested the rest of the afternoon until we met him for dinner that evening.
That night we had dinner at a Mexican food restaurant in Chinatown.  Ironic, right? The atmosphere was very cool, and the food was good, too. Later we went to a bar, then by 11:00 I was ready to go to bed. So Mike and Paul dropped me off at Mike's apartment, and they went to another bar. While they were at the bar, I got ready for bed, and noticed that my belly had popped a little bit.  So, I took a quick picture in the mirror.

Friday we took a train back to Long Island where Paul's grandma picked us up. We spent the evening talking with his grandparents and Aunt Belinda and eating New York pizza.. which is delicious! We went to bed pretty early because our flight was at 7:30am the next morning. We left at 5:30am and it was beginning to snow. We got out just in time! It was a wonderful trip.. and we can't wait to go back to visit once the baby gets here!