DAY EIGHT:
A Place You’ve Traveled To
This is another one that’s hard to choose, because Jenn and I have spent much of our relationship traveling to new places. All of them have been places within the northeast United States, but one of our strengths is that we can always find some place fun and interesting to go, without having to fly halfway across the country. I guess I should mention that Jenn got me an AWESOME week-long cruise that travels between Spain, Italy, and France for my birthday this year, but there will be more on that later, after we go in June!
For this blog post, I’ve decided to write about New York, New York! I’ve been there three times, and I have never been to any place like it! The city is so alive, and so full of action and light and sound that it just can’t really be described without seeing it firsthand!
My first trip was a road trip back in June of 2001, way before I knew Jenn. I went with my friend Dave and his then-wife Hillary for a one night trip to see “WWF New York”, a WWF owned and operated sports bar/restaurant/wrestling museum. I was so into pro wrestling back then, that looking back now, it’s kind of scary. It was a monday night, purposefully chosen since that’s when they taped/broadcasted “Raw Is War” which happened to be taking place in Madison Square Garden that night. We got surpried by the appearance of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kurt Angle, and I was so close to them as they rushed in that if you really look at a tape of the episode you can almost see my head sticking up behind a crowd of people.
The much cooler thing we did on that trip was go to the World Trade Center, a mere 2 and a half months before 9/11. I’m glad I went, because I would have never seen it otherwise. I have some photos from inside the Trade Center, but I don’t have them scanned, unfortunately. At some point I will post some up!
Trip #2 was quite some time later, and very memorable! As Jenn mentioned in a previous entry, we were flown out to New York by NBC in August of 2008 to appear on the “Joy Fit Club” segment of the Today Show. It was really more Jenn, but I was very excited for her, and glad that she got them to accept me, too, because it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! We got to meet Joy Bauer, Kathy Lee Gifford, Hoda, Natalie Morales, and briefly said hi to Al Roker in the green room. Jenn got her hair done by one of the SNL hair stylists, and I got told that my mic would be coming but it was currently being used by Reverend Run’s wife. Pretty wild day!
Besides all of the celebrity happenings, we got to spend 24 hours in NYC! It was our first trip outside of Maine together, with the exception fo a day trip to Vermont to pick up a washing machine. We had a romatic dinner outside of the Rockefeller Center, which we then journeyed to the top of. We got to wander the city and go to various shops, and take a romantic carriage ride through central park!
My third and most recent trip to the Big Apple happened just last August. As a surprise for our friend Stacey, Jenn, her Mom, and I sprang for a surprise trip to NYC! We revealed her present to her in July at the Vermont (and New Hampshire..whatever) Race For The Cure, which occurs on or around her birthday every year. I devised a game show that was rigged for her to win, and Jenn and Sandy came up with a song and dance number for us to do to “New York, New York” when she won.
This was my longest stay yet..3 days and 4 nights of fun! We crammed a lot in, the theme being Broadway musicals. The big one we wanted to see was “Wicked” (my first time, but the second time for my three fellow travelers), but we also saw “Rock of Ages” and “Promises, Promises”. I HIGHLY recommend “Wicked” and “Rock of Ages”. I believe the former is on tour, and I know the latter just went on tour, too, so try to look them up! The romantic comedy, “Promises, Promises” was great, too, but a “Wizard of Oz” prequel and a musical set to popular 80’s music are just hard for anything else to beat!
We also managed to go to the Statue of Liberty..well we went by it on a feryy to Ellis Island, but we got a good look at it and some great photos! Ellis Island was also good to see, and a sort of interesting look back at what immigrants went through…I passed all the example mental exams they had there! Yay me!
One other big night we had on that trip was a surprise birthday dinner for Sandy (whose birthday occured during the trip) at Caroline’s Comedy Club. We had a great dinner, and then moved into another room where we were lucky enough to be seated about half an inch for the stage where all the amateur (and some experienced) comedians performed their stand-up routines. We all got picked on but Jenn, multiple times for some of us!
So that’s my New York Trilogy. People like trilogies, right? I hope you enjoyed this one. See you tomorrow for “Day Nine”!
