Long weekend of F-U-N!

I've lived in New York now for about five months now, so it was high time for a visit from my family! Sure, my mom helped me move, but that was all work and hardly any play (plus, I was sick the whole time she was at my apartment, which sucked!)

So my mom and my sister, Brittany, came in on Wednesday for a long weekend visit. And it was AWESOME! I don't think I've ever laughed as much in my life as I laughed in the past four days. Whenever us girls get together, we just have a blast.

I told my mom and sister ahead of time to give me a list of what they wanted to do while visiting New York. Since it was my mom's second visit (other than moving me there) and my sister's first visit, their list included all things touristy, including the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, etc. Though I've done most of the tourist things with Brent, I was more than happy to see them again with my family.

Here's a little taste of what we did on while they were visiting:

THURSDAY

My sister is so not a morning person, so we ended up heading to the Statue of Liberty late in the morning. A long wait later - and after my sister ruined her new, white pants by sitting on an apparently freshly-painted bench - we were headed off to Liberty Island.

But we only had 45 minutes to explore the surprisingly small island and marvel at the beautiful statue or else we'd miss the boat to Ellis Island.

So we rushed quite a bit, but made it on the boat headed to the island where nearly 12 million immigrants passed through from 1892 to 1954.

But because they were closing early for an event, we only got to see a small part of the building/museum. Yet we still saw the most important room - the one where the immigrants walked through those many years ago, which has since become the depot that processed the greatest tide of incoming humanity in the nation's history.

FRIDAY

The highlight of today for me was getting all dressed up in my new red dress and matching high heels to head to the Tribeca Film Festival.

After pouring over all the potential movies we could see ahead of time, I settled on the world premier of "Boy A," a British film about a 24-year-old man who has rejoined society after committing a horrendous crime as a child. The film follows the man's attempts to readjust to the world outside of confinement and restart a life that really had never began. It was one of those movies that left room for doubt and led the viewers to draw their own conclusions about many events in the film.

The coolest part of the movie was that after it ended, the director, John Crowley, came out to answer questions. Since the film was being shown on a college campus, there were many quite insightful questions asked that gave me a better understanding of the film that was shot in 5 weeks and cost 1.8 million pounds ($3.5 million dollars) to make.

After the movie, since we were all dressed up anyway, the three of us went to meet Brent in Little Italy at Pellegrino's for dinner. Apparently the cat-calls work a little different when you're in Little Italy, because as we walked by a group of older guys, they started whistling (typical) and then shouted out "Made in America, huh, baby!" We giggled at that.

Though it was a little windy and chilly, we still snagged a seat on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant and enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner with equally amazing service. There was never a time when one waiter came to our table; it was always two or three at a time to make sure we had everything we needed all at once - and this when the restaurant was relatively busy!

After a fun time shopping in Little Italy and the adjacent Chinatown, we enjoyed Pinkberry's (of course) before turning in for the night.

SATURDAY

I made brunch reservations today for the Russian Tea Room, an elegant restaurant right near Carnegie Hall. (Hey - it was another excuse to dress up!)

Though brunch is a very popular thing for New Yorkers, they apparently avoid this restaurant (maybe because of the prices!) because ours was one of the only occupied tables.

But we took advantage of the solidarity by just enjoying our time together. For an appetizer, we ordered a basket full of tasty donuts and pastries, then I settled back with some pancakes with fig butter. Yummy!

With our stomachs full, we went shopping for a bit before grabbing a subway to go to the top of the Empire State Building.

I've been to the top with Brent at night, which was amazing, but it was a completely different experience during the day. What a view!

In the following pictures (in order) you can see the Statue of Liberty/Manhattan's financial district, Central Park (in the top half of the photo), and the West half of Manhattan/the New Jersey shore.

SUNDAY

I live near Central Park, and one of my favorite sounds is hearing the clip-clop sound of a horse's hooves as it trots by my apartment to the garages that have been converted into stables.

Now before you think I've gone all insane - thinking there are horses and stables smack in the middle of New York City - let me assure you that I have not (I swear! Look at the photos for proof!).

A big touristy thing to do in the city is clamor into a Cinderella-esque buggy and take a tour of the southernmost part of the park. I've always wanted to do it, but since Brent has long since he'd never be caught dead in one ("Why would I want to pay to sit and smell horse poop?" he says) I jumped at the chance to take a ride with my mom and sister.

Though it was fun while it lasted, I must say that I will never do it again.

The guy blatantly overcharged us - we later found out - and probably justified ripping us off by telling us two pieces of trivia as he guided the horse at a snail's pace along the same route I take with the dog every time we go to the park. But you live and you learn, right?

One bonus of the ride was that we saw a street fair from the carriage and wandered over there for some sweet potato fries and mozzarella sticks, and Brittany found the cutest purse ever - a real, live Dolce & Gabbana for just $15 (note the sarcasm on the "real, live" part).

After our bellies were full, we took the dog on a quick trip to the dog park before glumly dragging their suitcases to the subway so we could ride it as close to La Guardia as possible before hailing a cab in Queens (a little trick I invented because I'm cheap and hate seeing the meter ticking away while the cab is at a dead stop in traffic).

A tearful goodbye later, I trudged up the subway steps to head home. But I quickly perked up when I remembered that I'd be back in Toledo with my family in three weeks for the last-minute wedding plans. Yay!