New York, New York

I know this is a little late but these are some pictures from our trip to New York. For those of you who don't know, I was chosen to attend a Melissa Etheridge concert in NYC at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was in celebration of the release of her new CD "The Awakening." We had an absolutely awesome time. It was our first time in NYC and we were only there for about 36 hours but we made the most of it. We saw Times Square (that's where the Hard Rock Cafe was), we canoodled with the secret service guys (well we just asked one for directions), we took a historic harbor tour on the Hudson River, we visited Ground Zero and St. Paul's Cathedral, we rode the Subway, and even paid a visit to east Harlem (that was an accident). Our hotel was a very old Brownstone on 31st street, appropriately named Hotel 31. The hotel manager Iggy was about as old as the Brownstone but he was hilarious. He said, "keep your door locked at all times ladies, you're not in Florida anymore." Obviously he hasn't been to Florida recently......Hello? They film CSI Miami there!! We asked him if he knew where the Hard Rock Cafe was and he looked at us like we had three heads. We ended up asking the front desk clerk and he gave us directions, wrong ones, unbeknownst to us, but off we went. It was absolutely crazy fun. There were motorcades and secret service all over the place because the President of Iran and a bunch of other political crooks.....er dignitaries were in town for a conference at the United Nations. They even had part of the Harbor closed off. There were people and cars everywhere hustling and bustling all around us. Sensory overload I'll tell ya. We got totally lost trying to find the Hard Rock so we stopped and asked this well dressed gentleman for directions. We chose him partly because he was well dressed but mostly because he was really one of the only people around that was actually standing still. Well, like with everything in life, there was a reason for that. While Andrea was chatting away in her Southern drawl I happened to notice that he was wearing one of those official looking, loopy ear piece things. My eyes followed his suit jacket down to his belt where I saw a gun in a holster and a badge that said "Secret Service." Andrea was still cackling away a mile a minute and I nudged her with my shoulder and motioned down toward his badge with my head. We promptly thanked him and joined the rest of the hustlers on our way to Times Square. Can't you just see the two of us being hauled in for questioning for trying to distract a Secret Service Agent. "But really sir, we were just trying to get to a Melissa Etheridge Concert." Our faces would be on CNN, we'd be interviewed by Nancy Grace. What would our families think? We finally made it to the Hard Rock, it was smack dab in the middle of Times Square. We turned a 10 minute walk into an hour long hike. Oh well, we got a lot of sightseeing in. Tired and hungry we went in and had some lunch and then got in line for the concert. Melissa was fantabulous in concert as she always is and we were joined at the concert by Al and Tipper Gore, Kelli O'Donnell, and Frank Zappa just to name a few. It was an absolutely magical night. We rode a rickshaw bicycle taxi back to our hotel after the concert. I thought he was going to ride on the sidewalk, silly me. We were in the middle of New York traffic whizzing by Madison Square Garden at 11:00 at night. It was absolutely surreal. We are so very blessed. The visit to Ground Zero and the Cathedral was such an emotional experience. It felt eerily comforting in a way. I've said so many prayers for the victims and their loved ones but none felt quite as powerful as the ones I said in that Cathedral. There was a strong energy in those prayers, you could feel it. Most emotional for me was the view of the skyline from the water. Seeing where the towers had been. It reminded me of a big smile that was missing two front teeth. I felt a sense of great loss for New York City and our country as a whole. What a sad day, 911. We laughed, we cried and we were tired but we will always remember and cherish our first trip to NYC!