I know it has been forever since I have posted. I have been reminded by many of that fact. The weeks just seem to whiz by. Two weeks ago, my mom and dad came out to New York to visit me. We had a blast, but our schedule was packed. I think they did more in the week they were here than most people do in a month. Here is my travel log: Tuesday: They arrived and dropped off bags at my apartment. We stopped in to see my office and meet my coworkers. Then we walked around Times Square. We then headed down to Grimaldi’s to eat dinner, and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. To finish off the night, we headed up to Grand Central Terminal, saw it and grabbed a Junior’s cheesecake. 
Wednesday: We wake up and go see Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church, Federal Hall (where the Bill of Rights was signed), Stone Street, the big bull (as seen in Hitch), and arrive at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They took us on a tour of the bank and actually took us down into the vault where they hold $315 billion worth of gold bars for foreign governments. It was pretty cool. Then we walked around South Street Seaport, headed to Shake Shack for lunch (waited in line for an hour and a half). We walked from Grand Central to the UN building, seeing the Chrysler Building on the way. Unfortunately, the tour tickets to the UN were sold out, so we took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Toured around there for a few hours, and then headed to Little Brazil to eat a Brazilian meal (my dad served his mission in Brazil). After a tasty meal, we headed to Wicked. As always, it was amazing. 
Thursday: We woke up and went down to the Today show and got on TV, then we headed over to Times Square to check on Broadway tickets before we headed back over to the UN. We spent several hours touring the UN (which was neat because they took us in all of the rooms including the Security Council room and the General Assembly Room). Then we ate lunch at Grand Central before we headed to the New York Public Library and Bryant Park. We stood in line to get tickets to another Broadway show, and then finished touring Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue, including Trump Tower, Saks, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Tiffany & Co., the NBA store and Carnegie Hall. We then headed down to Union Square for dinner with my cousin, Cory, at Max Brenner (a delicious chocolate restaurant). After dinner, we headed back up to Times Square to see Curtains with David Hyde Pierce. 
Friday: We slept in a little longer and then headed to the Statue of Liberty, went up inside the base of the monument, and then went to Ellis Island. Both were firsts for me since I came to the city. After we got off the boat, we walked around Battery Park City and saw Ground Zero. Then we headed up to have lunch/dinner at Serendipity (with frozen hot chocolate for dessert). We then made the trek out to Shea stadium to see the Mets play. 
Saturday: We slept in again and then went down to Macy’s (the largest store in the world: 9 stores spanning an entire block. It’s huge) and then saw the Empire State Bldg, but didn’t go up it. We then toured the lower part of Central Park and went on a carriage ride through the park. While we were there, we went into FAO Schwartz, got some gifts for the grandkids and saw the piano show (the giant piano from Big). We then had lunch at Grey’s Papaya, toured Columbia University, St. John the Divine Cathedral (the largest cathedral in the world), and Grant’s Tomb. We then made it back in time for a session at the Manhattan temple. Then we had a relaxing evening over a nice dinner at Ruth’s Chris, and then went to the top of Rockefeller center to see the city lights.
Sunday: We took it easy and just walked around the park in the morning. Then we went to Church and cooked a nice dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening (letting our bodies catch up). 
Monday: We woke up, saw Lincoln Center, headed up to Harlem and saw the Apollo theater, then went to the Museum of Natural History (the museum fictionalized in Night at the Museum). We then headed down to the Burger Joint (a secret restaurant inside a swanky hotel). We then ventured down to Chinatown for some shopping (even though we didn’t buy anything) and finished the trip with some banana pudding from Magnolia’s bakery. The only things on our list we didn’t do (because we didn’t manage to fit it in our schedule): a meal in Little Italy, the Museum of Modern Art, Coney Island, and a performance at Carnegie Hall. All I can say is that I would not want to be a tour guide for a living! Thanks Mom and Dad for coming out, it was fun.
Summer is so busy here. There is always something going on. We try to go to the beach every now and then, but there are many events that occur in the summer. In addition to the events I mentioned in my earlier posts, I have also recently attended Shakespeare in the open. A group performed MacBeth in Battery Park. With every new scene, the players would move to a new part of the park for the scenery change. It was actually really interesting and helped you keep your attention during the performance. Just one note: We took dinner there, which would not be advised because every time we sat down and tried to eat, they would move.
Then someone had the bright idea to make New York more artistic, so they hired this artist to design waterfalls that they have positioned along the river at different places. They are pretty cool, but not worth the price that they paid for them ($15.5 million for four of them). 
Then here are some pictures of the Death Cab concert that I mentioned in my earlier summer post.
The summer is winding down, but I still feel like there is so much I want to do. Sad day! One of the terrific things about summer is Broadway in the park. Every week in July and August, a few Broadway shows perform a number or two from their show. It seems like I’ve been gone from work or have had something every Thursday, so I haven’t attended any! Hopefully I can make it tomorrow.
My birthday was amazing this year. Everyone went out of their way to make it special. All my coworkers at work signed a card and gave me a gift certificate to Crate & Barrel. Then I got to pick my favorite restaurant for lunch. I went to Tao which is an amazing Asian restaurant. It's actually where the speed dating scene is shot in Hitch. For my birthday, they brought me out a giant fortune cookie filled with custards. It was delicious. If that wasn't enough dessert, my coworkers also bought me a cheesecake and even had me blow out the candles. 
Others would tell me that Duck was a blast with a chance to make new friends and just have a great time at the beach. After going, I would totally agree with the second. Although the first stereotype does occur, it’s not always the case. I had a great time.
For those of you back west, Duck Beach is in the outer banks of North Carolina, close to Nags Head and Kitty Hawk (where the Wright Brothers) took their first flight. It is a beautiful beach with some beautiful beach houses for rent. There were about 60 people from New York that went down, so we rent two houses. Sixty people still might sound like a lot, but just look at the picture of the house I was in. It had 11 bedrooms, a giant kitchen with two ovens, two stoves, and dishwashers (which I fell in love with as I helped with the food).
One of the best moments of the trip was when the first group of my friends (who all arrived together) went to Costco to buy all of the food for the weekend. We ended up having 11 carts and spent $2,500 (and that didn’t include perishables which we bought at the grocery store in Duck). Needless to say, we didn’t go hungry in Duck. Thanks to Adrienne Martin for all of her planning efforts in our behalf. 
Once we got there, I realized that there is a huge party every night. The party would rotate around different houses every night. I think there was over 1,000 young single adults in Duck. The town has a stupid rule that you can’t park on the street, so pretty much the cops came to every party we went to.
Even after the parties get broken up, everyone goes back to their own houses and stays up all night. I didn’t get much sleep that weekend, but luckily I had a week in Maui to recover (see soon to be post above). 
All in all, Duck Beach was something you have to do at least once. If anything, it’s a nice weekend at the beach with all of your friends.
