Friends & Family in NYC……Best times ;-)

Grab a drink…..this is a long entry, as I have fallen behind on my posts after being busier then ever before in the real CITY that never sleeps. This is my kind of dream life, if you know me, I enjoy non-stop action. Well that is the pace of being here in a CITY that has a constant flow that sometimes feels like an electric buzz! In a good way. I have been working at We Works, taking the subways, and loving my new reality as a CITY girl. I attended the American Symphony concert in Bryant park with my shabbat friends, laying on blankets in the middle of this magical setting surrounded by tall buildings. Grabbed Pizza after and made my way home to do laundry before my visitors arrived. Technology is unreal, as the laundry in my basement runs by an app, it notifies me when the wash/dryer is done. You scan QR code and pay through app. These little things do fascinate me, lol. I have met nice people and some strange encounters in the basement laundry. Thankful for Brooke, from Rhode Island who taught me how to operate this process, and an awkward Asian guy who wears his robe and slippers while doing the laundry. The things you don’t think about when you grow up in a suburb or a town like Scottsdale

So…..Rachel (my niece) & her bff from 2nd grade Casey came to visit, the flight was delayed and they finally arrived to my place at 2 am. I have not laughed so hard for days in a row in a long time. Dora was in full effect, as Casey had never been to NYC before, we had to show her the BEST time. To sum up her thoughts after the trip is completed….she texted in her thank you…that I am a BADASS. LOL A true compliment at this stage in my life where Im showing my age in my wrinkles. . Okay……to catch up with fun detailed stories…..

My apt is dated, yet spacious, needs a face lift, but is in my all time favorite area of NYC, The UES feels soooo safe no matter the time I am outside and the friendliest people live in my building. Sleeping arrangements….Rach in my king size bed with me and Casey got a tricked out comfy blow up mattress. My bedroom is VERY large for NY standards. To spare you some yucky details , but add to the humor of our 5 full days together we ended up going through 4 blow up mattresses, calling the door man for many requests to assist with issues in the apartment. The building guys for sure know who we are, and they love us. I promise details are better left unmentioned, but there is a homeless guy in the city who woke up with 2 brand new mattresses beside him one day. Lol

We hit the ground running on the first day….Grabbed a bagel/lox at Tal’s, I dropped them at the subway with strict instructions on how to get to The Top of the Rock, while I got my hair cut. I felt like I was dropping kids at preschool…..that uneasy feeling of nerves….like will they be okay on their own and find there way. Sure enough my phone rang within a few minutes….”did you say to go uptown or downtown”?, Omg……😂 All is for the good…..they have since described themselves as dumb & dumber when it comes to directions (grateful to have me as their tour guide), and I just might have ‘maps’ ( Dora’s friend) built into me. Actually my sense of direction I was blessed with comes from my daddy. We met up after…..they loved the views, had played on the piano at FAO schwartz, shopped a bit, and we started the Dora tour. We had cocktails at Cipriani inside Grand Central at 11am, walked through the NY Public library, wandered through Bryant Park, went by Times Square, seeing ‘the ball’, The Plaza Hotel. Rockefeller Plaza, Central Park, and once again explored the huge Tiffany’s store. We then walked by The famous corner of both the St Regis & The Peninsula hotels.….the rain started to come down, …..to take proper cover we jumped inside my favorite Serendipity for the Frozen hot chocolate. I had them bring it with a candle as both these girls had celebrated a recent birthday. We went into the St Patricks Cathedral and the first Sak’s on 5th Ave. We made our way home for a quick shower and change after a humid sweaty day. It was time to meet up with Cousin Julie on a Friday night for drinks at Bad Roman, then dinner at Parm. A lovely evening that ended with a night cap drink at a dive bar on the sidewalk in my neighborhood before getting in bed by 1am. This night was the debacle of mattress mayhem at 2am 🤢.. it made us cancel plans for the next day and decide to for-go our eating plans(not a bad idea 🐽)to see where the wind took us. A much later start….so much.better! That first day was a 12.5 mile walking day. These girls need a rest…..as Terri says….being on a trip with me is like experiencing, The Amazing Race. Lol

The day started with a walk on the East River where an art fair was going on, always something to see and explore here. We walked through Union Square on our way to the East Village/Greenwich Village, we had taken the subway down today as I over walked them yesterday. Rachel was on a mission for these Pop Up Bagels. A known craze…..we waited on a line for 1.5 hours for hot bagels that you dip into a tub of flavored spread. They were good I will admit, but I would not have waited on line if it were just me. I took advantage of catching up on calls, people watching, and just enjoying the day relaxing. Rach & Casey met two girls there age in line that one was a sorority sister of Rach(from a diff school), new found friends- my kind of style. I love meeting strangers and becoming friends. These 2 east coast jewish girls ended up joining us on our SOHO shopping day. We made it home by 330, with some down time before our night out. Tonight was a yummy french restaurant, Josephines in the Theatre district- onion soup & skate……so delish! We had our Broadway show & Juliet tonight. It was incredible…..best music on such a cool set. SO good. We had awesome seats and saw Brenda, Marley, and Debbie. Yes…..more family and friends are here in NYC. We had plans to meet up after the show for dessert. Brenda came to celebrate her 50th bday….On our walk to dessert Rachel has her first star sighting. She is her mothers daughter and can spot a famous person in record time and has zero problem approaching them to chat it up. Now, Im not so sure who she considers is famous is the same for you and I??? 😂This girl flipped out over……drum roll please……Kim Kardashian’s hairdresser. And apparently he dates the guy from White Lotus. I didn’t know any of these people, but both Brenda & Marley were starstruck too. It was quite the sight and a had to be there moment to understand the magnitude of this funny, yet exciting moment. We made our way to the cookie place just in the knick of time before they closed the doors not to let anyone else in the store behind us. Out of the 4 cookies, my fav was the maple bacon cookie with real bacon baked inside. We made our way home…….Sunday girls are planned for 9/11 memorial & Museum early.

It’s a rainy day……I stayed in bed late, they left to navigate how to get downtown. They really are the cutest kids, I loved being with them, both of them! Felt so blessed that Im so lucky to have these 6 gorgeous nieces who all love spending time with me, truly blessed, fortunate, and grateful. It was a treat to have Rachel & Casey on this part of my adventures with me. We actually did a meaningful exercise at one of our meals (Casey’s idea), going around the table and saying 3 things you loved/admired about the 2 others. It was so touching and special. 🥰

I met them after they spent 2 hours at the 9/11 memorial. A heavy day…..we went to SugarFish for the yummiest lunch. The rain was coming down that they each had to purchase umbrellas. Our lunch brought us more new found friends. Lol The friendly family we certainly are……this mother/daughter duo next to us was originally from Florida. The daughter ( a sorority sis of Casey) had just moved into her NYC apt and started at a finance job. She had done birthright in Israel recently, the mom became my bff, and the girls exchanged info. The mom & I exchanged numbers as she invited me to stay at her home in Orlando or at least meet up for lunch on my drive to Miami. We took a group pic upon leaving. All the strangers a person meets……ha I love it!

We left in the rain and made our way to Lower Manhattan to the seaport area for the most delicious ooey gooey cookies. A must try at Funny Face Bakery. Continued our walk along the water with the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance. We boarded the Staten Island Ferry to get an up close and personal view of the Statue of Liberty. With this being Casey’s first time in NYC, she was like a kid in a candy store. Being with these 2 is like a healthy dose of joy & happiness bottled up. They took 100000 photos. We enjoyed the views from the water of ‘the lady’ and the NYC skyline. Upon exiting we jumped on the subway to head to Brooklyn. We explored the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, walked the gorgeous promenade, and made our way to The One Hotel. Another fancy spot I love for drinks. The views at this rooftop are priceless. Omg, Rachel had another star sighting, again people I did not know, The Pitman Sisters. These 3 gorgeous sisters are Tik Tok famous with 3 million followers. Photo op and actually nice conversation, plus they face timed my niece Hillary in AZ, SO cute! I now follow them on insta, and have become a fan, lol. On our way home we walked through Penn Station, passed Madison square garden where Billy Joel was performing tonight, saw views of the empire state building, Rachel ate a hot dog on the street. We made our way to Hudson Yards for photo ops, walked the high line and managed to have another full action packed day. We had time to rest at home and shower before our 9 pm dinner rez at 12 Chairs. Rach had found this place…..it was SO good. A true Israeli restaurant. The food, ambiance was all like a nyc movie scene. We enjoyed the meal and a great ending to the day.

Monday was our last full day together, as I had taken off 2 days for their visit. We woke up at a normal hour after our earliest night in bed(12:30am). First stop was the famous Ralph’s coffee on Madison. The walk down Madison Ave truly has the best window shopping, jumped in a Taxi to head down to Meat-packing district for a fancy brunch at the RH Rooftop restaurant. What a view and yummy food surrounded by beautiful people in town for fashion week. Great conversations…..we made our way to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery after wandering through Chelsea Market ( the girls loved the shopping in there). I had never heard of a Starbucks Reserve…….I was blown away by this tricked out huge establishment with tons of merchandise, a fancy bar area, sitting space, and coffee factory on site. We enjoyed 2 espresso martini’s and rested our piggies. We walked along the West Side Hwy, on the water side and played in the new ‘Little Island’ area. Made our way to a few sandwich shops rachel had on her list, walked by Central Park again, basically making sure we had crossed everything off the lists for the trip for them. A lot of food has been eaten and thankfully this was a 8.5 mile day of walking. Time to go home and get ready for a family filled fun evening out with cousin Molly. We sure are blessed with a beautiful family scattered around the East coast.

Tonight was drinks at a bar called The Up & Up and dinner at the delicious Minetta Tavern in the West Village. The cocktail lounge was underground and funky. We had an eccentric waitress, and the best conversations amongst the 4 of us. This was a first time meeting for Molly & Casey who decided they are kindred spirits and were meant to meet. I am 20 years older then Molly and Rach and her are 2.5 years apart. It was sooooo fun to discuss dating stories, school, work, life basically across our generations. Time for dinner at 9pm across the street. Another Rachel star sighting- OMG…..I cant believe how this girl recognizes everyone and who she finds famous. A podcaster she follows from We met at Acme, Lindsey Metselaar a famous dating podcast. Well Rach of course chatted her up and we got photos in the restaurant. Crazy how she spotted her because she recognized her husband. None the less we had the yummiest burgers, fries, cokes, and soufflés. Yes, If you pay attention I ate here with Tracy and had to share the experience with my foodie niece. She loved it too. We said our good byes to the incredible Miss Molly after a photo shoot outside and jumped on a subway ride home. I had a questionable encounter with a homeless guy, which just adds to all our constant excitement walking the wild streets of this fun city.

The next morning was the end to our fabulous adventures. The girls headed out to the MET for a last museum to see, packed up and got picked up for their journey home. So many crazy flight delays due to crazy storms in Phoenix, they ended up with a 24 hour stay in Vegas, lol. Never a dull moment in the Shelton family. I miss them , but am ready for the remainder of my time in the City seeing many more people. To keep this entry from being a novel, stay tuned for another entry soon. Lots more to report…..living my best life!! Below was our final good bye as they got in tye elevator.

Until next time DTG followers……

Love Laurie Sue

aka Dora 😇🥰😉😘🥳🤩xoxo