Goodbye, New York!

Tuesday was our last full day in New York.
We got a late start on the day. I was feeling pretty worn down having been on the go for the past 4 days. We took our time again in the morning. I had never tried Dunkin Donuts before and wanted to before we left. Andrew went and grabbed some around the corner from our hotel while I got ready for the day. I must say, I wasn't too thrilled about it. The coffee was nothing great and neither were the donuts. But maybe before Starbucks came along, it was the only good cup of coffee around. I'm not sure why it's always been such a sensation on the east coast.
We finally got moving around noon and decided to try the Metropolitan Art Museum again. It was open this time. The place is so enormous. It would take a week to get through every single exhibit. We were most amazed and impressed with the ancient Egyptian artifacts. There were some from around 2000 BC! So amazing! We saw ancient Greek art, Roman art, and some more modern art in the form of paintings. I liked the paintings. I've never been to an art museum before, but I like the idea of looking at a painting and seeing or thinking what the artist was thinking. What I don't like, however, is crappy, weird art. Thankfully, there wasn't much of that. I'm talking about a chair, or weird paintings, or anything that just looks like trash. I hope that makes sense.
We didn't have much time to spend at the museum because we had to make our way back to Rockefeller for the tree lighting. We wanted to line up early in order to get a good view of the tree and the stage. We stopped for a quick lunch at another Italian restaurant on the upper east side. It, too, was delicious. I had the pesto gnocchi and Andrew had pizza. We got in and out quickly and moved on to Rockefeller. The weather wasn't great. There was a light drizzle and my boots were already pretty wet. None the less, we made it to the plaza and walked around to see where a good place to line up might be. There were already quite a few people waiting and we still had about 3 hours until the tree lighting. To our dismay, the outer edge of the plaza was blocked off and the only place the cops would let us stand was in the street. We decided this was as good as it was going to get. I kept wondering why they would block off so much space that would give the public such a great view. Then we started to see a bunch of rich looking people with VIP passes and glasses of champagne walking back and forth and realized that you had to have money in order to get a good view. We waited for 2.5 hours for the show to start, then another 2 hours for the tree to be lit. All in all, it was definitely an experience. I am proud to say that we stuck it out until the end and had a decent view of the tree when it was lit. How could you not? The tree was enormous! I'm so glad I got to see it in person!
After standing and walking for almost 6 hours, we were starving and thirsty. We both decided we wanted to go back to John's Pizzeria from the day before. We both settled on pasta for dinner this time and we shared a bottle of wine. It was a delicious end to a beautiful and incredibly memorable trip to New York.
We left bright and early this morning for Penn Station. We walked a few blocks in the rain. We got to Penn Station and wandered around trying to find the place to buy tickets back to Newark Airport. After about 20 minutes of wandering and running around, we found our spot and made it on the train right before it left the station. Our flight also left just before all other flights out of Newark were delayed due to wind. We both made it home in one piece and were so happy to see our babies.
I'm so thankful for such a wonderful and exciting experience! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who would surprise me with such a fantastic gift. I keep telling him that he has set the bar pretty high for future anniversaries.