Lizzie and Scott

Well folks, we have come to the end of a chapter in our story!

We have arrived at the end of our first month on holiday, and our final two days in New York City! It has been an absolute blast! All I can say is if you plan on visiting NYC, you will NEVER see her at her best unless you come here over the holiday period. In our time here, we have watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and experienced a plentiful Thanksgiving Dinner; we have seen the streets transition from celebrating "the harvest" to celebrating Christmas and the holiday period with Christmas decorations, and various trees and real Christmas tree vendors popping up. We have ice skated at the three main rinks in town (Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park and Wollman Rink in Central Park), and experienced a couple of very light snow falls that made our stay even more magical.

And so, this will be my final topic for our stay in New York.

18 December 2024
Today we ventured back to Rockefeller Center to spend a little time in a heated chalet overlooking the ice rink, joined by our friends Laura, Nic and Lynn. We had a lovely warm drink and watched some of the skaters (and not-so skaters) make their way around the rink. We also witnessed an engagement where a couple posed on the steps overlooking the rink where a professional camera service was set up. He popped the question and she said yes, all captured by the photographer! We later learned that bookings for the photo experience cost about $1,700 for 5 minutes on the steps!
After our chalet time ran out, Nic and Laura headed off for a ferry cruise to see the Statue of Liberty, whilst Lynn, Lizzie and I took another look at FAO Schwarz, and caught the subway back home.

We introduced Lynn and Peter to Grays Papaya hotdogs for lunch, before we parted ways to get ready for a big night ahead.

Later that afternoon, we all met up at Radio City Music Hall to watch the Christmas Spectacular show performed by the world famous Rockettes! Firstly, the foyer of this theatre is absolutely beautiful!
We then made our way inside the theatre and it was just as beautiful!
And then the main event! The Rockettes took the stage and for the next 90 minutes we were spellbound and mesmerised and any other word you can think of to say that this show was absolutely freaking AMAZING!!!
I seriously cannot describe this show to you other than to say it was magical. Lizzie and I both had smiles on our faces for the entire time. Please; if you come to NYC during Christmas, make sure you come to one of these shows - you will NOT be disappointed!

When we left the theatre, it was raining. So we trudged through the rain to Times Square to find a restaurant called Carmines. Peter remembered this Italian restaurant from a previous trip and made sure we included it on our itinerary. It was incredibly busy, but the food was absolutely delicious!
The serves were HUGE too! We only ordered 3 plates of food, but that was enough to feed 6 of us, and we weren't able to finish it all!!!

Then it was home for everyone - I'm not letting anyone guess what Lizzie did when we got home! The only thing I will say is that I am sure one of these days she will finally find the end of the Hallmark Channel!

19 December 2024

We spent our morning packing our cases as far as possible in preparation for our departure tomorrow. As well as taking down the considerable number of Christmas lights and other decorations that had mysteriously found there way on to our walls!

The real tree and wreath that we had decorated with flashing lights were carried downstairs and we put them on the sidewalk with a sign saying "free to good home". A woman walked past with her dog as we did this, and immediately took the wreath! Then Lizzie and I went back upstairs to grab some rubbish to put in the bins and when we came back down only 7 minutes later, the tree was gone as well!

Lizzie and I were really struggling to fit everything in to our cases! So what does one do when you can't fit everything in? Why, you go shopping at Macy's, of course! Yes, that's what we did - back downtown to buy a few more things at Macy's. To be fair, this was because we had earned ourselves almost $100 in gift vouchers so it would have been silly not to use them! Lizzie came away with some new clothes, but had to throw out some not-so-new ones to make room for them!

We caught the subway home and got ourselves changed before walking down to Wollman Rink in Central Park for one last ice skate. We left our visit for quite late in the afternoon so we could skate the rink at night (the sun sets at about 4:30 pm at this time of year).
We also noticed a small area at the rink where they had little heated igloos for hire. It was a pretty cool idea (pardon the pun) but we were happy sitting out in the cold air.
The rink was REALLY busy, but there was still plenty of room to get around. I think this was the best either of us have skated so far. We are both slowly getting better, and it is becoming more fun along the way as well.

Once we'd had enough of skating, we sat down with a nice cup of hot apple cider before saying our final goodbye to Wollman Rink. This was our favourite place to skate in NYC, and we'll miss it for sure.

We headed back home and spent the rest of the night washing and drying our laundry, drinking beer and of course, watching Hallmark movies!

We were both reluctant to go to bed - we just aren't ready to leave New York, but we are also excited for the adventures we are yet to have.

Goodbye New York, New York. Thankyou for being such an awesome place and allowing Lizzie to tick off quite a few bucket list items along the way. We love you!

What can I say of our month but:

Regrets, we've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
We did what we had to do
And saw it through without exemption

We did it our way!
Thankyou, and goodnight!