One of the things on “THE LIST” was to eat at Carmines – known for their family style service and fantastic food! Well we tried to get on the list, however the earliest we could get a table was Monday night… well that just wouldn’t work! SO after all we had done in just one evening, we thought we’d just pop in to have A drink – simple math, science and physics and every other law tells you that 5 girls on vacay can not have just ONE drink… We got a great table upstairs and had a really funny waiter –Trinidad. He sure got a kick out a bunch of Southern girls. The upstairs floor manager was from Texas and also had a fond appreciation for us! Any time we would need something we would just yell for either of them and they’d be at our side, normally already with drinks in hand! They were fabulous! So drink after drink after shot after drink we stumbled back to our hotel and learned all about some green olive sandwiches from Brittany – fyi those consist of mayo and green olives on a hot dog bun and they must be washed down with a Dr. Pepper! Our plan for the next day was to hit the TODAY show and get on TV … but it was about 3 in the morning and we were going on no sleep in 24 hours…

After our trip down to the tree we started the trek back to our hotel and were in need of something to warm us up (read more drinkies). One of the things I was told was a must was to go to the top of the Rainbow Room at the NBC Building and have a drink and enjoy the amazing view. SO since we were right there… that’s where we went – all the way to the top. However first we were told we’d have to wait in line –WHAT – we wait in line for no one, no thing, no how – and where was this line this elevator spoke of? HA! No waiting allowed – well except for like 5 minutes. Then we whisked to the top, checked our coats and ordered drinks. The bar area is beautiful and we actually presented the Rainbow Room a prize – most expensive drink we’ve had to pay for – ever. $27 a martini! (Note the part about us having to pay for them) Apparently the winner prior was the Wynn in Las Vegas, but I wasn’t there for that so not sure the exact context of that. No matter – we were on vacation! We had one drink, Brittany had an entire bowl full of nuts and we got some great pictures and headed back down the elevator! … and on to our next adventure.

This is my most favorite picture – I’m so glad Amanda took it for me!!!

After dinner we headed which ever way Times Square is from where ever we were… yeah it made about that much sense to us as well but we made it to the tree by golly! The tree had been lit on Wednesday night, so thus we weren’t there for the actual lighting but we figured it was for the best as they got all the kinks out prior to OUR arrival! It was truly beautiful and we got yet another great group picture with the angels. We stopped a few times for some pictures along the great white way…

We asked our great door man at the Paramount for some suggestions for dinner and he suggested etcetera etcetera which was a few blocks away from our hotel in between Broadway and Hell’s Kitchen. So we called to get reservations and then just headed out to see what we could find. We found an Irish Pub right next to our restaurant so of course we went in – we needed a drink!
The pub was great and the drinks were STRONG! We also had some great seats in the front of the bar right by the window and the Christmas tree – can you say photo op boys and girls. I know I was really glad that all our waitresses were never at all bitchy about taking our pictures, then letting us see if it was good and the potentially retaking it – so thank you to all the nice waitresses that obliged our vanity!
We downed our drinks and headed to dinner – such tasty food and fortunately for us Ari has a good appreciation of wine – and could order like a PRO for us! Let’s just say this was only the beginning to eating and drinking very well for a few fabulous days, so it was a good thing we had all been running our asses off – no really … true story.

We had briefly talked about getting a town car or limo to pick us up from the airport. I mean really, who doesn’t like seeing their names on a sign held up by a fat little guy in a black suit and funny hat? I do!
We never made solid plans as a group, but Ari said she “knew a guy” which meant she had something up her sleeve. We rounded the corner to baggage claim and there he was – our very own fat little guy holding up our very own sign THSC Girls!!! What a great welcome to NYC!
We headed into the city in swank Cadillac Escalade style. Thursday night we were staying at the Paramount Hotel right off Broadway. We got the hotel and dropped off our belongings since the room wasn’t ready and we headed out in search of things to check off our lists – one being HOT DOGS!!! Yummy and even yummier because we were starving! We walked around for a bit after the hot dog, got our bearings and then headed back to the hotel to get out of our flying funk clothes.
Our hotel was great, a boutique hotel that as someone said had furniture reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland – the high back chair definitely brought that to life!

So Thursday morning we actually made it out the door only about 5 minutes late, which I consider a huge accomplishment! We got to the airport – check – bags checked – check everyone’s back under 50 pounds – almost check … Amanda’s bag was 51 pounds but the nice woman at the counter let her slide “this time” and immediately a plan was made to redistribute boots and jeans for the trip home – just in case. No worries though, Brittany’s bag was only 37 pounds – she packed nothing apparently. Find a Starbucks inside security – check – board plane – check –
Finally find out the true meaning behind of the mystical cran-apple juice – check. WAIT what? Cran-apple is not it’s own fruit – I kid you not – and neither did our awesomely snarky flight attendant. He very graciously explained to the plane full of people bound for Chicago that cran-apple juice was a blend of cranberry juice and apple juice. He also told us he would be glad to get us whatever we wanted as long as he could do it from his seat as it was only an hour and half flight and he was not a morning person. Ari should have offered him some of her mocha espresso with more than humanly contrived amounts of espresso! That would have perked him right up.
Conincedentally, it’s since been suggested that our signature drink going foward be cranberry juice with apple vodka – or the other way around… I think it works either way!!!Sitting next to me was an older woman in a fabulous velour sweat suit with some BIG HAIR – I mean BIG – especially for a 6 am flight. She was on her way to NYC as well to meet up with her girlfriends- she told me this was the 15th year in a row that they had all gone to NYC for shopping and fun with the girls. It was really cool how she told me all about it – I felt a bit bad for secretly making fun of her BIG hair.
Make it to Chicago – check. Get more espresso mocha truffle – quintuple check! Track everyone on Loop – check. Loop is this neat little application for your gps enabled cell phone so that you can track all your friends, also known as a husband tracker apparently. It was cool though because Brittany’s husband was actually in Chicago and because of Loop, we knew exactly where in the windy city he was. Cool tool, you should download it.
Finish off coffees and bits of McDonalds check – and as you can imagine – pee…. lots – check!
Board plane for NYC – check!!!!!!!!!

On Wednesday night, after I FINALLY got off of work, I picked up Jennifer and we headed to meet up with Amanda and Brittany. Of course that was the afternoon I was scheduled to present to be in a presentation with a senior management audience and they just wanted to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. Normally never a bad problem to have, however I was very ready to be officially on VACATION!!!
We hit the road to head south to Little Rock to Ari’s house. We were super ready to fly out on Thursday morning even though it was super early – just meant we started vacation earlier in the day! We got to Ari’s in record time, even in the rain and promptly popped open a couple bottle of champagne to celebrate not only the start of our first annual THSC Girls trip but also to belatedly celebrate Ari’s birthday. It was great way to start our trip and a wonderful way to celebrate Ari’s birthday all at the same time.
We went to bed relatively early so that we could catch our super early flight!!!

So let the story begin….
I’ll try to keep the events in some sort of chronlogical order, but I make no gurantees – as you’ll see toward the end… time gets a bit lost!
Wahoo!

I made journals for all the girls to take with them. I thought it would be a good idea and everyone could use it for many different things such as making lists of things they wanted to accomplish or writing down memories or keeping track of all the excitement. And also so I wouldn’t forget anything to post on the blog.
JC took it to a new level – she illustrated! It was great, she’s quite the artist! I had no idea she was so talented. I think we all learned a little bit more about everyone on this trip.