Rodgers family weekend in NYC...

Ben's mom, dad, and younger sister Karla came to visit this past weekend. We had a great time and seemed to fill every minute with something to do. Here are some pics of the things we did.

Friday Night:
We went to Carnegie Deli and they had the biggest sandwiches I had ever seen in my life. I think there might be 2 lbs of meat on them! After dinner we walked around Times Square for a while. The lights never get old to me- it is fun to see every time we go. We found the Hershey's store and bought some chocolate. Rodney is holding the world's biggest chocolate bar! It was huge! After walking around for a while, we found Fox News Channel- Rodney's favorite news channel.

















Saturday:
We woke up and went to eat breakfast at Sarabeth's. I had the fat and fluffy french toast again- it is SO good! Next, we headed over to the Met. That place is huge and pretty overwhelming. We had fun wandering around and had to ask for directions to different galleries several times. We saw the Egyptian gallery (Ben and the mummies), the American gallery, and the African gallery. All of the African art seemed to have statues with these funny lips, so of course, Ben and I could not resist imitating the pose. That night we went to see Wicked. It was amazing- one of the best shows or maybe the best show I have seen. The set and the singing were great. I would definitely recommend it to anyone! After Wicked, we headed over to Carmine's for dinner. This is a family style Italian restaurant with huge servings. We ordered some fried zucchini and it probably could have fed 10 people. Overall, the meal was great and it was a fun place to eat.











WICKED








Sunday:
Ben and I have been going to the Brooklyn Tabernacle while we have been here and it is so great- definitely an experience. However, the service usually lasts about 2 hours and it takes about 30 minutes to get there. We decided to sleep in and squeeze some more touring in today. Ben and Karla headed off to the MoMA- Museum of Modern Art- and they saw some some pretty cool things like Van Gough's Starry Night. I took Sammie and Rodney to the Meatpacking District, Greenwich Village, and West Village. We stopped at Chelsea Street Market, where they film the food network. This is such a fun building with lots of cute shops. We stopped at the Fat Witch- this is Oprah's favorite brownie! Then we headed off down Bleecker street and made another stop at Magnolia Bakery for some banana pudding. This little bakery is famous for their cupcakes and the line is always out the door and around the corner. Next, we got in a cab and headed down to Chinatown. This was an experience! People come up to you left and right, "You like Coach, Gucci, Prada- come with me." We ended up following one lady to this back room and they lock you inside. Sammie came out with lots of Christmas presents for the girls in the family! Rodney looked like Santa Claus carrying all of the loot in a trash bag! That night we went to see Rent- it was another entertaining broadway show! The picture of Rodney has a funny story behind it. He met us for dinner and when he walked in he was sparkling- covered in glitter! He said he borrowed Sammie's hairspray, but it was not hairspray. It was body glitter! We cracked up!!












Monday:
The last day we headed down to the financial district. We saw Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, and Ground Zero. It is still hard to grasp what happened on 9-11 in our country. I can't imagine being there and it is hard not to think about all the precious lives that were lost that day. The entire site is surrounded by police officers- hundreds of them. After touring that area, we headed up to Chinatown to show Karla. We walked around to all of the vendors- no secret rooms with purses this time. However, I managed to buy some DVDs that were new releases- I would not do this again- the quality was terrible! Oh well, live and learn! We headed up to Soho and walked around for a while and then it was time for them to head back home. We are so glad they were able to come and visit- so many fun memories and Ben did not have to work the whole weekend!