I had a wonderful day…

***UPDATED*** – pictures added 10/31/10!

So on Monday night Ben told me that he had a surprise for our anniversary on Tuesday.  He had babysitters arranged for Elaine, he had taken the day off work, and we were spending the day together! 

He is really sneaky, you know!  Two weeks ago he arranged the day off with his boss.  Then he casually asked me what my “perfect day” would consist of.  I was totally unsuspecting when I replied, “sleep in, go shopping at 86th Street, and eat dinner out.”  Well – Ben made it happen!  And Elaine even got the “sleep in” memo, because she didn’t wake up until 8:00 a.m.

Ben did get up to go to his staff prayer meeting at 5:30 a.m.  Then he came back…with bagels for breakfast!  We enjoyed a leisurely morning.  Then we did some romantic things, like go to the DMV for our New York license plates!  After dropping Elaine off at the sitter, we spent the rest of the day alone.  We are so thankful that Mrs. Bickel was willing to watch Elaine! Everything we did was more of an “errand” that had been on my list for a while.  The Christmas shopping.  A trip to the Michael’s Craft Store (yes – there is one of those in Manhattan!). 

A cool building in Manhattan

Rather than taking the train, Ben drove us to Manhattan.  He knows the roads pretty well over there from all the deliveries he makes for work.  I had never been on the West Side highway.  We stopped at a couple of places on the Upper West Side.  I thoroughly enjoyed it – it was like something straight out of “You’ve Got Mail!”  But since parking was 50 cents for 12 minutes at the meter, we decided to move on.

Riverside Drive – one of the main streets in “You’ve Got Mail”

We found free parking on the west side of Central Park.  From there we took the train to Times Square for fun.  I was treated to french fries at McDonalds, and a smoothie (compliments of the Monopoly instant win coupons!).  I LOVE McDonald’s french fries!

There was a whole string of taxis on the west side of Central Park.  The drivers were all having lunch together.  Funny to see!

We had planned to eat at a restaurant in our neighborhood called Omonia’s since it came highly recommended.  When we pulled up we were sad to discover that they are closed for renovations.  So we went to Gino’s, a nice Italian restaurant near our house.  The food was excellent!

I had a fabulous, wonderful day.  I don’t have any pictures of us together to share with you because we didn’t take any.  We didn’t really do anything picture worthy.  We just enjoyed a pleasant day together.  By the way, the weather was perfect – 70 degrees and sunny!

Thanks to everyone for the anniversary wishes.  We received a nice card from Evan and Kenny & Becky today.  I guess those ones mean a little more because they come from the guys (and guys in general don’t remember these special days so well).  Although Kenny did comment that it was Becky who was keeping him on track.  I think I’m going to like having her in the family!