part two..."I think it's colder in little rock"

Let me back up a bit to explain the statement in the entry title. Walking out of my apartment on Thursday morning, Mickey announces, while it is snowing immensely, "It's not that bad out here, I think it's colder in Little Rock." My response was simply, "oh... okay..."

Walking down Broadway into the wind as we felt like our skin was being pushed back and our hair was flying straight in the wind, Mickey says, "Maybe it is colder here." I said nothing, but smiled inside.

The adorable Alice's Tea Cup. Mickey's new favorite place.

Okay, back to part two. Saturday morning I picked up tea and scones and brought them back to the apartment while Mick was getting ready. We watched a little 90210: an episode Mickey actually hadn't seen. I know Dad, did you think that was possible?

We stayed on the Upper West Side for a bit and picked up a few things at American Apparel and Urban Outfitters. Mickey found an adorable chambray dress at Urban that was on her list of things to get while in the city. Afterwards we ran back by Olive and Bette's to pick up our purchases from the day before, but of course, being the Searcy's we are, we have a tendency to never leave a store empty handed. We like to say our mother blessed us with good taste, ha ha! But really, Mickey had been eyeing a pair of shoes (by the way they are amazing shoes) and I told her that she would regret not buying them because she kept talking about them. Sold and shipped. Maybe this is why I work retail?

Down the block from my apartment, we stopped and took a pic.

We dropped everything off at my apartment walked around the corner to Pinkberry, and enjoyed a bit of yogurt before grabbing a cab towards Times Square to the matinee showing of In the Heights. Whoa! Weeks ago we were deciding between In the Heights and Jersey Boys. This was the one thing I was adamant about. I wanted to see In the Heights and I knew Mickey would love it. After all, it did win a Tony for Best Musical on Broadway. Thankfully, she agreed to see it (we are waiting for mom to join us in the city to see Jersey Boys). The story line of the show is set in Washington Heights, NY and follows grown children of parents who moved to the country from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba, with nothing and worked as hard as possible so that their children could have more. Mixed with awesome music, a little hip-hop dance, a little rap, some Spanish here and there and a great cast, In the Heights rose exceeded all of my expectations. I loved it! Mickey loved it! Basically, in a nutshell, GO SEE IT!

Sisters outside Richard Rodgers Theatre

In Times Square before heading to ESPN Zone.

Being our last full day together, we were trying to check everything off of Mickey's "to-do" list. Next on the list: New York pizza. I took her to Ray's pizza, which is a staple in New York, and we had a slice and stromboli. Mickey had never had it, so I had her try it. She loved it. Basically, it is a lot of meat (turkey, ham, salami, pepperoni, and several others that I don't know, with a lot of melted cheese). Basically it's a heart attack in a pizza crust. MMMMM!

Having plenty of time to kill before our dinner reservations at 10:30 we stopped by ESPN Zone, had a beer and watched Kansas loose to OK State! I was elated! Sitting behind Mickey was Brad Garrett, Ray Ramono's brother on Everybody Loves Raymond. He chatted it up with us several times.

Fun Fact #2: I don't notice "celebrities." The quotes indicate that I don't notice any one from television or a movie, but when Mickey said, "I hope I see someone famous" I was calling people out left and right. Even after she left on Sunday, Monday night at work, I helped Jeff Gordon and his wife. Weird.

After ESPN Zone we took a quick subway ride back to the Upper West Side and went by my local pub. By this, I mean, it is across the street and I am known by the staff because I always come in and order the soup. It's a cheddar potato soup, but if you pick out the potatoes it's the best cheese soup. It doesn't beat Victorian Tea Garden's cheese soup at home, or Mimi's version, but being 1,300 miles from home, this place hits the spot, and it's less than $3 a cup!

So Mickey met my friend Anna and after chatting for a while we went up to the apartment to rest. This was a good idea and a bad idea. With our dinner reservations being 10:30, we had time to kill but not much left to do, so by relaxing and watching TV, we just got more tired. But, after searching the Web site of Asia de Cuba, where we would be eating, we had already decided what we would get and then got ready and caught a cab.

Asia de Cuba was suggested to Mickey by her boss, who swears by it. Well, we were not let down. Though we were exhausted and did not sit and linger during dinner, we had a great meal. We enjoyed tuna tartar on wantons as well as pan-seared scallops, and for our entree (served family style) we shared a fabulous cut of tuna with wasabi mash-potatoes. Definitely a place to go back, and for larger groups, a great place to enjoy a good dinner. We decided that we would not get reservations on the last night of "vacation" so late, ever again, but we would in fact, go back to Asia de Cuba.

Sunday morning Mickey was up and going early, and by the time I woke up and put myself together we were walking out the door, to thankfully, a "warmer" day than the previous. We walked about 15 blocks up to Ouest, where we enjoyed brunch. We have been there before with our parents during Summer 2008 while I was living here for a short time. Afterwards we did a little stroll through Central Park and then hauled Mick's luggage downstairs and into a cab, and off to JFK she went.

A vacation for her and a vacation in my backyard. Some of the best memories between the two of us were made on this trip. We'll never forget it, and always want to repeat it!

Hope you all enjoyed!