January 14th Back in New York

We get up at 9am today, we still have to pack all of our stuff. Our room looks like a tornado came through it, well at least on Matt's side of the room. I was pretty good about keeping my side tidy. My least favorite thing about vacations is packing. I wonder if I can pay a little filipino guy to pack for me? Ray told us that on the last day he would show us all the villas, suites, and penthouses on the ship. I'm excited to see them, we have to wait around for all of them to leave though, but when we get up there it's like a whole other world up there! I knew they would be nice but these are phenomenal! Ray said they have the nicest suites then any other boat since the boat is so new and has all of the upgrades, etc. The villas are the least fancy but there are more rooms. The villas share a common area which has a greek style pool, fluffy beds and chairs everywhere. It is draped in beautiful linens and silk cloths. Every inch in covered in flowers and exotic plants. It is also encased in glass which you can keep closed or open. The rooms are beautiful. Oh, and the bathrooms, I'll just say it would have been nice to have on the trip because it was ten times the size of ours. Now, we went up to the Black Diamond suite. It was a 6000 square foot penthouse with 3 rooms! There was a main area with a piano and couches. An enormous bathroom with a sauna, shower, and a bathtub. The master suite was so beautiful. It had huge windows that looked into the ocean, also draped with white linen. Ray told us something spectacular too, he told us he could put us on his friends and family rate on a cruise and get us a normal room for $250! Or the suites for not much more. I guess we might be going on a lot more cruises. I would love to do the Europe one or the meditterenean in one of those suites with a group of friends. It was time to go, so we say bye to Ray and walk into the frigid air. There is snow on the ground in NY and it's about 20 degrees. I can feel myself getting a cold already from the temperature shock. We head back to our New York home, The Westin. It feels good to be back in the Big Apple. Right away we call Alex, our concierge driver from before. He is so happy to see us. Now we want to do some shopping! So we head to Madison Ave. the best place to shop and go to Juicy Couture, I didn't get to go there last time so I tell him I MUST go there! The store is fabulous! It's two stories and has every single juicy thing you could ever want. I kind of went a little crazy...We hit some other stores and pretty much spent the whole day shopping. We worked up an appetite shopping so we went to the Carnegie Deli, which is super famous. Every inch of the walls inside were covered with framed pictures of famous people who have been there. It was a cool place to say you have gone. The food was good too in a super fattening covered in grease sort of way. We are meeting up with Shannon again tonight one last time. First stop is the Mandarin Orient Hotel for some drinks, Alex said they have the best view of the city in the sky bar there, and he was right. This place was like nothing I had seen. It looked like a queen or king would have lived there. In the middle of the bar was an enormous Chihuli piece which we took a picture in front of. The drinks were so yummy here and the view was awesome. The second stop is Tao, the original Tao in fact. We have some drinks and order an appetizer, but the place we really want to go to in Nobu. Matt and I ate at Nobu in Vegas and it was the best sushi I have ever eaten. Both of us were totally craving Nobu, which is very hard to get into. Again, Alex came through and got us reservations. Nobu! Shannon and I let Matt pick all of the food, he is great at picking the best sushi. Everything was heavenly. The portions were small but that was the best part, every bite was filled with new and interesting flavors. Strange combinations of fish and spices just exploded in your mouth and all you needed was one bite to be satisfied. That is what I call great food. From the last time we ate at Nobu, before we even took a bite tonight we could still taste the flavors from last time. Tonight, those flavors were even better. We ordered some sake which was delicious, the best part they bring you the sake in a large bamboo jug, with little bamboo shot glasses. We liked the shot glasses so much we stole them...I'm sure they wouldn't notice. What a great meal! Matt and I wanted to call an early night and Shannon has to work tomorrow so we ended the night right, happily full with a slight buzz on. We say bye to Shannon who has been such a pleasure to hang out with. She is a great girl and we can't wait to come back and see her. She is so lucky she lives in NY. Back to our hotel room and our heavenly bed..ah.