Be forewarned there are entirely too many photos in this post.
Eiley won first place in a national science competition in which she had to design a space themed Rube Goldberg contraption. Here's a link to an overview of the design. The prize was an all expense paid trip for three to NYC with two nights in Le Parker Meridian, driver service, and tickets to the premier of the movie Gravity with a chance to meet the stars, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
Eiley and her best friend, Morgan, after unpacking in our hotel room. We were on the 21st floor. We thought about going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Broadway play or the Central Park Zoo but we ended up just exploring the hotel and walking through Central Park on the way to meet Caroline for dinner at Sarabeth's. The food was truly incredible and it was so much fun to see Caroline. Caroline and I had steak and the girls ordered 'adult' grilled cheese on a pretzel roll and tomato soup. Caroline and I shared some wine (recommended by Morgan as her mother's favorite) and we all shared a blueberry crisp with ice cream for dessert.
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| at Sarabeth's |
Part of our prize was $150 per night for incidental at the hotel. The first night the girls ordered milkshakes through room service, just for the extravagance of it. The next morning we had a huge breakfast.
On the top floor of our hotel was the indoor pool, and a cat walk to view the city.
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| Morgan was scared of the heights... |
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| but overcame the fear to pose for a moment with Eiley. |
In the hotel was a salon called The DryBar where they wash and style your hair. They said walk-ins were welcome but when we went to make an appointment for the late afternoon they said they were filled for the whole day. Who would have thought that service would be so popular? They referred us to Salon Ziba down the street, and after spending half an hour to find it, we made an appointment for the girls to get their hair styled at 4:00. We had smoothies for lunch, then returned to the hotel to get a little break from the noise, chaos and smells of the city.
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| from this... |
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| to this. |
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| And from this... |
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| to this. |
We were all delighted with the experience but when they were done we had only 20 minutes to find our way back to the hotel and get dressed before our ride arrived to take us to the premier.
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| in the SUV on the way to the premier |
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| looking like a movie star! |
Caroline, it is a good thing you didn't come to take photos of us on the red carpet. We didn't actually walk on it. When I called our contact from Warner Bros to say we had arrived, she was inside and directed us how to get in via a side door. I didn't realize until too late that it meant we weren't getting a chance to go in walking the red carpet. The biggest disappointment for Eiley, the only disappointment really, was that we did not get to meet Sandra Bullock. Kevin, the representative from Iridescent (the parent company of Curiosity Machine who hosted the contest) was continuing throughout the movie to try to get us the opportunity to meet SB but it didn't happen. We did see her in the audience, sitting about eight rows behind us. There were other famous folks there also - George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Katie Holmes, Emma Stone and probably a lot of others - but we didn't recognize any of them; Eiley had eyes only for Sandra. Sigh.
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| inside the AMC Lincoln Square Theater |
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| Eiley with her on-line mentor for the project, Bonnie Lei - wearing their 3D glasses |
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| Eiley and Morgan after the movie, since we didn't have time beforehand |
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at our 9:45pm dinner reservation at Max Brenner following the premier...
we had a delicious crispy pizza and chocolate fondue |
Eiley woke the next morning and finished up her homework then we had another delicious, decadent breakfast in our room. Eiley had cheesecake and a plate of fruit and Devonshire cream, Morgan had 'grown up' grilled cheese and fries. I had a Belgium waffle! The girls had milk, I got a fruit smoothie and we shared a basket of Norma's sweet breads. The cost was $140.
Now for a look around the hotel room...
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| a tv that swivels from the living room to the bedroom |
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| I loved the walk in shower which was ~8 feet long with no doors, only a plate of glass |
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The price list for the above wet bar. Yikes!
I had several of the $6 waters, and Eiley had two of the $5 Cokes. |
It was a wonderful three days full of excitement, new experiences and a lot of extravagance. Iridescent did a wonderful job taking care of us. We felt so pampered and cared for. I didn't realize how much I would appreciate having a driver (who also drove George Clooney earlier that day) was waiting for us all evening to take us where we wanted to go. We felt really safe even though we were in a big city none of us were familiar with. And Eiley and Morgan were so much fun to be around. This is going to be a hard vacation to top!
