Fun with Hotel Employees- Take Two

So the culmination of the I slept with David Copperfield night was Newark Airport in lovely New Jersey. We spent four days there in celebration of Bob's wedding. Bob and Kevin have been friends since they were like six and he was the best man at our wedding- so it seemed only fitting that we trek cross country to see him tie the knot. It was a great time. I went to the second largest mall in America and once again coveted the Swavorski champagne glasses which I have to admit serve no real purpose other than being insanely pretty. I also spent the better part of an hour looking for a snack. What kind of snack food vendors in a mall don't take plastic these days- seriously. And 15 minutes from NYC- SHEESH!

The rehearsal dinner was fabulous, as was the hotel bar afterwards. Drunk Kevin even made an appearance. For those of you who are unaware- spotting Drunk Kevin is like seeing a yeti. Even though the crotchety bar tender tried his best to put a damper on the evening, I think a good time was had by all. This man was convinced that a hundred people were going to show up any minute to the Hilton Bar and therefore refused to charge anything to the room, a credit card, or let anyone order food.

The wedding was also pretty cool. The appetizers alone were enough to feed an army and were followed by a four course meal and five desserts. I even ate the Jordan almonds. Wine may have been involved. Anyway, Sunday morning we left and headed to Connecticut to meet Chris- one of Kevin's friends from college. We had lunch on a marina and hung out for a while before heading to NYC.

This was the first time I had been to NYC when it was above 40 degrees. It was also the first time I had been to NYC that I stayed in a hotel room not booked by a travel company who stuck us in Acrosstheriver, NJ. So anyway, we had a room at the Marriott Marquis right in Times Square. Seriously, I could have thrown something out the window and hit the Phantom of the Opera. Dr. HokieKev read online that in certain cities, NYC and Vegas being two of them, it is fairly easy to get upgraded hotel rooms by slipping the check in person a $20. All you have to do is slip it between your credit card and driver's license. Supposedly, if they aren't able to upgrade you they give you the money back. He gave this a trial run at this fancy hotel and it worked! The girl looked at the money, looked at Dr. HokieKev, and started typing away culminating in us being upgraded to a 44th floor executive suite. It was pretty fancy (and nice to have two rooms since we had spent the better part of two weeks in tiny hotel rooms 24/7)!

After settling in, we headed to John's Pizza with Anna and Russ (Kevin's high school friend and her fiance). Even though it took us a few wrong turns to find it- and the discovery that you could literally see it from our hotel room window- we made it. If you are ever in NYC go there. The sauce on the pizza is delicious and for $25 bucks for two people to eat dinner in NYC, it really can't be beat. After dinner, we headed to the bar on top of the hotel for drinks and the dessert buffet. The top of the hotel rotates so we got a pretty good view. Of course, you pay for that view by being sucked into the $17 dessert buffet- well worth it for the chocolate covered strawberries and marshmellows! Needless to say drinks and dessert were way more than dinner but it gave us a chance to catch up with Anna and Russ which was cool.

We spent Monday doing semitouristy things like taking the tour of NBC studios and taking pictures of a non snow covered Rockefeller Center. We also met Kevin's friend Lisa for lunch. We went to a little diner across from Chelsea Market and had the best diner food I have ever had. Halfway through our lunch who should walk in but noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker from America's Next Top Model. Apparently, he lives in the neighborhood. We spent a while at lunch and then headed back to Lisa's office for a tour of The Food Network studios. Apparently, this tour is only available to contest winners and VIPS like us because again, that's how we roll! It was pretty cool seeing the test kitchens and TV sets. This particular day it was set up to tape "Guy's Big Bite" and it looked like he was making meatball subs! You would be really surprised at how small that studio is for some of the things they tape. I may never watch Iron Chef America the same way again. Funny thing about The Food Network- aside from the small candy bar- there is no food. Seriously, all they have for craft services is candy. Lisa said most people figure that there is a ton of food around all the time and that just isn't the case.

We concluded our day by visiting Crumbs! and ordering some fabulous cupcakes. I highly recommend the Artie Lang- named after Howard Stern's sidekick- it taste like a black and white cookie filled with chocolate cream. Yum! Then it was back to the hotel to tip the bell guy, the valet, the guy who helped with our luggage, and every other human within 10 feet of our car. Nice hotels are great but you better have a cache of $5's ready to go. After the tipping was completed it was off to....VEGAS!!!