Saul and Chelsia: Over the Moon and Back: 26 on the 26th

It was a once in a lifetime birthday. Turning 26 on the 26th, and it was a Saturday! Talk about the stars aligning. I awoke to banners and balloons outside of our bedroom door, them after breakfast came back to the room to find a cake waiting for me. What a great way to start the day!

Chels' Mom put up balloons and a banner

We decided to spend my birthday in Manhattan, so after breakfast (and cake!) we went over to the train station and jump on the LIRR for a direct trip to Penn Station. Upon arrival, we headed directly to our hotel to see if we could check in early.

LIRR

We stayed at the Bryant Park hotel, which overlooks (you guessed it) Bryant Park. It turned out to be a great boutique hotel, with exceptional service. They upgraded our room since it was my birthday to a junior suite with a view of the park. They also let us check in early and check out late the next day. The thing that really tickled us was the way the hotel employees dressed. Everyone looked like night club bouncers. They wore black pants, tight black T-Shirts, and had ear pieces in. It felt pretty exclusive/trendy.

View from our room

When we got up to our room, my beautiful/amazing wife surprised me with her gift. I wasn't expecting anything and thought we were going to go shopping together since we had been so busy. Turns out she had already gotten me the exact watch that I wanted (the one Jack Bauer wore on 24). I was ecstatic! She really is the best.

We decided to grab a small lunch at the Farmers Market near our hotel before walking over to the TKTS booth and buy tickets for a Broadway show that evening. We ended up with some sub par burritos (haven't found good Mexican food in NY yet) and some spectacular tickets to see Jersey Boys. Exactly what I wanted to see! We had already made dinner reservations for the night, so now our plans were set.

A newly married couple went to the stairs in Times Square and had all of the tourists gather to take pictures

We went out to an amazing steak dinner at Club A Steakhouse where they treated me like a king for my birthday. They printed a special birthday menu for us, took and printed a picture of us at dinner, and brought out a whole platter of scrumptious deserts for us to share on the house. To go along with the 5-star service, they also had one of the best filet mignons I have ever tasted, and they made one stiff (yet spectacular) Manhattan.

Birthday menu

French onion soup

New York Strip and brussel sprouts

Chels' Filet Mignon

Birthday dessert platter

After dinner we had to rush (run) about a mile across town to make it to our show on time (my poor wife's feet). Anyway, we made it and the show exceeded expectations. I only wish I had known it was a true story going into it. It would have made it that much better/impressive. Even thinking that it wasn't it was a blast and the guy who played Frankie Valli was amazing. Man could he sing.

After the show we waked around the city for a while before retiring for the night. The next day, we did some more exploring and hit some more NYC sights; we visited Beyant Park, Rockefeller Plaza, FAO Schwartz, and the Apple Store, saw part of a free concert in Central Park, and strolled down Melrose. All before jumping back on the LIRR and heading back to Long Island. We accomplished a lot in a day and some change in the city for my birthday. Turning 26 on the 26th turned out to be all it was cracked up to be.