Our Big OE: Christmas and New Years in the Big U.S. of A!

For Christmas and New Years this year, Johnny and I thought that we would do something a little different and spend it in the United States. And although it was freezing we had a brilliant trip!

Our trip started with a couple of days in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with our friends Jill & Eoin. Jill is a local but her husband Eoin is from Dublin and we met them when they lived over here. As they had moved back to Philadelphia in the middle of 2008 it was awesome to see them again and spend time with them and Jill’s wonderful parents, Carol & Ed whose house we were staying in. Of course we got to see a bit of the historic city of Philadelphia as well: Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Liberty Bell with its many cracks, the ‘Rocky steps’ from the famous movie(s), the City Hall and lots of other cool sites. We also got a taste of American life when we spent the afternoon hanging at Jill’s friends house watching the local American Football team, the Eagles, play a match.

After a couple of days we said goodbye to Jill, Eoin, Carol and Ed and headed off by train to the Nation’s Capital City, Washington D.C. Johnny had never been here before and although Rebecca had been to D.C. when she was 11, she only had vague memories of it so it was great being back and we absolutely loved it! The wide, open spaces and surprisingly laid-back city really appealed to us and although we were there 5 days we couldn’t get over how much there was to see and do! We spent a good few days exploring the city via a hop-on-hop off ‘trolley’ (really a bus made to look like a trolley car) tour, explored the very many monuments, spent hours checking out the ‘Newseum’ (a Museum for journalism & media), visited sombre Arlington Cemetery and took a tour around the U.S. Capitol Building. And yet we still didn’t see all that D.C. had to offer!

As we spent Christmas in Washington D.C. by ourselves, we made sure that we lined up a few special things to do that day. On Christmas Eve we spoke with Rebecca’s extended family who were already celebrating their Christmas Day in New Zealand, followed by Mass at a cute little Catholic Church that apparently John F. Kennedy used to frequent when he was working in the Senate. Christmas Day itself was a glorious sunny day and although it was Winter and still pretty cold it was probably the warmest day we had over the whole trip (so much for a White Christmas!) so we made the most of it and went on a big long walk around many of the landmarks: the White House (we had to wish the Bush family a Merry Christmas after all!), the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the JFK memorial and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. After all our walking we rested back at our hotel for a little bit before topping the day off with dinner at one of Washington D.C.’s highest rating restaurant, Michel Richard Citronelle. Although we weren’t surrounded by our loved ones as we usually would be on this day we had a fantastic, romantic Christmas as a newly-married couple.

Two days after Christmas we were off to the Big Apple for the few days over New Years! New York was everything we imagined and more: the craziness, the queues, the noise, the larger-than-life people... but also the amazing amount of things to see and do, the fantastic sights that we had only seen in movies until then, and the buzz of the big city full of life! Of course we were blessed to be able to share all this fun with our friend Melissa and her friend Jason who of course is now our friend too! We managed to see the Brooklyn Bridge, talk a walk down Wall Street, see the construction site that is Ground Zero and visit the World Trade Centre Memorial Visitor’s Centre, dine out in funky Greenwich Village, take the free Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, stroll (or more like shove our way) down 5th Avenue, go to Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, go to the Top of the Rockefeller Centre to see the city views at night, shop till we dropped at a tax-free outlet mall in New Jersey (Jersey Gardens), see a fantastic off-Broadway (but soon to be on-Broadway!) show called Rock of Ages, and of course on New Years Day we (okay just Johnny!) went ice-skating in Central Park! Amazing!!!

Whenever anyone hears we were in New York for New Years Eve, most of the time they will ask “Did you go to Times Square for it?” and we are proud to say that we did! However, as Johnny had a bad cold and it was the coldest New Years eve that New York had seen in 10 years, we took the easy (well, not so easy on our wallets!) way out and paid to get into the Hard Rock Cafe where it was warm, we could see what was going on outside on a huge 23-foot screen, and it was all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink! Rebecca and Melissa made sure they didn’t miss out on all the fun though as they managed to convince a friendly fireman (go the FDNY!) to take them outside into the cordoned-off section of Times Square (right beside where the ball drops) to take some photos! And boy we don’t envy the people that were standing out there for hours just to get a good spot, it was FREEZING!!!

Finally, on the evening of New Years Day, after spending a fantastic 12 days in the States, we headed back to Dublin, laden down not only with our shopping but with our photos, stories and brilliant memories of our time spent there.