Planning an anniversary surprise for my wife of 15 years, it was time to take
KATHY TO NEW YORK CITY!
So it's May of 2000. I thought it might be fun to surprise Kathy with a trip to celebrate our upcoming 15 year anniversary. So I arranged for my Mom to watch the boys, booked a stay at the Grand Hyatt on Manhattan, and reserved tickets to Phantom Of the Opera on Broadway.
I had decided to NOT tell her about the trip until the Limo pulled up in the driveway to take us to O'Hare, as we would buy her clothes, sundries and whatever she needed for the 3 days when we got to NYC. Katarina was a bit stunned.
However, I had procured Kathy some rather naughty gifts from the local Lover's Lane store. These gift wrapped boxes included a rather lewd Cheerleader Outfit, a One size fits all Body Suit, and a Bawdy Police Woman's outfit complete with Pistol & Hand Cuffs. After all, she had had no time to pack Pajamas.
So we arrive in Manhattan safe & sound, get settled in and head over to Times Square. Lunch at a world famous NY Deli & then head over to the Gap & Macy's to obtain some clothes for the Girl. Dinner and the Theatre were on the bill our 1st night - play was great, but of course, was not quite up to the London production.
Second day we lunched at the WWE flagship store and took some pictures for the boys. We ambled over to a bar, and got approached by a couple people asking us if we wanted tickets to that night's taping of The Late Show with David Letterman. We said sure - but we had to correctly answer a Late Show trivia question to actually get the tickets.
The question was - "What is the name of the band that plays on the Letterman show." Easy! The World's Most Dangerous Band! That got us 2 tickets second row, on the aisle. Ringo Starr was the headline guest that evening. Letterman's show is taped at the old "Ed Sullivan Theatre" the same stage where Ringo with the Beatles debuted in America 36 years prior. Wild.
Dinner that night was at legendary Sardi's where unbelievably we were seated in the famous corner booth usually reserved for celebrities far more famous than me & My Katarina.
Took a boat tour round Manhattan, dinner at the ESPN store and walked through a huge neighborhood festival market on the last day. Kathy was wearing her newly bought NY Yankees ball cap.
While we were perusing some of the goodies, a Saloon Keeper with a bull horn whispered "Yankee Fans Love 1 Dollar Beers!" Well, thats all Kathy needed to hear - so we had to stop and fill her up.
Our mini vacation ended all to quickly but what a time we had!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KATHY!
BEST 15 YEARS OF MY LIFE!