The BEA Post, or I Need Another Vacation to Recover From This Vacation!

I'm still in post-vacation recovery mode, and I'm not sure I'm coherent enough to recap the trip to NYC for BEA, but I'll do my best.  The Girl and I traveled with Serena, leaving on the morning of Saturday, May 22.  We took the Amtrak out of Washington, D.C., and as you can see by the picture to the left, The Girl was very excited to show Bob the Penguin the cafe car.  (Let's not talk about how many stuffed animals she packed or how she bought 2 monkeys with Velcro hands and feet as souvenirs and how they attached themselves to my pajamas in the middle of the night.)  Once in the city, we dropped our bags off at the Paramount Hotel and walked around the Times Square area while we waited for our room to be ready.

The Girl was in awe, just staring at the bright lights while I was trying to keep hold of her hand in the crowds.  While I loved the years I spent in Boston during college, I think I'm a country girl at heart.  NYC is an interesting place, but it really is too crowded for my tastes.

Anyway, we wandered and saw Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, and St. Patrick's Cathedral; visited random stores, like Hershey's, M&M World, and American Girl Place (obviously all chosen by The Girl); ate at Ted's Montana Grill; and even saw SpongeBob.  (There was an assortment of characters on one block assembled for picture-taking purposes, complete with their tip bags.) 

By Sunday morning, my feet already were killing me, but we had another day of sightseeing ahead of us.  We took a water taxi out of South Street Seaport and saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty.  But the highlight for The Girl was driving the water taxi!  After a quick lunch of Chinese food, we made our way back to Times Square and visited Madame Tussaud's.

Although The Girl was fascinated by the wax statue of Robert Pattinson, my favorite picture is of her fluffing Ozzy Osbourne's hair.  We entered the darkened hallways of the SCREAM exhibit, which may or may not have been lame...we have no idea, as The Girl dug her fingernails into us and dragged us through there real quick!  The best part of Madame Tussaud's was the SpongeBob 4-D movie, which was a 15-20 minute 3-D movie complete with bubbles, mist, vibrating seats, and the smell of pickles (which made Serena hungry for more pickles from Ted's Montana Grill).

On Monday, we woke up early to see some of Central Park and have a hot dog from a street vendor, then made our way to Scholastic for a tour.  We had a blast meeting up with several other book bloggers and viewing the archives (I forgot how much I loved the Sweet Valley High Saga books).  The Girl even had a chance to meet authors Rick Riordan and Ruth Ames (a.k.a. Aimee Friedman)!

Right after the tour, we hurried to The Strand to meet Amanda, Amy, and Trisha, but we were late and they were pretty much done shopping by the time we arrived.  It was still nice to chat for a few minutes.  We had just enough time to meet the wonderful Lisa Roe for dinner.  The Girl absolutely loved her...and of course, the cheese curds and kringle she brought from Wisconsin.  Thanks again, Lisa!

Although we picked up our BEA badges on Tuesday and attended one panel session on copyrights, much of the day was spent browsing the city.  But on Wednesday morning, the real fun began.  While we didn't run into too many bloggers, we had a chance to chat with Wendy and her husband, Kip, Heather, and Lilly and her daughter.  We were a bit disappointed to have waited in line in the early morning for tickets to the Joyce Carol Oates signing, only to be given an unsigned book and be told that she might not make it at all.  But we didn't let that ruin our day, and we had fun meeting up with publicists we've worked with, such as Paul Samuelson from Sourcebooks and Caitlin Summie from Unbridled Books.  I also had a chance to meet Allison Winn Scotch, which was my must-do for BEA.  The highlight for The Girl was meeting the Ghost Hunters, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, who signed bound sample chapters of their new book for kids (more on that in my upcoming Mailbox Monday post).  That evening, we went to the Algonquin Hotel for the Celebration of Book Bloggers held by HarperCollins, where we mingled for about an hour before deciding to go back to the hotel before we fell asleep standing up.

Many of you know how much The Girl loves R.L. Stine, especially his Goosebumps series of books.  Well, Thursday was her favorite day of the trip because she had a chance to chat and have her picture taken with him.  They told us he wasn't personalizing the books, but The Girl was pleasantly surprised when he personalized hers after telling him that she has about 60 of his books on her shelf.

We ended our stay in NYC with dinner at Tony's DiNapoli, where we met up with Amanda, Natalie, and Amy.  It was a great evening that ended much too soon, but The Girl and I had to catch an early train on Friday morning.  Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the Book Blogger Convention, but we had a great time with our family in CT and MA, ending with the wedding of my brother-in-law on Sunday.

I'm sure you're all curious about what books we snagged at BEA, so stay tuned for my upcoming Mailbox Monday post.  (It'll be a big one, since I haven't posted books since my sister-in-law's passing at the end of April.)  Now that my brain is tired, I'm going to fall asleep on the train during my afternoon commute and hope that I can get back into my regular routine soon.

I'm really behind in reading blogs (sorry!), so to those of you who posted BEA recaps, feel free to include the links to your posts in the comments so I won't miss them!  Also, I'd like to thank Serena for providing the photos in this post, as I didn't have a camera with me on the trip.



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