New York Trip - Day 6

I don't like early mornings, especially on vacation, but it was definitely worth getting up early that morning for our first stop...Hoboken, New Jersey. Why Hoboken you ask? To go to Carlos Bakery!!!  If you've ever seen the TV show Cake Boss with Buddy and his family, that's where they film the show.  Calee and I are both fans of the show and we know it's a popular place so we wanted to get there early.  We rode the NJ transit train over to NJ and it was really simple and quick.  We only had to wait in line for about 30 minutes.  Inside the tiny bakery was a mad house.  There were so many delicious pastries and cakes to choose from.  We picked a few things and then stood there for a little bit hoping to see the famous family. Luckily we saw Madeline and Mauro - Buddy's sister and brother-in-law.

Welcome to Hoboken...it was much smaller than I expected. 

Hudson River and New York Skyline

We made it!

 Unfortunately I only got the backside of Mauro.  He is now he point man at this location since Buddy and the others are working at a new larger facility that's not open to the public. 

 Family portrait. 

 This is the famous consultation seating area. 

 This place was packed full and people we spending hundreds of dollars on bakery goods and merchandise.  It was a little wild but very fun to see and experience. 

 We heard Madeline back taking orders on the  phone.  We called her name and she peaked around the corner.  We've seen the sisters working that phone station on the show so we knew what she was doing. 

 When she came out the chaos in the bakery definitely increased. This isn't the best picture but we were trying to be quick.  It because like a pushing match as people tried to get through the crowd to meet her.  She was really nice, sweet and funny.  She spent a few minutes talking to us and then took pictures with a few others before returning to work.  She is Buddy's sister who is married to Mauro. 

This is Frankie's little brother.  He is a baker and makes the pastries on site with Mauro. 

We thought we would be like the crazy paparazzi and see what or who we could find in the back of the bakery. 

We did get a little sneak peak inside but they were pretty good about keeping that door closed. 

This is the closest we got to seeing Buddy - The Boss. 

These cupcakes were SO yummy.  I wasn't overly impressed with the frosting - that was just average vanilla buttercream. 

After picking Talicee up at the hotel we went on to see St. Paul's church across from ground zero.  We also went to the 911 Memorial site and tried to get additional views of the construction.  Unfortunately it started to rain on us so we didn't stay there for long. We went on to see Grand Central Station, FAO Shwartz and ate lunch at Famous Dave's.

This is the transit station that sits below the ground zero site 

This is a model in the 9/11 Memorial building that shows the end result of the area that will open in 2012.

I saw this when I went to NY the first time. It's just as impressive and touching to see it again as it was the first time. It's a lot of the mementos, pictures, badges left on the fence at the World Trade Center site in the days following the attacks. 

St. Paul's church. When I saw it before it had pews but they've since taken those out and put in chairs. The pews were significant because the firefighters working the rescue effort slept on those benches in addition to the cots pictures below.  

Grand Central Station

It's like playing Where's Waldo.  

As you can see it rained on us and we weren't prepared.  It was nice because the rain brought the temperature down into the 70's from the 90's so it was worth it. 

FAO Schwarz Soldier 

We played on the big piano!  

Wednesday was what I called our TLC tour.  Next stop was Kleinfelds.  Made popular by the TV show "Say Yes to the Dress!" I happen to love this show.  even though we are already married I think I'm more into wedding dresses now then I was when I was picking mine out.  We found the store and unfortunately they were closed...but the doors were unlocked!  We made our way in and were greeted by a nice man in the lobby who said we could snap a few pictures. Being my nosey self, I asked if Randy was still around.  He's what makes the show interesting to me.  Unfortunately he wasn't there but he told me that the owner was just around the corner on the other side of the lobby.  I was excited!  Just then the owner, Ronnie Rothstein, ended his conversation to another gentleman and introduced himself to us.  He was so nice.  He spent about 10 minutes with us talking to us about the show, asking our opinions on certain aspects of it and then eventually took a picture with us.  He gave us his business card and asked that we send him the picture and our feedback so he could share it with the producers.  It was super stoked.  I was a little bummed when I realized it was closed but left extremely excited that we got to have that fun experience. 

We ended the evening with a little shopping and some NY style pizza.