Day 1: Our Adventure Begins

Since Brecken's limited attention span would make for a torturous five hour flight, we opted for a red eye that got us into JFK at 6:00am. The good news, Brecken slept the whole flight. However, when we tried to check into our East Rutherford, NJ hotel early, we were turned away since all the rooms were full and nobody had checked out yet. So with nearly seven hours to kill, we did some exploring of the area... mainly hunting down some awesome reality show landmarks. Those who know me well know that this was pretty much a dream come true!

We made a trip over to Yankee Stadium so that Brian could pick up a Hard Rock Cafe pilsner glass from the YS location. He collects them from every place he's been. You should see his collection, it's quite impressive!

Carlos Bake Shop from The Cake Boss on TLC!!

We were going to stop in and get a cupcake... until we saw the line. No cupcake is worth standing in line THAT long. Sorry, Buddy!

At an incredible park in Hoboken, NJ, just across the water from NYC. The view was amazing! Our goal is to come back next summer and stay at the W - it overlooks this (and more):

THE BROWNSTONE!!!

For those of you who aren't in tune with the latest in reality tv smut, it's pretty much the epicenter of drama on the Real Housewives of NJ.

Speaking of the RHNJ, I made Brian drive me by a few of the housewives homes. Yes, I am THAT girl.

Jacqueline's house!

Apologies for the crappy shots. It's surprisingly difficult to take drive by pics... especially when the homes mansions are this big.

Caroline's house!!

Note to self: Stalking celeb house hunting is much easier in the Fall. Damn you trees!!

Crazy Teresa's house!!

Okay, so technically I took this pic the next day on our way back from a very important trip to Friendly's (my favorite!!!) with the fam, but for the sake of consistency decided to throw it in here. :-) Btw, her house is absolutely INSANE. The camera's (TV + mine) don't do it justice. No wonder these people are in financial trouble!!

One of my all time favorite people, KATE! Kate and I go waaay back, like friends since babies back. Nearly every summer as a kid I would fly out to NJ for a week to visit her and her family. I have soo many fond memories with Kate, oh and the trouble we'd get into (the Jersey Shore was our playground long before those MTV floozies)! For several years we were even pen pals (before the email days). When Kate and I met up for coffee that night, she brought me a binder with all of the letters I had written that she had saved. Sooo embarrassing (i.e. "I am so over my crush on BOY A, his skin burns, not tans.")!! How I wish we lived closer to eachother!

On a side note, Kate lives only TWO houses down from Teresa. No joke. You fellow RHNJ fans can only imagine my excitement! And by Kate's stories, I think it's safe to say that Teresa is nutso in real life too.