A Serendipitous Trip to New York City

Serendipity is one of my top five favorite movies of all time.  It's romantic and sweet and funny and I highly recommend you put it on your Netflix. And then there's John Cusack.  Sigh....I adore that man. Well, John the actor, anyway. I'm not sure I'd like him very much in real life. But I grew up in the 80's, and in my teenage mind there was nothing more swoon worthy than Lloyd Dobler belting out "In Your Eyes" on the boombox in Diane Court's front yard.

The movie Serendipity takes place mostly in New York City.  In a few months I'll be visiting there with my sister and cousins for a girls trip, and we're in full on planning mode.  Which has brought back memories of the last time I was in NYC several years ago, when my husband took me on a surprise trip based on my love of Serendipity.

While there he made sure that we visited many of the spots from the movie. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, The Mall, and Bloomingdales.  We even went ice skating in Central Park, the location for the opening and closing scenes in the film.

Our romantic trip wouldn't have been complete without eating at Serendipity III, a popular Manhattan restaurant made famous by their frozen hot chocolate (Jackie Kennedy once tried to get the recipe, to no avail), and where Jonathan and Sara ate said dessert on the first night they met.

The restaurant was about two miles from our hotel.  Because it was freezing and we were exhausted and hungry from a day of sightseeing, we decided to take a cab from Times Square.  We arrived, paid the driver, and proceeded excitedly to the front door - where we were told there was a three hour wait.  THREE HOURS!?!

I have never waited that long for a table in my entire life.  We gave them our name and were told to check back in about two hours.  Since it was still light out, we wandered the streets, looking at brownstones and feeling very New Yorkish.  After an hour we decided to stop by Serendipity III again. Surely a bunch of people had given up and we would be called next?  Nope. Two more hours to go.

At this point we were starving, and I told G that we should just bag the idea. But he was not to be deterred.  We were going to have a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity III no matter how long it took.

We ended up eating at a diner around the corner, and came back thirty minutes before our time was up.  Right on the dot, our name was called.

Was it worth it?  A resounding YES!  The interior was exactly as I'd expected from the movie, and the frozen hot chocolate was delicious.  I was so happy sitting across from my real life, better than John Cusack, amazing husband.

Sometimes you've just got to wait for those special moments in life. Especially when love and chocolate are involved.