nyc travel diary: day two

more nj transit and subway adventures (feeling much more confident and comfortable today too)

breakfast @ sarabeth's central park.  great breakfast food!  and fun location!  literally right across the street from central park.  it was hard to decide what to get (especially since breakfast food is my favorite).  me: lemon and ricotta pancakes with fresh berries, him: farmer's omelette, mel: pumpkin waffle topped with sour cream, raisins, pumpkin seeds, and honey, justin: classic eggs benedict


biking through central park!!  this was one of the events i was anxiously excited for.  mel and i had subscribed to groupons for nyc since late last year hoping to find some deals.  bike rentals was one of them.  that park is ginormous!  we had two hours to explore and only saw a little more than half of the park.  we turned around at the jackie o. reservoir.  what a beautiful park that houses so much stuff!  the friends fountain, strawberry fields for john lennon, a zoo, lots of bridges and other fountains, and so much more!  its crazy that there is still a lot of traffic there too.  full on streets that run right through it.  biking through central park was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.  and it also gave us the chance to be real new yorkers and bike through the city!  what a rush!  gordon owned it.  i was a nervous wreck and just followed him hoping not to get hit.  even with my heart about to explode, i'm glad we did it.

lots of walking around the city after this.  i'm pretty sure we walked 5+ miles each day.  i was the only successful shoe person on the trip.  i'm pretty proud of that. (gordon would have been if it wasn't for his dress shoes...that was day three...the day he dreaded.)

next stop...museum of natural history.  wow!  that place is also huge and pretty remarkable.  when we walked in i immediately thought of the movie 'night at the museum' and thought about how cool it was to be in that same museum.  we saw a lot of incredible things there: indian artifacts, life sized animals (whoa elephants!), dinosaur bones, reptiles (yay for turtles!), the underwater world, and a short movie about the sun (which we all may have enjoyed a little too much...it was so nice to sit and rest that we may have all taken a little nap during the movie...new york is tiring!)

i couldn't wait for lunch...i had heard nothing but wonderful things about shake shack.  best burgers, best shakes, best everything!  and it was all true!  the fat person inside of me was satisfied beyond measure after eating here.  one of my favorite things about shake shack?  they love dogs!  they have a dog area complete with fake grass and a fire hydrant, and also had 'for dogs' section on their menu!  we also had our first famous person sighting here too.  christopher gorham.  i may have been the only person in shake shack that knew he was famous (i watched the show popular when i was in high school, okay.  and i also saw the movie the other side of heaven, of which he is the star).  me: single shackburger, black and white shack, crinkle fries, abita brewing co. rootbeer on tap, him: single shackburger, vanilla shack, crinkle fries, and the other half of my rootbeer.

and now on to china town (which was dirty and reminded me of mexico the way everyone was coming up to us trying to sell us fake fancy purses and watches) where i saw and smelt a fish market, then on to grand central station.

pit stop at magnolia bakery for the worst cupcake i have ever had, but the best banana pudding i have ever had (thanks for the taste justin).

we rested for a brief minute while we waited for our time to go to the top of the rock.  the elevator ceiling was clear while we rode up 70 floors to the top.  here is where we saw the city in all its glory.  wow!  nyc...you are amazing and exhilarating!  we got to see just how huge central park is, as well as how smooshed and tall everything is.  we had a good time up there.

time to eat again!  tonight's dinner...nyc style pizza at lombardi's.  meatballs on a pizza?  okay!  we all thought it was yummy (although we experienced the better pizza two days later).

for dessert we walked across the street to pinkberry (mel and justin went to rice to riches again...yes it was across the street from lombardi's.  and yes, mel pretended that is wasn't since that is the place i made her walk 2 miles to get to the night before...whoops).  it was good, but i also don't get what all the hype about it is all about.  too many yogurt places around these days make it so the great ones don't get appreciated like they should.  sorry pinkberry.

after dinner we walked the streets of soho (one of my favorite areas of nyc by the way).  saw some sweet graffiti (i love graffiti so much!  sure it's a sign of ghettoness.  but i love it none-the-less.  and soho is far from ghetto).

subway and nj transit home.

and day two of nyc...perfect!

 

nyc travel diary: day one (& our five year wedding anniversary!)

our first experience with new jersey transit!  we rode into the city everyone morning on the bus.  boy, how crazy would it be to use public transportation to get everywhere.  at first i struggled with the idea, but by the end of our trip i was sold on public transportation!  they make it so convenient and accessible.

breakfast @ cafeteria - our server was told it was our anniversary (thanks mel and justin) and he "awwed" at us for what seemed like an eternity.  gordon could have done without it.  especially when the server  got up in his personal space.  we were all uncomfortable at this point.  the food was yummy though.  me: croissant french toast topped with fresh berries, mascarpone cream, toasted almond crumble.  him: biscuits and gravy.

the new york times building = the first building i saw when entering the grid
our first experience with the subway!  the subway was smelly and muggy, but i came to love it.  i may have swung around one of the poles in excitement when we first got on the train...i just couldn't contain myself!

time to explore! radio music hall.  rockefeller building which houses nbc studios (no tina fey sightings) and where we were asked by the same gentleman if we watched certain tv shows and no matter our answer he would say "well....today we have so 'n' so here from said tv show and you can meet them!"  we could have met the girls from that '90s show sister sister, clay aiken, and arsenio hall.  we didn't though.  st. patrick's cathedral.  saks fifth ave.  time square (holy crowded with people!).  a brief peak at central park.  fao schwarz (aka the toy store in the movie 'big' with the big piano which i played on!).

lunch @ norma's - by far the most expensive place we at, but everything we ordered was out of this world!  me: crunchy french toast with warm caramel sauce.  him: pancho's crispy fish tacos.  mel: skirt steak fajita a la gringo. justin: scrambled eggs and bacon breakfast quesadilla.

more time exploring!  ferry ride to statue of liberty (she's not as big as i thought she should would be).  great views of the city on the ferry ride.  street performers.  financial district.  9/11 memorial.  this was one of the most unbelievable experiences i have ever had.  justin printed out the stories of people with our first names that had lost their lives in the terrorist attacks.  we found their names on the memorial where we read each person's story and placed an american flag by their names.  we saw the unbelievable the survivor tree.  we walked around the surrounding area of the memorial where we saw other memorials honoring that day.  it was a humbling experience that i will never forget.  god bless america. 

dinner @ bubby's - new york style meat-house (organically raised in ny pastures and ground in house).  they serve midnight brunch (how fun right?!) and had an old fashion photo booth in the basement!  that was my favorite part.  me: rosemary bacon mac & cheese with biscuits.  him: meatloaf with baked beans and fries.

dessert @ rice to riches - okay...so i may have made a pregnant woman walk 2 more miles for dessert.  it was worth it (she went there again day two!).  fancy rice pudding.  a dream come true!  i loved this place.  the signs in the store were cracking me up!  "anything worth eating is worth overeating" me: sex, drugs, and rocky road.  him: coconut coma

we took the subway back to the bus stop, nj transit to our hotel where enjoyed our dessert before bed.

day one of new york city...a success!

you may notice how i am documenting where we ate.  well...i am sort of in love with food.

i was put in charge of finding the places we would eat in nyc.  including snacks and dessert.

i did not take this assignment lightly.

i had 5 months to prepare for this.

every place we ate was thought out and meant to be fantastic.

i did not disappoint!

sister time: 25th street auction

our first auction.  we didn't know how to purchase anything and got there late.  but we had a blast none the less.   The auction was held in an old building on 25th which could be the future home to our restaurant with roof-top dining.  that would be pretty new york city of ogden to have that.  after the auction we walked around, my sis bought some gourmet popcorn and we ended the day with fancy lemonades.

nyc travel diary: a long day in airports

getting to new york felt like it took forever.  in all actuality it took us 6 hours, but add the two hour time difference from here to there and it took 8!  i didn't mind too much.  you're always so excited to get somewhere that all the travel time doesn't seem too horrible.  especially when you have great entertainment (justin, gordon, mel, other patrons on the airplane i.e. guy invading the other person sitting next to him's space while playing an interactive ipad game...he entertained us for awhile!). 

before departing, justin presented us with our nyc travel packet which included our trip itinerary, city passes, 9/11 memorial passes, flags for the memorial, "our people" for the memorial, york peppermint patties, and a few other items.  i was beyond excited to get this packet.  i had anticipated its arrive for months (because that's how justin plans trips...it's pretty wonderful)!

we had a short layover in minneapolis where we ate dinner (nothing fancy) and arrived in new york around 11pm.  we hopped in a taxi (my first taxi ride!) who took us to our new jersey hotel where i slept horribly because i was so anxious to start our nyc adventures!