Our N.Y. trip was really fun, but definitely not relaxing!! Next vacay we want to go somewhere tropical.
Arrival: We got into N.Y. around 10 pm. We took a taxi, b/c that is the fastest way into the city, and they take you right to the door of your hotel. Definitely didn't want to have to lug our luggage around at that time of night. It cost a tiny bit more then taking the train, but it was worth it. The subway would have taken forever! We took it on the way back to the airport b/c we were in no rush.
We noticed right away that there are Christmas lights everywhere. Kinda fun. We also noticed how freezing it is in N.Y. We made our first trip to Starbucks ten minutes into our stroll, and we had to stop at Starbucks several other times during the trip to help keep warm. Thank goodness there is a Starbucks on like every corner. Love the Carmel Apple Spice!
Pictures of Time Square
We visited the Toys R Us store. Any child's heaven.
Ferris Wheel
Huge T Rex
We visited each level
Large gummy bear! Yes, please :)
That's a lot of Nerds!
And a whole lot more Time Square pictures. I was in awe standing there looking at all the screens. Its pretty cool in person.
Our First Day Adventures:
Started off with getting unlimited 7-day subway cards, which cost $27 each. Definitely the way to get around New York. Here is a pic of Adam during our first subway ride.
We headed over to Norma's for brunch. Out of all the places we ate at, we had to wait the longest to be seated here. It was absolutely, spectacularly the best food we ate in New York City, so it was definitely worth the wait.
Took some pictures by some awesome things made out of gingerbread.
Norma's is inside a fancy hotel: The Parker Meridien
We ordered some white chocolate hot chocolate, while we waited at the hotel's bar/lounge.
It was pretty tasty
Then we were finally seated at this small table, after about an hour and a half wait.
The orange juice was very good. It tasted like they had just juiced some oranges right then and there. Each glass was $9. Those little smoothie shots were $1, and were also good. Their menu is filled with interesting twists on your everyday breakfast items.
With fruit on top (carmelized bananas and fresh blueberries) and tropical fruit on the inside, what more could you ask for?....then the best part, the brulee topping! Not to mention, the raspberry hollondaise sauce. I think this cost about $24. It was the only food that really impressed me in New York, so if you visit N.Y. definitely eat at Norma's.
Adam got Norma's version of Eggs Benedict, which featured asparagus and Canadian bacon amongst a sea of hollandaise sauce, serve on small pancakes. It is accompanied by baby potatoes (I snagged a purple one). This cost around $27. He enjoyed it very much.
One has to treat themselves to an expensive meal every now and again. The most expensive thing on the menu is $1000 frittata, and some little girl ordered it behind us.
After we stuffed our faces, we headed over to Central Park.
You can expect to see carriages all over the place. Back in the day, only the wealthy were seen riding in carriages around Central Park. Not today. I've taken a few carriage rides in my day, and they aren't that exciting. I feel sorry for the horses.
Don't bother trying to ice skate at Central Park, or the Rockefellar center. It's always crowded. Your best bet is to go to Bryant Park midday. It wasn't top priority for Adam and I, so we never got around to doing it. Adam doesn't really enjoy ice skating anyways.
This very carousel was featured on an episode of Castle, so being a fan and all I had to snap a shot of it.
Angel of the Waters, in Bethesda Fountain (sculpted 1873)
It got real windy, when it was my turn to take a picture by the MET.
We went inside but didn't last long because we were starving. We headed over to one of the Ray's Pizzeria's, b/c we didn't want to wait in line for a sit down restaurant. All that walking made us extra hungry. We must of burned off all the calories we ate at Norma's.
After we ate and I bought a cheap purse, we headed back to Time Square to the TKTS booth. Where we got some half off tickets to Marry Poppins! It was a very good show. Adam thought the lady who played Marry Poppins had the best voice compared to the other shows we saw.
Our seats were actually quite nice. There is no point in buying tickets in advance, if you want to save money. There are always tickets available. It doesn't matter what it says online. When you go to TKTS they offer you the best seats available that are left, for 40-60% off. Now not all the shows make it on the TKTS list. Lion King, for example, will never make it on the list. The list changes everynight, yet some of the shows remain on the list everynight. For those who didn't buy tickets in advance, but really want to see a show thats not on the list, just go to the ticket window at the theater of the show you want to see in the mid afternoon. You will get amazing seats, but it will be pricey.
We almost bought Lion King tickets before we flew out to N.Y. I am glad we didn't, b/c the only seats listed online were really crappy. We didn't want to sit in the very back corner. After we discovered that we could get really good seats for Lion King same day, we really thought about doing it. However, we decided it would be more fun to see multiple shows, instead of just Lion King and the Radio City Musical (the only tickets we bought in advance). We could have got cheaper seats for the Radio City Musical if we would have bought them at TKTS, but they probably wouldn't have been as good of seats, with its popularity.
It was super late after we were done with our cheesecake, so we headed to our hotel to get some sleep.
Second Day Adventures:
We took the subway downtown to the best sandwich place in town.
I loved everything about this place. Its a true deli, or delicatessen.
You walk in and get in one of the lines. They slice the meat right then and there, and let you taste it before they put in on their fresh baked rye bread. Definitely high quality stuff! Look at all that meat! Pound for pound, The best patrami and corned beef sandwich on earth. My mouth is watering right now, b/c I could go for one of those sandwiches right now.
FYI when Meg Ryan displayed her "faking-it" skills in "When Harry Met Sally" it was at Katz. I watched that movie before we came out here.
We got there at a good time, we didn't have to wait in an outside line. The lines inside go pretty fast. We saw this line as we exited.
After a fabulous lunch for brunch, we headed down to China Town and Littly Italy.
gotta love the sign in the background.
I like how they have playgrounds in the middle of a bunch of buildings. It reminds me of the shows: Cold Case and Without a Trace.
Little markets all over the place
They also have stuff like fish heads and what not, but I didn't want to take a picture of that. Kinda grossed me out a bit.
I heard the food in China Town is really good, but we had other stuff in mind. The one good thing about China Town is that they are open super late. If you are ever craving food in the middle of the night, come here. It's like 3 in the afternoon for them. Everything is open till like 3am, I believe.
To get the real experinece of China Town you should eat here and buy a knock off purse. Two things we didn't do that day. I did however get a purse later.
Little Italy
There were cute little restaurants all over
I don't know what you would do in Little Italy besides eat.
After we walked through little Italy, we headed over to Donught Plant. YUM!
Adam got the plain chocolate
I got the creme brulee.
After we finished gobbling those down, we headed to Soho.
Didn't do any shopping, but I had to take a picture infront of Steve Madden. Love their shoes. They are not only stylish, but comfy! Soho is definitely a place to go shopping with the girls. Like most guys, my hubby doesn't like to shop.
Washington Square Park has this cool looking Arch
without the blue sky
With the blue sky
They had a dog park which made us miss Charlie a lot! We sat down on one of the benches and just watched some of the dogs that reminded us of him.
Our view from the bench
I tried to take a picture of me kissing my husband, but it didn't turn out so well.
crackin up
We were tired of walking around at this point, so we were grateful for this bench.
After we rested, we headed over to SweetiePie's for dinner. Only to find out it was CLOSED! I didn't realize that some restaurants close on Sundays in New York. This was one of the few.
I was really looking forward to dinning insided that bird cage. Oh well, I heard the food isn't that great, so a picture infront will do.
We ventured over to Magnolia Bakery next to get some yummy cupcakes and banana pudding.
One vanilla and one chocolate. It's a good thing I don't live in N.Y. because I wouldn't be able to resist these cupcakes ever, and would eat way too many every week. My waist would be huge!
The banana pudding was pretty good too. I would rather have a cupcake though. We went back to our room to relax and get off our feet for a while, and ended up looking up movie times.
Adam got us a suite, b/c we heard the rooms are small. Yes, they are tiny. I can't imagine staying in a regular room. I should have taken a picture of the bathroom. It was like a closet. At least we didn't hear our neighbors, the extra room blocked out the sound.
We figured out some movies that we could see, and took the subway over to Shake Shack
Thank goodness we only had to wait ten minutes in line. I think we are just plain lucky or something. A big line started to form behind us. Overall, I rate it a B-. The fries were gross. I think Del Taco's fries taste better and I don't even like them. The burgers were just okay for me. There wasn't much flavor, just a hint of garlic which I felt didn't compliment the burger at all. The bugers were quite small, a little greasy, and didn't fill me up.We were really dissapointed and wouldn't recommend this place, even though a lot of people seem to like it. I can't believe people will wait over and hour sometimes for that. It is a fun environment; I'll give it that. Definitely better than fastfood, besides the fries. I got their lemonade and thought that was pretty good, but I probably wouldn't order it again.
We headed over to the Cinemark to watch these movies:
It had just come out, so the theater was packed. We had to sit up in the second row, but we enjoyed the movie.
Then we got a little something to snack on during our next movie
We were able to pick out any seat we wanted for the next movie. Idk if that was due to the movie, the late hour, or both.
This one was pretty disturbing. I can't say I would recommend it. We wanted to see it b/c we like Natalie Portman; she has always been a good little actress.
By the time the movies were over it was early into the next day. We hurried home to get a little sleep.
Day 3 Adventures:
We started our day off right by going to Sarabeth's for brunch.
I got the french toast, and I really enjoyed it. It's kinda hard to go wrong with french toast though.
Adam got a yummy omelet. We would definitly recommend what we ordered to someone. Not sure how the rest of the food is, but brunch is a good way to go. They sure have tastey french toast and omelets. The staff is super friendly, and it is a nice cosy environment. I give them an A rating.
After we finished our meals, we decided to head down 5th ave. Our first stop was here:
The line wasn't very long for The Big Piano, so of course we decided to do it.
We had fun sliding down all the keys.
Adam, being a Star Wars fan, took a picture next to Chewbacca. I matched with the lego Santa. I wonder how long it took them to put those together.
Some sights down 5th Ave:
Pretty lighted snowflake hanging in the middle of the street.
Churches
Trump Tower
Fendi
Definitely the prettiest lights
St. Patricks Cathedral
Beautiful stained glass windows
A beautiful wood carved Nativity
Saks window displays:
Construction:
We visited the hotel my favorite neighbor worked at when she lived in N.Y.
Pretty Christmas trees
Their waterfall sculpture
We were going to stop by the Waldor Astoria hotel, b/c they always go all out on Christmas decor, but we ran out of time. Plus, a lot of celebrities stay there.
Next stop was to the Empire State building
It was a really magnificent view of New York being up on the 86th floor Observatory, but I was surprised how small it was up there. There was barely any room to walk around.
Adam had been taking pictures, because it was super windy up there. It got hard to see with my hair blowing in my face, so I went back inside. I didn't realize the camera was on the wrong setting when he handed it to me inside, and told me he wanted me to take a picture of him. It was turned on with the lens out, so thats why I didn't didn't bother to look. I told him to get positioned, and that I would run back outside and snap a shot of him. I did just that. I got this one blury shot, b/c the wind was so strong that I couldn't keep my hands still, and then the camera died. Sorry hunny!
The rest of our night documented by Adam's Droid X
We hurried and took the subway downtown to make it to our show ontime.
I really enjoyed watching videos of Stomp when I was younger. In middle school, my band teacher always had the substitute put on a Stomp video when he was absent.
It was pretty cool seeing them live! Adam was so tired that he fell asleep a lot during the show. haha. He told me that he enjoyed what he saw, and wished he could have stayed awake. It got really loud at times, and the stage is pretty small. Even though we both enjoyed the show, we agree that the musicals are the best!
We were absolutely, incredibly starving after the show. We went and hit up one of the best pizza places in New York! Arguably the best!
Lombardi's definitely made me smile. Just see above photos. Wow, so that bruchetta was gone in litteraly 20 seconds. We inhaled it. Loved it! The waitress came by to ask us how it was, and was surprised to see an empty plate. Same exact thing happened with our pizza. We finished our food before the people sitting behind us, and they already had there food before we came in. The waitress told us she had never in her life seen two people eat so fast. I was wondering why some of the people working there were staring at us. haha. The coal oven pizza is so good here that we inhaled the whole thing. We just couldn't stop eating! They should have a warning sign that says: Will-inhale large amounts of food here. It is too good to resist! It must be that fresh oozing mozarella cheese.
Lombardi's is the real deal in terms of an authentic brick oven pizza with fresh ingredients done right.
We were going to go to Grimaldi's but Adam's cousin, who use to live in New York, told us he like Lombardi's a little better. He said they are almost identical. He also said that Lombardi's is easier to get to, and you don't have to wait in line as long. So that was a no brainer for us! SO for the same great taste and the same fare go to Lombardi's if you are staying in Manhattan. Reviews say it has a better "Atmoshpere" as well. Oh ya, and we didn't have to wait at all!!!!!!!!!!! Probably cuz we got there an hour before it closed.
That ended our night. We took the subway home and crashed!
Day 4 Adventures:
We woke up way too early this day, to make it ontime for our Statue of Liberty tour. I don't know what I was thinking scheduling the first boat ride out that morning.
We bought breakfast on the boat.
Arrival
FYI you have to go through 2 security screenings. Its really lame. Once, before you get on the boat, and again before they let you inside.
Inside
Actual sizing ot the torch
The face
The Foot
View from up top
Stairs up to the Crown
On our way down
Ellis Island (As seen on the movie Hitch)
We didn't care to make this stop. The Statue of Libety Tour took long enough. We had other things we wanted to do. Like check out Wallstreet.
Making our way down the Brooklyn Bridge
We were pretty hungry after are long walk, so we headed back to get some food.
We stopped in China Town first to go to the bathroom at good old McDonalds. I refuse to eat at McDonalds, but we were grateful they had so many in New York so we could use their restrooms every now and again.
On our way there I decided to give into those people who whisper "Purses," or "Coach, Prada," etc. I wanted to get the full China Town experience. I ignored them during our first visit, but changed my mind on this day. Its by invitation only. There are no signs or anything. People just scout out potential buyers. If they think you might buy, they will invite you. It was a shady experience. I followed the woman for a long time down Canal Street. She walked 3 feet infront of me, and was constantly looking back and scouting the area (maybe for police or private investigators IDK). She led me to some secret location to buy one of the better quality fakes. She handed me off to to this guy, who handed me a ghetto lamenated catelog of fake purses and said, "which one?"
I originally would have picked a Louis Vitton purse, but after being in New York a few days I was sick of seeing them. Everyone and their mom owns one. I pointed to this Coach purse:
Everyone around me was paying $75 dollars for a purse. I didn't care that much, so I bartered with the guy. He asked me what I wanted to pay and I said $40. He almost laughed and said I wouldn't be able to get a coach bag anywhere for that price. I said fine and pretended I was no longer interested. He then said $65, and acted like he was doing me a favor, and couldn't drop the price any lower. Long story short, I walked away with this purse for $40 bucks (a really good replica of this purse, I should say). Not too shabby.
I had to wait a long time before they brought the purse to me. I almost left b/c I didn't care to wait any longer. It took like 10-15 min, and I really had to go to the bathroom. These people communicate through text messages. The lady who handed me over, could tell I was thinking about leaving. She received a text and told me to continue to wait b/c they were on their way back.
They showed up with a suitcase hand bag, and pulled out a trash bag and gave it to me. I looked inside and saw my purse, so I handed the guy the money. While I was looking inside the guy told me not to pull it out, incase the cops come. Totally shady!!! Its illegal to sell knock off handbags, but I don't think it matters if you own one.
We were happy to finally make it to Crif Dogs to get some grub. Notice the trash bag in my hand.
I am so glad we came here!
If you come here, make sure you get the tots!! They are SO scrumptious! The outside is golden and crispy, and the inside is nice and potato-ey. I think the foil helps keep the outside crispy! Yummy :)
Gotta throw in some candid shots every once and a while. Notice what I am wearing. I took off three other layers before I sat down. Its so cold in N.Y. during December that you don't care what you wear. You just want to stay warm.
As you can see, Criff Dogs takes hot dogs to a whole new level!
I had the chihuahua crif dog and I most definitely enjoyed it. It's a bacon wrapped hot dog covered with avocados and sour cream. This hot dog had everything. The crispy bacon and the soft avocados were a perfect combination of flavor in my mouth.The cashier suggested I added salsa, it was absolutely amazing!
The bacon wrapped around it will change your mind about even eating a plain hot dog again. I don't even like hot dogs that much. I might eat one a year on average. If they had a Crif Dogs in Texas, that average would go up quite a bit.
Adam had the ultimate Spicy Redneck (bacon-wrapped with chili, coleslaw and jalapenos).
It's an small space with a hidden bathroom that you have to slide a wooden panel out next to the coveted phone booth entrance to PDT. Definitely have to stop here if you take a trip to N.Y. We also didn't have to wait in line here either :)
We headed back to Time Square and visited the M&M store. We were trying to kill some time before the lottery for Wicked started.
They have M&M's in every color, or you can buy them in a mixed variety of colors (like seen above).
There isn't too much to see in this store, so we
hit up Starbucks and relaxed there until it was time to head over to the Gershwin Theater.
We did the very same thing the night before. Got some Starbucks and waited in the Lottery line. They called 13 names, and ours wasn't one of them. We decided to give it another chance this night. Oh boy am I glad we did!!!
Adam won us tickets!!!! His name was the 12th name called. We were about to walk away, and heard "Adam Towner." I was thinking did that really just happen?!?! Adam shouted something in excitment, and then I knew it really had just happened. I had already seen it before, but not on broadway. Adam hadn't seen it yet, so I was so happy he won us tickets. It's one of my favorite musicals. It's one I could see over and over again.
To do the lottery you have to show up 2 1/2 hours before the show. They give you a piece of paper and you right down your name, and the amount of tickets you want. You can only request 1 or 2. Then they announce the winners of the raffle 2 hours before the show starts. They select 13 names, unless some people only request one ticket. If that happens, they select other people who only need 1 ticket. They do this until all the remaining seats are filled.
Oh so I forgot to mention that after we won, we went back to the hotel so I could change into something more presentable. I would have felt like a bum wearing what I did that morning (see Crif Dog photos).
Notice Adam's button.
Its says I Won The Wicked Lottery! :)
We were in the Second Row. Adam didn't have anyone sitting infront of him. We were to the left. The first seats after the isle. We were able to see everything so perfectly. Adam looked up the price of our seats, and we found out that they went for $230. SCORE!!!
Adam really enjoyed the show. He loved the story line. It was so awesome to be upclose. We could see all of their mics, and facial expressions. It was a whole different experience. I of course loved it!!
The only thing that we were bummed about was the fact that the two leads in the play were done by the backups. We didn't get the best of the best, but they did a good job.
Their Menu was kinda fun
I liked the decor and menu, but not the food!
After the show we went to Serendipity. Worst decision of the whole trip!!!!
We had to wait FOREVER, and the food was HORRIBLE!!! I am telling you the worst food I have EVER eaten. It was not seasoned at all. It tated like nothing. I could only eat a few bites. Plus, they brought it out and it was cold. They guy could tell we were dissapointed, and he felt bad b/c he forgot to bring our food to us. He handed us the check, and we were like, "we haven't got our food yet!" He took off one of the Frozen Hot Chocolates off of our tab because of it.
The Frozen Hot Chocolate is SOOOO overated. All it is is hot chocolate mix, milk and ice. It was good, but nothing to brag about. Adam said he use to make that when he was 11 years old (minus the chocolate shavings on top).
If you go here, just hit up the desserts. They looked good. The table next to us ordered Sundae's and they were huge. Don't order any food here. I promise you wont eat it.
It tasted worse than it looks, and it looks pretty dang nasty!!!
Wasn't the best way to end our night, but that's how we ended it. Went to bed as soon as we got to our hotel because it was super late.
Day 5 Adventures:
We started off our day by taking the subway to Central Park, so we could eat at one of the best Burgers places in New York.
We didn't care that this place was pricey, we just wanted to have a GOOD burger!
I love that they make your burger after you order it. They don't just cook a bunch of patties at once, and give you one of them. They ask you how you would like it, and cook it to perfection. I ordered mine medium and it was perfect. When you recieve it its nice and hot, and the bun isn't soggy at all. It's not greasy, and the toppings are top notch. Everything was so fresh, and delicious!!! They use high quality meat! It was unbelievably good! Adam and I were very satisfied! Oh, and the house sauce that comes with the burgers is REALLY good. I poured it on my burger, and every bite was so flavorful. It all went together. I give this place an A+.
They give you fried pickles with your burger. I am not sure how they are because I didn't eat one.
They have really good sweet potatoe fries!!!!! If you come here you must order them!!! Each fry is thick and crispy, but potato-ey in the middle! Yummy! They are perfectly cooked, hand cut, and not oily. Oh, and they use the right amount of salt.
Their fry container reminded me of the BYU creamery. Miss that place!
The toasted marshmallow shake is really all its cracked up to be!
It was absolutely everything I was hoping for. I want one right now!! It was one of the best shakes I have ever had. OUTSTANDING!
Adam got the chocolate peanut butter shake, and loved it.
We decided we needed to walk some of that delicous meal off, so we walked around all these cute little booths that were set up infron of Central Park.
Goofy Smile, but I liked how they had this cute little tree just sitting in the middle of everything.
There wasn't too much excitement around here, so we went to a souvenir shop. We bought some stuff and then then headed over to Bryant Park.
Bryant Park had Booths too. I ended up buying some cute Christmas Ornaments.
We didn't spend too much time here because we had to get over to the Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular.
On the way there we got some sweet, hot nuts. Apparently Nuts 4 Nuts is a New York Original. They smell so good! This is what gets everyone to stop. They have these stands on like every corner.
More pictures we took on the way to the theater:
We were excited to go to a Christmas show the last night of our New York trip.
It was really pretty on the inside
We had a great view from our seats. We were on the front row of the balcony.
Santa
It was a great family show. It felt a little more like Christmas, after watching it.
We walked over to the Rockefeller Center. It really would be a fun place to ice skate, if the line wasn't a mile long.
Pretty Tree
Blurry proof we were there.
We strolled down 5th Ave. one last time
Then we decided to look for a place to eat. We started walking down random streets, and saw more window displays and lights, but couldn't find a restaurant we were in the mood for.
I made it on the Forever 21 cam! That's good advertisement right there.
There I am in my red Jacket
After having no luck finding a restaurant, we decided to give Junior's cheesecake another try. We thought the cheesecake might taste better in the restaurant.
The waiter brought us beets and pickles to enjoy while we waited for our food. RANDOM! I am use to bread, rolls, and chips, but not this.
My salad
My salmon bagel. I was in the mood to eat a little healthy, but they put on the thickest layer of cream cheese I have ever seen. It was like a half inch thick, no joke.
Adam ordered a Roast beef sandwhich, and got a pile of meat.
We were full, so we took an original cheesecake to go. It didn't change our opinion. It was good, don't get me wrong, just not amazing.
Last day in New York:
For brunch we went to Frank Sinatra's favorite New York Restaurant: Patsy's Italian Restaurant
I got the Bucatini All Amatriciana, and wasn't that impressed. It had hickory smoked bacon, prosciutto, onions, and fresh basil. I thought it would be more flavorful.
Adam got the Manicotti, and it was delicious!!! I ate what he couldn't finish.
Then we shared the best cannoli in New York.
I didn't put any makeup on this day, b/c we were traveling home. I didn't see the point!
We headed back to Time Square and decided to goof off at the Hershey's store.
We got all our wiggles out, and then headed back to the hotel to get our luggage.
Goodbye New Yorker!
We then got on our last subway ride to the airport. Oh man, was that a LONG ride!! From there we took the airtrain, and got to our terminal way too early. I walked through security with my shoes ON! I couldn't help but feel safe...NOT. ha Who knows what else gets past these guys. Our plane was delayed an hour, but we got out before the storm hit. Again, we must be lucky or something! I am glad we missed this:
If you got this far, you are awesome. This was like the longest post in this world. Probably not, but it was rediculously long. I should have broken it up.
Dear New York,
thanks for a fabulous vacay :)
We are so happy to be home, but miss the food and fun you had to offer. Maybe we will visit again.
