New York City - June 2009

Finally! Pictures [and a recap] of the trip! I'll jump right in...

Let's start with saying that I love food. Probably one of the things I was most excited about was the food in NY. We flew in Sat night red eye, got to the hotel and slept for a couple hours. Around 9 am, we left the hotel and headed straight to the local NY bagel place...



It was really really good. Everything bagel + egg + cheese. When we walked out of the tiny bagel shop we looked for a bench to sit and eat. Umm.... NO benches in NYC. It's funny how New Yorker's don't sit and just enjoy their breakfast ;) [little did we know we could have walked just a couple blocks to eat on the steps of the library]. We found a Starbucks with a window view to sit down and eat.

After breakfast we walked to Hell's Kitchen for a little flea market perusing.





There was so much great stuff...





but I didn't buy anything.

After the flea market we headed over to the history museum for an amazing astronomy exhibit/movie called Cosmic Collisions. I love astronomy and it was so fun! We also checked out the dinosaurs..




That's one scary face! (me not the dinosaur)

Are you still with me? Can you believe the first day isn't over yet? Next up we headed over to the famous Shake Shack. We were expecting something earth shaking.... I'm sorry to say it disappointed.



I have to admit, it looks pretty freaking amazing in the picture. But I'm still an In n Out girl at heart.


The shake was pretty good.


We were pretty hungry, so we filled up and headed on over to Central Park for a much needed afternoon of R&R


It was one of the most beautiful days ever... the temperature was absolutely perfect and I took an amazing nap on the grass. Matt took a picture of me napping but I am definitely not showing that one ;)

After our lovely afternoon, we headed back to the hotel to relax some more (we did take the red eye after all!) and decided on dinner. We picked Di Fara's. I saw on Yelp and other sites that it's the best pizza in all of New York. We hopped on the Q subway and headed for Brooklyn.




This old man makes all the pizza and has been for 40 years. He pulls the pizza out of the oven with his bare hands (!!!)



Ohh my gosh it was amazing. BUT here's the catch - we waited two and a half hours for it!



Remember I said I love food? Matt got a little crabby after the second hour had passed, but the second we got it, it was all worth it.

Phew! It was a long first day but we had such a great time doing so many things. What an amazing city!

The next two days the husband had his work meetings (did I tell you? The entire trip, minus my airfare, was free thanks to my husband's meetings! Hence why it was so last minute). On Monday morning I met up with Jessica from What I Wore. She took me to one of the best thrift stops I've ever been to! (Beacon's Closet). It was so amazing and I got some great stuff. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take pictures (I even hauled my heavy DLR to Brooklyn.. bummer!). She is so sweet and I had a great time. Thanks, Jessica!

We spent the rest of the day walking, walking and walking from Chinatown to Soho to NYU. During the walk I found some great paint colors...





I got some great little Chinatown items (earrings and sunglasses) and we sat in the park by NYU. A great afternoon. We then ate in Little Italy with my husband's cousin who lives in the city.

On the way home we did finally pull out the camera to snap some pictures.


I loved those benches! Probably only tourists use them, eh?



The last day was really low key. The husband went to his final meeting and I headed over to the Met art museum. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to check out the exhibits before our flight, but I did a little walking around.


See those rain clouds in the background?


Right when we got back to the hotel it started pouring. I LOVED it and the hotel employees thought I was crazy for getting excited about rain. I told them how it rarely rains in California, especially never that hard. It reminded me of home (I grew up in tornado alley).

After the showers passed, we walked to an awesome deli that had pretty much everything. I ended the trip with an amazing bowl of hot ramen.



Sorry the post is so long winded!

We had SUCH a great time full of beautiful sites, amazing food and great company. We've decided that whenever my husband has meetings in NY I'll tag along with him (it's usually once or twice a year).

To be super cliche... I heart NY :D