Last week Brian and I had the chance to get away for a few days and head to NYC. We had an amazing time walking around and exploring the city without doing too many "touristy" things. Both Brian and I have been to NYC multiple times so we really wanted this trip to be more low key and relaxing....so basically we just ate a lot of good food! :)
Day 1: Wednesday
We flew out early Wednesday morning, checked into our hotel, and headed straight to Shake Shack. Ya'll this place has the most amazing burgers/fries/shakes. Great way to start our trip!
This was the view off the balcony of our room!
Brian's happy place! Cool weather...coffee...beautiful view
After lunch and getting all settled into our hotel we headed to Times Square. What else do you do on vacation when you are away from your 2 year old...head straight to Toys R Us and the Disney Store. Right? :) Well, after about 15 minutes in Times Square we were both over it and quickly got out of there.
We headed up to Central Park to walk around and enjoy the sites. First stop...Wafles and Dinges! YUMMY!
(Disclaimer: That is a baby bump NOT a result of all the food we devoured on this trip! HA!)
That evening we met up with Travis who is one of Brian's best friends and lives in NYC. We went to dinner up in Harlem to a yummy "noodle" type restaurant. No pictures because all of our phones had died or wouldn't work :(
Day 2: Thursday
After breakfast we headed down to where they film the David Letterman Show. We had been notified a few days earlier that we had been drawn to get tickets to the show and we both thought it would be a fun experience. Don't get me wrong...I don't know if either of us have actually ever watched the show. Oops! The funny part was that they selected us to be on the front row, front and center!
After the taping of the show was finished we headed over to Juniors for a quick dinner and then over to see the Broadway play 'Once'. Since today was September 11th, I thought it would be neat to see the memorial fountains at night all lit up. Plus, I knew they had these huge spotlights pointed straight into the sky in place of the Twin Towers and I really wanted to see it up close. We jumped on the subway and headed down...we had no idea how amazing it would be in person.
Day 3: Friday
We woke up and headed down to West Village to eat at Buvette which turned out to be our favorite place we ate the entire trip! So good!!!
It was this cute little French place with little tables where you basically are sitting in the lap of the person next to you. We ended up talking with the people sitting on both sides of us :). We got a lot more recommendations of places to go and eat!
After breakfast we wandered around Bleeker Street and then headed over to The Highline. The Highline is basically an old above ground railroad track that has been turned into a park. It is about 1 mile long and has benches, plants, amazing views, and food vendors scattered through out.
So Brian found this website/Twitter account that tells you where in NYC different TV shows/movies are being filmed. When he told me they were filming Law and Order: SVU up in Central Park I knew we had to go see! I am obsessed with the show and have basically seen ever single episode. Once we found where they were going to be filming we asked one of the crew members when they would film and he told us it probably wouldn't happen till later that night. We hung out for a while and then decided to come back on our way to dinner. It was so fun watching how much goes into them filming this short 30 second scene! Plus...I was a little star struck when Mariska "Olivia" walked right past me. The best picture I could get was pretty blurry :(.
Olivia's partner in the white shirt and she is behind him in the NYPD jacket.
Blurry...boo!
The scene were they were filming.
Then we headed to Eataly for dinner. This place is amazing! I know I have said that many times but seriously it was. Basically it is 60,000 sq ft of all things Italy. They are selling cheese, meat, chocolate, gelato, nutella, jams, jellies, wine, pasta, bread, and on and on I could go. I think there are around 14 different places to eat inside Eataly. We ate dinner on the rooftop at Birreria.
Day 4: Saturday
We met up with Travis for breakfast at Jacob's Pickles and then headed over to Central Park to walk around the lake.
That afternoon we headed to the 2:00 showing of Les Miserables. Because of all the walking we had done on the trip my feet were KILLING me and starting to hurt so bad I could barely walk. After the show we headed back to the hotel to rest until dinner.
Travis met us at our hotel later that night and we headed to The Hog Pit which is a bar in NYC that was hosting an Aggie watching party. It was fun watching the game with a bunch of Aggies!
Day 5: Sunday
Since we stayed out so late watching the game we slept in and then checked out of our hotel. We both wanted to head over to Brooklyn so we could see the skyline of Manhattan so we jumped on the subway and headed over the river. As we got closer to the water we saw this...
and decided to check it out. Come to find out it is something called Smorgasburg which is basically a group of up to 100 different food vendors. We walked around and were overwhelmed with the different choices. These were not normal "food truck" type vendors but really unique different types of food. We got apple & ginger soda, pigs in a blanket, and some type of yummy tacos.
One last picture with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background and then to the airport we went!
It was such an amazing trip exploring NYC! We were so excited to get home to see Tyler but really enjoyed the time together! Maybe next time we will bring Tyler with us :).
