Alright, I’ve talked about The Basics of our trip and I’ve talked about all The Places We Went. Now it’s time to share all the places we ate on our trip to New York City. I think we literally ate our way through the city. New York has so much delicious food and places to eat. We obviously couldn’t eat everywhere we wanted to or heard about but these are the places that made the cut……

On our first day in the city we went to the September 11th Museum and Memorial. After we toured the museum and memorial we were very hungry. I had remembered a little place just down the street called Essex World Cafe. It had been used as a medic station immediately after the 9/11 attacks. They took in and cared for those that needed help. It seemed appropriate that this be the place we had dinner that day.

We ate a delicious meal there (I had a yummy panini) and we had our first slices of cheesecake of the trip. Just looking at this picture I want to go back and grab a couple more of those desserts. They were so delicious!

In my first post about our trip I shared where we stayed. Well our hotel was very very close to the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. The Shake Shack specializes in burgers, hot dogs, and of course shakes.

The line at the Shake Shack is notoriously long. You can even check to see how long the line in through their website. In my opinion it’s worth it; the line goes fairly quickly, the food is super yummy, and it was nice to sit in the park and eat. If you’re looking for a good burger in the city consider stopping here.

On the third day of our trip we made it up to Central Park around lunch time. Before we headed to The Museum of Natural History we wanted to grab some lunch. We stopped at Le Pain Quotidien located in Central Park. It is a nice little French cafe in the middle of the park. We chose to sit outside (of course) and enjoyed a super yummy meal. I had the quiche and a salad. It was perfect.

So if you’re going to be spending a lot of time walking around the city you’re going to work up an appetite. You may even crave a little something sweet. Well if you were thinking of visiting Crumbs Cupcakes like we did….you’d be out of luck. Right after we returned from our trip Crumbs went out of business. Luckily we got to enjoy some of their last cupcakes….their last delicious cupcakes. We even made multiple trips there during our trip and brought some back for our kids. I’m sad that they’re gone….we’ll have to look for another guilty pleasure next time we’re in the city.

On Saturday after our time at the Intreped Museum we headed to SoHo for lunch and shopping. We had heard good things about Balthazar Restaurant so decided to try it out. It’s a a nicer resturant with a little higher prices….it made a delicious lunch for us but it would be a great dinner spot too. Sometimes it’s nice to get some new exotic dish at a new restaurant and sometimes it’s nice to get an old standby like mac and cheese. Granted this was super fancy mac and cheese. Super delicious too.

Saturday night we headed to see Jersey Boys on Broadway. Afterwards we went to Junior’s for dinner. Junior’s is famous for their cheesecakes but they also have some pretty delicious food as well.

Yes you have to get their cheesecake….it’s a MUST. You won’t be sorry. Junior’s is located super close to Times Square which is covered in big chain restaurants. The goal on our trip was to not eat anywhere we could back home. So if you’re close to Times Square and need a bite…head for Junior’s!

On Sunday we walked around and explored Little Italy, which is obviously a great place for yummy Italian food. We had lunch in a little place and then grabbed an cannoli from a street vendor. Yum yum. You may be surprised what yummy things you can find from New York street vendors. Another day we had some yummy gyros at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. Just have to be willing to be a little adventurous.

That night we ate at John’s Pizza in Greenwich Village. I think there are about a billion places you can eat pizza in NYC. You can probably pick any number of them and you will eat delicious pizza.

We choose to eat at John’s. It’s a pretty popular place and depending on when you get there, it may be a bit of a wait (they don’t take reservations). We got there before the dinner rush and got in within 15 minutes. You can’t order pizza by the slice….but chances are that won’t be a problem because you will want to eat the whole pie anyway!!!

On our last night we were at a loss for where to eat. We were tired and didn’t want to venture far from our hotel. We happened upon Tre Stelle. OH MY GOSH. This *I think* was our favorite meal of the trip. It was random and unexpected and so good. I had Spaghetti Alla Carbonara and just thinking about it makes me want some more. We had great drinks, great food, and great service. We will be heading back to this place the next time we’re in the city.

Alright folks…..that’s about it. Of course I didn’t include every meal of our trip but this is the majority of them and the most memorable. I suggest doing some research before you head to NYC for the first time. You can search for places to eat based on the areas you’ll visit or the types of food you prefer. Either way….have fun with it, get adventitious, and try something new!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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If you missed the first two posts in the series make sure you check out……

and…..

It’s time for my second installment of our New York adventure! If you missed my first post about The Basics. The post today is about all of the places that we visited….minus the food, that’s for the third and last installment. I’m going to break it all down by the days of our trip in case anyone is interesting in seeing how we grouped events.

WEDNESDAY:

I’m going to start off by saying our first day in New York got messed up. Our flights to NYC were delayed so much that we ended up having to fly into New Jersey and we didn’t arrive until 2am. Without our luggage. By the time we traveled into Manhattan, found out that our luggage wouldn’t arrive until that evening, and got in our room it was LATE. Or early depending on how you look at it. So we decided to scrap the first part of our first day in NY, which was to see the Statue of Liberty (but don’t worry it was rescheduled for later in the week). We got some much needed sleep and ran to the drug  store to grab some products to make ourselves somewhat presentable that day.

Because of the rescheduling of this day, our first visit of the day was to the September 11th Museum and Memorial. There is just so much I COULD say about the Museum but it’s hard to really formulate the words. In our opinion they did a fabulous job on the whole thing. Most of the museum was a no camera zone so there is a lot that wasn’t photographed that day. The museum basically walks you through the entire events of 9/11 step by step. From NY to DC to Pennsylvania. There are photos, videos, artifacts, recordings filling rooms after rooms. If you are going to attend the museum and memorial give yourself a few hours to really see everything and take the amount of time you need. This wasn’t the sort of place that I wanted to rush through.

It was such an emotional day for both of us. We felt both drained and grateful for the chance to experience it all. I really suggest that if you’re headed to New York you make this a priority on your “to do” list.

Outside of the museum is the 9/11 memorial. They are two huge fountains that stand in the footprint of the towers. They flow into themselves and are surrounded by the names of the people lost on that day. Between their size and the sound of the water it really is a breath taking spot.

The Freedom Tower looks nearly complete from the outside. I’m not sure if it’s being called “complete” or not. There is still a fair amount of construction in the area; they are working on a huge transportation hub currently. The building will resemble a dove taking flight when completed. Even with the work still happening in the area, the grounds are peaceful and beautiful. THIS is where we purchased the tickets for the museum.

THURSDAY:

We started off our day on Thursday with breakfast at Tiffany’s. Yes we actually went and got breakfast and brought it to Tiffany’s jewelry store on 5th Ave. It was actually my hubbies idea and we had a lot of fun with it! We had planned this day to be a lot of walking and taking in the sights along the way. We walked down 5th Ave for a good portion of the morning just taking in all of the super expensive-don’t-even-think-about-it-stores. Although I did walk away with a super awesome souvenir from Louis Vuitton {swoon}.

The first place we stopped was St Patrick’s Cathedral. I was selfishly bummed that they were doing restoration work on the cathedral because it hid a lot of it’s beauty. However, it’s obviously necessary! We were still able to enjoy a lot of it’s beauty and amazing architecture. There are lots of beautiful churches in Manhattan that you will stumble upon while walking the city. However St Patrick’s is the most beautiful!

Then it was on to 30 Rock, or Rockefeller Center. Here we enjoyed shopping at an awesome Lego store, checking out an interesting installment from Jeff Koons, and seeing the iconic Prometheus statue. I have been told that you can ride the elevator up the building for a great view minus the cost like at the Empire State Building. We decided to stick with going to the ESB for the experience but it’s an option!

After 30 Rock it was on to Grand Central Station (even though it hasn’t actually been named that in years). Grand Central really is that…..GRAND. It’s such an amazing sight it’s almost hard to believe that it’s just a way for people everyday to just get to work. What an awesome commute! There are great little places to eat inside the station so if you want to catch a bite while perusing the city this is a fun place to do it.

Then it was on to the New York Library. It’s such an iconic place we had to go in. We didn’t really know where we were going in this massive place but we found ourselves in the genealogy room and had a great time looking up our possible relatives.

Then the highlight of our day was traveling to the top of the Empire State Building.

I mentioned in my first post about New York that we purchased the “fast past” to the top! To me it’s so worth it. Instead of waiting in line for hours you can get to the top, check things out, and be on with your day. To me the view up there is amazing and seeing the city from that vantage point is awesome….but I don’t want to spend hours to get to the top, take some pictures, and leave. We purchased our tickets HERE.

FRIDAY:

On Friday we were finally able to take our trip to see Lady Liberty. We got up early that morning and made our way to lower Manhattan to catch the boat to Liberty Island. When we rescheduled our trip to the statue we didn’t realize that we grabbed the first boat of the day. I must say….if you can swing it, do the first boat of the day! When we arrived on the island there was no one there except the people that work there. We quickly made our way to the front of the statue to take pictures without having to battle crowds to do so. It was awesome! As the day goes on the island becomes crowed with tons of people all trying to get the perfect shot. Worth getting up early for!

The boat ride over to the island is great time to check out the New York skyline. You can also go to Ellis Island on the boat tours but we didn’t make it there because we had other things on the agenda that day. We bought our tickets through THIS SITE.

When we returned back to shore we headed to lunch in Central Park and then hit up the Museum of Natural History. This was on my hubby’s priority list for the trip. There are so many museums in New York and you could literally spend days going through them all, we had to choose which one we wanted to visit the most and the Natural History won out!

If you are a fan of the movie Night at the Museum then you may recognize some of these iconic items! Yes we were geeking out just a bit! We enjoyed walking around the museum and there was TONS to see…so much so we had to just quickly walk through parts to get to areas we wanted to spend more time in. If you’re planning a trip here make sure you schedule plenty of time.

SATURDAY:

We work up Saturday morning and headed to the Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum. This was another request from the hubby. You see my husband is in the Air Force and he’s fairly obsessed with all things military and historical.

We bought our tickets upon arrival the day of, you could purchase tickets ahead of time if you wanted to. We toured the Growler submarine, Intrepid Aircraft Carrier, and got to see the Space Shuttle Enterprise. I understand that this may not be the type of attraction that the average New York goer may want to see, but it really is a great place to visit with lots of history and awesome sights.

After touring the Intrepid we headed for lunch and shopping in SOHO. I love the SOHO and Greenwich areas. They are so laid back and eclectic. Lots of yummy food….lots of shopping. Then we headed back to our room for a little rest before a fun evening!

That night we got to experience one of my favorite things to do in New York….see a show on Broadway. I love going to Broadway style shows and have for years, but to actually see them ON Broadway is obviously a dream! We choose Jersey Boys for our first show of the trip. Yes I said first. We were lucky enough to attend two shows while we were there. We saw Jersey Boys at the August Wilson theater and purchased our tickets HERE. It was an amazing show. Loved the music of course but it’s just overall very entertaining!!!

If you go to see a show on Broadway you will end up at Times Square. It’s like an “If you give a mouse a cookie” moment. Times Square is a sight to behold. Granted it’s usually packed with tourists from day to night. But it’s still something you should see for yourself. It can be the middle of the night and you feel like it’s day time with the glow from all of the signs. There are lots of restaurants, bars, and shopping to check out. Keep an eye out for the Naked Cowboy and other street oddities!

SUNDAY:

By the time Sunday came around we were starting to get worn out. We had already done so much walking around and it was hot. Man was it hot. We had already checked so many things off of our “to do” list but there were still some places we really wanted to see. We took this day to just explore some iconic neighborhoods.

We walked around Chinatown and Little Italy. To sum up Chinatown would be Asian markets and knock offs. Knock off purses, knock off watches. To sum up Little Italy would be little Italian restaurants and cannolis. Obviously that isn’t the whole picture but pretty much. These two areas are the kind of place I think are great to check out if it’s your first time to the city….after that I probably wouldn’t return.

We returned to the SoHo and Greenwich neighborhoods to walk around. We ended up at Washington Square Park and ended up staying for a few hours. We had happened upon the park one night when we were feeling restless. So we got to enjoy the park at night and during the day. We really enjoyed just sitting in the park and people watching. There is a huge fountain that people (legally or not we don’t know) go splashing around in it. There was also an endless amount of musicians strolling in and out of the park the whole time. At any moment there was a violinist or a marching band or anything in between.  These quiet little moments are what really meant a lot to my husband and I.

MONDAY:

At this point in our trip we were at the “free days”. Towards the end of the trip we left a couple days with not a lot of scheduled activities. We had been throwing around the idea of going to the Brooklyn Bridge and we decided that one of our down days was a great time to go check it out.

It ended up being a pretty awesome experience to not only get up close to the Brooklyn Bridge but to take a walk on it as well. Again this is a great place to get unique views of the city and a great place to just take in the city.

That night we attended my hubby’s choice for our second Broadway show….Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater. I’ve seen the Phantom twice before this but I have to say that it is the kind of show I can see again and again! We planned this night on Broadway to happen on my hubby’s birthday so it was perfect that he got to see a show he’d been wanting to see for years. Of course it was amazing and we just loved both of our Broadway show experiences!

RANDOM:

Something that I think is really important when exploring a large city like New York is to leave room to just explore. We were obviously armed with our maps and apps….but we took times to just walk around. This lead us to a store/bakery made up entirely of Nutella, a little parking lot flea market, a delicious random restaurant, and a beautiful park at night. We stumbled upon things that we otherwise wouldn’t have if we didn’t just get out and explore.

We even went to the movies while we were in the city. I mean…..we were kid free and had a few evening! Let me tell you, even just attending a movie theater in New York was a cool experience. I know that makes me sound like SUCH a tourist but hey that’s what I was!

Welp that is about it for this installment of Our Trip to New York! This is basically our trip day to day….where we went and what we did! The next post will be about the places we ate at and what we ate. I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our trip and if you have any questions or would like any tips feel free to shoot me a comment or message!

Linking up to these great link parties!

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Before you leave make sure you read about The Basics from our New York trip! I discuss where we stayed , how we got around, and the tickets we purchased!

Holy moly what a summer. I mean, I knew it was going to be busy but I had no idea just how crazy it would actually be. I have completely neglected the blog but I promise I have thought of you guys every single day. I knew awhile ago when I decided to not be so hard on myself when it came to my blogging schedule that times like this would happen, I just hate being too busy to blog. So hopefully now that things have calmed down (ok does that ever really happen?) I think I will be getting back on the bloggy track.

So, this summer we have been to Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, California, New Jersey, and NEW YORK! It’s been a busy summer for travel and the best trip of all was our anniversary trip to New York City. I’ve had several requests to share our tips and tricks from our trip and I can’t wait to share our trip with everyone.

OUR HOTEL:

First I’m going to start with where we stayed. We booked our hotel room at The Comfort Inn Chelsea. I will start off by saying this hotel is not overly fancy. We choose it because it is in a good location and the price was great for what we got. The hotel is pretty much located in the middle of lower Manhattan which made it super easy to get just about anywhere. The rooms aren’t huge and there are the basics….but it’s clean, they have free breakfasts, and the view is awesome!

Ok maybe it’s not the best view in the city….but in our opinion it was wonderful. We had a beautiful church outside our hotel and an awesome view of the Empire State Building. At night they light up the ESB in different colors that we got to enjoy every evening.

HOW WE GOT AROUND:

We purchased a week long Metrocard for $29 each. This is the most effective and affordable way to get around the city, minus walking everywhere but you’ll still be doing a ton of that. A one time use Metrocard costs $2.50, so if you plan to ride the subway a lot the week pass will really pay off. I brought a small pocket map of the subways with us to help us know which trains we needed to take to get somewhere. We also used the app Citymapper. It was a HUGE help and I highly suggest it. It will give you the quickest routes to anywhere you want to go in the city along with a much time it will take to get there.

TICKETS:

In my opinion it’s better to buy tickets to some of the attractions that you will want to attend before you go on your trip. In some cases it’s pretty much necessary to purchase tickets well in advance or they may be sold out.

If it’s your first time to visit the city chances are you will want to head to the top of the Empire State Building. It’s such an iconic place. We decided to purchase the Express Pass tickets that took us to the 86th and 102nd floors. I’ve been to the Empire State Building twice now but this was my hubbies first time. The express pass takes you past all of the lines of people waiting to get to the top. Granted you pay a little more, but in my opinion I would rather pay more and get on with our day. No matter the method of how you get to the top, it’s a pretty amazing view!

In my opinion visiting  the Statue of Liberty is a must. I’ve been to the island twice; once I went to the crown and on this visit we bought the pedestal access tickets. Either way it’s amazing to get up close to lady liberty. Going to the crown was definitely an amazing experience, but it’s not for anyone who is claustrophobic, has trouble with stairs, or tight spaces. No matter which tickets you decide on make sure you buy them in as much advance as you can. The crown tickets especially sell out in further advance.

We were lucky enough to have the 9/11 Museum open just before our visit to New York. The last time I was in NY (5 years ago) it was all just a huge construction zone. Now the Freedom Tower is standing tall, the memorial fountains are beautiful, and the museum is overwhelming. It was one of our top priorities to visit the museum while we were there so we purchased our tickets ahead of time. I’m not sure I can fully explain the emotions and feelings that we experienced going through the museum and memorial. I think everyone should experience it at some point.

When people think of New York one of the first things they may also think of is Broadway. We knew that seeing a Broadway show was absolutely a must do.  There are SO many amazing shows to see and honestly it’s a hard thing to try and decide on one. So we choose two. One show was my pick and one was my hubbies. Obviously some shows have been on Broadway for longer than others and some are more in demand that others, but I suggest buying your tickets ahead of time. That way you can guarantee you get in to the show you really want to see and get the seats you want as well.

Okay, those are the basics! I’ve gone over where we stayed, how we got around, and what we bought tickets ahead of time for. I am going to have two more posts sharing our daily activities and where we ate during our trip. I hope you find these tips and tricks helpful and that you may be able to enjoy an equally awesome trip to New York City!

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