Day 3! As we had spent much of Day 2 downtown and in midtown, we decided to head uptown first thing to explore what it had to offer. We grabbed a few cups of coffee on our way to find a place to eat breakfast.
Saw this on the way (not sure what it was...).
We ended up at Rue 57, which was right next to Central Park. I had Brioche French Toast:
Greg had Braised Short Rib Benedict:
We spent the next hour or two strolling through and around Central Park.
On the way out, I over heard a tour guide pointing out the apartment building/apartment where Carrie and Mr. Big bought their penthouse apartment in SATC #1 :)
And after that, I was hungry and my legs/feet were SO SORE so we caved and hopped in our first cab ;)
We ended up at Blue Smoke to have a 3:30 pm lunch:
And then hobbled back to our hotel for a nap.
When I was ready to roll again, we half walked/half cabbed down to Little Italy (and did a little shopping along the way).
We were talked into having our dinner at Sofia's of Little Italy by the man standing outside telling us how fresh their pasta was, how the next door restaurant used frozen ingredients, and how if we liked The Olive Garden, we should just keep walking. Sold ;)
Fresh Gnocchi for me. (Veal for Greg).
Excellent pours.
After dinner we slowly walked all the way back to our hotel, stopping for more wine along the way when we needed a rest.
Day 2! My favorite day! We packed SO MUCH into this day and I wish I could relive it over and over and over again.
I had bought tickets for us to go up to the top of the Freedom Tower (One World Observatory) at 10 am on Friday morning, which is all the way down town. We slept in until 8:30 (and loved it) but it didn't leave us enough time to walk there. We grabbed some coffee at Duncan Donuts and hopped on the subway, which left us enough time to get more coffee and bagels downtown. We found a little cafe/diner that apparently was a FDNY/Construction worker hangout. Literally every single person in there had a hard hat or uniform on.
Snapped this on our way into the Freedom Tower.
This picture had a filter on it, but it was truly the most beautiful day in the city! Cold, but not too cold, and so clear!
We were immediately impressed when we walked into the building. Everyone was so friendly - you can tell they want to provide you with a welcoming experience. They are truly celebrating the city and what has happened and how they are overcoming it all.
After we checked in (complete with a full airport-style security screening) there is a big massive screen that shows a map of the world, and as each person is getting their ticket scanned, a dot shows up showing where that person if from. So cool.
Next we took the Sky Pod elevators up and I'm so glad I got a video of it!
The doors open up to the most incredible views.
They also had iPads available for rent that had custom mapping technology on each that would move around with you as you walked around the building. It basically showed you a picture of what you were seeing out the windows, and then allowed you to click on and learn what each building was and it showed a video of it's history. We didn't get them ourselves, but we should have.
After spending a good amount of time up there, we headed back down for more coffee before our next destination: The 9/11 Memorial Museum. It was a somber experience to say the least, but we are both so glad we went. They did SUCH a good job with memorializing each and every person who lost their lives on 9/11 (and also those from the 1993 bombing).
Our next mission for the day was to make our way to the West Village to get pizza at Joe's Pizza. It was a bit of a trek from downtown, but totally worth it.
But before we even left downtown, we randomly happened to walk RIGHT BY Trinity Church, (where Alexander Hamilton is buried) and RIGHT by his grave. I couldn't believe it, actually. On the same day we were seeing Hamilton on Broadway, it was so crazy to me that his happened by accident.
Next up was pizza - and it was just as good as Greg had told me it would be.
We ate it in the park across the street.
As we made our way back to our hotel (which was a long ways), we strolled through Washington Square Park:
After naps and showers, we were ready to head out for the whole reason we were in the city in the first place: HAMILTON. As we walked to grab a bite to eat first, I must have checked my pockets a hundred times. I was SO SCARED I was going to lose a ticket! Serious anxiety, haha.
We stopped at Urbanspace Vanderbilt and I got a fish sandwich. Greg got a gyro.
And then it was time:
We had to wait outside the doors in line for awhile. I stood up on the top step looking around to see if I would spot any of the actors on their way into the theater. (I did: Daveed Diggs aka Thomas Jefferson).
Inside the theater, we headed to our seats. When I bought them, I really was buying the best seats I could with what was left. (The show is now completely sold out for the next year, I hear). Our seats were in the 3rd row of the front mezzanine, so I wasn't entirely sure how close we would be. But luckily, the theater is SO small and our seats were SO good! I could see every facial expression.
And amazingly, the ENTIRE original cast was in the show that night. I had been wondering/worrying that one or two would be on vacation or sick (unnecessarily, as I'm sure the understudies are fantastic). I was particularly concerned that the writer/composer/star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, would be out for some reason, as I was so excited to see him in particular - but he was there, and it was wonderful.
With our wine sippy cups, waiting for the show to start! It took me nearly the entire show to drink my 1 glass of wine. I don't know if I blinked the entire time they were on ;)
After the show (which exceeded ALL my expectations, and Greg's - he loved it!), we walked over to Carmine's for a big dish of pasta to share.
Greg and I are back from spending 4 days in NYC! It was seriously such an amazing trip. I had SObeen looking forward to this little getaway. We had forgotten what it was like to be away and have some time off from parenting (together, at the same time), and it was so nice to have some time to ourselves! We found ourselves constantly noting how this trip would have been VERY different had Ben with us. We were able to walk EVERYWHERE (approximately 37.5 miles walked in total during our 80 or so hours in the city). We ate when we felt like it, slept when we felt like it, were able to have long dinners without child-wrangling, and got to talk to one another without interruption.
And we couldn't have done it without Grandma Nancy and Shirley who stepped in and took such GREAT care of Ben while we were away! Ben got constant undivided attention and enjoyed every second of his time with them :) (Thank you both SO MUCH for making this happen for us! We are so grateful)!
Okay, on to the trip details. Day 1.
We got up early to catch our 7 am flight. Shirley had stayed the night before so we were able to head out the door without waking up Ben. We grabbed breakfast at the airport.
And we had such a nice flight to JFK! The airplane we were on had free On Demand for us to watch, the seats were comfortable, and we were enjoying the novelty of not having to entertain Ben during the ride. I was able to finish the book I was reading and listen to the entire recording of Hamilton. (I wanted to listen to it one more time completely before seeing it live)!
After getting our bags, grabbing an Uber and checking into our hotel, we had about 2 hours before our dinner reservations at Strip House (a steak restaurant). We decided to just head out and walk around until then.
Around the corner from our hotel:
We discovered the most amazing food hall called Urbanspace Vanderbilt just a few blocks from our hotel. It was like a gourmet food court. This was the place to BE after work on a Thursday. Men and suits and women in fancy clothes were just hanging out eating tacos and lobster rolls. We went back here a few times over the weekend.
Greg LOVED it there.
This dinner was one of my favorite meals of the trip. I'm so glad I had made reservations (a month prior) because they definitely did not allow walk-ins.
We started off sharing a lobster bisque (which is even better than the one at Ivar's...which I had assumed was impossible to beat). Then I had Filet Mignon and Greg had Chili-Rubbed Yellow Fin Tuna and we shared sides of the Strip house potatoes and Black Truffle Creamed Spinach.
The reason I had wanted to eat here was this chocolate cake I had seen on Instagram :) But by dessert time, I was beyond stuffed. I ordered it anyway, and took it back to the hotel. It was absolute heaven. It lasted 3 days and I still wasn't able to finish it. So dense and rich.
After dinner, we walked through Time Square. I had wanted to Face Time with Ben and show him all of the lights, but before we could Greg ran into these guys and wanted a picture ;)
Walked through Rockerfeller Center:
And since we were close, I wanted to walk over to the Richard Rodgers Theater to snap a few pics outside HAMILTON :)
We ended the cold night with some warm nightcaps at The View NYC (at the top of the Marriott Marquis, followed by a walk back to our hotel.
