New York, NY

We are finally home from our whirlwind trip to NY followed immediately by a quick weekend trip to visit family. 

Before we left, Sara wanted to know a little about New York, so Pete sat down with her and talked about some of the more famous parts of the city.

We got in to Manhattan on Friday afternoon and went straight to our hotel, the Roosevelt.  After checking in and changing clothes, we walked over to the famous 21 Club for our 8:30 reservations.  We figured we'd hang out at the bar and have a couple of drinks while waiting for our table.  We stood at the bar and each had 2 outrageously overpriced cocktails.  We ended up being seated about 8.  They had great service and wonderful food.  The atmosphere was great as well.

These fabulous chocolates were the equivalent of an after dinner mint, but they were really big.

After dinner the first night, we walked around a bit and walked over to Time's Square.

We didn't stay long in Time's Square, it was loud and too crowded.  The next morning, I made Pete get up earlier than he wanted to and we walked over to Grand Central to catch a subway and have a little breakfast.  We wandered around the terminal for a bit and had a bagel from a little stand.  Grand Central is a really cool building that has all kinds of shops and restaurants in it.  I enjoyed just wandering around checking everything out. 

We found the right train and made our way to ground zero.  I really wanted to see the 9-11 memorial, but we found out upon arrival that you have to have a reservation to be able to get in to see it while it's still in construction.  I was disappointed, but there was nothing we could really do.  We walked around and saw some beautiful old buildings as well as the Freedom Tower that is being built. 

During our wanderings, we saw a group of 3 or 4 guys doing a street performance. They were basically just break dancing.  It was fun to stand around and watch for a few minutes. 
We also saw a black squirrel coming out to beg for food, there was a girl nearby with a cracker and he came right up and grabbed it out of her hand. It was adorable.

We also saw a really cool sculpture in one of the parks, I loved all the bright colors.  When Sara saw the pictures, she said it looked like someone left a bunch of crayons out and they got melted.

We went through Battery Park City and down through the Soho area. Of course while we were in Soho, we had to stop by the Wooster St. Social Club (the tattoo shop where they film NY Ink) and get a couple of t-shirts. 

We stopped in a little tea bar that was really cool too.  I forgot to take any pictures, but it was a cute little shop with all kinds of teas an cocktails.  We also had our first slice of NY pizza and it was really good.  We shared a piece of cheese, plus each got our own.  Mine had sliced, fried eggplant and big chunks of fresh Mozzarella, I loved it.

We had our first Broadway show to attend that night, so it was back to the hotel to get cleaned up and change.  We saw "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Laroquette.  It was an excellent play and all the actors were very talented.  I absolutely loved the set and costume design.  Daniel Radcliffe was great and his role was funny.  If you ever get the chance to see it, on Broadway or off, I highly recommend it.

After the show, we took a train over to a particular hot dog vendor that came highly recommended to us called Gray's Papaya.  We each had a couple of dogs and a drink, which was our cheapest meal the entire time we were there. 

I'll post the rest of our days in another few posts.  We did as much stuff as we could possibly fit in during our short stay there.