Hello friends and semi-creepy people who read stranger's blogs, here is the second half of our NYC trip!
Sunday morning we woke up and had brunch with Sam and one of his roommates at a restaurant in the Upper West Side called Lansky's. After that we caught a cab back to the hotel in Midtown. We learned our lesson the first time we tried to take a gigantic suitcase on the subway. Once we got back, we set off on our next great adventure, the Upper East Side!
We headed up to Dylan's Candy Bar on the recommendation of one of our friends where Lia and I proceeded to each buy big bags full of candy. I got chocolate because I'm sweet and Lia bought bought bitter and sour candy because she is sweet too. We then proceeded to go to Central Park and eat our candy, and the pictures start... now!
These kids (and by kids, I mean teenagers) are engaged in a fierce medieval battle simulation that can only result in one thing... all of them having even fewer friends. I really shouldn't knock them though, since this is far more exercise than the average World of Warcraft player gets.
The Upper East Side was beautiful, albeit a lot less lively then the rest of New York. This actually seemed like a place where average people with millions of dollars live. They also had some beautifully manicured medians all down Park Avenue.
I think the real clincher for Lia liking the Upper East Side were all of the designer dogs. This man had 3 different Goldendoodles: a large, a medium and a small. And people say that upper class America does not embrace diversity!
After rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, we headed down to the Flatiron District to see Madison Square Park. Lia is pictured above posing with the Flatiron Building. It was actually pretty cool how thin the building appeared. If that architect had a clothing store, it would change the life of just about every middle aged woman in Texas.
Based on a recommendation from one of Lia's coworkers, we went to this crazy deli/wine store/grocery store/restaurant called Eataly. The place was huge and the wait for a table was really long, but in the mean time we just went and creeped on the folks in the dog park across the street. The food ended up being pretty dang good. I got a delicious spicy salami pizza and Lia got some very boring looking pasta that she claims was delicious.
After dinner we went up to the top of the Empire State Building. We heard it was pretty neat to see the city at night, and I did like how cool and breezy it was up there. Above you can see a picture of Times Square and Rockefeller Center.
Here is me playing with the night vision functionality on my camera. Aren't I fancy and artsy? If you want to pay me for any of these pictures, you are dumb, but feel free.
Monday was our big day. We woke up pretty early (before noon) and headed down to Greenwich Village. Washington Square Park was full of nannies and hobos and was actually quite beautiful. NYC has got the park thing down.
We finally found someone who we stereotyped as not being the kind of person to steal our camera. Please note the Empire State Building through the arch in the background. If our photographer was as artistically inclined as me or any other talentless person, they would have noticed and gotten a better angle on it. Oh well. For lunch we got amazing Mediterranean food from a place called Mamouns Falafel and took it back to the park to eat.
Although Lia and I didn't really like Greenwich Village, we were both obsessed with SoHo. It had a ton of character and there just seemed to be people everywhere. Never crowds though, just a steady flow of people.
One of our friend's older sisters was getting married nearby the next weekend, so we decided to walk by and take a look at the church. The outside wouldn't really catch your eye but inside the place was magnificent.
Our trip to SoHo served three purposes, to see a new neighborhood, to increase our hipster cred, and to shop at some of the unique stores they have there. All three objectives were met in the above picture which was taken in Uniqlo, which is like a very trendy Japanese Macy's. We also hit up a few baby boutiques so Lia could but a gift for a coworker who just adopted a baby. That is where I learned that there are multiple different kinds of strollers and they range in price from really expensive to just plain absurd. I plan on building my baby's stroller out of plywood and some old bike tires.
After we were done with the 3 H's (Hipsters, Hippies and Hobos) we headed downtown and jumped on the Staten Island Ferry. These ferries are huge and come pretty regularly.. they are also priced perfectly at $0 a round trip. It is really nice of those New Yorkers to pay absurdly high taxes so that us tourists can save a few bucks. Thanks!
The views of Lower Manhattan were spectacular! It gives you a much better idea of just how densely everyone is packed onto that island.
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It was a little unsettling once I realized why they were needed, but we had two Coast Guard boats escorting our ferry. I did get this sweet picture of the boat in the foreground and the Statue of Liberty in the background. My caption for this postcard would be "Freedom isn't Free." I am thinking about starting an unsuccessful business selling postcards and mediocre pictures. Thoughts? |
After our ride on the ferry, we took a walk through Lower Manhattan,starting with Battery Park. Honestly, this was the least impressive park in the city. Too many sketchy people and overall poor upkeep. There was a gorgeous view as you left the park though!
Here is Lia posing in front of the Bowling Green, which was founded in 1733 and is the oldest public park in NYC. The original fence from the 1700's still surrounds the park, although they tore down the original statue and ripped all of the crowns off of the fence during the American Revolution. Screw King George.
And here is the infamous Wall Street. It was actually pretty underwhelming and a lot shorter than I thought it would be.
I thought this was a nice picture of the NYSE back in the day, you know, when America still had good credit.
We also made a trip by Ground Zero. It is crazy to see just how big of a construction site it is. The One World Trade Center Building (aka Freedom Tower, the half built one on the left) is going to be awesome. It is one of the best designs I have seen for a high rise in a while.
Like I mentioned earlier, the parks in NYC were spectacularly designed and most of them are very well maintained. I love the way that they incorporated the city in the sight lines for all of the different parks. This is City Hall Park pictured above.
This is the Woolworth Building, which was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930.
After we had finished touring downtown, we decided to walk back through Chinatown.
Lia bought some awesome sunglasses in Chinatown for next to nothing. Don't worry everyone, I am sure they were living wage/fair trade.
The original plan was to get dinner in Chinatown, but Lia didn't want to anymore after just the first block. The sidewalks being wet with fish juices and the whole place smelling terrible probably didn't help. Also, the 8 year old kid driving by in the brand new Rolls Royce was a little unsettling. Sketchy place I tell you.. in a good way. Dying from a Ninja attack sure beats your traditional mugging.
We ended up going to this amazing pizza place called Lombardi's. There was a bit of a wait, but it was worth it. Lia labeled it the most delicious Pizza she had ever eaten.. and in all fairness, it was an incredible pizza. I still prefer Chicago style, which is probably just because I have good taste. After dinner we retired to our fancy $400/night Courtyard. Thank goodness for Marriott points!
So as Lia has quickly learned, I have picked up travel habits from working in a job that takes me so many places. One of these habits is experiencing a city through food. If you only have one or two days in a city and you are busy the whole time, the only real fun thing you can do is eat. My list of foods to try in NYC were as follows: NY Style Pizza, a NY Bagel, Fine Dining and a Corned Beef/Pastrami Sandwich. The 2nd Avenue Deli was strongly, and I mean strongly, recommended by my Jewish friend that I met on the flight up as a place to grab some Corned Beef. Lia and I took the hike down there and it did not disappoint.
Lia had Challah French Toast that just about changed her life. Also, to my great satisfaction, they had an item on their menu that was a Corned Beef Sandwich and a Pastrami Sandwich combo. 2 sandwiches, one plate.. It was meant to be. Both were incredibly delicious, but the rumors are really true. They make every effort to put too much meat on there... and they almost succeed.
After lunch, we walked up through the Murray Hill area. I don't really recommend it, however it did take us by the Chrysler Building which is my favorite building in NYC. It was the tallest building in the world for just 11 months and was built by Walter Chrysler himself.. not the company, just the man. He also ended up stiffing a bunch of the subcontractors on the deal. Fun stuff.
We then took a walk by the United Nations Headquarters. The main building is under some pretty extensive renovations so the trip turned out to be a huge disappointment, not unlike the United Nations itself.
We then decided to spend the rest of our time in NYC touring Midtown. This picture above represents one of the things I love most about New York, and that is the grandiose old buildings right next to the biggest and best modern buildings. Some people would hate the contrast, but I think it is fun to have a city that so well displays changes in architecture over the past 300 years.
We then took a walk through the Rockefeller Center which was pretty cool. They have a Lego store! Lia let me go in and I felt just like a kid again. I promise before everyone who knows how to use the internet, my children will get to visit that store at an age where society still allows them to play with Legos.
Because Lia and I are American, we thought we would grab some burgers at the Shake Shack again before heading to the airport. On the way back to the hotel to pick up our bags, we had to walk through Times Square. The above picture shows Lia frowning. Times Square is really something you only need to see once in your life, and this was the fourth or fifth time Lia had seen it this trip.
Once we got back to the hotel, and in keeping with my fanciness, we had a Yukon Denali pick us up and drive us to the airport. For all you penny pinchers out there, car services are often cheaper than taxis for longer trips. Lia slept the whole drive to the airport, which was probably the slowest I have ever traveled in a motor vehicle. The only real tragedy of the trip is I didn't make a friend on the flight home. Oh well, I'll try harder next time.
And of course, I am going to end the article with some Pros and Cons of New York. The cons are clear when you first arrive. The city is absolutely filthy, crowded, claustrophobic, expensive, full of crazy people, smelly and it is very difficult to breathe due to all of the pollution.
On the pro side, it did have chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes! The food was incredible.. we really did not have a bad meal. The people were also a lot nicer than they were made out to be. It is also incredibly easy to get around, which is important because there were so many things to see and experience. The parks were awesome too..
And the NYC Trip is finally done!!! I promise future posts will be shorter, mostly because I hated writing this much. I hope someone actually read this far, because I would hate to think I could have been playing Call of Duty this whole time instead of typing. Oh well, I guess I will never know. Go Dores.
