NYC

It has been a short-lived tradition for Trevin and I to go on a vacation together before each child has been born. Looking back, we were on a permanent vacation until Avery was born. Before Dex came along we visited Aruba. With this one, we wanted Hawaii, but decided on New York City. We are also celebrating our 10th anniversary this month. So, we traded in our frequent flyer miles and headed for the Big Apple on Thursday, July 24th until Monday, July 28th. To save a little on money we took the air train from JFK to our hotel. We stayed at the Helmsley Park Lane (bid on Hotwire.) It was literally between the Plaza Hotel and the Ritz Carlton across the street from Central Park in Midtown. There was a subway station less than a half of a block down so we bought a subway card and did most of our travel by foot or train.

Soon after we checked into our hotel, we head straight for Time Square where we bought tickets for a Broadway play. It was “39 Step”s by Alfred Hitchcock. It was a pretty good play, but more for the experience. I had my heart set on Wicked, but there were only premium seat left. My neighbor said, but you’re a “Doctor’s wife!” Well, a doctor’s budget doesn’t travel as far as it used to!

Prior to arriving in NYC, we had several travel advisors (Nicky, Kelly, Mason, Sam.) Nicky hooked us up on the eating establishments. Before the play, we ate pizza from a small shop near the Little Mermaid Theater. As luck would have it, hot, fresh mozzarella and basil came straight from the oven. Best pizza we had in NYC.

The next day we slept until 11 am. Remember we were on Mountain Standard Time. We had brunch at Sarabeth’s. We had lots of recommendations for this place but were disappointed. As Zagat had pointed out, the service is inattentive and it was SLOW! Our food lacked flavor. I think we took the fabulous central park location for granted since it was literally one door down from our hotel. From there we headed for the Statue of Liberty or Empire State building. We toured neither. It was Friday afternoon and the lines were hours long. So, Trevin promised me to get up early the next morning. Instead of the lines, we walked around the World Trade Center site. We also walked around Little Italy where we had lunch at a Cuba sandwich place. Sooooo delicious.

Friday night we saw a Mets/Cardinals game at Shea Stadium. I guess the $20 for 2 hot dogs and a coke and the experience of watching a game during the last season in the current stadium was…priceless.

On Saturday, we woke up 5 hours earlier that the day before and were the ultimate tourists at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We even indulged in the walking audio tour of Liberty Island. We did get their early enough to tour the inside of the statue. It was worth the early morning. We had a late lunch at the seaport and on our way back to the hotel we did a hop on, hop off bus tour of Downtown. We went to Little Italy again that evening. It was much better this time around because the streets were closed to traffic, restaurants had table and gelato freezers in on the streets.

Sunday morning we walked around Central Park and took another bus tour of Uptown and Harlem on top of the double decker bus in the pouring rain. That helped with the heat. That night we went to Bob Flay’s Mesa Grill. My pork chops were very good. Trevin’s steak was okay. It was fairly pricey and the $8 pasta in Little Italy the night before was equally as flavorful.

On Monday morning, Trevin surprised me with breakfast in bed and then we headed to Greenwich Village. We took a walking food and cultural tour. I could have done more food and less culture because the food was sooo delicious. My one regret is that we did the tour on our last day instead of our first so we would have known of more diverse places to eat. Here are some links to some of the places we ate. Some, but not all were on the food tour.
tour.

http://www.milkandcookiesbakery.com/
Best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had.

http://www.famousjoespizza.com/
I liked this pizzeria the best. Thin, crispy crust.

http://bleeckerstreetpizza.com/
This was Trevin’s favorite. Thicker, softer crust.

http://www.roccospastry.com/
Yummy cannoli.

http://www.oliviersandco.com/FO/
Expensive olive oil.

http://www.foodieview.com/restaurant/lime-thai-bistro-and-lounge/new-york-ny/111383/147353
Savory Thai food

http://www.murrayscheese.com/
Cheese made right on site. Very good.

http://www.lartedelgelato.com/

http://www.ciaobellagelato.com/about/cbgelato_news-detail.php?id=18

Being pregnant, I definitely had much less energy than I would have otherwise. Trevin was thankful for this as he was looking forward to a “relaxing” vacation. Nonetheless, we had a great time on vacation, but as always we missed Avery and Dex terribly. We are lucky to have friends and family nearby who took such great care of them. I think it might be a little harder to get away in the future with three little monkeys.