New York

Matt and I just got back from a trip to New York over Memorial Weekend to celebrate our 14th Anniversary.  We had a great time seeing the sights!  We started the trip with a ride on the Staten Island ferry to to see the Statue of Liberty and get a great view of the Manhattan Skyline.

It was an overcast day - but we were just grateful it wasn't raining (later that evening it came down in buckets and we got soaked!)

 Next we biked across the Brooklyn Bridge -  this was a definite Highlight,

the Lowlight was using a "City Bike" which only allows you 30 min. intervals with the bike.  So it was JUST enough time to get across the bridge and back and quickly take a couple pictures!  Would have been nice if we weren't feeling so rushed- wished we had gone with a different bike rental company.

 We saw Washington Square Arch and Times Square.......

 The 9-11 memorial

and the NEW 9-11 museum (which was incredible!)

 We spent 2.5 hours in the museum, and we weren't going slow!

We enjoyed Central park a few different times.  Pictured Below, we walked through the park Sunday morning on our way to church at the Manhattan Temple.

 We went to Rockefeller Center, and to the observation deck at the "top of the Rock."

We also went to the top of the Empire State building later that evening.  Thanks to a good tip we went around midnight when the place was empty and there was no line (it only felt like 10pm to us Utahn's so it worked great!).

We went to the new Broadway "Rocky" and had a very fun and entertaining time!  The last scene when Rocky fights Apollo Creed, they moved the people sitting in the first five rows up on the stage, then the ring moved out on top of those first five rows so that it became an "arena."  It was pretty incredible!

Our last day we enjoyed relaxing in Madison Square garden, enjoyed the view of the Flat Iron building, and ate some INCREDIBLE food from the "Mad. Sq. Eats" food fair.

We enjoyed homemade ice cream cookie sandwiches, homemade doughnuts, Lobster sandwiches from Maine, a chicken curry empanada, a lebanese pancake rolled up with a citrus chicken stuffing, and a Sicilian fried rice ball with pesto and mozzarella.  I ended up with a bit of an upset stomach that night (no surprise) but it was worth it!  :)

Everyone loves the sights in New York.  Some people also enjoy the shopping (not us- we didn't go in a single store, or flea market, or buy a single thing).  Some people also enjoy the art/history museums (not us- the 9-11 museum is the only museum we went to).  Some people try to pack in tons of plays, shows, and broadways (we did just one).  The other reason people love New York is the FOOD - and that IS our thing!!!  I'm glad Matt and I have that in common!

From Street Food Carts to Restaurants, we tried as much as we could in just 4 days.  Most days our plans revolved around what restaurant we wanted to try that day.  Here were our favorites and recommendations for anyone going to New York:

Katz Deli - for the pastrami sandwich (pictured above, we had to share it)

Vanessa's Dumpling House in Chinatown (we got the 10 dumpling sampler for $5.00, and 4 fried dumplings for $1 and they were incredible!!!)

The Shake Shack in Madison Square Garden (they have a few locations but this one is the most scenic by far).  I loved their SmokeShack burger with chopped cherry pepper and for memorial weekend they were featuring a pecan pie concrete that was divine!

Lil Frankie's Pizza- there are lots of great pizza places to choose from, so it was hard to narrow it down but this is the one we tried (we can't imagine anything being better than this place).  The pizza was exactly like what we had in Italy.  Plus it was open late (not a lot of restaurants were open late surprisingly).

Waffles and Dinges Cart - they have a few trucks around Manhattan.  We had their Belgian waffle with strawberries and whip cream for breakfast two days in a row!  We liked the truck at Grand Army Plaza at the corner of Central Park - after picking up the waffle it was nice to cross the street and eat it in the park!

It was a fun trip.  We feel grateful to be home now though and living in such a beautiful (wide open) place!