The favorites

I'm not a big city person when I travel. Paris tops the list of my least favorite cities in the world. Given my experience there, I wasn't excited to visit a major city anytime soon. However, NYC, Manhattan, blew my mind. I loved it and can't wait to visit the city again.

Here are my top 5.

1. The food.
The city has so much variety to offer. Amanda lived in NYC for 2 years and was so kind to send us a list of her favorites. She was spot on. We visited almost all of them on the list and enjoyed everyone of them. We had lunch on the pond and visited Balthazar in Soho for lunch. But the best was Mama Mexico. They had live music, great margaritas, and someone to make fresh guacamole at your table. Then we topped it off with shots (joining a b-day girl at the next table). I missed getting a picture of my mom.



2. Tiffany's
Okay, so we didn't go to a show. I know, every one should go to a show on Broadway. Instead we opted for a beautiful necklace as a reminder of our trip. The great thing about this one is it is unique to the NYC store. It has the address engraved on it. I loved walking around looking at all the magnificent diamonds. I would have asked to try one on if there hadn't been 50 couples choosing wedding rings. I almost passed out when I walked by a woman whose future husband said, "we're looking for a 3 carat, 2.5.....oval diamond". I missed the middle part b/c I was so shocked by the sized he stated. I think my jaw may have hit the floor. Regardless, we walked away with a great reminder of a fantastic trip.



3. Chelsea Market
I love the Food Network and this is where it's filmed. I didn't get to see the studio's but we had alot of fun looking through the shops on the bottom floor. Great bakeries and cooking stores. I bought a small little salt bowl. I love to leave my kosher salt on the stove next to a pepper bowl I bought when I was in Italy. It will be a great reminder of my trip.



4. Ground Zero
This impacted me alot. I think my fears of flying a plane to NYC stemmed from this. I can't even begin to imagine seeing a plane fly into one of those buildings, let alone running from that building when it was falling. Remembering images of people running across the Brooklyn bridge came flooding back. It's a huge hole in the middle of a bustling city and it felt strange. They are building a memorial and have a museum/center dedicated to 9/11. We visited the church where rescue workers ate and slept. It's now a memorial to them and at points I was overcome with emotion.

view of the construction zone

Part of the memorial plaque

5. Times Square
This place really never sleeps and this square proves it. It was bustling with activity from morning until we left at 11:30 p.m. Families, kids, elderly people, etc. There was a Toys-R-Us with a ferris wheel inside! And every where you look, it's advertising. I think our tour guide said that all building's are required to be covered in 70% advertising. (it could be 17% but that sounds too odd). Every time we walked there, we just wandered and looked through all the shops and watched the people. It was amazing.

It was hard to capture the size in a small photo but I did the best I could

Bonus Favorite: Central Park. It's so bizarre to see a beautiful green space in the middle of a concrete island. I think people would go a bit crazy if they didn't have it. Such fun!

The Fountain above and Turtle pond below

The weather was great, the people were kind, and our hotel was gorgeous. We had fun talking, sharing stories and wandering through the streets. We saw lots of fake purses, Soho shops, 5th Avenue (overpriced) boutiques, Bloomingdales, and Rockefeller center. We wandered Greenwich Village and bought handmade chocolates at Dean and Deluca. We took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and got caught in a thunder storm on the way back. I didn't bump into Sarah Jessica Parker, but that's okay. I think we were just too busy to make time anyway :)

view of Manhattan from the Staten Island Ferry

It was a great trip to NYC!