A photo-album blog post to chronicle some of the new memories made on our wonderful weekend away. We went to New York City for an early anniversary trip and left our sweet son for the first time, in the loving and capable hands of his Nana. The day before we left, Tom and I both had sinus infections, but God answered our and many other people's prayers (thanks to you all!), and we felt great the whole trip. It was Tom's first time in NYC, so we saw as much as we could, with a mix of fun touristy things and just wandering around. All punctuated by good food. Though it was nice to get away and have an adventure just the two of us, we missed Peter lots and talked about him all the time.
Saturday, 24 August
A goodbye before heading to the metro Saturday morning. And walking from from bus stop to hotel via Times Square.
View from our hotel window
High on Tom's NYC list: good New York Pizza.
Walking off the Pizza, we wandered through Bryant Park. And we had the most lovely weather our whole time there in New York.
Stopped in to check out Grand Central Station
As expected, the inside of the terminal was beautiful, though much calmer than I'd pictured, it being a Saturday afternoon.
The proud Grand Central Station Apple Store.
Italian dinner at Becco with some fine burrata.
Off to see Newsies at the Nederlander!
Times Square, 11pm, from the top of the TKTS stairs.
And some cheese cake to go, to top off a fantastic date night with the love of my life.
Sunday, 25 August
Waxing artistic: our hotel's early morning reflection on the neighboring building; waiting for the elevator at the start of our big day.
After breakfast and the subway to Brooklyn, a gorgeous morning walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Ground Zero. The Freedom Tower is in the background, and they are building a new WTC building in the foreground. It's been 12 years since 9/11 and much has changed since I was last here in Spring of 2002, yet I was surprised how moved I still was standing there, imagining the fall of the towers and all those individual precious lives that suddenly ended that morning in this very place.
From there we caught the subway to the Lower East Side. The Tenement Museum is a restored tenement showcasing the history of the immigrant tenements of the Lower East Side in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. It was fascinating, and very thought-provoking. They only do the museum by tour, so we were catching one at 11:30, but we had some important business to attend to on the way:
Doughnut Plant is considered to be one of the best eats in the world. It was probably #1 on Tom's list. We ate the 4 best doughnuts we've ever tasted: chocolate covered, coconut cream, tres leches, and their signature creme brûlée doughnut.
The restored 97 Orchard St. of the Tenement Museum; and a couple others on the street
Another nice thing about the Lower East Side is that it's right next to Chinatown. At 25 cents per dumpling, it was probably our cheapest eat, and one of my favorite. We then hit the road still noshing on our yummy veggie/mushroom steamed buns.
We spent several hours wandering up through Soho and West Village, shopping and munching and sipping on smoothies. Not pictured below is me with Richard Simmons who chatted with us at a jewelry booth in Soho. Interesting conversation, that one.
When our feet were about to fall off, we took the subway up to see Central Park (and nearby bought Peter a birthday present from the great toy store F.A.O. Schwarz.)
FAO Schwarz's Lego Halo. This one's for you, Jon Martin.
[Followed by more good Italian and a night walk complete with gelato.]
Monday, 26 August
"Top of the Rock"--the 70th(?) floor of Rockefeller Center.
Good pizza for lunch and caught the 1:00 bus home. And so went our little anniversary vacation adventure to the Big Apple. It was a wonderful time with my sweet best friend of a husband. Let's do it again, baby!
