new york city!!!

we had THE most perfect, magical weekend in new york city this past weekend.
this is going to be long and slightly obnoxious with how fun it will be, but i don't want to forget anything!!
(i won't tell *every* detail...but i will tell a lot!)

we left our house at 1 pm on thursday for a 3 pm train leaving from union station in dc.
we got the LAST parking space in the parking deck. that was slightly nerve-wracking :/

but we parked and found our gate and were SO excited to leave all the details of all the preparations in leaving our kids behind for 4 days! THIS is the point where i stopped trying to remember what we forgot...or what i forgot to tell my mom...and just let go. ahh...

airports have always been one of my favorite places to go. now train stations are up there on my list, too. so much fun to people watch and just take it all in.

we felt like such "grown-ups"...reading the paper and a book on the train...instead of wrangling little kids and making sure they had snacks to keep quiet! i get VERY motion-sick and that wasn't fun. but i made it...

arrived in new york city (penn station) at 6:30 pm. the SECOND we walked off the train, everyone was in such a HURRY! literally RUNNING everywhere. it was insane! it made you feel like YOU had to rush. i kept telling myself, "you're not in a hurry. you're not in a hurry." whew! that city is on FAST FORWARD!

walking up out of penn station and seeing the city for the first minute was so exhilarating! i was THAT person that just stood there and everyone was streaming on both sides of me. i didn't care.

we decided to walk to our hotel. it was NOT close. but i just wanted to be walking in new york city!! (we were second guessing that decision blocks and blocks later. but we kept on...)

is the lobby not beautiful??

we stayed at The Roosevelt Hotel.

 in the elevator. cheesy-ness.

we dropped our stuff off and headed right back out. it was COLD. but we pretended like it wasn't. we walked all the way up to the Plaza and were going to eat dinner at the Todd English Food Hall. But, first! As we were walking up to the Plaza, i remembered that it was the hotel from a movie my kids love (Eloise) and the little girl lives there...so i had to text rebekah a picture and that was so fun!

(boo on the scaffolding messing up my pictures :-))

 we made our way to the basement to eat...but it was CLOSED for the evening. so...we kept walking :-)

 and just taking it all in. and eventually stumbled upon Serendipity. which is where we were planning on eating dessert. it was about 9 pm. we were HUNGRY and freezing. so we went in but weren't sure they served real food in addition to dessert. there was an hour wait...but they did have real food. so we waited and had dinner...

 AND dessert! this is peanut butter frozen hot chocolate. it was AMAZING.

we enjoyed taking a different route back to our hotel and were hoping to sleep hard and long...

but new york is LOUD and we can't EVER sleep in. 8 am we were up and ready to go...what the heck? oh well...

we went for a run in central park. our hotel was about a mile from central park...and i wanted to run ALL the way around the park (which is 6 miles)...so we got a pretty good run in - ha! i think we had some of our best conversation on that run. which is pretty amazing. pat doesn't like to talk when he runs usually, but he was talkative that morning which was fun for me!

 we walked down yet another street after we left central park (6th ave, i think?) and found a diner. like your typical diner with the owner at the cash register. it was awesome (the environment. not the food.)

 then we RAN back to our hotel. it was like 20 degrees and we were BEYOND freezing after being sweaty and then sitting in that diner.

got cleaned up and headed back to the subway. that subway system in new york city is amazing. compared to the metro station here in dc, it's SO much better. simple. cheap. quick to get around town. we loved it! we weren't sure how we'd get around going into our weekend...subway, taxi, bus?? we walked as much as we could. but other than that we ONLY did the subway!

we took the subway ALL the way down and across to the brooklyn side of the city. and then walked across the brooklyn bridge. it was COLD. but beautiful!

as close as we got to the statue of liberty - it's WAY over there...

we walked over to the south street seaport from there. it wasn't too impressive. so we quickly moved on.

we walked across (from east to west) towards the 9/11 Memorial. and were looking for a place to eat lunch on the way. we saw this place. it was NOT impressive from the outside. but once you opened the door? it was beautiful! and the food was AMAZING! Les Halles was the place. it was french. and it was a gem! (mostly when you sit at a table in new york city, there is another table about 5 inches away from you. so intimate conversation is kind of hard to come by. but we couldn't help but overhear some pretty hysterical things! also. people talk REALLY loudly...like they WANT you to listen! entertaining, for sure!)

 kept walking to the 9/11 memorial. quite the ordeal to get through security. we didn't have tickets. just waited in line. which moved pretty quickly.

but once you got through all that and to the memorial, it took your breath away. it was so beautiful. they did an amazing job. 

 i can still hear the sound of that rushing water in my head.

back to the subway.

 and to our hotel to get ready for our fancy night out!

we went to Avra for dinner (Greek food. we really really love greek food. my new favorite dish? fried zucchini slices with tzatziki sauce. YUM!)

some great conversation over dinner. (and more hysterical overheard conversations...goodness!)

 then walked to the theater to go to a show. and, while you're walking from dinner to a show, you might look up and see something like this...

 incredible!

we saw "Once". it was really good. 

 after the show we walked around. and around. Times Square at 11 pm...so bright it looks like it's noon. just walked wherever we felt like.

 this is totally normal, right?

for such an introvert, i LOVED being in new york city with all those people. a friend put it into words for me - thanks to Great Gatsby... "And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy." 

i do love people. i just find it hard to connect with them. and exhausting. and i'm just not very good at it. but i loved being AROUND so many people without the expectation of talking to any of them.

 

stopped at a bakery (Julian's maybe?) and got some dessert and went back to our hotel to enjoy it just the two of us.

woke up saturday morning (8 am. again!) and opened the curtains to this...

beautiful, gorgeous, fluffy snow falling. and it continued all.day.long! it was magical!

we went to central market in union square first. it was this market of all these vendors selling all this gorgeous stuff.

aren't these beautiful?!?

 walking around there in the snow with a hot apple cider in my hand felt like a DREAM.

 once we started getting hungry, we walked towards a burger place that was on my list (shake shack) but didn't realize until we got there that you had to eat outside. and it was COLD and pouring snow. so...we kept walking and saw this place (Rosa Mexicano) and my friend, kate, had recommended it, so we ate there. mexican (obviously!) and GOOD! and we had some SPACE around us and couldn't hear anyone else's conversation! we stayed there a looooong time...

 back on the subway. back to our hotel. naptime (pat was tired. i gave him 30 minutes to sleep :-))

 and then we headed back out!

i wanted to see rockefeller center in the day AND night.

 we shopped some.

FAO Schwarz. that place was NUTS. but you have to do it, right? there were LINES to get into stores.

 one of the things i wanted to buy while we were there was Toms. like, the shoes. weird, i know. but i've always wanted some. and just never could spend the money on them. they aren't cheap. but i knew i'd want to buy SOMEthing in NYC, and it would be fun to get them there.

well. when i tried to find a store that sold them, i came up with hardly anything. and what i did come up with was a post from 2 years ago that said they sold them at the Whole Foods (like, the GROCERY store) in columbus circle.

so we walked and walked to get to columbus circle. which ended up being a mall. like an inside mall. with a whole foods in the basement. i wandered around that whole foods...and found a wall of Toms in the back corner?!? crazy, right? so, i got my Toms in NYC. and i was a happy girl!

we found a bakery called Cafe Europa and got a cupcake. then went to another called Magnolia's and got a cupcake. there are no lack of bakeries in NYC!

around 9 pm we started getting hungry for dinner, and went into a restaurant called Ammos near our hotel. had no idea if it was good or what kind of food they had. but it ended up being Greek (!!) and was so so good. i had THE best margarita i've ever had in my life. along with more zucchini slices :-)

before we left, rebekah handed me this bag. it had a note and small "gift" for each day we were going to be gone. i mean?!? so precious.

our train left from penn station at noon the next day. we had a slow morning and then headed out. we took the subway instead of walking - i wore pat out :-)

saying goodbye to our hotel...

i've wanted to go to new york city for YEARS. i went once with my family when i was in high school. but i ended up getting sick and spending most of the time in the hotel room. and i went for the day with friends in college. but we were poor and didn't know what we were doing.

this was a dream come true. truly. i LOVE new york city. if anyone wants to go...girls weekend...meet for lunch...couples weekend...I'M YOUR GIRL :-)

it was so fun to be with pat for 4 days. it was good to know we can still have fun together - just the two of us. we had some good conversation, but mostly we just enjoyed experiencing new york city together. we've talked our BRAINS out the last few months. and were kind of at that point where we didn't NEED to talk anymore...but just be together without all the "stuff" of our lives on our shoulders.

and it was amazing to know our kids were in GREAT hands with my parents. and also having the time of THEIR lives. our kids are so so blessed in the grandparents they have. we are so VERY thankful that our parents love to spend time with our kids! and are willing to sacrifice their time (and energy!) to give us time away!

it was a bit hard to come home...and the effects of us being gone were ugly on monday...but it was worth it! so so worth it!