New York

**This post should've been like 5 different ones, considering it contains 79 pictures and every detail about each breath we took.  But anyway, you've been warned.  It's a doosey of a post!

Ryan's cousin, JR, recently moved to New York and Ryan and I thought it would be fun to go visit him.  He currently lives by himself in a nice, surprisingly very spacious apartment until he gets married to Jen next month.  So, great time to go visit, right?  Ryan's brother Craig joined us all the way from California as well.  This makes three years in a row that he has been able to join us for fun trips (Chicago, Boston, and now NY) and we love having him come with us.  And now that it's a tradition he's officially obligated to do a trip with us once a year whether he wants to or not.  We flew in early on Thursday, February 14th (yep, Valentine's Day) and left the following Tuesday morning.  It was the perfect amount of time to be there because we got to visit pretty much everything on our list of things to do and places to eat.

Day 1: Craig actually joined us in NY on Friday, so that first day we were there, Ryan, Lucy and I did out own thing.  We got to JR's apartment at about 11am and after chatting for a little bit, we went and got Shake Shack.  That was as good as it was hyped up to be!  We even got a coupon for free ice cream since it was V-Day.  

After that, we walked all through Central Park while Lucy napped in her stroller.  

She slept for a while there, so we kept walking all the way over to Times Square area.  First we visited the Apple store (Ryan's request, of course) and then we went to FAO Shwarz (Lucy's request).  Lucy LOVED that store.  Seriously, could not get enough of it.  It was fun to have as much time as we wanted because we just let her roam from toy to toy and admire all of it.  This first picture of me and Lucy makes me laugh because we kept trying to get a picture with the big stuffed animals and all she wanted to do was give the lion a kiss.  All of our attempts have her leaning over me to kiss him.

 This big stuffed dog was also a hit.  She saw these puppies and ran right over to them and bent down to hug and kiss them.  She stayed like this, clutched to the dog, for a few minutes.

 I feel like she's saying "Dad... please?"  in this picture.  haha.

The next thing she got fixated on was a Fancy Nancy bag.  She carried this thing around for a long time and refused to let us get near it.  She carried it like a purse and would pull things off shelves and try to put them in there.  When it came time to part with it, you better believe there was a meltdown.

After this, we took the Subway back to JR's apartment and ordered in food from some mexican restaurant that I think was called the Great Burrito.  I love that pretty much every place in NY delivers! We just hung out, ate, and put Lucy to bed.  Here's a picture of our excellent host(ess?), Wonder Woman, I mean JR.

Day 2: Craig's flight was a red-eye, so he got in right when we woke up.  That worked out well though because he napped a bit while the rest of us got ready.  We started our adventures by taking the Subway over to Brooklyn and eating at Grimaldi's pizza.  This was a absolute must on my list and it also lived up to my expectations.  We were told to expect loooong lines, but we got there shortly after it opened at about 11:30 or noon and got seated immediately!  We were up on the second floor and it was cool to see right down on them making all of the pizza.  Ryan and Craig said it was exactly like the pizza they had in Italy, so definitely authentic tasting.  Here they are making our actual pizzas.

 I can't quite remember what we got exactly, but I think one pizza was a regular one with pepperoni and extra grated cheese, and the other was a "white" pizza with italian sausage and onions.

 Craig sure liked it- he had a slice in both hands at all times. ;)  Just kidding... and I made him take this picture.

Grimaldi's is located right under the bridge on the Brooklyn side, so it was pretty convenient to walk across the Brooklyn bridge next and back into NYC.  In case you can't tell, that's Ryan, Craig, and Lucy on the corner of the street in the picture below.  We like this spot because you could see the new World Trade Center, Grimaldi's, and the Bridge all in the shot.

We couldn't have chosen a better day for this on our trip because we had the best weather!  It kept getting warmer as the day went on and I even had my coat off for most of the walk.  It's amazing how 50 degrees can feel like 70 when you're used to 20.  The walk was not quite as long as any of us remembered, but it was nice to walk at a slow pace and enjoy all of the views and everything we could see.  Lucy really enjoyed it because she got to get out of her stroller- she walked almost the whole thing herself (well, holding Ryan's hand).

 This is about as close as we got to the Statue of Liberty.  We had all done that before and didn't really care to boat on over to it.  This worked for us!

Next, we caught the Subway and went over to the financial district and saw the New York Stock Exchange, the infamous bull, and the WTC memorial.

Look where we found Craig.  Ryan sent this picture to his dad, who's response was" he never looked better!" haha.

 The tall building that's almost done is the new WTC, and the other smaller skyscrapers behind it are the other towers.  The shorter building behind Ryan is the new 9/11 museum (not open yet).

 We hit this right as the sun was starting to set and it made everything colorful.  It went down fast though because we took these next two pictures within minutes of each other and everything looks different.

We then headed over to the recommended Big Gay Ice Cream shop.  Ryan and Craig both got the "Salty Pimp" ice cream cone and it really was amazing.  And of course, we had to get a pic of the two men with the sign. haha.

 Then, we did the usual and went back to JR's, ordered in food (thai for Craig and JR, burger for Ryan), and put Lucy to bed.  Then Jen made her way over after work to hang out for the night and the next thing we knew, she made all of our NY dream come true and ordered cheesecake to be delivered to us!

Day 3: This day began at the American Museum of Natural History, which was basically a ton of animals from all over the world, and then a whole bunch of dinosaur stuff.  It was basically like a zoo, only better because the animals were all easy to see. :)  This was my favorite museum we went to. 

 Next we walked through Central Park over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), but stopped at the most amazing food truck ever called Waffles & Dingus and eat the most expensive but delicious waffle I will ever eat.  This was only a pre-lunch snack though. :)  We found some benches in Central Park and enjoyed a moment of sitting and eating.

As I mentioned, we went to the MET next, which I somehow didn't get any pictures of?!  But there were some really cool exhibits there, such as the Egyptian temple thing that Egypt gave us.  I can't remember what else we saw there because I get bored after too much museum-ness (just being honest) but it's totally Ryan and Craig's thing and they loved it.  I still thought it was really cool too, I just paid less close attention.  After this, we went to another recommended restaurant, Carnegie Deli, for another meal (I don't really know if we considered it lunch or dinner.  I think it was dinner time but we may have still ordered in more food at JR's later?  Yep, that's it).  They have the biggest sandwiches I have ever seen, ever.  I thought it was super gross and totally overpriced, but Ryan and Craig loved their food so I'm glad we went.  After reading that they served things like liver and tongue, I just kept picturing every dish they brought out as some big cow tongue.  See how that could ruin the actual sandwich I ordered?  I should've got the cheesecake- that's what they're most known for anyway.

Times Square was our next destination.  We were just walking through the are when we ran into all of the theaters and decided to enter the Wicked lottery for cheap, front-row tickets.  We thought we had a chance since the line was short, but it quickly grew to be hundreds of people and we didn't win.  Oh well.  We walked around and visited the MARS M&M's store, which Ryan was pretty excited about for obvious reasons.  

 Lucy made new BFF's everywhere we went on this trip... all of the stuffed variety.  This picture makes me laugh seeing her little legs sticking straight out the bottom and her hand grabbing onto the blue m&m.

When we walked back out, we ran into Mickey Mouse.  Lucy totally recognized Mickey and loved waving at him.  She even grabbed his hand!  He was standing outside the Disney store, so we thought he was part of that, but when he started rubbing his hands for money, we were outta there.

We thought it would be fun to take Lucy on the huge ferris wheel in Toys R Us.  Each carriage thing is really cute and is a different toy.  We got on the Mega Blocks taxi block car.

 This was Craig's least favorite part of the trip.  But here's his picture anyway. :)  I mostly enjoyed this ride for the chance to sit for a few minutes for about the first time that day!  And it was cool to be able to see all of the big displays on all 4 or 5 floors without having to go to each floor.

 The view looking down a few floors.

After this, we called it a night (for Lucy, at least.  I mean just look at how those pigtails were even starting to rebel) and went back to JR's and ordered in pizza for dinner and hung out talking and watching funny youtube videos.

This picture is funny because Lucy caught on to the fact that we just walk onto the train and all grab a pole.  So, she did the same and just grabbed the nearest pole anytime we got on a subway.

Day 4: This day was Sunday and Ryan, Lucy, and I got up and ready for church earlier than the rest because we went over to my good friend Laura's apartment for breakfast.  She and her husband, Wilfried, lived just a block or two away from where we were staying, which was convenient.  They made us a super fabulous breakfast with all sorts of yummy pancakes (regular, chocolate chip, banana, chocolate chip and banana!), yogurt and granola, fruit, juice, etc.  It was so great.  And I just loved visiting with them.  Laura is one of my favorite people and we were also roommates in college.  She was also 5 months pregnant, but you wouldn't even know that because she looks tiny.  Anyway, thanks for letting us visit, Laur!

After our visit with them, we caught a subway to go to church and met up with JR and Craig there.  The chapel is actually in the same building as the Manhattan temple, just on a different floor.  Crazy, huh?  It was cool to see the temple and go to church at the same time.  We literally walked out of the subway station and there was the temple amidst all of the other buildings in the middle of downtown with taxis and the hustle and bustle of the city all around it.

After church, we all went home and took a good, super-long nap (even Lucy slept for 3.5 hours I think).  When we all woke up, we headed over to go to the Top of the Rock (the viewing spot at the top of the Rockefeller building).  We had all been on the Empire State building before, but we all agreed this one was way better!  You could actually see the Empire State building from the Rock, which happened to be lit up for President's Day, and you could see all of central park (and everything else in NY).  We got there at the best time ever.  It was light when we first showed up, but the sun quickly set and we got to see the whole sunset and a little into the evening.  It was so cool to see the city all lit up.  The very top floor was closed due to the wind that night, but we were able to go to the floor right below it, but when you walked outside it was the highest point and nothing above us, so not sure how that worked.  Anyway, when we were outside, we had to walk through a little corridor between the building and the glass side and it really felt like we were going to get swept up in the wind and pulled right up and over the edge of the building.  It scared the heck out of me, so I took Lucy back inside and totally enjoyed every minute in the warm, wind-free area.  The other three went outside for a while and loved it.  Craig had our camera out there and he captured all of the shots of the area and he got some awesome pictures!  This was definitely one of our favorite things we did this trip.

 

After this, we swung by Magnolia Bakery to grab some of their infamous banana bread pudding and headed over to Jen's brother's apartment.  They made us a fabulous dinner of enchiladas and rice and beans with salad.  It was great to have a good, homemade meal after so much eating out.  We ate the banana bread pudding for dessert and it was amazing, and I'm not even a big banana fan.  I already looked up the copycat recipe online. :)

Day 5: This was Craig's last day in NYC.  It was also probably our coldest day in NYC.  It was FREEZING!  JR had the day off of work and joined us on our trek over to The High Line.  It's a park/path thing on an old railroad track that is suspended in the air in the city.  Pretty cool.  We walked all the way to one end, took some pictures there, and then headed back the other way.  I thought it was pretty cool where we had already been but it just got cooler the farther we walked the other way because we went through a whole part of the city that had new, interesting architecture.  Jen had the morning off and met up with us over there.  She's lived in the city for 5.5 years now and was an awesome tour guide because she knew so much info about the area.  Also, she was nice enough to bring us a bag full of some of New York's best donuts that we all shared on some stairs in the park!  The flavors were passion fruit, blueberry, peanut butter & jelly, and raspberry chocolate.  

I guess you can sit on these stairs and look through the glass at the cars? ha.  Only in New York.

 That's the Statue of Liberty out there.

Next, we all headed over to the Shake Shack (again... we had to make sure Craig got to try it) for lunch. 

After lunch, Craig had to leave to catch his flight, so we said our goodbyes to him.  That evening, JR, Ryan, Lucy and I walked around town and grabbed dinner at some place we looked up on yelp (it was just okay) and then swung by Levain Bakery to grab some of their amazing cookies.  After dinner, Jen met up with us and we watched the Bachelor while enjoying our cookies that were soooo good. Also, the biggest cookie I've ever seen.  It was like buying a loaf of bread.  Only better because it's a cookie.

 Lucy had been asleep for a while and was so tired, but must have heard all of the fun going on because  she woke up crying.  Not feeling like battling with her, I just let her roam around and have fun.  She saw the plate of cookies and sat there patiently staring at them like this.  haha! Silly girl.

 I finally gave her a little bite and she was pretty darn happy about it.

And this concludes our New York trip.  We had so much fun!  JR and Jen were so nice and helpful and fun to be around.  Ryan and I were also so glad that Craig could join us.  Besides a couple of freezing cold days, we had great, sunny weather, and Lucy was SO good the entire time.  We couldn't have asked for the trip to have gone better!  Thanks again, JR and Jen!