When my sister-in-law Jess asked if I had ever been to New York City (no, I hadn’t) and if I wanted to go (YES!) –  I jumped at the chance! I usually choose sunny, tropical places for my trips so it was fun to take 4 whirlwind days to explore the big city – I didn’t think that I’d love a vacation in a city so much! Chuck’s cousin Evan lives in Brooklyn so we had a great place to stay, a great tour of the city, great company, and GREAT food and drinks – I think I enjoyed eating more than taking pictures!

We took the red-eye from Seattle (literally 2 minutes from missing our flight, due to road construction), slept about an hour or two on the plane, and Evan arranged a car to pick us up at JFK airport. We met up with Evan and began our journey – here is our New York City trip in links and in pictures:

Saturday:

Lack-of-sleep-pick-me-up: Cafe Grumpy – Iced mocha

Explored Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass)

Walked around the Brooklyn Bridge Park

The Brooklyn Bridge (one of the oldest suspension bridges in the U.S.) from Brooklyn Bridge Park

Great view of Downtown Manhattan over the East River

Shared brunch at the Vinegar Hill House – An apple brandy drink, roasted potatoes and maple glazed bacon

Lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar – Mushroom buns and momofuku ramen (pork belly, pork shoulder, poached egg)

I tried a few bites of Jess’ amazing cereal milk soft serve with crunch at Momofuku Milk Bar

Wandered through Chelsea Market

Wishing Well in Chelsea Market

Walked The High Line – an elevated railroad track converted to a beautiful 1 mile greenway

Gorgeous landscape amongst the tracks

El Anatsui’s ‘Broken Bridge II’ – salvaged mirrors and pressed tin

A Wall Street Occupier set up this cool spot for kids to create art for display along the High Line

Eduardo Kobra’s wall mural on the side of a building at West 25th Street

Jordan Betten’s ‘High Line Zoo’

High Line Smoke Stack

NYC street scene from the High Line

After exploring a bit more of the Chelsea neighborhood, Evan took us to his friend’s house for a boiled New Orleans (flown in) crawfish feed/kegger.

NYC/New Orleans crawfish boil and Red Solo Cup

Watched the sunset over Lady Liberty from the Red Hook neighborhood

Statue of Liberty at sunset

Enjoyed fancy drinks and appetizers at the Clover Club – Revenge of the Night Marcher, a taste of Jess’ amazing Pecos Country Fizz; Jess and I also tried Steak Tartare for the first time.

Amazing drink concoctions at the Clover Club

Then onto Lucali – THE best pizza I’ve ever had – really. BYOW (Wine).

Our ‘after pizza’ treat, courtesy of the (handsome) owner/chef Mark Iacono

We finished off our night with mojitos at a Puerto Rican bar.

Sunday:

For Sunday Brunch, we went to Fonda Comida Mexicana – I kept wanting to call this restaurant ‘La Fonda’ as that is the name of my favorite restaurant in Cabo (also one of my favorite characters in ‘Napoleon Dynamite’). Fabulous guava mimosas, margaritas, and gourmet mexicana.

Evan, Jess, and I enjoying Fonda’s brunch

Next, we visited Williamsburg

Williamsburg Bank Building in Brooklyn

Watertower

Coffee and ginger lemonade drinks at Roebling Tea Room

Antiques and Collectibles on Roebling St

Paint-lift for the Bunnycutlet Gallery

After Williamsburg, Jess and I took our first subway ride into Manhattan! It was only a little scary – luckily most New Yorkers were very friendly and happy to help us. And we only took one wrong (scenic) route on our way back into Brooklyn…

Incoming subway

A doorman reminded us to ‘Look up’ when walking through the city – we found gargoyles

Pulitzer Fountain

Saint Thomas Church

Alexandre Arrechea’s ‘Skyscraper Art’ on Park Avenue

The Showplace of the Nation – Radio City Music Hall

Top of the Rock / Rockefeller Center –

Looking up at the Top of the Rock

NBC reflections

Our Top of the Rock tourist photo

From the Top of the Rock (70th floor) – stormy skies over Central Park

Another view from the Top of the Rock – looking out towards the Empire State Building and Times Square

Rockefeller Center ‘Joie’ chandelier – made up of 14,000 pieces of Swarovski crystals

Rockefeller Center tree lights

Chrysler Building at night

Monday:

New York Public Library – the 2nd largest library in the U.S. It’s beautiful.

New York Library Lego Lion

Grand Central Terminal – 100 year birthday!

Brunch at Ess-a-Bagel – we had to try New York Bagels and they were fantastic.

Manhattan street scene

‘The New Colossus’ – a bronze rat sculpture on Park Avenue in the Lever House Building Courtyard

The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) = WOW!

My favorites: Max Ernst’s ‘The Blind Swimmer’, Richard Hamilton’s ‘Swingeing London’, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Bather’, Gustav Klimt’s ‘Hope, II’,  Mariah Richardson’s ’11’, Vija Celmen’s ‘Gun With Hand #1’, Tom Wesselmann’s ‘Mouth’, Umberto Boccioni’s ‘States of Mind III’, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Seated Bather’

Diller + Scofidio’s Blur Building media exhibit

Paul Klee’s ‘Cat and Bird’

Rene Magritte’s ‘False Mirror’

3D

Andy Warhol’s ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’

Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Girl with Ball’

Typewriter

Scary scenes: Lynn Hershman Leeson’s ‘Roberta’s Construction’, Willem de Kooning’s ‘Woman, 1’, Andy Warhol’s ‘Orange Car Crash Fourteen Times’, James Ensor’s ‘Masks Confronting Death’, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s ‘Street, Dresden’

Aristide Maillol’s ‘The River’ in the MOMA Sculpture Garden

The Colbert Report – I absolutely love Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart so I had set up Twitter updates for ticket availability for either ‘The Daily Show’ or ‘The Colbert Report’ – I’d be happy with either. After a few weeks of continuous ‘tweets’, I finally secured two tickets to ‘The Colbert Report’.

We were in the audience for episode #9109, an interview with Representative John Dingell – here is a link to clips from the episode! If it’s possible, I like Colbert more now after seeing him live…one of my trip highlights.

Times Square –

A taste of the craziness that is Times Square

Late night italian dinner at Al Di La Trattoria

Heavy metal dive bar visit to the Lucky 13 Saloon – Evan wanted to give us the full NY experience so we stopped by this local Brooklyn bar to watch the ‘Lewd and Lucky Burlesque Show’. Shenanigans ensued – I actually pulled a sword out of a guy’s throat!

‘Go-go dancers’

Tuesday:

Central Park – Jess and I rented Citibikes and rode around the beautiful park.

Grand Army Plaza sculpture of General William Tecumseh Sherman

Cruisin’ through Central Park

Scenic Park views

Bethesda Fountain & Terrace

The Angel

Bow Bridge over The Lake

Central Park Carousel

Strawberry Fields forever

John Lennon memorial mosaic

After the park, we had fresh strawberry-topped waffles at the Wafels & Dinges streetcart

Serendipity 3 – Ever since I saw the movie ‘Serendipity,’ I have wanted to go here! Jess and I shared their amazing frozen hot chocolate.

Frozen Hot Chocolate goodness

We ended our trip with Happy Hour at Fonda Comida Mexicana – Frozen Rosalitas and appetizers

Fun times at Fonda

The subway ride to JFK airport took longer than expected – we thought we were late for our flight from Seattle but we had to run (again) to our gate and this time, the jetway doors were closed. We begged and were let on the flight.

Due to New York being the focus of so many books, TV shows, and movies, so much seemed familiar – I really can’t believe it took me 35 years  to visit and I can’t wait to go back. The famous advertising slogan rings true: I LOVE NEW YORK!

Manhattan on Dwellable