NYC Trip

My lifelong friend Hillary and her husband Adam have been living in Manhattan for the past two years. We were finally able to work out getting up there to visit them. So that's just what we did for our Labor Day weekend. Jack vacationed with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and we vacationed in the Big Apple.

Our trip started with a scarier than all get out taxi ride from the airport to Washington Heights where our friends live. Seriously was fearing for my life as we whipped in and out of traffic and slammed on breaks. But we survived luckily because the next three days would have been a shame to miss!!

Having barely slept Friday night because I was so excited, I'm up with the sun Saturday morning ready to get started. Adam is the Young Men's president in his ward and they had a 10 mile "urban" hike planned for the day. So we tagged along and it was AWESOME! Such a great way to see the city. We started in Central Park, made our way through Time Square, through the various jewelry and fabric districts of the city, stopped in Whole Foods for some gluten-free hamburger buns, got lunch at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park(hoooly cow it was good!), and ended OUR leg of the hike at Washington Park next to NYU. (And for any of you who might be impressed that a 6 month pregnant person hiked 6 miles on concrete.... don't be. I was dying and paid for it the rest of the trip. Oh but it was so worth it!) So we broke off from the group and made our way to reward ourselves with some Gelato. Of coarse! And as if that wasn't enough reward, we went to a place called Baby Cakes, a vegan bakery, which makes gluten free baked goods. Jon was in heaven!!! He got a big decedent chocolate cupcake, cookies and some other kind of cake and savored every bite over the next few days.

(Gross-o pigeon poo on Jon!)

That night after some much needed recovery time, we headed back to the city. First stop, Rissoteria - A gluten free Italian Restaurant in the Village. The bread sticks were divine and we each ate like 4. Jon got a panini and again, savored every bite. He was ready to move to NY just for the availability of GF foods after this day!

Now, I love some good jazz, and Adam is a musician and jazz connoisseur so he had the inside scoop of good shows in the city. Lucky for us the Kenny Werner Quintet was playing in a little club called the Blue Note for the weekend we were there. We just sat and chilled and enjoyed this amazing group. It was the perfect end for day one.

This is with sand! Cool huh!?

Don't know why he's frowning, probably because he had to stop eating his cupcake to take the picture.

Sunday, we walked to church (how cool is that?!) through a GORGEOUS park. Church was an event in itself as you can imagine. Being in New York, there was a wide array of talent in this ward spanning from opera singers, a violinist, playwrights, broadway performers and much more I'm sure. Sitting in sacrament meeting was a treat and I didn't sing a bit, just trying to listen to the bellowing tenor down the isle from me. Ahhhhh. Amazing. Anyway, the rest of the day we relaxed in our friend's fabulous apartment and went for a walk through the "ghetto" which turned into a hike to Yankee Stadium. Needless to say we took the bus home. Another reason I love my friend Hillary, is because she is an AMAZING cook!! For our Sunday night feast, she made us pulled pork tacos with fresh guacamole, and corn delishousness salad. She taught me how to properly chop an onion (Jessica you would be proud) and how to safely use a knife. I learned so much! Anyway, dinner was incredible and we were wondering WHY we didn't eat at her place the entire time?! Who needs to eat out when your traveling with a gourmet chef? However, this was a mini-vacation for her as well so I'm sure she enjoyed not having to cook for us all the time. :) After dinner Adam and Hillary took us on a tour of their neighborhood. Jon and I decided this might have been our favorite part of the whole trip. They live in a beautiful part of northern Manhattan called Washington Heights. It's right on the Hudson River next to the George Washington Bridge. Adam with his mad photography skills took way better pictures than me on this little walk, so I'll wait to get those from him and post them. Mine won't do it justice.

Monday, after a delicious pork and feta cheese frittata (which Hillary helped me and kind of taught me to make, be impressed) we're off for our last day of sight-seeing and fun. We started with a trip on the Staten Island Ferry which gave us great views of the city, and of coarse the Statue of Liberty. From there we made our way through Battery Park and happened upon a Dutch festival with free cheese samples! Yum! We went down Wall Street where Adam was finally able to "ride the bull"! So perfect seeing as he works on Wall Street. Hiked across the Brooklyn Bridge waited in line for some fabulous ice cream, and chilled in a park by the river, complete with an old man in a pale yellow thong speedo. Nice. Took the subway back into town where we stopped to see the Manhattan Temple, and went on a much needed shopping trip to J Crew. Yay for having friends who work at my favorite stores!! Back to 42nd street, we got sushi and lettuce wraps for dinner, read our fortunes which aren't really fortunes at all, but little pieces of wisdom.... lame, and went down to Broadway to see In the Heights. Hillary recommended this show, which was nominated for 13 Tony Awards last year, and won for Best Musical. First time I've been to a show on Broadway and we lucked out because it was a light house and we got moved up to way better seats!! Show was awesome and my little baby was kicking away inside me. He was jammin' along with the rest of us. Side note, some of the actors from the show were on the same train with us on the way home. That makes us kind of famous right??

After our goodbyes, and a few hours of sleep, Jon and I caught our 6 AM flight back to Atlanta. Picked up our Jack who we missed so much, slept a good part of the day, then it was back to the airport to welcome home DANIEL!!!! He's back from California and looks better than ever! He'll be going to UGA, so we're excited to have him around.

This was the perfect trip to New York, especially because we got to spend time with our awesome friends. We already miss you so much and can't wait to start planning our next mini-tico trip!!