NYC Day 6

One of our favorite shows to watch is The Chew.  If you haven't watched it before it's a cooking show that comes on at noon on ABC.  Chris got us tickets to go see a taping of it so we woke up extremely early to get ready.  We knew that we had to be dressed really nicely by all of the emails that we got from the show.  Since we were dressed nicely we took a taxi to ABC.  If you've never been to a taping of a tv show before it's really interesting on how they select who sits where.  Basically if you don't look nice or aren't dressed well you're placed in the back of the audience.  But since Chris and I were dressed nice we were placed on the front row right behind the tasting table.  The taping that we took part in happened to be a special taping and it aired the same day! We also got copies of the new Chew book.  Chris was excited because Michael Symon handed us our books.  I was stoked because I got to talk to Clinton Kelly.  He handed us our pizza and then he asked if I could pass out the plates to the rest of the row! Here's the link to the full episode that we were part of: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/episodes/September-24-2013 we were on it quite a bit. After it was finished taping we took a taxi back to the hotel.

Waiting in line to get in to ABC.

The view from our seats.  You weren't allowed to take pictures while they were shooting.

Clinton Kelly was so nice and he came out into the audience afterwards to thank everyone for coming.

Michael Symon was just as nice!

Carla Hall came out into the audience during every break to dance.

We had bought quite of bit of stuff and we knew that we couldn't get all of it in our carry on bags.  So we took everything over to FedEx and shipped everything back home.  We then checked out of the hotel and walked to Shake Shack for one last meal.  We still had several hours to kill before our flight left so we wandered around Time Square and did a little more shopping.  We were so exhausted from all of the walking we did during our trip that we finally called it quits and headed back to the hotel to wait for our car to pick us all up.  We got a different car and driver who took us to the airport.  The car was even nicer than the first with it being a Mercedes but this driver was a little crazy!  I don't get car sick but I had to roll the window down because I thought I might be.  He also liked to use colorful language and not obey traffic rules.  But thankfully we all made it to the airport safely.

Our box we mailed back weighed 25lbs!!

My highlights from NYC are that people aren't overly friendly.  Don't smile at people on the subway you will get the stink eye back and don't apologize if you hit someone or step on someone.  Driver's in NYC like to use the horn at all times and it's totally acceptable to push your dog around in a stroller. We did have a great time in NYC but if we go back it probably won't be for quite as long.  Maybe just 3 days to check out a Broadway show and eat some amazing food, and of course do some shopping.  I did love that there was always something to do and that things stayed open until late.

NYC Day 5

Monday we decided to take the subway down to the financial district and take the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.  We missed the first ferry by 5 minutes so we had to wait around for 30 minutes till the next one got there.  Once it arrived we boarded the ferry and headed out to see the views of Lady Liberty.  At that time I finally got a call back from our bank who said that everything was resolved with our debit cards.  With that taken care of I was finally able to relax and enjoy the views of the city.  I highly recommend taking the ferry if you have time especially since it's free.

When we were finished with that we walked around the financial district and saw the New York Stock Exchange. We then all had to eat a hot dog from a vendor before doing some shopping at Century 21.  After that we walked over to look at One World Trade Center.  The New York City skyline just doesn't look the same without the original World Trade Center buildings but the new one is like a beacon of light in the sky. We did a little souvenir shopping before hopping on a subway to take us to Brooklyn.

When we arrived in Brooklyn we all wanted to eat some real New York pizza.  We walked around awhile before we found a place, which really wasn't that good.  After lunch we started our trek across the Brooklyn Bridge.  The views crossing the Brooklyn Bridge are breathe taking.  This was one of my favorite things to do.  It also helps that I love bridges! Greg R. is terrified of bridges so I was so proud that he made it across!! After we crossed the bridge we all parted ways and Chris and I headed back to SoHo so I could buy my purse. We then walked over to Chelsea Market for a pre-dinner snack and we checked out a sample sale.  Once we were full we took the subway back to the New York Public Library.  It's a gorgeous library but I really don't consider it a functioning library. We then headed back to the hotel room to rest up before dinner.

We meet my friend Jon who lives in New York and he joined us all for dinner at Les Halles. It was so nice to have a tour guide for a change!  Chris was our tour guide/direction person for the majority of the trip. Jon got us there with ease and we waited for our table.  Les Halles is a French steakhouse where Anthony Bourdain use to work at. This was the one place where Greg R. wanted to eat at and they even let him go back to the kitchen and take pictures.  After dinner we walked down to McSorley's for beer.  McSorley's is the oldest Irish bar in NYC and it use to be a mens only bar.  We all called it a night after that and we took the subway back to the hotel room.

Truffle deviled eggs

French onion soup

If you can't tell by now we spent a lot of time eating on this trip!

NYC Day 4

When we started researching what we were going to do on our vacation in New York City, one of the things that Chris found out was that the 5th Avenue Mile was going on the Sunday we were scheduled to be there.  So he decided that he wanted to run it because not many people get to say that they've run a race in NYC.  We woke up extremely early and hopped on the subway to head to the race.  The temperature dropped that morning and it was pretty cool in Central Park.  While Chris was waiting for his race to start I found a waffle food truck to eat at.  I got to sit in Central Park and enjoy the quiet before the race started.  Then the next thing I see is a fat squirrel sitting right next to me trying to eat my waffle!! After jumping up from the park bench, I decided to wait for Chris to cross the finish line.  I'm so proud of him he finished his mile in 7:22.

My view while eating my waffle.

Once he was finished we meet the rest of our group in Central Park.  Half of us wanted to eat at Shake Shack and the other wanted to eat brunch.  So we split up for part of the day.  If you're in New York City on vacation you definetely want to make sure and eat at Shake Shack, their burgers are amazing! When we finished lunch we came across a mile long festival/farmer's market.  So we checked it out and came across a few bargains.  We then headed over to Central Park to see Bow Bridge and Strawberry Fields.  At that point we met up with the rest of our group and decided to head to Little Italy for another festival.

The cheese fries were so good!!

I loved that we just stumbled across this.

Views from Central Park.

Bow Bridge

The San Gennaro festival was going on in Little Italy so everyone thought that we should go check it out.  It turns out Little Italy and Chinatown pretty much run together.  You had to walk through Chinatown to get to Little Italy.  The festival was packed with pretty much a solid wall of bodies.  You couldn't enjoy it because you felt like cattle being herded along.  We didn't stay long before we decided to walk over to SoHo. We found another Kate Spade store where I found a purse that I really wanted to buy.  When we went to purchase it our debit card was declined.  Since we don't have credit cards we had to have them hold the purse till Monday.  We tried over and over to call our bank but no one every answered.  Chris was finally able to withdraw some money out of account so we could get dinner.

For dinner we eat at Eataly which is owned my Mario Batali. Eataly is a high end Italian market with restaurants.  Eataly also happens to be located in front of one of my favorite buildings in New York City, the Flatiron Building. Before dinner we checked out the market while we waited for a table to come open at one of the pasta restaurant.  The food was pretty authentic to real Italian food especially the pizza.  After dinner we took the subway to Serendipity 3 for dessert, they are best known for their frozen hot chocolate.

Flatiron Building

Frozen hot chocolate