New York City!! April 2012

This past weekend I got to tag along on one of Jeremy's business trips. We left Thursday afternoon for Newark, NJ and headed for our hotel in Parsippany. We had dinner at Ruth Chris's (yummy!) and Jeremy went to work Friday morning. After he returned, we headed for the City! :) 

We got in at about 2ish but were unable to get into our hotel room so we went and checked out the World's Largest Store: MACY's! It was 9 stories high and 2 buildings. We later found out it is an entire block... the same as the Empire State Building!

We rode the escalators up to the 9th floor looked around at the furniture and then headed back down. To get to the top half of the floors we had to use wooden escalators. They were pretty wild!

The Empire State Building - with Macy's on the left.

 After we got checked in, we went exploring until our dinner reservation... here are a few skyline & park views we found. 

Sorry for the silly picture - I had to take it myself. 

We sat down to look at a map and figure out our next location.

Resto - our dinner spot!! HIGHLY recommend!! They serve one of the best burgers I think I have ever had!! We found this place about a week ago on the Travel or HG network. The shows title was something like the Butcher Shop... or something to do with meat. Incredibly good!! Great atmosphere too! 

http://www.restonyc.com/

Just wanted to show a few shots from our hotel room. The two steeples in the back ground changed colors throughout the night. Sorry the pictures don't do it justice but it was pretty neat to see out our window. We were on the 16th or 31 floors! 

Saturday, April 28th Central Park, Yankees Stadium, Korean BBQ, & Rooftop Bar

On Saturday, we headed to Central Park to rent bikes. We walked through about half of the park in search of the Boat House. Upon finding it, it was brought to our attention that they were not renting them at the time so we had to head back from where we started to find another rental company. 

On our way back we found this little famous fountain. It is several movies - in One Fine Day they all play in it and the surrounding area in the rain as they are running to their soccer game... ring any bells? We actually got a couple good shots without people in the background so we were a little proud of ourselves. It was actually quite a feat because there were several travel groups and a Parkinson Walk - which had 100s if not 1000s of people... crazy amount of people!

From the side of the fountain looking back up toward the tunnels.

Boo! The non-renting bikes Boat House across the pond.

Inside the tunnels...

... the other side of the tunnels.

Some views from our bike trip. After getting our bikes, we did the outside trail of Central Park.

I love the trees with the buildings... a little of both worlds and so pretty!

Jeremy very excited that I'm taking his picture! :)

Here we are returning the bikes in Columbus Circle.

Trump Tower Globe across from Columbus Circle

After our ride, we headed back to our hotel to shower and get ready for the Yankees game. We were also able to meet up with one of Jeremy's friends from elementary/jr. high and his family for lunch. We had a great time and got to see a different part of New York, a more residential and peaceful part of New York! After lunch, they dropped us off at Yankees Stadium so we didn't have to get back to the Subway.

Yankee Stadium and all it's glory... I guess.

We were 4 rows from the top... a little bit better than Jeremy & Peter's trip to the Mets - they were on the top row. However, if had rained which it had threatened, we would not have gotten wet because we were under a concrete awning which was doing a fine job blocking the wind. 

Center field festivities...

... better view/understanding of the awnings.

We were surrounded by some mid-twenty, heavy drinking, New Yorkers who were there to celebrate a birthday and bad mouth each others so we decided to go find some other seats in the 5th inning because they kept coming out of the wood work. Because of our guests, we were able to get some different views of the stadium. This is still the top level walkway. 

Trying to get a shot of the two of us at the game... we both look a little tired. Apparently, all the fresh air did us in! Again, took the picture ourselves so sorry for the close up!

 This is all the way over on the 3rd base side by the Yankees Stadium sign. I thought it was kind of neat since you can see it in the first few pictures we took from across the field but here we are right next to it!

This was on the first level and the closest I was allowed to get to take a picture. We were on the first floor because we went in search of a shot glass for my collection. I already have several NYC shots glasses but never had any need for a Yankees one but figured since we were there that would be the one for this trip. (It is by far the most expensive shot glass to date... Jeremy said, "Are you really surprised?")

The Yankees did loss the game! :)

For dinner, we headed to a Korean BBQ restaurant that Jeremy had previously gone to and really enjoyed. I was glad that he had been before because I had no idea what was going on or what we were eating. It turned out very good and I tried several new things.

1. Soju - their typical drink - (I guess like Saki for Japanese/Chinese food - I have at least heard of Saki). It was pretty good. I was a bit hesitant because she said it was like vodka and I'm not a vodka fan. Jeremy thought it taste more like sweet gin and I would go for that over vodka. It was pretty good. I'd have it again! :)

We drank it in shot glasses. Not sure what the glasses say... still working on that!

Restaurant's name on the chopsticks.

Our dinner! This was suppose to be for one person. The waitress looked at us like we were crazy and asked several times when we said we only wanted one order. Goodness, how would we have eaten two?!? Apparently, you put everything in the lettuce wrap. Most of the dishes are sides/condiments for the meat. The meat was very tasty - it was marinated in soy sauce for 24 hours and had a very sweet taste to it. The sides/condiments were all interesting in their own right. 

I will see if I can remember what they are or what we were calling them. I'll start up by the lettuce wraps and curve around the meat. 1. lettuce wraps, 2. white - cole slaw type cabbage/carrots in vinegar sauce, 3. orange/brown - jalapenos... spicy with some kind of sauce, 4. green - thinly sliced up, cooked green peppers & spinach mix, 5. yellow - salad with the left over dressing - it is like what Sekisui serves, 6. darker brown - we decided it was some kind of bean mixture - it was pretty good not much taste but went well on meat, 7, red/orange - spicy, pickled cabbage - it was very spicy, 8. the bowl I cut half off was tofu with almost like a marinara sauce on top, 9. mushrooms, 10. white - artificial seafood cut in strips like cabbage in cole slaw. It was all very interesting and I was glad to try it out. 

After dinner, Jeremy took me to a Rooftop Bar he had been to with his friends. I'm sorry I can't remember what it is called but the views were incredible!! The tables had heat lamps and they had hooded robes to wear if you got too chilly. The drinks were interesting too! I know the pictures don't do it justice but it was an incredible view! 

Our drinks: Cucumber Mojito and Heaven Scent

It's pretty wild with the palm trees too! A whole different angle!

The Empire State Building

Sunday we slept in until almost 9:30- that's right I said we slept in! Can't remember the last time we did that. It was wonderful and much needed. After breakfast, we got our things ready and headed for the airport to head home! 

We had a great time together! It was definitely nice to get away for a bit and do some things that didn't have to be around a little ones schedule. We greatly appreciate the Irelands for staying with the girls all weekend and my dad for helping out on Thursday. We are very blessed!