A little spur of the moment trip

In most marriages, there is usually one person who is the down to earth one, and one that is the impulsive one.  I'll give you one guess which one I am.

You see, Emma's hubby Nick had a week long business trip to New York planned.  Emma decided to go along.  Then I decided to go along.  But for just 3 days.  A little crazy, but why not?  My girl was alone in the city, and with free hotel and frequent flyer miles available, it was just too hard to say no. I quickly rearranged my week and booked my ticket!

I left early Monday morning and arrived in New York by lunchtime.  That's utterly amazing to me!  Alone, I made my way to their hotel in Times Square, and when I got there, suffice it to say, we were a little excited!!  Never mind the blurry selfie.  :-)

When Nick got home that evening from work, we went to one of our favorite spots -- Serendipity 3.  They are famous for their Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, which is like what all frappuccinos can only aspire to be.   It's hard to describe how delicious it is.  Serendipity is just the quaintest little place.  And we found out this trip that they have amazing chicken pot pie, too!

 

On Tuesday, we relaxed in the room with some bagels and coffee, then headed out for the day.  I was so excited to discover a free Subway app for my iphone and let me tell you, IT SAVED US.  I am used to following my hubby around like a puppy dog and I've never had to navigate NYC on my own. 

We took the subway down to the lower west side, and started in Greenwich Village.  The village is full of beautiful little parks and eateries.  We walked our way to the Flatiron district for a late lunch.  I have always wanted to try Grimaldi's pizza but it's in Brooklyn and have never made it there.  Now there is one in the city!  Yay!  Our favorite pizza has always been Lombardi's but I have to say Grimaldi's was just as good.  I love love love New York pizza, the coal ovens just make it so amazing.

Grimaldi's is inside an old church, through the red doorway.

Just look at that pizza.  Mmm.

After lunch, we shopped.  And we found a new love in the city -- Fishs Eddy.  Fishs Eddy was such a cool place and like no other store I've seen.  It was sort of a combination of a really good flea market mixed with a Crate and Barrel.   They had sets of vintage dishes and serving ware along with new things like Mason Jars.  We had so much fun there!

 

That night for dinner, we went to Becco, another favorite.

The best thing on their menu is called Sinfonia de paste.

You get a salad or antipasti plate, wonderful bread basket, and all you can eat of the three chef's pastas of the day.  The night we went there was fresh linguine with bolognese sauce and fresh peas, penne with fresh tomato sauce, and gnocchi with fresh pesto.  All for $22 which is a fantastic dinner price at a nice restaurant in NYC.

After that, Nick and Emma wanted to go to Junior's that night for cheesecake. What a day!

On Wednesday, we again hopped the subway to the South Ferry exit.  We got off the subway and boarded the adjacent Stanton Island Ferry.  The ferry is a great way to view the Statue of Liberty upclose as well as a great view of Manhattan.  Plus, it's free!  It's about a half hour trip to the Island, so round trip about an hour cruise.  I highly recommend a trip to Liberty Island, but if you're short on time, this is a great way to see Lady Liberty.

Next, we took another subway over to Chinatown.  NYC has the biggest Chinatown in the whole U.S.

There are tons of vendors (basically all selling the same things).  Scarves are 2/$10 and they sell tons of knock off designer bags (which they will take you to see somewhere else...sketch).

 

We got one very cute souvenir in Chinatown  :-)

There are also tons of eateries.  We thought dumplings sounded good, so Emma googled "best dumplings in NY" and sure enough we found this little hole in the wall that had over 2000 Yelp reviews.

We made our way and knew we had struck gold when we saw the cheap prices and the line out the door (which had Asian people in it, always a good sign).  

We spent $5.75 (total) and got 16 dumplings AND a water bottle.  Crazy.  It was so good!

Thankfully, there was one little stool for the pregnant woman.
I was happy to see the "A" rating at a place like this.  :-)

Plump little fried pork and chive dumplings - fresh and hot!

Just eat 'em on the street!

 

That last night, we were all a bit tired, so we got some yummy Greek take out food and ate it in the room.  

We also Face Timed with the remainder of our family on the west coast.  Drew and all his faces.  After we snapped this screen shot Drew said "don't take a picture!"  Too late  :-)

So that's how we did NYC in a little under 3 days... it was a blast!
I flew home early Thursday morning and Nick and Emma returned Friday, after capping off their trip seeing Wicked!