You guessed, it Monday has become a beach day for us! Coney Island with Jani, Emily, and Camille
On Tuesday Liz, Camille, and I went to Roosevelt Island. It was a really interesting place. I think it's the most deserted place in all of NYC! There were maybe 5 cars on the road, we saw a grand total of 50 people (including the tourists on the tram with us). We found out later that it was so abandoned because the Four Freedom's Park memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt is closed on Tuesdays. Random. Of course we found out it was closed after we walked to the aforementioned memorial in the blazing sunshine. But Roosevelt Island was not a complete bust! They have the Roosevelt Island tramway, which goes over the East River to 59th Street. You get such a neat view of Manhattan's Midtown and Downtown skylines. And it's still pretty tourist free, so you don't have to elbow through tons of people to get a good view! Ironically, I only got a pathetic picture of the view, so don't judge it by my lack of a good photo. An added bonus is the tramway ends near Serendipity III and Dylan's Candy Bar.
This my friends, is Dylan's. I think they have just about every candy imaginable. And they have free fudge samples!
Sadly, Camille left New York today, but before she left, she had a bit of an NYC checklist that we had to help her complete! So after Dylan's, we made our way up to Levain's Bakery on the Upper West Side to get some giant cookies. Here's a tip: only buy a cookie if it's fresh from the oven. It doesn't matter what flavor because they are all delicious (double chocolate chip is my favorite), and they are huge, so plan on splitting (unless the said cookie is your dinner... Don't judge.) We took our heavenly cookies and made our way through Central Park for a free performance put on by the Metropolitan Opera. And turns out, the star soprano was a girl from my ward out here! Opera fans, keep your eye out for Erin Morely, cause she's extremely talented!
Angel of the Waters Fountain in the Bethesda Terrace
Erin singing for the Met!
On Thursday I met up with a friend from Provo, Whitney Uland. If you haven't already, check out her blog, "Young Love in an Old City" to the right". Whitney and her husband are both out here for internships too. We met up in Union Square for lunch, aka the best Mexican food I've had on the east coast. This little dive is called "Dorado", and the food definitely lived up to it's name! I got a carne asada quesadilla... so tasty. Union Square has lots of good shopping so of course we took advantage of our location. While we were walking around we happened upon the coolest specialty store dedicated to knitting! Their window display was the coolest, and believe it or not, all of it was knitted.
Thanks again Whitney for such a fun afternoon!
Friday we went to one of my favorite attractions in NYC- the Cloisters. The Cloisters Museum is an offshoot of the Met dedicated to Medieval art and architecture. First off, the building itself is gorgeous and almost makes me feel like I'm in an Italian nunnery or something. Second, this building is filled to the brim with tapestries, jewels, pottery, glassware, and statues. Another plus is the museum was not very crowded! It's way up on 190th street on the Upper West in the middle of Fort Tryon Park. The park was lovely as well, lots of neat trails and great views of the Hudson River. We got super hot walking around the park and the museum grounds, so of course we had to cool off with frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity III! I am a huge hot chocolate person, in fact I frequently use hot chocolate powder as a topping for my ice cream, so going to Serendipity was a dream come true! It is such a cute little restaurant, one you would pass right by if you didn't know to look. Let's just say the Frozen hot chocolate was everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be.
I was amazed by the detail in all the work!
The famous "Unicorn Tapestries" are housed in the Cloisters.
The Museum has the most beautiful grounds!
The Hudson River
We were going to split, but each person is required to spend at least $8.50... we didn't mind a bit!
I had the best Saturday ever. First I went to lunch at a delicious ramen restaurant in Hell's Kitchen called Ippudo. Get their modern ramen and pork buns! Both were phenomenal. Then I went down to Chinatown to do some souvenir shopping for my siblings. I highly recommend going to the Pearl River Mart! They have a ton of neat and cheap stuff. Anyways, the best part of the day was... Clark got off work at 5!!!!!!!!!!! It was so amazing! We got to go row boating on the Lake in Central Park, went out to Monster's University with Nate and Liz, got crepes at Viva la Crepe for dinner, and walked home from Union Square. AH! It was the best. Boating was so worth it - it's $12 for an hour on the lake, but bring $32 cash, cause there's a $20 refundable deposit. We got in right before the boathouse closed, so it wasn't too crowded! The Lake is beautiful, in fact it's one of my favorite places in Central Park. And it was so romantic being rowed around by my sweetheart! Monster's University was hilarious. I think I liked it more than Monster's Inc... they're basically tied in my book. And of course Viva la Crepe was delicious - this time I got their Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella crepe. It was perfect! So light but so flavorful. And Clark and I split the Nutella and banana crepe. Needless to say it was delicious as well. Saturday night was so perfect, and the icing on the cake was it was cool out! This next week we get a break from the heat and humidity and I am so happy! We celebrated the change in the weather by walking home and enjoying the city that never sleeps.
Ippudo
Me and my handsome hubby!
Just a cheesy mirror pic at Viva la Crepe! Please ignore my mustache :)
I tried Vive Le Crepe!!! So yummy!!! Thanks for the recommendation, and the shout out! :)
ReplyDeletePs If you ladies are still on the hunt for yummy desserts, check out Empire Cake and get the salted caramel. I promise you will NOT be disappointed!!!