A Weekend with my Parents

  MY PARENTS CAME TO NYC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Best weekend ever. I love living on the East Coast, but being so far away from family is definitely a huge downside. So when my parents told me they were going to come visit me for a weekend (to celebrate their birthdays- both are fall babies) I was thrilled!!! Especially cause my Dad had never been to New York. So we had to pack in as much NY fun as possible in the few days they could be here.

After weeks and weeks of waiting, I got a call that they were in my building lobby and ready to explore my new home. So after a quick apartment tour, I took them to Grand Central Station. We grabbed dinner at Shake Shack, and then walked through the world's most famous train station.

Selfie with the constellation ceiling! 

My parents loved pointing out how many movies/TV shows had been filmed at each place we visited. We all started watching this new show called Forever, that takes place in NYC - and of course they had a few scenes filmed in Grand Central!

 From Grand Central we walked west along 42nd street to see the NYPL/Bryant Park and to visit Times Square! Here we are on the red steps! 

From TS we hopped on the subway down to Clark's office! My parents loved seeing his beautiful office building. I mean just check out that lobby!

 Saturday morning the boys woke up early to stand in line for rush tickets to A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. After getting tickets (yay!) we went to brunch at Sarabeth's! From what I've sampled, I think Sarabeth's has the best brunch in the city. Our favorite brunch items are their toasted coconut waffle, almond crusted french toast, and their short rib hash. And as if breakfast wasn't fantastic enough, on our way up to Central Park we stopped by Laduree for some macaroons - pistachio is still my favorite flavor! 

 We took a tour of all my favorite parts of Central Park - starting with a stop at the Conservatory Water. I love the mini sailboats you can rent and there's always musicians playing around this pool. 

 Hans Christian Andersen! I love this statue - especially because it features one of my favorite Andersen fairy-tales, The Ugly Duckling.

 Then it was time for one of our all time favorite NY activities - row boating on the Central Park Lake. These two handsome gentlemen took turns rowing us around the lake. It was a great way to see the changing fall leaves and we had absolutely perfect weather! 

With the Loeb Boathouse in the background.

 Gorgeous Bow Bridge! 

 Look at how green that water is!! Crazy. 

 Aren't my parents just adorable?! 

  After boating, we walked to the Bethesda Fountain/Terrace, and along the Lake to see Strawberry Fields. From Central Park we walked around the UWS, and of course stopped by Magnolia Bakery for their incredible banana pudding. YUM!! Since the boys woke up so early (especially my poor Dad on California time) we went back to our place for a quick nap before dinner and our Broadway show. Once we had some more energy we were off to Hell's Kitchen for dinner at El Centro. If you like mexican food, go get their chilaquiles. SO delicious and such a neat dish! 

 We were so happy about our rush seats. We got front row box seats - rush seats are typically a partial view, but we were actually able to see everything really well. And it was so fun to be so close to the characters/hear their voices without the mike. 

 We LOVED the show. A basic plot synopsis: Poor Monty Navarro finds out that he is 8th in line to become the wealthy Earl of Highhearst. So he decides to off his relatives so he can inherit! It really is such a clever play. There were so many times when I laughed so hard I almost cried. And I cannot believe how talented the actors are! Especially one guy - he plays all 8 of the relatives. If you are in the mood for a funny musical, please give A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder a try! And of course, after seeing any show on Broadway, you should stop by Junior's for cheesecake - our favorites are the raspberry swirl and the devil's food cheesecake.

Sunday was wonderful. We got to go to stake conference at the Lincoln Center building! I love my ward on the UES, but I definitely miss going to church in the same building as the temple. There's just a special spirit there. And stake conference was amazing - such powerful testimonies were shared. And we all had an emotional moment when the 80+ missionaries serving in our stake sang Called to Serve... made us all miss our Hermana Hull!

Following conference we walked over to see the Lincoln Center and Met Opera House. Such gorgeous buildings. Then we got brunch at The Smith - super tasty! I got the vanilla bean french toast, and I have to admit Sarabeth's waffle is way better. But my dad got the Sicilian baked eggs- they were the best! 

 The Met Opera House! 

 Following brunch, we went over to the Met Museum! It really is such an incredible museum. We spent a lot of time in the impressionist galleries. We also saw the Roman sculptures, the American wing, the Armor exhibit, the Met rooftop, and the Egyptian exhibit. And we were able to see all of that in just over 2 hours! 

 Monet's waterlilies = perfection. 

 After our trip to the Met we went to my apartment for dinner/dessert and to rest up for another full day of exploring NYC! 

 Monday morning we got up bright an early to grab bagels at Ess-a-Bagel by Stuyvesant Town. Then we walked through Gramercy to see Union Square park. Aren't these town homes just darling? Gramercy is such a lovely area. And of course I took my parents to the best bookstore ever - Strand. 18 miles of books... Such a glorious place! They loved it too!

 After selecting some new books to read, we hopped on the subway and went to the Chelsea Market. It's all decorated for Halloween, so that was a fun surprise. And of course we walked the Highline. I think fall is my favorite season to be on the Highline! The colors are beautiful and it's a great view of the city!

From the highline we walked east to Herald and Greenley Square for some shopping. Dad opted out and got some yummy hot chocolate while Mom and I took a peek at some of the neat jewelry stores in that area. If you like statement necklaces, you've got to 32nd and broadway - lots of great shops! Then we went down to Chinatown to get some gifts for my siblings. Although it's a great place to get some shopping, it's so busy, and we were happy to leave for lunch. We met up with Clark at Eataly, near Madison Square Park, for a prime rib sandwich (yum). From there we traveled up to the UWS to grab Levain's cookies for the kids! Haha we really were all over the place on Monday. Once we got all our shopping done with, we rested for a bit at my place, and then went to the Brooklyn Bridge. 

 Sunset on the Brooklyn Bridge is a MUST. It's so pretty to see the colorful sky and the buildings slowly light up. Manhattan sure has a gorgeous skyline. And seeing it always makes me so happy I live in such an incredible city. 

 See that teeny tiny green line, with a reddish dot on it, at the very far left? That's lady liberty! I promise the view of her is much better from what the picture lets on :) 

 Haha we're all red because a cop motorcycle was parked right next to us! But check out the Freedom Tower and the downtown skyline! So lovely!

And of course we had to grab Juliana's Pizza for dinner! You could say it was our pot of gold after walking to the end of the rainbow (bridge). Clark would say Grimaldi's is NY's best pizza, but I have to disagree. If you like a more crunchy thin crust then go to Grimaldi's - it's definitely a fantastic pizza. But in my book, Juliana's softer crust can't be beat! 

 I am so glad my parents got to come see me! And was so sad they had to leave. They were such great sports for letting me drag them all over my new hometown. Luckily they had so much fun and we're already trying to plan another visit for them!! :) I sure love you Mom & Dad!

Enjoying Autumn!

It's been a crazy but wonderful Fall. Here's what we've been up to the past couple weeks!

 

 This fall has had some of the best sunsets I've ever seen. And I don't think I'll ever get tired of my view of the Empire State Building.

 Clark's office also has a pretty incredible view. And seriously, this sunset is unreal! Doesn't the sky look painted?!

Ivy covered brownstone on the UES. They are just so romantic!

On our way to the Met (to meet up with Mitch and Valerie, who were visiting from Philedelphia) we just stumbled across a German parade. So we grabbed a flag and spontaneously celebrated my German heritage.I love all the random events going on in the city! It's so fun to always have something neat to go to! And getting a taste of so many different cultures is always fun.

The Met Rooftop has one of my new favorite views of NYC. I can't wait to come up here once all the leaves in Central Park change colors! 

Last Friday, miracle of miracles, Clark got off work at 6:45. That is almost unheard of in banking! So to celebrate we went to one of our favorite burger places - NY Burger Co. On our way over to pick up our delicious Tribeca burgers (bacon, blue cheese, avocado, tomato, and lettuce on a delicious fresh bun) we passed by the brand new Lego store on 5th Avenue! Of course we had to go inside. They had a huge lego mural of the city, as well as a lego timeline of the Flatiron District's history, a Lego model of the area surrounding the Flatiron Building, and a build your own lego character area. 

Our mini lego characters! I think Clark's is pretty perfect. Unfortunately their girl lego options left something to be desired, but I did the best I could! :)

Part of the ENORMOUS lego mural of NYC's most recognizable landmarks

During our walk around the Flatiron district we also had to pop into the Strand bookstore branch at Club Monaco. I could spend hours there. Another thing that makes this one of my favorite  spots in the city is that a branch of Polux Fleuriste is here too! Beautiful flowers, a gorgeous setting (that always smells incredible), and loads of books... what more could I need?!

After a walk around the Flatiron District we met up with James & Jani in Herald Square for dessert! Haha we went to this random French Korean bakery... all the signs were in Korean so Jani and I had to bug one of the workers to tell us what everything was. Clark and I ended up getting this lovely fruit tart and a coconut macaroon. It definitely tasted as good as it looked. 

Saturday was one of my favorite days so far. Now some of you may know that my family has a tradition of going to Apple Hill (in Northern CA) every year. And it is one of my absolute favorite fall activities. Since I left home for college I haven't been around to go with them. Last year Clark and I got to go around Thanksgiving (which you can see here) but I have to admit, going to chop Christmas trees is not the same as going for all the fall activities they have earlier in the season. So you can imagine how absolutely THRILLED I was when some of my cute new friends from our Manhattan ward invited Clark and I to go apple picking. I love that picking your own fruit is such a popular thing to do on the East Coast. In the summer you'll hear about all sorts of berry and peach picking trips and fall is dedicated to apple and pumpkin picking.

Anyways, Saturday morning came around and we hopped on a train to Jersey. From Newark Penn Station we drove out to quaint little Chester, New Jersey, where Alstede Farm's is located. For a $5 fee you get access to their huge fields - full of apples, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, corn, pumpkins, squash, sunflowers, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes...the list goes on and on. So we didn't get too carried away (you do pay per pound), we focused in on apples and peaches.

Cheesy cut-out pictures are always a must. 

Blurry but I love it. It was so fun perusing the rows of apples, searching for our favorite varieties, and finally finding a cluster of perfectly ripe apples. Good thing Clark was there for a lift whenever a beautiful bunch was out of reach!

Honeycrisp apples = our favorite. (Pink Lady apples are also delicious!)

The apple of my eye (ah! too cheesy!)

It was a really bright and warm day for apple picking. It was fun to walk around the orchard and just smell the fruit everywhere. Haha a definite improvement from all the weird smells you'll smell in the streets of NYC on a warm day!

Introducing Camille (left) and Lena (right). These two beauties are new friends from my ward! I'm so glad they invited us to join them for the apple picking adventure!

 

I can't wait to make all the apple desserts possible!

Another. Because it was too picturesque.

Our fun group! We had such a blast at Alstede farms. I'm certain we will all get together for another adventure soon!

After picking as many apples and peaches as we wanted we went back to the barn to grab some apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, and too look around the little marketplace they had set up! These gorgeous mums stole the show!

We also met one of the farm cats. So cute!

Clark and I bought a whole gallon of fresh apple cider. and because we didn't have cups available we drank it from the jug. DELICIOUS! (I did sort of feel like I needed one of those big brown XXX jugs you'd see in cartoons)

Apple cider doughnuts are incredible. 

On our return from the farm we ran right up to watch Women's Conference! I absolutely love the feeling of sisterhood you get attending that meeting. So many wonderful messages, especially about the blessings of the temple! It made me so excited to watch General Conference this weekend!!! If you're interested, you can watch it stream live here, or you can also look up old sessions of conference to watch! It is such a blessing to hear from modern day prophets.

On Monday the fun continued! Jani and I met up to go to this neat exhibit in the financial district. Haha but we forgot that they are closed Mondays. Oh well! haha after peeking through the window we decided to go up to Madison Square Eats for dinner. I love street festivals! I hope they continue to have a couple during the winter. I love being able to walk around the mini market place, check out a bunch of neat NY restaurants, and then get my favorite. It's just nice to have so many yummy options all in one place. Jani got the Syndey from Asiadog and I grabbed the french creole gumbo from Gumbo Bros. Both were amazing!

Finally on Tuesday I met up with Emily, Jen, and Jani to go to an early screening of the new movie Meet the Mormons. It was so fun to see so many members of our stake show up to support this new film. Meet the Mormons is a fun documentary that gives you a peek into 6 Mormon family's lives. It gives an idea of what it is like to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how their faith affects and improves their life. 

I would highly recommend it! It was really well done and a great way to see what it's like to be a Mormon. And for those who may be concerned, it does not "push" religion onto you. They do not emphasize much of Mormon doctrine at all. It's just a great feel good move! 

So on October 10th you should go see it (use this link to find a theater near you or to request it be shown in your town)! All the proceeds from this movie go directly to the American Red Cross.