After the Hudson River Valley we spent a whole week in New York City.  I love this city so much and I loved that by the end of the week it started to feel so familiar.  We knew which direction to walk from the subway and started to get a good feel for what was close to what and how everything fit together, I loved it. The one sticky point for me was the heat… of course.  It was definitely too hot for me.  We had hoped going in June we could get there before the heat did, but we were not so lucky.  They were full days of lots and lots of walking, we wanted to see and do as much as we could.

We got there Saturday night and our hotel was in China Town, so we walked around and got some dinner in Little Italy.  On Sunday we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and spent the rest of the day in Brooklyn.  We got some pizza at Julianna’s, went to the Dumbo flea market, went to the parks by the bridge and got some Lizzmonade.  In the evening we met up with our friend Hilary who lives in New York and got some pie at “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” and then went to a Shakespeare in the park that one of her friends was in.  It was perfect, we used to go to the Shakespeare in the Park with Hilary in Seattle so it was so much fun to do that together again, but in New York.  After the play we went back to the parks and watched the sunset and the city lights come on.  There is this park by the bridge that is built inside an open air brick shell of a building with these arched doorways and windows, it is so cool.  These are the kinds of things I love the most about New York.

On Monday we went to Soho and got a frozen s’more and cronut from Dominique Ansel Bakery.  They were both so good.  However the cronut was banana flavored, which is not my favorite.  I loved the actual cronut part though, so with a different flavor it would have been so amazing.  They have different flavors, so they must do some kind of rotation, just not sure how they do it.  Then we walked down to Washington Square Park, the Flat Iron building and waited for Fish’s Eddy to open.  I have been dying to go to Fish’s Eddy for a long time, it is a sort of antique home goods store, and it was so cute!  We went down to Battery Park after that and rode the seaglass carousel, which is so pretty, and then went to the statue of liberty.  The crowds were so much worse than the first time I went, and it was one of the hottest days we were there, so that was a bit brutal.  Although it was cool and I love it, I don’t plan on going again unless it is at a time when it is much cooler and less crowded.  After we got off the boat we wandered down to the 9/11 memorial pools.  By that point we were pretty done with the heat and standing so we went back to the hotel and picked up some dumplings for dinner.  There was the coolest rain and lighting storm that night that we watched from our hotel windows.

Tuesday got a bagel for breakfast and ate it in Washington Square park and then I went to the Manhattan temple while Rachel went to the Guggenheim.  I met up with her after that at the Met, which was so nice to be in the air conditioning after 2 such hot outside days.  My favorite thing in the Met was the most amazing Tiffany stained glass window with Wisteria, it is so pretty.  We went up to Hilary’s apartment after the museum and went to dinner with her.  It was so fun to see her, I have wanted to visit her there ever since she moved 6 years ago.

Wednesday we went to Chelsea Market which was one of my favorite’s.  It is the coolest indoor market.  We tried a few different foods, including mini doughnuts at the Doughnuttery which were so good, and then walked along the high-line park.  We had some ice cream at Emack’s and Bolio’s for their cereal cones and then went to Times Square.  It was insane.  There were so many people!  We wandered around a few of the stores, then that night we had tickets to see “Frozen”.  That was really good, and I always think it is so interesting to see how they create “magic” on the Broadway.  We went back to Times Square after the play to see it at night, and they had blocked part of it off for something so squeezing around the people in the space that was open was even more crazy.

Thursday we went to the Top of the Rock.  Such a great view.  I loved being able to see the Empire State building and you could see the Times Square ball too.  My grandpa helped build one of the buildings in New York so we tired to figure out which one it was.  After that we walked over to the New York Library and explored it.  That night we saw “Beautiful”, which I loved.  I had not heard anything about it before we got there and Hilary was telling us about it.  I didn’t think I knew any of Carol King’s music, and was so surprised that I knew almost all of the songs in the play.

On Friday Rachel hung out in Central Park while I wandered around the Upper West side for a bit, looking for cool brownstones.  I love the brownstones, they are so pretty!  I met up with Rachel in the park and we wandered around the Park for a while and just sat in a view different spots.  It was a much cooler, and very nice day.  It was perfect, especially for our sore and tired feet from all the previous days of non-stop walking.  We got some dinner at “Black Tap” which we waited in a really long for, and everyone around said it was worth it.  They are famous for their crazy shakes and amazing burgers.  Rachel and I loved the burgers we had, but we probably would have skipped the shakes next time.  They are cool with all the stuff on them, but the cooler ones have candy, which we are not big fans off, and it was just way to much sugar and stuff.  We went to the Mets game that night and they wouldn’t let us take our metal water bottles inside so we stashed them in a bush and I was really happy they were still there afterwards.  I could not have made it through the coming hot days without my Hydroflask keeping my water icy cold.  That was our last day in New York, we headed out the next morning and drove to Philly.