the rest of nyc

So we pretty much left off after the longest day ever. We totally slept in the next day and then headed off to battery park to see the statue of liberty. We couldn't really find anything for breakfast (maybe because it was almost lunch time???) We walked around trying to figure out how to get on the ferry for awhile and then we saw it: the line. The end was not in sight. We started following it in a zig zag all around the park and still no end. I did however find some roasted nuts to give us some stamina while we searched for the end of the line. We made an executive decision that if we waited in that line we would be wasting away most of the day so we got some hotdogs and decided to try again tomorrow, much earlier in the morning.

From there we decided to head to the Museum of Jewish Heritage since it was nearby. What an interesting place! There are 3 floors: the first floor is before the Holocaust, the second is during, and the third is after. What a heartwrenching experience. I have been interested in this time period and am so glad that we ended up going.

Then we headed to Chelsea Market (what a cool place!) walked around, did some shopping in the fun stores and finally decided on a snack at The Cleaver Co. We enjoyed a cheese/bread/fruit platter. Oh, yum! The figs were my favorite. Or maybe the cheese and honey. Wait, it was the sourdough bread. Ok, it was all delish.

Since once again we were navigating the city so well, we decided to just take a cab to Purl SoHo, a yarn and fabric shop. I got a few goodies and by then it was almost time for our dinner at The Ninja. We had been looking forward to eating at this place for months. We began our venture over there by getting ourselves kicked out of a cab. But, we finally made it. And it was totally worth the trek.

It all started with me screaming twice before we even got to our table. Did I mention that I'm not so good at the whole people jumping out and scaring me thing? You are in this dark dungeon of a place and there are ninjas everywhere just waiting to scare the bejeebies out of you. They jump out with flames, swords, knives, you know normal things for a dinner out.

Let's just say it was a blast. And the food was amazing. The whole experience was fun.

We spent the majority of our meal looking over our shoulders though. The ninjas were seeming to enjoy our screams and nervous laughter because they didn't really leave us alone.

We ordered dessert because we just weren't ready to leave yet. That was great too. Then we headed off for some shopping and more walking around the city. I'm pretty sure my feet were burning by this point. so.much.walking.

As promised, we got up early the next day and headed back to battery park. It was such a new experience for us to actually know where we were going since we had been there the day before. And after being herded through security we ended up on the first ferry. It was amazing to see the statue up close and personal. I loved going through the museum on ellis island. I kept wishing I knew more about my family and when they came here. Had some of them passed though? The photographs and stories were inspiring.
Next stop: Strand Book Store. I don't think I've seen so many books in one place. I'm not gonna lie, we just plopped down in one of the aisles and started browsing. Hey, our feet hurt! This place had 4 levels I think of books on every topic. We both found a couple that we couldn't pass up (um....yeah I haven't read one of them yet...guess I better get started since summer is winding down:). Then on to a place I was very excited about:

We took the subway uptown in hopes of a frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity. What a cute place! It was such a mixture of colors and textures and just fun. The frozen hot chocolates were awesome. They tasted exactly like they sound: hot chocolate in frozed form. Yum! We stayed awhile and just enjoyed sitting down:) Plus, those drinks were huge!


We did a little more shopping and then got the wild idea that we wanted to see another broadway show: The Lion King. This time we weren't dressed up, we had a million shopping bags with us, and we hadn't eat dinner, but we went to the ticket booth to see if there were any tickets left. We were actually able to get some and they were really good seats front and center. I don't know what I was expecting, but when they started singing 'circle of life' and a huge elephant appeared next to Hillary my heart may have skipped a few beats. The show was amazing. The costumes were ingenious. Lots of laughs and plain good entertainment.

After that we were hungry (again!) and set off to find dinner and check out the NBC Studio store again. But, the store was closed and so was every restaurant we could find. We ended up some place that looked promising for late nights (hillary, do you remember the name?) for drinks and appitizers. Hey, it's what sounded good: quesadillas and fried macaroni. The only problem was that our waiter disappeared on us. I think his shift ended and he just forgot about us. We finally flagged down someone, paid our bill, and began to hunt for our hotel with yet another confused taxi driver.

Sunday: time to head to our friends' Anita and Zach just across the connecticut border. We packed up our stuff and headed to grand central to take the train. We had plenty of laughs at the lady at the ticked window. Her eyes were barely open as she glanced our way and said "brreewwster?" in slow motion. Don't worry, we did not keep replaying that one over and over. We found our gate and had more pizza since we had a little wait.

The train was full of excitement as we were pretty sure we were going the wrong way the whole time. Once again, we had no clue and all the places we were stopping were not on our list of stops on the way to brewster. But, in fact we did make it but not before we lugged all our suitcases two cars up (our car didn't exit at brewster we were informed by the ticked punch guy who totally reminded me of the guy from polar express!) and I tore my pants!! Not even kidding. They got caught on the arm of the chair and ripped about a foot down from my back pocket. Cool.

While we waited for Anita and Zach it decided to downpour. We huddled in a doorway (nothing was open) with our suitcases and when they did arrive, Zach escorted us to the car with an umbrella.

Staying at their house was the perfect end to our trip. It was neat to see what the country was like just an hour away from the city. They took us to the winery where Anita works, the McLaughlin Vineyards, for a wine tasting and a walk around the grounds. It was beautiful (and tasty!)

Then we headed back to their house for chicken bar-b-que (which actually has nothing to do with BBQ sauce, which hillary and I couldn't quite figure out!) and strawberry shortcake. This was totally different from the city...relaxing, only a little walking, and good times with friends. One more night and we found ourselves at the airport ready to head home.