Day #26- Sunday

Sunday morning we went to brunch at this trendy hot spot called 5 Points. It was totally packed with people. After we got our food, we understood why! Megan got the blueberry pancakes- they were phenomenal! Very light and fluffy, with blueberries both in the batter and on top of the pancakes. Mmm- so good!

(Side note- these pictures are all slightly on the dark side- the restaurant was dimly lit, so I tried to avoid using a flash because I didn't want to draw attention to the fact that I'm taking pictures of all our food! LOL!)

Scott got the chipotle chicken dish, which was stewed, shredded chicken on a flat tortilla. He liked it ok, nothing to write home about (or nothing to blog about, I should say).

I got the roasted tomatoes and eggs dish, and oh my, was it heavenly! This time of year, I just can’t get enough tomatoes, and this dish did not disappoint. It was baked in a crock, with a few poached eggs in between the tomatoes, and a sprinkling of melted cheese on top. It was fantastic!

For dessert (yes, we somehow squeezed this in) Megan and I split the Churros and Hot Chocolate. Churros are a type of Mexican donut. They are long, thin, and almost hollow inside. They are lightly fried, and rolled in cinnamon and sugar. The hot chocolate (which was NOT from a mix- this was the real deal!) was for dipping the Churros in and then for drinking afterwards. This was the perfect ending to a scrumptious breakfast!

Next, we walked to SOHO and Chinatown. We wandered along the streets of SOHO for a while, browsing through some of the shops. As soon as we got into Chinatown, however, it started pouring down rain. Thankfully we had all brought umbrellas in anticipation of this. This wasn’t a light drizzle- it was a steady downpour, plus it was windy, so the rain was blowing in all over us under our umbrellas. Outdoor activities were not high on the list at this point, so we took the subway to the Museum of Natural History. This is a pretty neat museum; that movie “Night at the Museum” is based on this. Since the weather was so crappy, a lot of people had the same idea that we did, so it was crowded. We wandered from room to room for a couple hours.

Megan being "attacked" by a tiger

As several hours had passed since brunch, we wanted to take Megan to dinner before she had to get on the MegaBus. We chose Carnegie Deli, which is a famous and historic NYC deli.

Megan and I split a Rueben sandwich.

As you can tell by the pictures, these sandwiches are GINORMOUS! There is probably 3 lbs of meat on each sandwich. For as delicious as it was, we still had a ton left over.

Scott got the tongue sandwich. Yes, I said tongue. E! He loves to try different foods. I don’t know how much meat a tongue has on it, but this was either a giant tongue or two tongues- there was at least 2 lbs of meat on his sandwich as well. It was served cold. He put mustard on it. Yuck! He only ate about half of this monster as well.

After dinner, we trudged through the rain back to the subway. We stopped along the way to get our picture taken with Chef Duff from Charm City Cakes:

The sore throat that I had been getting over the past couple days was definitely worsened by as all this cold, wet weather. When we got back to the apartment, Megan packed, and Scott took her to the bus stop. I stayed back as I was not feeling the best. Thank goodness I did, because he texted me an hour later and said that she was just now boarding. Due to the weather, the bus was delayed 45 minutes, so they had to stand there in the rain all that time. Poo! Scott went to Whole Foods after Megan boarded, and picked up some cough drops, oranges, tea, and vitamin C for me. He brought all that home, along with a flower he bought for me at a nearby flower stand (isn’t he sweet?). I popped a cough drop in my mouth and called it an early night. Stupid summer colds.

Day #25- Saturday

Saturday morning we got up and had brunch at our next door restaurant, Cafe Cluny. As always, it was F-A-B-A-L-O-U-S! Lindsay got the brioche french toast... YUM!

Megan got the sandwich, which had a fried egg, avocado, bacon, and tomato:

Scott got corned beef hash with poached eggs:

And I got the eggs florentine:

This was a highly satisfying brunch. And also a highly humorous one. First of all, our waiter was from England, and could not understand a word I was saying, him with his highly proper British accent, and me with my southern hick accent. And, I am getting sick and have a sore throat/raspy voice, so that added to the situation. When he came by to take our order, he asked if we were ready, and I said "I can't decide!" He thought I said "I want a salad". So he said, "ok, the salad", and then to clarify, said again "you'll have the salad?" Then I said "no, I can't decide" and then he said "no, you hate salad?" and then I said "No, I can't decide- I can't decide on what to order!"

He still looked confused, so Lindsay, in her non-KY accent, had to translate and tell him that I couldn't decide on what to order yet, and to come back in a few minutes. The whole thing was pretty funny actually. Then, when we finally ordered and got our food, all us girls whipped out our iphones and started taking pictures of all our food, and passing our phones around so we could get pictures of everyone else's food. Between the communication difficulties and the frenzied photo session over our food, the waiter probably all thought we were crazy!

And he would be right in assuming that :-)

After brunch, Lindsay had to leave, so we walked her to the MegaBus stop. We had so much fun

with her and were sad to see her go. But, she had to get home to her babies, so we said our goodbyes and left.

The 3 of us walked over to Herald Square, which is where the world's largest Macy's is located. It's on 34th street (yes, thus the movie Miracle on 34th Street) and takes up an entire city block. It is also the world's largest department store- so you can just imagine how massive this place is. We just walked past it as it would surely have taken the entire rest of the day to browse through here.

As we walked along, Scott (aka Mr. Tour Guide) pointed out all the points of interest/famous landmarks to Megan.

In front of the Waldorf Astoria

In front of Rockefeller Center

In front of Central Park

We stopped at Patsy's for lunch

It was saucy and delicious! This is by far my #1 favorite NYC pizza place. Megan loved it too!

We decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). Scott split up from us because he wanted to look at paintings, and Megan and I wanted to look at ancient Egyptian and Roman artifacts. I think I've finally figured out why I don't love museums- because we always look at paintings. They are ok, but I get bored with them. I really like looking at ancient artifacts, figurines, dishes.. all the little tools and devices that were made by hand thousands of years ago. That is really interesting to me!

For example, look at this:

These are dice, with a little barrel to roll them with. Does this not look just like our dice today? This is an ancient Yahtzee game, created B.C.! Isn't that neat?

Here are some other shots of things we thought were interesting:

Ornate and carefully created vases and bowls

Cute little figurines. So precise! To think, these were carved out of stone, by hand!

These little figurine heads- so detailed!

Ancient Egyptian jewelry- so neat! I always love looking at joo-rey!

How cute and ornate is this little knife and spoon!?!

Megan in front of a medieval troop of knights and horses

After a long day of walking around we went back to the apartment, exhausted. But, there is never any downtime in NYC, so we got ready for dinner. We had reservations for Morimoto, which is a fabulous restaurant owned by one of my favorite Iron Chefs. Scott and I have been here a few years ago, so we knew this place had good food and a really cool atmosphere. We had an amazing dinner and loved the experience.

I have to add this in- check out the bathrooms at Morimoto:

Isn't that too cool? It looks like a long, flowered hallway behind the toilet. Pretty neat optical illusion! And, the seats are heated. Can't beat that!

After our delicious dinner, we walked back home and went to bed. Another exhausting yet fulfilling day in NYC!

Day #24- Friday

Friday morning was great- my sister Megan and her sister in law Lindsay came to stay with us for the weekend, so I went to meet them at the Mega Bus stop at 10:15. I was so excited to see them, and looking forward to our fun weekend ahead!

Megan and Lindsay

Me and Megan in front of the Flat Iron Building

We started off by going to Shake Shack. After all this blogging and raving on and on about how delicious the burgers are here, we had to take them here to try it out for themselves. As expected, the burgers did not disappoint!

Lindsay enjoying her burger!

After our fabulous lunch, we decided to take the Staten Island Ferry to look at the Statue of Liberty. You can ride the ferry to Staten Island and then back again, free! The views were great:

After the ferry, we went to the Financial District to walk around Wall Street.

Here is the giant Wall Street Bull

This was a sphere in the plaza of the World Trade Center Towers. It is put here as memorial.

After walking around for a while, Megan and Lindsay wanted to check out Century 21. After a bit of shopping, we went back to our end of town so the girls could check out the Chelsea Market.

Chelsea Market Hot Chocolate Bar

Bakery in the Market... how cute are these cupcakes!

After the Market, we walked back home to get ready for dinner. We had reservations at a place called L'Artusi. It was an Italian restaurant, and it was incredible! The food and the service were absolutely amazing. This was a small plates place, so we had fun ordering a bunch of small plates and sharing them. Here is what we got:

This was a crudo of escolar (raw fish) with a mixture of avocados, basil, and chiles. It was divine!

This was a fried egg on top of roasted mushrooms and ricotta salata. This was delish as well!

Megan and Lindsay each got this Chickories dish, which was a salad with parmasean, lemon, and anchovy dressing. Yum!

Megan got the gnocchi with tomato and basil. It was so good- you can't go wrong with a gnocchi dish!

Scott ordered the sweetbreads, which came with a raspberry compote. For those of you who haven't had sweetbreads, they are actually pretty good. The name is deceiving though- sweetbreads are actually fried glands of a veal calf. I know, more weird food for Scott. But they really are good- everyone tried them and seemed to like them ok.

We all also shared this heirloom tomato salad with watermelon. Mmmmm! This unusual pairing is totally fabulous! The tomatoes and the watermelon really compliment each other.

Lindsay had the Branzino with roasted lemon, olives and honey. It was light, buttery and delicious!

I got the ricotta ravioli, with housemade ricotta, black pepper, and pecorino. Oh my, this was sooooooooo good! I loved it!

Our waiter turned out to be from Floyd Knobs, Indiana, of all places! So we made friends with him as we were from Louisville. He brought us this delicious zucchini with garlic, basil, and chilies.... for free! What a great server! And, he brought us all a free half glass of wine to start out meal off! We loved him! We asked him to surprise us with whatever dessert he liked the best, and he brought out this panna cotta with vanilla bean.. it was fab!

After a wonderfully satisfying dinner, we went to Broadway to see Mary Poppins. We, as in us girls. Scott went to see Chicago, as he had no desire to see Mary Poppins.

The show was really cute, and pretty similar to the movie. Neither Megan nor Lindsay had seen a Broadway show before in NYC, so they both really liked it.

Afterwards, we walked around Times Square to admire all the lights...

Afterwards, we stopped in this little jazz bar to hear some live jazz music. The band was really, really good! We stayed for one set, then left for home. We had a great night out with the girls, and were so glad they could come to visit us in our "NYC home" :-)