Friday, August 22, 2008

new york, new york - day two


something you should know about nearly every museum, broadway show, tourist attraction, etc in NYC - it's closed on monday! but since our main *entertainment* while we were in town was going to be baseball, it didn't seem to matter too much to us...

monday morning we slept in & had brunch @ sarabeth's. apparently *the* place to brunch on the upper east side (which is where we were staying). but i have a theory about the food in NYC - or the perception of the food in NYC...& some of you are going to disagree with me...but it's for the most part no better than the food i've experienced in chicago, atlanta, maui, charlotte, phoenix, nashville, miami, etc, etc, etc. it's still brunch. come on, people. i mean, hello! you can only do eggs & bacon so many ways! & this applies to breakfast, lunch & dinner - across the board.

anyway...after our massive brunch'ing, we decided to walk (& then people watch) through central park. i find central park to be one of the most beautiful places to visit. i've been there @ different times of the year & find it equally beautiful in each instance (particularly the fall!). after central park we seemed to keep on walking (i love the "faux" exercise i got out of this too!) & ended up in times square. i'm amazed - every time i'm in times square - at the bustle. at the lights ("the smoke, and the lights" - 10 points if you can name that movie!). there's so much going on there! it also ended up being an ice cream pit stop...if you know my husband, this is no surprise (it also won't surprise you that we also had a gelati later that night in little italy!).

by late afternoon, we were tired...& if you know us, you know we love our naps...so we headed back to the hotel for a snooze & then a late dinner at benito's II (thanks for the rec, keith!) in little italy. we also hit ferrara's (a very old bakery/sweet shop + yummy gelati!) that we'd been to before with friends. *supposedly* (or supposably!) a mobster was killed out front of ferrara's back in the day!

so, while day 2 seemed like we didn't really *do* anything, i think that was kind of the point. we loved the walking...seeing new parts of the city...buying from street vendors...checking out little shops...eating...napping...eating some more & just hanging out!

ok...day 3 tomorrow!

on the east side of the park, looking across the reservoir towards the upper west side.

the hustle & bustle that is times square.

brian & beth, times square.

little italy @ night.

2 comments:

LWB said...

sounds like the perfect day - lots of eating!! sarabeth's is fun and i will have to tuck away the other places you mentioned to try sometime. it was cool that most of the "regular" places were closed so you guys could have a more low-key day and enjoy the city at a slower pace.

xoxo

Susan said...

i, too, like to just "be" when i'm in NYC. your day 2 sounds perfect to me! and, after having kids, "doing nothing" takes on a whole new meaning!....and, i whole-heartedly agree about your assessment of the food in NYC vs just about every other city. after a certain level, it's pretty much the same. there are decadent restaurants in every city. probably the biggest difference is the price!!!