When country girls take over the city.

This past weekend was a whirlwind sightseeing expedition through Manhattan. I blogged about the places that my friends and I were going to attempt to see and I am happy to report that we made it to about 95% of our sights and the ones we didn't get to were by choice. We also happened upon a few unexpected sights that helped keep the weekend interesting.

Pictures from Friday :

Awesome friends arrived safe and sound (and Early!)  at my apartment and had to take the obligatory stoop picture :)

 

Since this was both of their first visits to New York we had a massive amount of stops to cover in 3 days. We started right away. Jen and I waiting for the subway by my house. 

 

We went to the Highline, ate some pizza, and then visited Union Square. 

 

The girls and I made our way to Times Square, where they bought souvenirs, saw amazing Times Square like things, and bumped into a thousand other tourists.  We also walked to Rockefellar Plaza and saw the ice skating rink and the beginning of the tree decorating. We walked a lot for one day, plus they had been traveling since the wee hours in the morning, so we called it a night pretty early to get refreshed for Day 2.

Saturday:

We started Saturday out by going to the 9/11 Memorial. It was calm, peaceful, and quiet. It was a beautiful day and the memorial was just as solemn as the first time I visited.

After leaving the memorial we made our way towards the Staten Island ferry where we boarded and went for the trip to Staten Island. We saw Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. It was a little chilly on the water, but the sky was so clear and bright.

After we returned back to Manhattan, we made our way to Brooklyn to do a little shopping, eat lunch, and visit Prospect Park. It was a short visit to Brooklyn, but my friends got to experience the difference between the boroughs. After visiting Brooklyn, we went to Canal Street where scarves and other wares may have been haggled purchased. After a second dose of shopping, we headed to Bryant Park for some ice skating.

Ice skating was pretty amazing, but we had walked so much that day that our feet hurt and the skates did not help. I was a little shaky at first, but I was practically a pro by the end. (I kid.....I kid......I was a pro!) It was super crowded, but I would love to go back on a night when it is not so crowded and I can actually skate forward without bumping into the person in front of me.

 

 On Sunday:

We started the day with a trip to the Museum of Natural History. Followed by a quick jaunt through Central Park that resulted in a fabulous group of pictures. The leaves were wonderful shades of orange, red, and yellow!

We then decided to go to Serendipity because dessert is Barbara's middle name. When we got there we had about a 90 minute wait, so we decided to take a walk to the East River, but we happened upon the Air Tram. This tram is part of the MTA and takes you from mid town to Roosevelt Island via a tram across the East River. I had heard about the tram before, but I had never seen it and we decided to catch a ride because we had plenty of time. We saw great views of Brooklyn on our way to Roosevelt Island and then views of Manhattan on our way back. It was so much fun to do something so unexpected and FREE (because we had unlimited metro cards, it costs $2.25 each direction).

 

We waited and waited for Serendipity, where we had the pleasure of seeing quite possibly the strangest sight I have encountered since moving to Manhattan (I have to save it for another post this weekend because it is just too damn funny). Finally we were seated and I saw a brief glimpse of what my heaven might look like. The menu was fantastically delightful and we decided to splurge and get three desserts to share: Frozen Hot Chocolate, Humble Pie, and some dessert that could have been called death by chocolate. I think I ate my full weeks worth of calories during the meal, but we walked enough on Saturday so it totally evened out. 

 We finished Sunday night off by going to a comedy show in Greenich Village at the Comedy Cellar. The comedians were hilarious and it was a great way to relax and spend the end of a weekend with friends.


 All in all, we got it done. We saw, we laughed, we conquered three desserts. We had good times, we got blisters, and we sometimes took a taxi. We made new inside jokes, we ate delicious Halal cart food, and we caught up with a good friend over skype. We traveled through 5 boroughs, took both the train and the bus, and saw the Empire State Building lit up for Veterans' Day. I would call the weekend an epic success.