So here's what we did!
Thursday night
Michelle got in first and we had an excellent dinner at Kashkaval, just down the street from my place. I hadn't been yet, but Joy's been telling me to go. It was great Mediterranean food-- hummus, Dolmas, artichoke dip, chicken kebab. We were impressed with the food! We also took a brief walk that included Times Square and Central Park. I saw the Hello Deli from Letterman for the first time!
We even saw an episode of "Law & Order" being filmed on the street and recognized a couple of those guys. Then, headed back home for Melanie's arrival!
Friday
We did not get up super early, but headed straight towards the Today show. It was drizzling by the time we got there, so they weren't filming outside. We were able to see Ann Curry through the studio windows.
Since it was raining, we decided it was a good time to go to the Met and see some art. Now, the Met has a "recommended" entry fee of $20. I've always felt required to pay it, but Melanie was up for trying otherwise and I was her #1 supporter. She handed them $30 and said it was for all 3 of us and they didn't ask any questions. I think next time I'll try to get in for just $5. They had a great exhibit going on with Renoir, Picasso, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Degas, etc... We really enjoyed it!
We went to Serendipity for lunch. Their food is really good, but they're famous for the FRRrroozzzen Hot Chocolate! We chose to share the Peanut Butter version and it was delicious, of course!
We had some fun in Dylan's Candy Bar (owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter).
We went to FAO Schwartz where we saw the show they do on the famous piano (from the movie BIG!). Even Michelle and Melanie gave it a whirl.
We shopped for diamonds at the original Tiffany! Of course, we didn't buy any, but it was fun to look!
We went in Trump Towers.
We toured St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Then we walked through the Waldorf.
We saw the ice skating rink and walked around the rest of Rockefeller Center.
We saw Radio City Music Hall.
We went to a Broadway show...The Drowsy Chaperone. It was really cute and funny and we all really, really enjoyed it!
After the show, we had a late night dinner at Hudson Cafeteria. We took a little bike cart with a guy named Vitaly pedalling us 18 blocks from the theatre to dinner! Again, we had excellent food! Now, this isn't a cafeteria like Luby's. It's very hip and swank and located in a popular boutique hotel.
Saturday
We slept in a bit and then headed towards the Staten Island Ferry. Michelle & Melanie got to take their first NY Subway to get there!
I've heard that lines to get on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty are very long, so we opted to just take the ferry to Staten Island and it does a nice drive-by of both Ellis Island and Lady Liberty. Bonus: the Staten Island Ferry is FREE!
We headed up to see Wall Street, then walked over to Ground Zero.
We got street vendor hot dogs for lunch.
Next, we headed to stroll down Bleecker Street. Of course, we stopped at Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes!
See Susan? She's waiting in line for a Magnolia cupcake!
We saw the NYU campus, Washington Square Park, and the old carriage houses on Washington Mews.
We kept walking through SoHo to Chinatown. We each bought a purse in Chinatown. I'd been wanting to get a much bigger leather one that would hold all my normal stuff, plus a book and an umbrella and I found one I love and got it for just $18!
We ate dinner at Angelo's in Little Italy, then grabbed dessert at Ferrara's to take home. Angelo's was great as always, but at Ferrara's we all tried Canoli's for the first time and none of us were terribly impressed! But, the Tiramisu was good!
Sunday
We started the day with a walk through Central Park. It was a gorgeous day and everything looked so green!
We tried to get half-price tickets to another show at TKTS, but the line was extremely long and they didn't have tickets for anything we were dying to see.
We ate at the Shake Shack for lunch. I really love their burgers...the shakes are good too!
We saw the Flatiron building, the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building.
We walked through Grand Central Station.
Outside Grand Central, they were filming a movie..."I am Legend" starring Will Smith. It doesn't come out until Christmas 2007. This was the 3rd time I've seen this movie being taped in various parts of the city, so I will love seeing it! But, this was the first time we actually caught a glimpse of Will Smith himself. Pretty exciting, even though we couldn't see him too well!
It's Will, I promise
Probably my favorite thing we did was Top of the Rock. As in Rockefeller Center. It was amazing! The view from up there put the city in an entirely different perspective for me. It's gorgeous, and huge, and crowded...I love it! I could kind of make out where I live and other areas I'm familiar with. You could see all of Manhattan. It was truly an amazing view!
We saw Madison Square Garden.
After our long morning/afternoon, we went home and rested before our big Brooklyn adventure. We walked through the quiet, ritzy neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights a little bit to get to Grimaldi's...a famous pizza place. Once again, we had a delicious meal! Afterwards, we got ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Then, we walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was excellent!
My weekend was fun-filled and I got to be a tourist again! We did some things I've done before, but I also got to have some new experiences. It was great to just hang with Michelle and Melanie, too. Michelle's coming back in a couple of months and Melanie will hopefully be back, too!