NYC - Part One

My brother and sis-in-law have been living in NYC for the past year. They're thinking of leaving at the end of August so my mom and I made last minute plans to go up and see Matthew, DeAnna and the City.

It was restaurant week while we were in town, so we had some pretty cool dinner reservations. If you're ever in NYC, I highly recommend checking out these places.

• BUTTER http://www.butterrestaurant.com/


• Morimoto - Owned by the Iron Chef Morimoto http://www.morimotonyc.com/


• Delmonico's Steakhouse - If you're interested, check out all of their 1st's http://www.delmonicosny.com/


• Tribeca Grill - Co-owned by Robert DeNiro www.myriadrestaurantgroup.com/tribecagrill/index.html
  
• Cafe Reggio - The 1st cafe in the US to serve cappuccino http://www.cafereggio.com/


• Magnolia Bakery - You might recognize it from the show Sex and the City http://www.magnoliabakery.com/
• Lombardi's Pizza - Matthew claims this is the best NY pizza. They claim they were the birthplace of NY style pizza! http://www.firstpizza.com/
  

Matthew and DeAnna were also my personal tour guides and took me to all their favorite places. At the end of the trip Matthew mapped out all of our excursions and determined that we walked almost 25 miles. I'm pretty sure that is a first for me!

The rest of this post will be pictures, so let me quickly share the things that I learned in NYC.

• 4 days is entirely too long to be away from my baby girl. For now, I am limiting myself to 2 days, at least until Lila is older.


• Walking along the Hudson River, Central Park and even sitting around Washington Square Park are things that you MUST do while in NYC. Their parks are one of a kind.


• I was surprised by how little I enjoyed Times Square and Chinatown, but I am glad that I at least visited them each at least once.


• Raising a family in NYC looks impossible, but somehow lots of people manage to do it. I think my little family will stay put in the Midwest for now!

At XNA, waiting to board our "over sold" flight. Thank goodness we made the cut!

Headed into the City through the Holland Tunnel

Dinner at Butter

Fountain at Washington Square Park

Entrance to Morimoto's

Appetizer at Morimoto's

Cool light display inside Morimoto's

Ground Zero - I can't believe after almost 9 yrs it still looks like this.

A memorial for all of the Police Officers who have given their lives for NYC.

Some of the yachts docked along the Hudson River.

The Universal Soldier Memorial

The Merchant Marine Memorial

A cool fountain in Battery Park where people can play and cool off on a hot day

Memorial for all of the U.S. Military that drowned in the Atlantic Ocean 1941-1945.

Dinner at Delmonico's Steakhouse

Since we were so close, we walked down to Wall Street to see the NYSE after dinner

Tiffany's was right across the street. Too bad they were closed!

Then it was off to Times Square - As busy as it was on a random Friday night, I cannot imagine how crazy this place gets on New Year's Eve!

Rockerfeller Center - This place is an ice skating rink in the winter time. Right now it was set up as a restaurant.

This chocolate shop had the prettiest window display. If they spend that much time on their windows, I can't imagine how yummy their chocolate must be!

Doesn't this Police Dept look intimidating?

Just glanced down the road at "Little Italy" as we were headed for Chinatown.

The only thing I liked about Chinatown was how yummy all the fresh fruit looked.

One of my guilty pleasures is the "Real Housewives" series on Bravo. One of the RHW of NY, Jill Zarin owns Zarin Fabrics so I had to take a picture!