NoLita and Little Italy

We spent our last afternoon shopping in NoLita and moseying around little Italy! 

Nolita is a little neighbourhood just north of little Italy. Great shops!! I got 3 new dresses and Brad got some new raw denim jeans! 

We stumbled across a little festival in Little Italy that reminded us of Pescina!

Brad pinned some money onto Saint Anthony

And we got gelato!! It was just like we were back in real Italy!! There was even a store that seemed to exclusively sell nativity scenes!! Time to get ready for Christmas!!

Now we are happily on our way to the airport after having lunch at Dig Inn on 55th between 5th and 6th. It was SO good!! If you have a chance stop by! Great food to go! 

See everyone soon!!

Pretzels at Tiffany's

"And I said what about... Pretzels at Tiffany's!!"

Panorama-tastic

I have been over using the panorama feature on my iPhone since we have been here. It's so great to use because everything here is so big!! Here are some choice panoramas!!

The cityscape at night from the top of the Empire State Building:

Huge dinosaur at the Natural History museum

Three panels of Monet's water Lilys

The view from our patio!

Yankee stadium by day

Yankee stadium by night!

Geez... I think I could have done with MORE panoramas!! Huge mistake... Hope you enjoyed!!

Yankees!!!

We went with Sherm and Michelle to the Yankees vs Mets game at Yankee stadium!

It was super packed on the subway out there and it is hot and humid!! Sweaty for sure :-/

By the time we got some drinks and an obligatory hot dog and got to our seats the Mets were already up by 5 runs in the top of the first inning! Good thing Michelle had her Mets T-shirt on! Looks like we wouldn't be beat up after all!!

Side note... There are only patriotic fries available at Yankee stadium...

We had great seats for the game and it was a great experience!! 

 

We got Yankees hats so we would fit in and cracker jacks too!! Brad didn't know what cracker jacks were! :-o

We met tons of people around us in our seats and had a really fun time... Although I'll admit it was hard to intensely follow the game... This is no playoff hockey that's for sure!! We headed out a little bit early to try and beat the crowds... And because the Yankees were losing pretty bad still. I was hoping for a come from behind win!! Alas...

After we got back to midtown Sherm and Michelle took us to the best street meat food cart in New York - The Halal Guys! It was delicious!! And super filling... Ugh. And it was only $6! What a deal! It was 11pm on a Wednesday and there were at least 20 people in line ahead of us! Worth the wait for sure!!

 

We had a super fun last night in New York with Sherm and Michelle! We will miss hanging out with you guys!! You will have to come and visit Vancouver soon!! :)

MoMA

Today we did the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Some parts of it are kinda weird... But most of it is amazing!! 

They had so many Picasso's and Matisse and Monet! It was great!! And this famous Van Gogh:

 

Here are some other pieces we really enjoyed:

The last one close up is actually really textured:

Super cool!

In the design area they had an installation on video games which was really cool! Everything from pacman to Portal! There were some crazy Japanese games as well. One that was based solely on music that brad and I couldn't really figure out how to work and another that was supposed to replicate real life. You could choose to have a life partner or not and you wander through this world trying to avoid obstacles and find rewards. At the end you die! And when your life partner dies you slow down with all of the grief. It's pretty crazy. 

We also wanted to go see the Rain Room installation. It looks AMAZING! But the line up was at capacity for the day when we got there... It's a pretty big ticket! You go into a geodesic dome and it is raining inside... But it never rains on you!! The rain will stop above you!! We really wanted to go check it out! Oh well... C'est la vie!

Overall MoMA was pretty cool... But I definitely don't get some of the more modern art stuff...:) I'll stick with Picasso, Degas, and Monet!!

Natural History Museum

This was probably my favourite museum that we went to in New York! I had never been to a natural history museum before! 

Obviously our first stop was the T-Rex!!

All of the Dino bones were super cool and super huge!!! Check out this giant turtle!

Whaattt!!!

I loved all of the bones and all of the evolutionary linkages! They had all of the different phyla organized together and you could see the progression of different evolutionary traits!! Loved it! I was so immersed that I didn't take that many pictures! 

My other fav area was the tree and plant section!! Check out the cross section of this giant sequoia!

They had a great section on biodiversity and on oceans. Brad loved the gems and rocks section - especially because he is now a diamond expert ;)

The only part that I wasn't down with was all the taxidermied animals... It got a little creepy after a while. Also, there was a whales exhibit that was open but you had to pay extra! By the time we found out we couldn't pay to get in :( boooo. Regardless... A great museum! I want to go back!!

In the evening we went to the Gotham Comedy Club for a comedy show!

We were seated at a table super close to the stage and we were kinda worried about it... But another group got seated closer so we were more or less out of the woods!! It was a great show!! I would highly suggest checking out a show if you are in the neighbourhood!!

Carnegie Deli and the Empire State Building!

Luckily the world famous Carnegie deli is only 2 blocks from our hotel and is open until 4am! We got a late dinner and it was delicious!! Brad got the Woody Allen - which is pastrami and corned beef... for those who can't decide. I wasn't that hungry so I thought I would try a knish! I also didn't think it would be the size of a football...

Check out Brad trying to manage his Woody Allen and the minimal damage that we did to my knish. 

Here is Brad enjoying his giant sandwich:

After we were so full with meat we couldn't move, we hailed a cab and headed to the Empire State Building!! 

All I have to say is wow!! Also... 12:30am is possibly the best time to go up!! There was no one there and you get to see all the city lights!! Although it was a little chilly!!

Check out the awesome views! You can see the flatiron building at the bottom of the shot and the new world trade centre at the top. 

Check out Times Square all lit up!!

Brad and I got our own elevator on the way down so we were enjoying it!!

All in all a great time!!

The Met!

Disclaimer... I didn't really like the Met that much :-/ although I have heard from others that it is their favourite museum. To me it kinda felt like a lesser version of the British Museum and the Louvre. There was a brand new exhibit about photos from the Civil War which  was pretty cool. No photos allowed though! Nonetheless, we still have some great photos from the other areas!!

This stained glass reminded me of the Cluny museum in Paris!

 

Brad loved this Van Gogh! 

And legitimately there were some great impressionist painting by Monet, Manet, and my new favourite...

Love it!!! 

And of course... No museum visit is complete without a visit to the Near Eastern wing!! Huzzah!

There was also a really cool section about musical instruments from the past and different areas of the world

So although it wasn't my favourite ever... We still saw a lot of interesting stuff!!

Times Square!

Times Square at 1am on a Monday is definitely something to behold... The favourite thing that I heard was "watch out for the BABY". What the heck....

Anyway, it was great!

Crazay!! There was someone singing happy birthday... There was someone else taking SUPER awkward pictures with their own personal professional photographers and there was a super smelly guy that we saw in the m&m store and then again throughout the night. Good times. It's like advertising overload!!!

We went during the day and it seemed less cool and more crammed... My advice - 1am on a weekday! You will for sure see infants!!! Haha. 

Brooklyn Bridge

The sun finally came out on Sunday so we decided to walk across the Brooklyn bridge and grab some pizza from Grimaldi's!!

 It was a beautiful walk... Although the bike path really took up a lot of space and left all the tourists pretty squished to one side! Regardless, it was a beautiful day!!

You could even see the Statue of Liberty although we can't go visit because of damage from hurricane Sandy (it is scheduled to open on July 4 which makes me think it is probably ready to go now...oh well...)

Brad has been to Grimaldi's before... But apparently where it used to be is not where it is anymore :-O after much moseying under and around the Brooklyn bridge.... We found it!! In a newer and larger location! We only waited 20 minutes... It helped that we were a 2-some!

Yum!!!

After our delicious meal at Grimaldi's we walked back across the bridge to lower manhattan to continue our day!!! See next post for our next location...