An Epic Thanksgiving

Taylor and I decided that for Thanksgiving this year we would have ourselves a little adventure, and since I've never been to New York City before and it's so close to us now we decided to try the whole Chinese food on Thanksgiving deal! And guys, I totally fell off the gluten-free wagon, and let me tell you...bad news bears! Two words: Aliens, 1986.

We decided to start our adventure off right; with an eight hour bus ride! Granted, we were expecting traffic delays due to the holiday and all, but 4 extra hours!? We were champs, and it was cheap! Over all it wasn't a terrible experience, the bus was fairly comfortable! We got into The Big Apple a little later than we had intended, and made our way to the subway, but us rookies, we got on the wrong on! I guess we thought ABC was one train, not three separate ones and we ended up in Brooklyn before we realized we were so sooooo wrong. Oh, and guys, those subways are kind of scary, and kind of really gross...I mean, super glamorous. (I'm totally not hating, it simply made me grateful for the cleanliness of the metro here in DC)

We finally made it to our hotel a little late, but we were STARVING. Herman, the super nice concierge guy recommended a little restaurant around the corner called Ecco, which he gloated as the best Italian around. It totally was. Go there! After dinner we went straight to bed so we could get a head start the next day! My plan was to wake up super early and get to a good Parade watching spot at, like, 7 am. Ha Ha Ha, riiiiiight. 

We ended up sleeping in and leaving the hotel around the time the parade started at 9am (good try Kelc). After a lot of wandering around we found a fairly good spot in Bryant Park to watch the parade! Yay!

Okay, so it wasn't the best view ever, but it was good enough for me! Considering how frozen my snot was at this point, we decided NOT to watch the whole deal (I mean, they rerun the parade later in the day on TV anyways, with a better view no less!). We took off about half-way through and ducked into a little diner for some breakfast before heading to the Empire State Building (we figured everyone was watching the parade so there wouldn't be crazy lines, we were sooooo right).

 This trip taught us a definite benefit to traveling with friends...non-selfies. Sorry about all the arms-length-away photos, we did our best!

We had a recommendation to eat at Lombardi's for some good pizza, so we headed there next! (We totally got around...)

After pizza we took the subway out to Brooklyn so we could walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Brooklyn Bridge! I think it was definitely my favorite thing about the city.

 On our walk back to the hotel we checked out Wall Street and The Statue of Liberty ( I didn't feel like a ferry ride and super long lines so we caught the view of her from Battery Park and my phone died, so no photos!!) We went back to the hotel, charged our phones, and kicked our feet up for a couple hours before heading out to find ourselves a Thanksgiving meal!

 I know you guys aren't judging my crappy grainy iphone photos right now, because you understand, right?

We found Red Farm, for our cliche Chinese Thanksgiving meal. It was a fun little place. It was all family-style seating, so we shared our Thanksgiving table with some ridiculously hilarious (not on purpose) Jewish Playwright/Actors (?). Let's just say we overheard some pretty interesting conversations.

We order some yummy tempura sweet potatoes, and some crab and duck dumplings for appetizers, and the kitchen made extra sweet potatoes so we got a second helping on the house! Thank you Red Farm! That photo right there was my Thanksgiving special Peking Turkey! It was impressively displayed! I won't lie, we missed the classic Thanksgiving turkey, potatoes and stuffing, but it was fun to step outside our normal traditions and give something else a try!

After dinner we went and saw Hunger Games: Catching Fire. AMAAAAAAAHHHHZING! Oh my gosh. #teamgale right here, won't lie. Brilliantly done! Bravo! Magifico!

Friday we slept in. We were SOOOOOO exhausted from our crazy tourist Thanksgiving! We had the most expensive hotel breakfast of my life (I mean, $25 each for a two eggs and toast combo!?!?!?! I still can't believe we did that. Never again.) and took our time getting ready. We went to The Shake Shack on the Upper West Side for lunch (suh good) and hit up Levain Bakery for a cookie-to-go for our stroll through Central Park. Guys, I thought Levain Bakery was all hype, how a bakery bought cookie be so good that EVERYONE blogs about it? But, really, it was. All my dreams came true with that chocolate chip walnut cookie. Again, suh good.

Another reason we slept in: we knew our day was going to be packed and Kelcie's little footsies couldn't handle more than twelve hours out and about...

After central pack we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was nice, but honestly I wasn't super impressed...sorry. After that we went to the MoMa (on my request, I dig that modern art). I really LOVED it, Taylor...not as much, but it was crowded. We got a tip inside that Friday nights are free, you just have to stand in line. They didn't tell us the line literally wrapped around the entire block! Lucky for us, it went super quick. Next time I'll do the MoMa when it isn't so crazy for sure, like, not on Friday night.

After we finished at the MoMa we grabbed food at a little sushi place, checked out the Rockefeller Center and Times Square before heading to see WICKED!!!! I Love it! I LOVE IT!! I've, of course, heard most of the soundtrack,  but it was really so much fun! And because we bought last minute expensive tickets we had awesome seats! Thank you Taylor! I love you!

 Our last day was Saturday, and we took our time getting ready again because we were BEAT from our long, awesome night on Friday! We ran and got some yummy NYC Bagels for breakfast and brought them back to the hotel to eat them (we weren't about to pay for that hotel breakfast again...no way jose!). Our first stop after checking out was the 9/11 Memorial, which we happen to be staying across the street from. And while the line to get was the most ridiculous thing of my life, I'm so glad we did it. GORGEOUS. The feeling I had standing there was one of the most sacred I've ever had. I highly recommend seeing it, and see it early before the line gets crazy so you can really go into with a humble and reflective attitude. Amazing.

 I've never seen such a well done memorial in my life. It is so inspiring and thought provoking and beautiful. I could have stood there and watched the water for hours. I'm not exaggerating.

We went and ate at The Meatball Shop for lunch. We're awesome and watch Sunday Morning on PBS with Charles Osgood every week, and it spotlighted the Meatball Shop a couple weeks ago. And if Charles Osgood reports on a restaurant, you go to there. This was, no foolin', my very favorite place we ate at the whole trip! BEST OF MY LIFE! The atmosphere was so fun with their collection of vintage silverware and moody lighting. Taylor and I both had meatball heroes and the best ice cream sandwiches of all time! I mean, homemade pumpkin icecream stuff between two homemade pecan cookies! Get. Out. It was small, and crowded, and the door kept opening bringing the coldest chill ever, but we absolutely LOVE-ED IT!

 We had a few hours to kill before our train ride home, so we made our way over to see the big piano at FAO Schwarz, because Tom Hanks touched that piano, that's why. I didn't take many photos there because that part of town was insane with Christmas shoppers. not even worth trying to pull out my phone. Also, it was freezing and I didn't want my fingers to freeze off when I took off my glove to operate my iphone camera, you understand, of course.

 And that, my friends, was our fun, cliche, New York City Thanksgiving adventure! And while we had an absolute blast, I'm excited to do the traditional Thanksgiving next year...in Arizona with the sun, and the 75 degree weather, and the swimming pool, and the nieces and nephews. Thank you New York, for treating and Taylor and I like your family this Thanksgiving!

xoxo, gossip girl

(hahaha, I had to, sorry)