New York Anniversary Trip

On the second weekend of November, Randy and I took a little trip to Manhattan to celebrate our tenth anniversary (which was actually in July). My parents were in MD, so the kids were all taken care of (thanks, Mom and Dad). Randy was attending a one-day conference at Fordham, so the hotel and a meal were taken care of through his department, which made the trip so much easier for us! We have done most of the touristy stuff, so we didn't have much of an agenda except to relax, sleep and explore. I had talked to a friend that had lived in NYC at one time, and she gave me a lot of recommendations for food and things to do that were reasonable and fit with our interests.

We left on Friday morning and took the Megabus up to Penn Station. What a great way to travel, and so cheap (you save on gas, highway tolls, and parking in the city... let alone the stress!). We arrived in Manhattan at 11am and decided to walk to our hotel. I got a great deal at The Roosevelt (through Travelzoo), which included breakfast both mornings. When we got there at noon they said that they had a room ready for us. We dropped our stuff and went to Film Center Cafe for a great lunch at a great price. We did a lot of wandering. Later that afternoon while we were walking we found the Treats Truck... so awesome! We had a peanut butter brownie. We walked by all the fancy shops and headed to MOMA for their free Friday evening. We spent about an hour with the masses looking through their collections. It was very nice not to have to worry about the kids and keeping them entertained. We had a pretzel for dinner (our lunch was very big), and walked to see the ice rink set up at Rockefeller Center.

On Saturday Randy was attending the conference, so I had the day to myself. We started out with the delicious breakfast at the hotel. Randy took off, and I went back to bed and read. I actually read a ton that weekend. I knew I would spend the day shopping in Soho and around Union Square. Our hotel was right by Grand Central Station, which made using the subway super convenient. First I went to Union Square to wander around the farmer's market (I got some apples) and go to Strand Books. Then, I headed down to Soho. I went to Muji and bought a few little things, including these two awesome stamps I brought home for the kids. I also went to Pearl River Mart (I love their online store) to pick up some tea and wander around. Then I headed to Purl Soho and Purl patchwork. These two stores are teeny, tiny, but the fabric at Purl Patchwork was unbelievable. I especially liked this dancing animal linen by Kokka. Purl Soho is the yarn shop and it was just fun to look around. I had a little snack at the cafe next store (it was pouring down rain), and headed back to the hotel. I took a long nap and read. Randy got home at about 7 and we went to the Momofuku Noodle Bar in East Village. We actually sat down to eat at about 9:30, which is totally ridiculous for us. But we felt carefree being able to do that, and the food was fantastic!

The next morning we decided to explore Union Square together. We went to Strand Books (again) and Max Brenner for the most decadent chocolate milkshakes. Randy indulged me and accompanied me to ABC Carpet and Home, which was UNBELIEVABLE!!!! I didn't buy anything and was pretty much overwhelmed. While we were there we poked into Fishs Eddy, which is a very charming shop of tableware. I saw so many things that were cute and reasonably priced. Randy got me these glasses for Christmas. I love them and can't wait to use them!

We headed back to our hotel to get our luggage. On our way we roamed through the street market that they have every Sunday on Madison Ave near the hotel. We grabbed some gyros from a cart and headed back to Penn Station to get our bus.

What an amazing trip.