New York City :: Day 1

I figured it was about time I got around to writing about my trip to New York City since I've been back for about two weeks now.

I took the red-eye from DIA to LGA and I think that's the last time I take a red-eye again. The flight was about 4 hours, but it was freezing, the seats were uncomfortable, and there were lots of babies on my flight. Luckily, only one of them cried, but that's one too many! I was able to sleep a little on the flight, but not as much as I had hoped to. I also stopped and got Chipotle for dinner and I'm calling that the first $10 wasted on my trip since I wasn't even hungry by the time I sat down to eat.

When my flight landed, I had to catch the M60 bus to meet my friend Krista near her apartment in Harlem. I bought at $9 MetroCard with a $1 service charge (the next $10 wasted on the trip) and I wish I had just purchased the 7-day unlimited card right away since it was only $30 and would have lasted my entire trip. (I didn't buy it till the next day.) Anyway, I had no problem with the bus and got off on the right stop and then walked to meet Krista outside her apartment. After we caught up for a bit (since we hadn't seen each other in months), I took a quick nap.

After I woke up, we decided to head to Shake Shack near Times Square for lunch. Our friend Travis, from whom I grew up across the street, caught up with us there so we could spend the afternoon together. Shake Shack was great, but it was also $18. Usually I don't like crinkle fries, but they were good. I thought I took a picture of my whole meal before I started eating like a good blogger, but apparently I didn't. Luckily, Krista was eating her fries very slowly, so I was still able to get a picture of something!

After lunch, we walked through Times Square and discussed trying to see NPH in Hedwig (that didn't happen), but we ended up at NBC. Since it was Saturday, there wasn't even the slightest chance of seeing Liz Lemon or Jimmy Fallon, but we walked around inside and outside. Unfortunately, they're not doing studio tours right now, otherwise I would have done one on a different day! I also tried to get tickets to The Tonight Show on Monday or Tuesday evenings, but I wasn't able to. That was a bummer.

 Krista and Travis

Saks Fifth Ave

We went across the street into St. Patrick's Cathedral and it was absolutely breathtaking. However, it was a bit of a strange experience. There were people in there praying and in the back, there was something going on, but there were also all these tourists (like us) walking around, in addition to a bunch of construction that left scaffolding all throughout the inside and outside of the church. Still, it is easily the most beautiful church I've ever been in.

Travis works at Sprinkles on the Upper East Side, so we made our way over there, even though Krista and I were still full from lunch. We had bet on whether or not a certain character would be making an appearance in the season finale of Game of Thrones, and since I lost, I owed her a cupcake.

We both chose red velvet, and I kid you not, it was the best cupcake I had ever had in my entire life!

I also wanted to try Laduree and since it was kind of nearby, we decided to walk around the UES some more to hit that up as well.

Of course I had to stop and be a total tourist on the steps of someone's gorgeous brownstone. Sorry, residents!

But we made it to Laduree just before it started to rain and I picked up a box of six macarons. If I remember correctly, the flavors from left to right are: orange blossom, lemon, rose petal, peach, pistachio, and raspberry. They were delicious!

We decided to head back to Krista's apartment since it was raining and we were both tired after having walked around for hours. We hung out for a bit before walking down the street to Pisticci on LaSalle. It was amazing. I had fettucine ai funghi (mushroom fettucine) and it was the best pasta of my life! Plus the restaurant was really cute and had great ambiance.

After that, we decided to call it a night and went back to Krista's apartment to watch Orange is the New Black and go to sleep early.