New York City might be my favorite city in the world. I just love this place. I love the food, the action, the endless things to do, explore and experience. Every time I go to the city I find some new place I have never seen or been and enjoy going back to the same touristy areas every time as well. For some reason, they never get old.
This time in the city we found a great deal on a hotel a block away from Times Square. So once we checked in (at 11pm) we headed out for a late dinner at Famous Amadeus. How can you go wrong starting your weekend off with a great slice of New York pizza?! After we ate, we just wondered around Times Square and took in lots of people watching.
The next morning, we were up and out early, there was a lot to see and do today. We started off with good bagels from Times Square Hot Bagels and sat at a table in Times Square to eat. It was definitely a lot quieter and a lot less people early in the morning before everyone gets started.
While the city continued to sleep, we went walking south. We were able to find a few things that were opened and did a little shopping. We made our way down to the Lower East Side in search for a street fair but before we got there we found the World's Best Doughnuts at Doughnut Plant. We have been here before and ever since the first time we tried these, I have periodically dreamt about these doughnuts. They are just that good.
We did make it to the market that we wanted to check out called Hester Street Fair. It was a lot smaller then we had hoped but it had a lot of great things. It is so amazing what people can do and how resourceful people can be. It always impresses me and inspires me. I was so proud of myself for only walking out of the fair with one new pair of earrings. After the fair, we wondered into Chinatown and did a little shopping in Soho. Jed had read about a dumpling place in Chinatown that made fried dumplings like the ones in China so we had to check out Prosperity Dumpling. He says they were good but not as good as the original ones but they were only a dollar so you can't be that! It was so neat to walk around Chinatown after being in China only a month or so ago.
Shopping ended up being a bit of a bust but we found a lot of fun areas we haven't been to or haven't seen to in a long time. We decided to stop for a late lunch at Soho Park. It was a really fun place on the corner where we were able to get a table outside and spend time just people watching. As we were walking around, we ran into Baked By Melissa and I just couldn't pass them up. I love these cupcakes and they are so tiny I figured they didn't really count.
I did want to try one new cupcake place in the city. It appears that I have knocked a lot off the list and had a hard time finding a new place that was in an area that we were going to be in. After visiting a few that we realized once we got there we had already been, we were able to find a new one, Molly's cupcakes. It was the winner of Cupcake Wars so that was fun and exciting. The cupcake was good and the atmosphere and the service in there store front was great. We sat at there bar with our cupcake and loved the entire experience.
We decided to walk back to the hotel so we could get ready for the evening activities. Along the way we found a fun street fair. Every block has almost the same thing but it didn't matter to us. We looked at it all like it was the first time we had ever seen it. Once we made it back to Times Square, Jed stopped for a snack before we got back to the hotel at Rickshaw Dumplings. This "food truck" place is so cool! They have made there food truck out of a dumpster!
We finally made it back to the hotel, did a quick wardrobe change and headed back out to see Newsies on Broadway. I loved this movie growing up. I have such fun memories of going with friends to see it at a movie theatre and watching it on Disney and making a VHS tape off the Disney channel so I could watch it over and over again. I think I even still have the VHS, I can't believe I didn't wear it out! Jed has never seen the movie so he didn't really know what to expect.
I think we got the last to seats in the theatre. They actually added them just for us as we were sitting on chairs they brought in from somewhere and just put at the end of a row. We were on the floor but the view was partially blocked but we didn't care. We were in the theatre and that is all that mattered. The show was fantastic! We were both so impressed with the production and left the theatre in amazement of what the performers are capable of doing. There were a lot of songs from the original Newsies movie and they are just so fun and catchy. It was just so fun and I think everyone should see this show. It is great for everyone.
After the show ended we had about an hour before the Comedy Show we had tickets to started. So we quickly made our way to Nizza. It is a great Italian restaurant a block or two outside of Times Square. We again, got to sit outside and enjoy the cool weather and all the different people that walked by.
Our final stop for the night was the midnight show at The Broadway Comedy Club. We got tickets from a guy in Times Square that promised us big things. We did have a good time but it was a little pricey. Even though it was a little pricey, you felt like you got your moneys worth since it lasted 2 hours and we were able to see about 7 or so different comics. Some of the comics were really bad and one or two that were really funny. It is something I have always wanted to do and I was so glad we were able to do it.
We still had part of Sunday to make the most out of the city so despite no sleep, we were up and out early. We decided we would head out to a restaurant for breakfast that Jed use to go to with his sister down in Tribeca, Bubby's. The food was great and the place was really cool. It was neat to hear about what that area use to be like and how much everything, even the restaurant, had changed.
After breakfast we headed town to walk by the water. We stumbled upon Hudson River Park. I was so excited to randomly find this. It was great. It had just about everything! We walked around and saw the playground, the soccer field, mini golf, beach volleyball pits, basketball courts and seats to just sit and watch the water and the boats go by. There were a ton of people running with friends and with dogs, it was just great. We wondered around for a while just enjoying the weather and the view.
We decided to start to slowly make our way back towards Times Square and the hotel and the car but we stopped in Union Square first. They almost always have markets in the square on the weekends and this weekend was no different. It was pretty small but it was still great to check out the artwork and crafts that people have done. As we were walking around we saw the most amazing site... food trucks! They were all lined up and I was so excited. I think food trucks are so cool. It hadn't been that long since we had eaten breakfast so we weren't hungry at all but I couldn't pass up the opportunity so we just got an ice cream treat from Coolhaus. It was really good and I am so glad we were able to find the food trucks and take part in the food truck frenzy.
After walking around Union Square we decided we should start the sad process of leaving. We got back to Times Square and wanted to grab a Jamba Juice for the ride home. On our way to Jamba, we passed by TKTS. TKTS sells day of Broadway and off-Broadway tickets for a discounted price. We decided to torture ourselves and see what they were selling for the 3pm Sunday shows. We came SO CLOSE to getting half off tickets to see Rock of Ages on Broadway but we decided we really needed to just get in the car and head home.
We both hated to leave the city but we were so glad we had the chance to go and spend sometime hanging out together in a city that we both love. As we drove home, we were a little disappointed that we didn't get one last slice of New York pizza so we decided to stop for pizza in Hagerstown at Rocky's New York Pizza. It was so funny that as we approached the restaurant, we realized we had called ahead and ordered pizza from here before. Thankfully we liked the pizza. Maybe next time we will remember we have already been here or maybe we will just make it part of the tradition of the drive back from NYC.
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