Christmas In New York!

Mike and I have had a wonderful whirlwind December...and I can't believe it's over already! Our Christmas gift to each other this year was a long weekend in New York. What a gift it was! The city is so incredible, and we could spend days just walking through one neighborhood. The first night there was the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center, so we stayed away (the NYPD was setting up blockades blocks away due to the crowds!) and instead walked to a fabulous little French bistro, Matisse.

 

We did get to see the tree later into the trip!

Thursday was the only day we had a plan. We booked a walking history/food tour of the Lower East Side. We were the only ones that signed up, so we had a really personal tour with our guide. We learned a lot about the immigration into NY (and therefore the whole country - really interesting!), and also the culture and foods that are in these awesome neighborhoods. We stopped for dumplings in Chinatown, Dutch waffles, Yonah Schimmel Knishes, a deli in Little Italy, the Essex Street Market, Katz's Deli, and ended with pretzels and beer at a German beer garden. We were so into the immigrant history that after the tour we went to the Tenement Museum where we were able to walk through a preserved tenement building and learn about two immigrant families who lived there in the 1870s and 1930s.

Mike had posted on Facebook that we were in the city, and through that we found out that his cousin, Erin, and her family were in town from Boston as well. We were able to meet up and spent the evening with their beautiful family. Many thanks to the gracious hosts for inviting us up to their apartment for a glass of wine! We're going back for more gyros next time we're in the city!

Dinner at the Halal Guys - the best food truck in town!

On our rainy Friday we went up through Central Park to the Frick museum - a personal home and art collection that is now an incredible museum. It's not a huge museum, but has one of the best collections of art I've ever seen! We also got tickets that day to go to Phantom of the Opera - amazing! It really solidified itself as one of my favorite shows. We also ended up with souvenirs: Mike went to get us a glass of wine before the show, and $45 later showed up with 2 glasses of wine in the theater required souvenir "sippy cups". Only in NY can you get away with charging that much for vino!

Our tour guide had recommended a fun walk, so we tried that on Saturday. Starting downtown we took the Staten Island ferry on a scenic round trip to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. What views! We then hiked northbound to Greenwich Village. During lunch we reserved tickets for a midnight comedy show, so we had the whole night to enjoy ourselves before that (we knew we couldn't go back to the hotel, or we were going to fall asleep!) We ended up having dinner at a small restaurant and befriended the bartender. She suggested we go up to a place in Times Square where her boyfriend worked: Jekyll & Hyde. What a crazy/kooky place! It's "haunted" and has all sorts of special effects - like bar stools on hydraulics that move up and down, and a "hidden" bathroom. We had fun waiting for the comedy show...and it was worth the wait too - 5 hilarious comedians - and one we recognized from The Daily Show.

At Jekyll & Hyde - the front entrance/exit included this library full of...odds & ends.

Sunday we spent walking the Highline Park before taking the train back home again.  Even with all that touring, we have so much more we want to see in NY. What an amazing city!