Empire State of Mind (Day 2)

How come it only takes 24 hours to feel like a real New Yorker? We started our trip yesterday and we were awkwardly looking around to see what everyone else did to get on the subway. But on Day 2, we were swiping our Metro Card like we did it everyday and made jokes while we waited for the N Train. We knew that the Canal Street subway station smelled like a bathroom. We knew that we could skip the donut cart because we were headed for something better. We were city girls now!

First we headed to Little Italy for some "love at first bite." We started our morning here...


Ferrara's - Little Italy



And we were like two kids in a candy store with these options for breakfast! Ok, I really would not recommend this for breakfast because I didn't realize it was truly a pastry shop. But, we were on vacation, so why not have pastries for breakfast? Why all these rules? Just give me this...



I obsessively watch "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network and Chef Alex Guarnaschelli said this was her favorite thing to eat with a coffee in NYC. It's called a "Lobster Tail" (I'm sure you know why) and it's a crispy, flaky pastry filled with oodles of a custard like vanilla cream. It's exactly the opposite of Special K for breakfast. And it was delicious!



Honestly, the best thing about Ferrara's was the cappucino! I don't know what they are doing to their foam, but it was gravity defying!



After our healthy breakfast, we decided to walk around Little Italy for a bit and then head to Chinatown to get our shop on!



For some reason, I don't think the 'peeps on the street' along Canal Street would be cool with me taking lots of pictures. Let me just say, we got the full experience. There are plenty of "Rolodexes" and "Louis Be Gone's" to be had. All you need to do is give a nod to anyone wearing a down puffer jacket. Hmmm... I wonder what their summer uniform is???

After making our way from Chinatown to the East Village, we shopped until we dropped. We had to stop for nourishment! I'm sure you were worried about us. Another must eat was the best of New York pizza. After many lunch hours of internet research and reading the wars of restaurant reviews over NYC's best pizza, I finally decided on...

Artichoke Basille

This place was no bigger than a broom closet. I would bet the room was no wider than the pizza oven. And the waiting area to order pizza fit about 6 people comfortably. Dining options were either "stand inside and be squished" or "stand outside in the fresh air." I guess we were lucky because we found a 5 foot bench to sit down and eat our food. However, I would forgive eating this pizza sitting on top of a trashcan if I had to because it was so good!



They only serve 4 options for pizza. Don't try and say (in a whining voice): "I don't like artichokes. Can you please take them off?" They will say "No." Your choices are: Artichoke Spinach, Margherita, Sicilian, and Crab. I went classic with the Margherita pizza and Court got the Artichoke, but of course we tried each other's! The Margherita slice was the perfect balance of sweet fresh tomato sauce, bubbly mozzarella and fresh basil leaves.



Their namesake slice is the Artichoke Pizza. It tasted like cheesy spinach artichoke dip slathered all over hot crusty bread. Does that tempt you? Oh yes, it was really that good! Trust me, it made their lack of tables forgivable. :)

After that, we headed back to Times Square to see things during the day. We also had to force ourselves to go to Toys R' Us to get our promised gifts for the boys. Somehow it had proven to be very difficult to find "sea creatures" (per Devon) and "a grey racecar" (per Judah) in all the stores we had been to. So, we just gave up and headed to kiddie heaven, aka... Toys R' Us in Times Square.


I love the slightly creepy Panda in the background.



It's hard to be in kiddie heaven and not feel like a kid again! Suddenly, those giant lollipops were looking very tempting. And we felt the need to ride the indoor ferris wheel. Would we get the Barbie car? Or the Toy Story car? Oh please, oh please... let us get a cute car? Hmmm... yes, we reverted back to age 4! We got the Little Tikes Car! And we were a little bit guilty because we knew our boys would be totally jealous if they could see their mamas riding the ferris wheel in the Little Tikes Car. Ha!

After all our adventures, we only had one thing left to do.

It's campy. It's so NYC. It is the title of a movie...

Serendipity!



Ok, anyone who is a real New Yorker would say "it's Serendipity 3" with a look of total annoyance. And then they would probably say "you know, there are better places to eat..." But hey, we were only in NYC for 48 hours and we didn't care. We wanted to do the quintessential tour of the city and that included one very large Frozen Hot Chocolate!



They know that's the only thing you are going to order, whether you have two people or ten sitting at your table. All you would hear all day is "One Frozen Hot Chocolate please." So, they put a $16 dollar minimum in fine print at the bottom of the menu. So basically, you are just not going to have a Frozen Hot Chocolate. You are going to have to pick something. Oh the torture... So we ordered Potato Skins too. Why be good when you can be bad??? And they were good... very, very, very good. Mmmmmmm... creamy, dreamy, icy chocolate and hot, crispy, cheesy potato skins... It was the icing on our cake. It was the cherry on top!

We had seen it all. We had ate it all. We had laughed so hard that we were inappropriate. We had made new memories. We had walked until our feet were blistered and our legs were made of jello. We waved at the Empire State Building like tourists and rode the subway like real New Yorkers.

Maybe a little too real...


Real New Yorkers aren't impressed by the subway. They are bored. They sleep!

So, Court... we'll always have New York! I love you and am so thankful to have a sister like you! Hugs!