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| Marianne and Jenn capturing out first views of Central Park |
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| Mandi and Krystal |
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| Mandi and Marianne |
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| A musician under a bridge. |
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| Marianne, Jenn, Becky, Krystal |
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| Marianne, Mandi, Jenn, Becky |
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| Alice in Wonderland statue |
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| Marianne, Jenn, Becky, Krystal |
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| Oh! The magnolia trees! |
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| Shakespeare Gardens |
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| Krystal, Becky, Jenn, Mandi under the forsythia covered bridge |
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| Krystal, Mandi, and Jenn and the Hans Christian Anderson statue. |
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| Jenn and her Central Park hot dog. |
We picked the most gorgeous day of our trip to hit up Central Park. We spent half a day there, and honestly I felt like we could have spent 3 days there and still not seen it all. The place is huge. And what a place! All the cherry trees and magnolia trees were in bloom. It was amazing to me, that right in the middle of so much dense city--buildings that touch the sky, narrow streets with throngs of people walking shoulder to shoulder around all the traffic and vendors, concrete, etc. --is this HUGE piece of nature. Grass for days and days, paths to walk, flower gardens, giant old trees, fountains, ponds, horse drawn carriages, musicians, bridges, it really is nothing short of wondrous. And we were able to experience it on a perfect sun-shiny day, even though rain had been in the forecast all week.
One of Jenn's top things that she wanted to do on our trip was to eat a hot dog in Central Park, which she did, and it sort of became the object of hilarity and an on-going inside joke.
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| Lots of the streets we saw were narrow, with interesting architecture and large trees. |
After Central Park, and much debate about what would be the best most cost effective place to eat lunch, we decided to walk to Little Italy for pizza, and it was perfection. I keep saying that everything I ate while in New York was the best ever, but it truly was. It's a good thing I don't live in NY, because I'd probably gain about 50 pounds from eating all the wonderful things.
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| Lunch at Little Italy Pizza |
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| I had the margarita pizza, and it might have been the best pizza I've ever eaten in my life. Fresh tomatoes, fresh basil. Mmmmmmmm. |
While walking around, we also happened upon Levain Bakery, which is from a TV show? Maybe? I don't know. What I do know, is that the chocolate chip cookie I ate from there changed my life. Haha! All other chocoloate chip cookies for the rest of eternity will dim in comparison.
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| Followed by the very best gooey, delicious chocolate chip cookie I've ever eaten in my life from LeVaine Bakery. |
After dessert, we split up. Marianne and Jenn went to The Guggenheim (museum of modern art. and actually it ended up being closed when they got there, so they went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art instead), and Mandi, Becky and I went to the Museum of Natural History. Eventually in my life, I'd like to be able to say that I've visited all three. How do you choose? I'm a museum freak. Anyway, I the Museum of Natural History, Mandi and Becky and I spent a good deal of time searching for the exhibits we recognized from the movie Night at the Museum. We were there a couple hours and still didn't see even close to what there was to see.
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| I sent Aaron this picture, and told him I think we should add a baby ostrich to our list of farm animals. He said no. :( |
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| This was a cool mosaic at the subway station. |
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| Took this picture to show Lincoln. |
After the museums we met back up at the hotel and hung out for a bout a half hour. Then it was time for WICKED! And how to describe Wicked? I don't know if there is really a way. It was one of the most talented performances I've ever experienced, the orchestra, the acting, the singing! It all gets inside of you and becomes apart of you while you are sitting in the theater. The story was clever. I loved how they wrapped it around the original Wizard of Oz.
I'm falling in love with Broadway..... I can't help it. I need to see ALL the Broadways plays as soon as possible. Ok, maybe not all of them.....Spongebob on Broadway (yes, that's a real thing) doesn't sound particularly appealing, but Phantom is a must someday, as is Hamilton. And I'd see Wicked again, and I'd see Anastasia again.
And we were hungry after the play and they have these great little food kiosks and vendors all over. We stopped at Wafels & Dinges and I had a Nutella Hazelnut Waffle and, you better believe it, it was the best dessert waffle I've ever eaten. Haha!
Okay, so here's more on the hot dog saga. Jenn was a bit dissappinted with her Central Park hot dog, because you know, people are always raving about them. So she thought the maybe if she bought a hotdog from a different place, it would be more the experience she was looking for.....so after eating a dessert waffle, she found another vendor selling hot dogs, and bought one....but we'd already eaten SO much food, that it made her sick and she couldn't eat it all. And of course we laughed, and gave her a hard time about hot dogs for the rest of the night. She threw her half eaten hot dog in the garbage in the hotel room. Well, Mandi snuck it out of the garbage and placed it on her pillow to find when she went to bed, and I saw it and got the giggles and had to take a picture. And for the rest of our trip there was abundant mention of hot dogs (and circus peanuts, which are Mandi's favorite and no one else likes). This is why it's so much fun to travel with just the girls!
