Friday morning we woke up
well rested after yesterday’s early travel and walking marathon. I can’t
remember what we ate for breakfast, but I’m pretty sure we just had some
protein bars and coffee before beginning our journey to the Chelsea Market. This was one of the areas that Mere wanted to
see, and it worked out well, since the day was mostly full of drizzle. We got
to the market, which was amazingly cool. It was just one of those
“Instagramable” places, full of people snapping shots left and right with foot
traffic almost running them over. We walked through some of the shops (one of
our favorites was Artists and Fleas) until we got
hangry for brunch, which had now just turned into lunch. Friedman's
Lunch had been our target, and we lucked out to not
have to wait long to get a table.
Chelsea Market
After hitting Anthropology, we walked to Cafe Grumpy which was nothing special, especially after getting drenched in the rain. From there, we took a cab to see Grand Central Terminal. It is another one of those spaces you just have to see. The interior volume of that building is just amazing. Combine that with the bustling crowd, it is one of the “quintessential” New York City experience. Even though we had eaten not long ago, I wanted to finally get some oysters at the Grand Central Oyster Bar, since my Grandfather had frequented this spot in his days traveling to New York. During my previous trip, my Dad and I went by, but it was closed. After gulping down a hand full of oysters, we were off on foot again.
Grand Central Terminal
On our way to the MOMA, we went through Rockefeller plaza and checked out the Easter decorations and all of the ice skaters. Unfortunately, we did not realize that the MOMA is free on Friday’s and the line wrapped almost completely around the building. While to our relief it didn’t take long to get inside, the place was jam packed. You could hardly move around at all, and good luck trying to see any of the main attractions. Luckily, I guess my interest in art is a bit unordinary, so the ones I had interest in did not have many gawking at them. One of them might, or might not have been just a bench. Anyways, onward!.
Hearst Building
Back to eating and drinking. Mere and I love the show How I Met Your Mother (yes we know the show is over and that the last season basically sucked, but we keep re-watching all other seasons). There is a bar called McGee’s that is supposed to be the influence for MacLaren’s Pub on the show. We were excited to see it, since it is now a shrine the show, and there was even going to be HIMYM trivia that evening. This experience turned out to be a bust. The bartenders were completely rude and pretty coked up. They also ended up not doing the trivia, and I swear it’s just a lie to get idiots like us in there. It lured us right in. We decided to take a break from eating and drinking…..for about a 6 block walk. Before dinner, I really wanted to try the famed pork buns at Ippudo Westide. If you are in NYC, I highly suggest trying them. I washed them down with a Brooklyn Kaedama Ale and was in HEAVEN. Enough snacking, now it’s time for dinner. After two more blocks of walking, or burning off about .0001% of my snack, we were at B-Side Pizza. The pizza was good, but not as good as Vezzo from the night before.
McGee's
Life changing pork buns at Ippudo
Everything is smaller in NYC, except the skyscrapers
Next thing to cross off our list was to be a rooftop bar. We found Empire Hotel’s rooftop to be the closest cool looking one and headed that way. We didn’t make it back to the hotel first to change, so luckily the dress code was pretty relaxed. It was definitely unique having drinks up there under the red of the hotel sign and looking over the Lincoln Center. After a round of drinks, we took a walk through the Lincoln Center and watched the fountain for a bit. That plaza is just beautiful at night. Again, we were beat and made the journey back to the hotel for some much needed sleep
