The Big Apple

Our fabulous trip to NYC June 13-15!

On Friday we took the Bolt Bus from Metro Center in DC to Penn Station in NYC. It's a new bus line and you can get tickets for as low as $1. We bought our tickets a couple months ago and I paid $2 for my tickets and about $17 for Albert's. It seems to depend on how early you get the tickets. The bus is pretty nice. They have free wi-fi and electrical outlets on the back of the seats so you can surf the net for the 5 hrs it takes to get up there. I used to ride the imfamous Chinatown bus, but this is much nicer and the pick-up and drop-off spots are much more convenient, esp in NYC. The spot in Chinatown where it would drop you off wasn't really by the subway and when you get into town at midnight on Friday it's pretty sketchy.

We went to visit my friend Jacquelyn and her boyfriend Ed who live in Brooklyn so we stayed at her studio apt during our visit which was fabulous. It's close to the subway and has a great bagel place across the street that we ate at on Saturday and Sunday morning.

Friday night we went to to a really awesome restaurant in Brooklyn called Moto with Jacquelyn and Ed. I highly recommend it. It's supposed to be like a cafe in Paris in 1929. The food is soo tasty and they have cool music and great atmosphere. If you are in Brooklyn go to this place. I of course forgot my camera so Ed took some pics with his camera phone which I will be getting next week (hopefully) when I see Jacquelyn in Wyoming for our reunion :D

Saturday was super busy and it rained a lot, but we got to do a lot of fun things anyway. In the morning we went downtown and visited Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center.

We then walked down to Wall Street. Albert is really into investing in stocks now so he was really excited to see the NY Stock Exchange and the "Bull."

Millionaires need bargains too

Where Washington took the Presidential oath

We then headed down to Battery Park where we saw the statue that used to be in the WTC. Some pigons have taken up house in there.

Of course we had to stop by and see Lady Liberty...

We picked up tickets to "Young Frankenstein" from TKTS Discount Booths. Get there a little early cuz the line is already long by the time the place opens and have a few different shows in mind incase they run out of your favorite. Oh, and don't forget to bring a lot of cash. They don't take credit.

We took the Subway to Chinatown...

Piccola Italia!

Chinatown yumminess. Albert enjoyed the bubble tea we got there...

We then took a cab to Greenwich Village for our surprise from Jacquelyn and Ed. It was a tour called Accomplice and was so much fun! I can't tell you much because it would give it away but we did take some pics which will remain mysterious and hopefully intriguing until you too go on the adventure. I'd highly recommend it, especially if you're returning to NYC for a visit.

Afterwards we headed over to Otto Pizzeria which is also in the Village which is one of Mario Batali's many restaurants -- for those of you familiar with "Iron Chef"or the Food Channel (Albert and I watch it all the time). It was pretty good. We both had specialty pizzas that had good flavor and topped it off with dessert. Luckily we avoided some of the rain in the restaurant. I'd recommend catching an early dinner. When we arrived at 5:30 there were lots of tables open, but by the time we left it was packed.

We then took the subway to Times Square where we went to "Young Frankenstein." It was hilarious...much like the movie which I enjoyed.

On Sunday we were going to go to church and to the Met and Central Park but ended up sleeping in...we were so exhausted from our adventures on Saturday.

Albert had a nice rest on the bus and we still went to bed early that night