New York, New York

I'm always jealous when Scott gets to go to New York for work. It's been a few years since I've been and it's one of the best places to go on someone else's dime! Well, the stars aligned and I was able to tag along with Scott on his latest NY work trip. Grammie and Grandpa were already up in Seattle for Thanksgiving, so we asked them to stay a few days longer to watch the girls and wha-la! we had a partially-subsidized kids free weekend painting the Big Apple red!

We packed in a lot that weekend. Scott flew out first so that he could help get his work event - the House of Modern Beauty - set up. I took the red-eye on Thursday night so that I could spend as much time with the girls. Earlier that day I had seen my old friend Barbara, a gal I had worked with at Move.com, post on Instagram that she was traveling to NY for the weekend so we made last minute plans to meet up after I got in Friday morning. 

Barb and I met up at a George's Diner, this quintessential NY diner-y type place for breakfast down near the WTC. From there, we decided we wanted to walk the Highline, these old elevated train tracks that have been converted to walking paths. Along the way, we did a detour to check out the "Friends" apt in Greenwich village, which was a fun little stop because we walked through a super cute old neighborhood that I'd never been through before. We ended at the Vessel at Hudson Yard, this interesting hive-looking structure next to a new fancy shopping mall. We explored both places and then Barb had to go meet her friend and I went to check out Scott's work event.

Inside the WTC

"Freedom Tower"

Me and Barb on the Highline

Recognize the Friend's apartment building?

The Vessel just opened this spring and was surprisingly not crazy crowded!

There's no real point to the structure other than to walk around and marvel at the symmetry!

There was a neat wall covered with flippy sequins inside the mall so we had to leave our mark on it.

Scott's work event was called "the house of modern beauty" and it was essentially a trade show type of set up where a number of different brands set up a booth where they could show off all of their cool technology and product lines. TBH, I don't know much about the cosmetic procedures industry so it was all new to me so it was fun to get a little VIP goody bag and then walk around from station to station to learn about what microneedling or emsculpting or fillers. Like, did you know you can do emsculpting to help with incontinence?!

Anyway, Scott and the folks who were working convinced me to try out microneedling, which is where they numb your face and then poke needles all around it to simulate collagen growth to make your skin plump up and glow. A treatment usually costs hundreds of dollars so I said "what the heck" and decided to try it! The poking didn't hurt at all but it did feel super weird when the numbness in my face started to wear off. You know hos you feel like a drooling chipmunk after you go to the dentist? It felt like that except across your entire face. Luckily, the numbness wore off after about an hour. They say optimal results will show in 4-6 weeks so I'll let you know how it turns out!

Getting microneedling done at the Vivace station

The Real self crew.

The next day, Scott left bright and early for work and I decided to walk uptown to spend some time walking the galleries at the Musuem of Modern Art. It was as much fun as I remembered it - meaning there were lots of interesting and weird art that definitely challenged me in thinking about what makes art art. It really makes me wonder who would pay for some of these works.

This was an interesting exhibit around finding architecture in everyday things.

Monet's waterlilies was a HUGE triptych.

Starry Starry night. Estimated worth: $100M

In front of Matisse cut outs

Is hanging a bunch of hair knots art?

How much is this guy worth?

Afterwards, I went to Xian Famous Foods for lunch and then walked around to check out all the window displays. It was so much fun to see how unique some of them were. And yes, just like the movies, there were tons of people also checking out the displays and taking pictures.

Lamb cumin noodles at Xian Famous Foods.

Hard to see but you can rub his nose and the doggie moves!

Saks had a whole Frozen 2 theme in their windows.

Then I walked over to Grand Central Station to ogle at all the people and the architecture and to grab an afternoon snack at the Oyster Bar. 

Just like the movies! Too bad there was no flash mob.

Inside the Grand Central Oyster Bar

Oyster list

2 west coast (agate gem, hamma hamma) and 2 east coast (pemaquid, well fleet). West coast wins!!

That night for dinner, Scott and I decided to splurge at Aldea, a Michelin starred Portuguese restaurant named Aldea. We weren't really sure what to expect even though I had looked at the menu ahead of time, and it turned out to only so-so. In fact, probably our biggest disappointment when it came to food in NY. Maybe because I was expecting too much from a Michelin star? In any case, the food was ok but not great and Scott's main dish (a salted cod dish) was way too salty for him.

I love me a Squid appetizer, but this didn't quite do it for me. Boiled squid with a buttery foam and apples. It needed some char.

Arroz with duck confit was okay. 

On Sunday, I slept in while Scott headed out to work bright and early again. My big plan for today was to watch a Broadway show and after a LOT of debate with friends, I ended up choosing to watch Book of Mormon. I agonized over whether I wanted to spend the $ to watch Hamilton instead and in the end, the choice was made for me because Hamilton was sold out by the time I got around to buying my ticket. That's probably a good thing because I ended up with a great seat at 1/3 of the price that Hamilton would have been!

But first, to get to the show, I took the subway up because I just couldn't walk the 40 some blocks from TriBeCa to mid-town again! I timed my subway adventure (easy!) so that I grabbed an early lunch at Ippudo just as it opened at 11am. I was promptly seated at the bar (although honestly there was no one else waiting so I didn't have to worry!) where I slurped up my ramen before I headed back out to fight the crowds in Time Square. I took some pictures, walked and shopped for an hour before finally getting to the theater.

The show was, as everyone warned me, really funny and SUPER inappropriate. In other words, a great show to watch without the kids and probably without Scott too. I think he would have been offended or not have enjoyed the humor. Now I can scratch this one off my list and there's just about 2 dozen more to go!

After the show, I went to Rockefeller Center to ogle the big tree and see all the skaters in the rink. I really wanted to go up to the top of the Rock but the line was 90 minutes long! Instead, I walked around the Christmas market in Bryant Park and ogled some more at how many people were there shopping and skating. Seriously, it was such a zoo! I tried to take some pictures and videos but it doesn't do it justice just how many people were out and about.

Spicy ramen at Ippudo.

Time Square!

Book of Mormon

The Tree at Rockefeller center

So many people at Bryant Park!

On Monday, Scott didn't have to work so we took the day to explore around together. First, he went to meet an old colleague for coffee while I mosied over to the Dominque Ansel bakery to try her famous cronut. The line was super long but I have to say that the pastries there were DELISH! Seriously yummy stuff. I saved some for Scott and when he tried it his eyes bulged out he thought they were so good.

With our tummies full, we went up to Central Park to walk around and then headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I originally wanted to use this day to walk the Brooklyn Bridge and explore that neighborhood because I've never been, but since it was such a wet day, we decided instead to find someplace indoors. I was really surprised that Scott has never been to the Met so it was an easy choice to go here! I've been several times before but this museum is so massive that I saw tons of exhibits I hadn't explored before. It's really so impressive how much they have in that museum

Central Park!

Lots of these emergency ice ladders everywhere

For lunch, we went to Narutto Ramen, a tiny tiny hole in the wall place on the upper west side.

Didn't realize it already had egg when I ordered an extra one! Oh well- extra protein!

Wet wet wet day

Checking out the reconstructed walls of some pharoah's tomb

They Met literally reconstructed entire sections of a tomb. 

I don't think yellow is his color!

Fascinating to walk through their storage units where there are rows and rows of paintings they don't have space for in the regular galleries, including half a dozen George Washington portraits!

Baseball cards from 1914

A whole exhibit around Knights armor

The history of the Flute, including a glass one at the bottom from 1911

After the musuem, we battled rush hour traffic and hopped on the subway to go back downtown to meet with Scott's friend Clement and his wife Alisa for dinner at Cuba, this cuban restaurant that I randomly picked off Opentable. We had a great time chatting with them (last time they had visited us in Seattle was before any of us had kids!) and the food and drinks was seriously good too.

Scott not happy being smooshed in during rush hour on the subway.

Drinkies at dinner

After dinner, we hopped in a cab and changed from our hotel in TriBeCa to the new TWA hotel at JFK airport. Since our flight out on Tuesday was on the early side, the hotel is new and interesting the priced very reasonably (for New York anyway), we decided why not check this hotel out? I'm really glad we did because it's pretty neat and was super duper convenient the next morning to walk across the parking lot to take the AirTrain one stop over to our terminal. 

The letters really did that fun flipping noise when they changed!

Cool looking, but not so comfy lounging areas.

Giant twister room

The refitted an old TWA plane to be a bar!

They set up an ice rink outside and Scott was excited to take a picture with the Zamboni

All in all, it was a fantastic long weekend in New York and we are so grateful that Grammie and Grandpa watched the girls for us. It was our longest trip away and while we had a nice time, we were very very happy to come home to both of them!