New York City

Tyler and I had a blast in NYC last week! Here are the highlights in pictures:

The Staten Island Ferry is a free boat that takes you to and from Staten Island, and passes by the Statue of Liberty.

This is about the most exciting thing we did on Staten Island. It's mostly just a huge island of houses.

This was my favorite little neighborhood. I'd love to live here!

What a beautiful view of the NYC skyline!

This is us from the top of the base of the Statue of Liberty. It really is an amazing sight in person...absolutely breathtaking.

There is a large gate blocking the entire view to the World Trade Center site. This is about all you can see.

We loved Central Park!

(Sorry for the weird pose below...I don't know why I'm standing like a duck.)

Here is where we played with the Vista Band when we came to NYC!

We rode the carousel in Central Park. I was actually really scared because it went pretty fast!

We also went to Coney Island--well worth the trip. Here is the famous Nathan's Hot Dogs, where they hold the world's hot dog eating contest.

Tyler rode the Cyclone, one of the oldest, most rickety rollercoasters.

I love his face afterwards!

$3.75 for ONE hot dog. A bit overpriced if you ask me, but it was delicious! It was definitely 200% better than store-bought hot dogs. I almost didn't feel like I was eating a hot dog it was so yummy.

Tyler and I treated ourselves to a really nice meal. I've never eaten somewhere fancy like this. It was really fun and romantic...we sat outside in the garden under twinkly lights...

Little Italy, right next to Chinatown, which was very smelly.

This building was right by our hotel. How cool is it? I think it was our favorite building in NYC. It looked especially cool during the lightning and thunder storm.

At the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), our favorite exhibit was an interactive one. You got to walk into the room, and walk up to an employee who would mark your height and write your name and the date with a sharpie. It was interesting to see how people were only in a 12" range.

On Food Network, there was a Bobby Flay challenge to Levain Bakery. They make HUGE cookies...I couldn't even finish the whole thing! It was really thick and chewy and YUMMY. So we searched out to find the bakery!

We also found the temple and took a picture in front of it.

On the last day, we went to Sony Wonder Technology Labs. There, Tyler showed me his true dance moves to Outkast's "Hey Ya". Isn't he cute? :)

We also stopped by Carnegie Deli -- the most expensive but supposedly the BEST deli in NYC. Recommended by several people. We got the Woody Allen. See below.

The thing was HUGE. We didn't finish it between the two of us! (below, Tyler is only holding HALF of the sandwich!)

We'd definitely go back again! We loved it. By the end of the week, it was funny because we turned into semi-locals. People were asking us left and right how to get places. I guess it's a good sign we didn't always look like tourists?

Other highlights:
-seeing Wicked on Broadway (AMAZING!! still have the songs stuck in my head.)
-seeing Phantom of the Opera on Broadway
-walking along the boardwalk
-thunder and lightning storms are TEN times louder when they have buildings to bounce off of!
-free museum days
-a baseball game in Central Park! so classic.
-riding the ferris wheel in Toys R Us...Tyler especially loved that one.
-street performers
-GOOD FOOD.
-a nice hole-in-the-wall hotel (The Da Vinci Hotel)