pheGNOMEnal vacation: day three

By the time day three rolled around, we were exhausted! We slept in til about noon and then our sightseeing/eating adventure continued!

Right around the corner from the hotel is the Museum of Biblical Art!

John was so excited... but too bad it's closed on Monday's! Boo!

While Nick was at work, we started off by having Shake Shack. Nick was talking about this place from day 1 and I swear, said "You have to eat Shake Shack!" a gazillion times.

In 'n Out > Shake Shack. Sorry. But it is. Some would say that you can't compare the two... but you totally can. And In'n Out's still better :)

After brunch, we met up Nick again and got to wander around Soho for a bit more. There was a HUGE Scholastic store (only one in the world)! So fun! Shopped around and took advantage of the 25% teacher discount.

Then out to Chinatown! Even though I was super full, I couldn't say no to ice cream!

They had some interesting flavors... Nick and I shared the lychee flavor. So yum!

Then around the corner for some soup dumplings!

Nick taught us how to eat these goodies! First, pick up the dumpling with the tongs out of bamboo steamer. Next, place it on your spoon and top it with some soy sauce and hot sauce. After that, take a tiny bite of the dumpling and slurp out the soup. Then, devour the rest!

After just staring at the lights for a while, we stood around and debated if we should go eat Japanese ramen. We decided to be fatties.

We worked up an appetite while waiting 30 minutes to be seated in the tiny restaurant. At 9:30 we were able to enjoy some delicious ramen while listening to some awesome 90's R&B jams.

After dinner, we said goodbye to Nick and went back to our hotel to rest up for the long bus ride to Washington DC the following morning. Stay tuned!

pheGNOMEnal vacation: day two

The day started early in the morning with Nick bringing over a cake to our hotel and wishing John a happy birthday. OOPS! Totally forgot it was Johnny's birthday! Nick wished him a happy birthday before I did... Horrible wife...

Chocolate mousse cake for breakfast. YUMMERS!

Then off to church we go!

Redeemer! John (and I) was blessed... even WITHOUT hearing Tim Keller speak (gasp!)

After church, of course we have to eat lunch!

The best pizza I have ever had in my life. EVER. John, who doesn't even like pizza, could not stop talking about how yummy it was! So GOOD!

Our new friends Natalie (Nick's gf) and her friend Liz.

Everyone loves Gnomie!

Then off for some rice pudding!

This is our kind of store!

Whoa. He's hot.

After trying a few flavors, we thought it'd be too heavy of a snack so we just walked out. Yes. We're those people.

Just walking around and shopping in Soho. I found a Brandy & Melville store! I hate trying on clothes at the store and always just buy it, bring it home, try it on and most often not, return it. This store, majority of the clothing is one size fits all. SO AWESOME! ... but I digress.

We were off to see the Statue of Liberty! We met up my friend Tang again, and we caught the free Staten Island Ferry to do a "drive by" of the statue.

My mantourage.

We met in 8th grade and we've been friends ever since. :)

Then some more walking....

I spy Gnomie...

Then some more walking to see Grand Central Terminal. This picture is so poorly taken, but it captures John and Nick so perfectly. Weirdos, I tell you.

Did you know about the "whispering station" in Grand Central Terminal? It is so cool! You whisper into the wall and the person, clear on the other side, can hear you!

Then off to our next stop! Hot dogs!

"When you're hungry, broke, or just in a hurry!"

They serve up each hot dog with sauerkraut and onion sauce. Nothing fancy, super simple. All washed down with fresh papaya juice. I die. So. Good.

A little more walking, and a quick stop at Lavain for their massive cookies!

It looks huge, like a scone, but it was delish cookie all the way through. YUM! A oatmeal cookie for John, a chocolate chip cookie for me.

Then off to dinner! My dear cousin, Jennifer, moved out to NYC to attend Parsons. I'm so proud of her! She's all grown up now! I remember her being so tiny, with a cute little bowl cut, following me around. I used to carry her around like she was a doll! And now, she looks older than me!

Sarah, one of John's youth group students, also moved out to NYC to attend Parsons. When I heard they were both going to Parsons, I thought "Hmmm. How cool would it be if they knew each other." Not only did they meet by randomly being roomies but they are like long lost bff's! So glad they are friends!

The sweet girls brought us some Insomnia Cookies! This place delivers cookies til the wee hours of the night for all those college students pulling all nighters. Or in the case of my cousin and Sarah, for those college students who have an insatiable appetite.

For dinner, we had Recipe, a small restaurant that Nick likes. The restaurant was so cute! It was decorated like Ruby's house! Vintagey and cozey. Just perfect. I wanted to walk out with the table; it'd be perfect in my imaginary cottage house that I'm dreaming up.

My pork chop.

John's veal.

After dinner, we walked about a block or so for some tea.

Have you see You've Got Mail? Does this place look familiar?

After a long day out and about, we finally got back to our room to get some sleep!

Our amazing view! Thanks to John pulling the "it's our anniversary" card, we got an amazing room upgrade!

I wasn't joking when I said Day 2's eating was out of control! It doesn't stop there... Day 3 was just as insane!

P.S. Happy birthday to my amazing husband and bestest friend, Johnny! Oh, how I heart him so!

pheGNOMEnal vacation: day one

In celebration of our first year of marriage and John's 27th birthday, we packed our bags (and our gnomie) for a quick trip to the east coast.

... waiting around to board while Johnny did his homework. What a snoozefest!

Have you ever flown with Virgin Airlines? Black leather seats, cool purple mood lighting, great entertainment system. It could have been a super smooth flight to New York, except for the fact that this plane was filled with bad passenger cliches: the arm rest hog, the cougher/sneezer, screaming baby, non stop talking teenager. 'Twas an interesting flight.

Then, we finally got to New York at 5:30 in the morning and caught a taxi to our buddy, Nick's house.

He's got a great view from his kitchen window. ;) We crashed on his living floor for a few hours and then we were off to tour NYC!

Tour given by this weirdo, our dear friend Nick aka Lick No. John and I met him at church years ago and he now lives in New York working as an Occupational Therapist. You know those friends you don't get to talk to and see often, but when you do see them, you just pick up where you left off? He's one of those friends. We're lucky to have him in our lives.... even though he's a weirdo.


My dear friend, Tang was in NYC with his girlfriend at the same time as us! It was so nice to hang with them.

Nick totally being the 5th wheel.

I didn't even try to learn the subway system because 1. We had our very own tour guide! 2. John's a geographer! I just followed them around.

Not only did we have our own tour guide, but we also had our own photographer! Check out Nick's work! I handed over my point and shoot and Gnomie and let Nick bust it out. All the good pictures that you see below are the ones he took.

WOW. My husband manages to look like a creeper in all our pictures. It truly is a gift. I can never get a normal picture of us!

On the way to get some yummy chicken and rice.

and finally... the delicious chicken and rice! I love spicy food and usually there is no such thing as "too spicy" but that hot sauce was no joke! Sooooo spicy but soooo good! My mouth is watering as I think about it.


Then off to Magnolia Bakery!

Their bread pudding was to die for! I may have to get Johnny to drive to the L.A. one day and pick me up several tubs. SO GOOD!

Some more sight seeing...

Then off to Bouchon for massive macaroons!

HUGE! The size of my palm. One peanut butter and jelly and one lemon poppy. PB&J beat the lemon poppy.

A quick check into our hotel, Empire Hotel, then off to dinner at Momofuku Noodle Bar.

If you think we ate a lot on day 1, wait til you see what we ate on day 2! Major detox time now!