cassidy2002

I just got back from my first trip to NYC yesterday. What a great time I had in a fabulous city! It's been a joy to come here today & see all of the other NYC trip reports & reminisce (sp?) about the places that I visited as well.

Well, here is my report. Please bear with me as I have not done this often!

I will say straight off that I was lucky to have a friend to stay with so no hotel was needed. She lives on the UES. On York Ave between 66th & 67th. She is a grad student & works right near there. I really liked her neighborhood! A nice mix of residential & businesses.

Thursday June 12
Flew from DTW to LGA, arrived on time in the early afternoon. Grabbed a taxi & traveled to my friend's place. The travel took about 40 minutes & was $40 with tip.

AS I hadn't eaten all day we headed out to her local cheese shop & bought some brie and some crackers & bread. I apologize that I do not remember the name of the shop, it was on 1st, I do know that! Headed back to her apt & had mojitos & some snacks. Later we went down & attended her building's free happy hour. What?? Free wine you say??!?! I am in! Needless to say after travel, mojitos & free wine we just spent the rest of the night at her apt hanging out with her fellow grad student friends. Great people all!

Friday June 13
I told my friend that I really had no set plan of anything I "had" to do in the city. In fact, I tried my best to stay away from Fodors & any sort of planning. I just wanted to soak in the city & enjoy everything I experienced. It helped that I had a local tour guide....

So, Friday AM, we headed out towards Central Park. On our way to the park, we walked down museum row. I felt like everything was under construction & most of the facades had scaffolding on them. My friend told me that they had just held some sort of event involving the museums so they had probably waited to do any work until after that.

We wandered what felt like every inch of the park. Past the lawn, to the castle, down/over to Shakespeare's Garden & the Swiss chalet. Then to Strawberry Fields. This was something on my very short list! I am a huge Beatles & John Lennon fan.

After SF we wandered past the boat launch & then up & through the mall. It was so simple, but I think that was my favorite part of the park. I loved the way the trees arched over the broad walkway. Something so peaceful about it.

OK. Not sure how much I can post at once, so I'll continue later.....

Centralparkgirl

Glad your intro to the city was good. Your friend lives near all the hospitals and Rockefeller University and that area can get pretty hectic at times (I live nearby). Free wine? That's impressive and friendly!

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

cassidy2002

Thanks Centralparkgirl! She is actually a grad student at Cornell. What's funny is that I could not get over all of the sirens in the areas (especially that Friday morning after the free wine) and realized (duh) NY Presbyterian is just around the corner from her...so that makes sense! LOL!

Friday Continued...
After the park, we wandered toward Rockefeller Center to TOTR. My poor grad student friend (and myself to be honest) balked at the $20 fee & decided not to do it. And while I kind of regret it, I will be back to NYC to do it another time. Perhaps with my DH at the end of a romantic evening. So, we wandered Rockefeller a bit, in fact I saw on the NBC TV's that Tim Russert had passed. People were gathered around watching the special report. RIP Tim.

After sufficiently checking out Rock, we took the Subway back to her apt to rest before dinner. As you can tell, we are both budget conscious, so we decided to go to a BYOB place, which ended up being Taksim. Taksim is in Midtown East on 2nd between 54th & 55th. Link here: http://www.taksim.us/home.html They do have a $10 corkage fee. We stopped at First Avenue Vintner's & grabbed white Bordeaux for dinner.

At Taksim, we started with the cacik, a dip with yogurt, cucumber, garlic & mint. They brought out fresh, warm bread to dip. It paired beautifully with our wine!

My friend had the lamb shank & I had the roasted chicken. Both were wonderful! For desert we had the kadayif which was shredded wheat with pistachios & honey.

All in all a great dinner at a great value!

Saturday June 14
Every morning my friend had to head into the lab to do some quick work so I would generally hang around her place or wander around her neighborhood while waiting for her to get back.

When she returned on this AM, we met up with friends of hers & took the Subway to the meatpacking district, headed for bruch at Nero. I think that this might have been one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. We arrived a bit early, so we did a loop around the meatpacking area & then towards the water to check things out. Watched the boats for a bit & then heard the mimosas calling our name. Once at Nero, we were seated outdoors & placed our order. Two of us ordered the brioche french toast w/ bourbon & banana compote & the other two ordered the fritata w/ goat cheese & peppers. All, except one ordered the all you can drink mimosas. The person that had to be different ordered the bellini!

Everything was wonderful! The service, the company, the food....I would highly recommend this brunch. The waiter kept our glasses full & we lingered over great conversation for over 2 hours. I wish I could go back this weekend! It was $24.95 for brunch, not including the tip obviously.

After brunch we headed out towards the East Village (I think, I blame the mimosas) towards the shopping & I remember seeing the Mesa Grill. So if that's the East Village, that's where we were! We also went past the Green Market. The girl we were with wanted to go to DSW so we wandered in there & then to Filene's Basement. Meh. I am not much of a shopper, so this was just ok. But again, the mimosas kept me sedated enough to deal with the mass of those looking for deals. After that I was dragged to Forever 21, well not dragged, but it wouldn't have been my choice.

After that up to a few other more boutique-y type places. The skies started to look ominous so we headed to the Subway & back to rest for a bit!

More later..........

mp

You were in Union Square, not the East Village.

cassidy2002

Thanks for the correction mp. I remembered that my friend had mentioned the possibility of heading to the East then West Village after brunch, so that's where I got confused. Oh & those mimosas didn't help.

Saturday continued...
When we got off the Subway to head back to the apt it was pouring. The heavens had opened. Of course, we had no umbrella so we darted through the raindrops and wound up looking like drowned rats when we got back.

So, we got cleaned up & rested. Had a snack & a few beers/glasses of wine and headed out that night to go see a favorite bad of hers called Mr North. They were at the Ulysses (?) close to Wall Street. We cabbed it there & back, splitting it with a few of her friends. All in all a good night out. Although, I will say that everyone tells you how expensive NYC is & you really don't understand it until you are there! $6 for a Coors Lt?!?! For cying out loud Boddington's was $6.50! Hmmm which one am I going to choose?!? LOL!

So, after the band stopped we headed back to crash & prepare for bridge walking the next day!

Sunday June 16

My last day in the city.

We headed off to catch the Staten Island ferry & dodged a few raindrops on the way. Took the ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty then strolled along towards the South Street Seaport on our way to the Manhattan bridge. Walked a bit through Chinatown to get there, what a bustling area!

Walk the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn & then went to Grimaldi's for pizza. My goodness, that's some darn tasty pizza! Totally worth the short wait in line!

After Grimaldi's we got some ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Company & headed to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk that back into Manhattan. This was probably my second favorite part of the trip. The day had turned really nice by then & the views walking into Manhattan are beautiful! Strolled around in the area by the Bridge & then hopped the Subway back to her apt to rest for a bit.

Full from pizza & Ice Cream we skipped dinner & headed to Times Square after dark. I must give my friend full marks for this as she is not a fan of Times Square & she only went for me. Thanks J!

So onto the Subway we went & into the bustling atmosphere of TS. My goodness! I don't really know what to say about it. It's like one big bright advertisement! Great people watching though & I am glad that I saw it. Walked down 7th (?) to get a few pics of the Ed Sullivan theater & the David Letterman marquee. I counted no less than 7 Starbucks on the walk there!

After wandering TS for an hour or so we decided to walk back to her apartment & enjoy the nice NY evening.

Got back to her place & crashed. I was totally exhausted from all of the wandering & exploring that we did over the long weekend.

Monday June 16

Up early & out the door to catch the Subway to 125th, where I caught the M60 bus to LGA. If I knew it was that easy to do when arrived I would have saved the $40 I spent on a cab & spent the $2.00 on fare instead! Lesson learned for next time!

Arrived in plenty of time to catch my flight & journey back to Detroit.

I had a fabulous weekend & can't wait to go back to NYC very soon! I am sorry if this report has been too lengthy, but I wanted to try to get my thoughts into writing as to better remember everything myself!!

Thank you Big Apple for an unforgettable time!!

dmlove

I would have saved the $40 I spent on a cab & spent the $2.00 on fare instead</i)

You could'a had 7 more beers!

Great report.

libssmfamily

I've been to Manhattan twice now, and as of yet, I still have not walked from Brooklyn to Manhattan via the bridge. I'm so envious of your experience! It's definitely something on my list of things to see and do.

klam_chowder

Great report - thx for sharing!

I'm heading to NYC over July long w/end and planned on doing the subway-M60 from/to LGA. It's reassuring to hear that it was painless to do.

Enjoy-la!

Centralparkgirl

Wonderful report cassidy! Very much enjoyed reading it.

johnthedorf

I too enjoyed your report. My days in NYC were school, and later Buying trips. New York to me is energy and business. It's like watching a construction site, people going about their jobs oblivious of the chaos around them. The time clock chimes and it's time to unwind. Unwind? Ha...let the party begin. Thanks for your enthusiasm Cassidy.

kswl

Cassidy, you were right around the corner from our old apartment building at York and 70th. My husband did a long residency and several years of research at Cornell; we learned to sleep right through the ambulance sirens, which went past our bedroom windows. The ER entrance was at the end of 70th street. When we moved, the quiet kept us awake

Sounds like you had a fun few days and hit some high spots and are ready to go back... great report!

cassidy2002

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

One of the things that struck me about NYC is that people *really* live there. I know that sounds odd, but the last "big" city that I visited was DC...and you don't get that sense of it being anyone's "home". It's definitely got a transient vibe to it. I know that there are people that call it their home, but I think due to the nature of the city itself no one is from there.

Sorry, I am babbling, but I found it really interesting to watch the "native" NY'ers going about their business, playing with their kids in the many playgrounds & parks...doing their grocery shopping. I just really got a sense of it as being a "home" to people.

I hope that makes one iota of sense!!

NeoPatrick

nice report, Cassidy. I've been to Nero many times and love it, but have never had brunch there -- never thought of it for brunch -- must try it.

I know what you mean about people "living" in NYC. What surprises me the more I stay there is also what small communities people live in within the city. I rent an apartment and the second time I take shirts to a cleaner, they know my name. In my small city back home I've been going to the same cleaners for 30 years, and they not only still don't know my name, but I have to spell it for them each time -- and I have an easy name! After a couple days, the guy in the coffee shop across the street in NYC says, "Your usual?" as soon as I walk in.

cassidy2002

Patrick,

I highly recommend it! The food was fantastic and the service wonderful.

On the menu they say that they limit you to 2 hours, but since it wasn't that busy we weren't "booted". Although after 2.5 hours the waiter did stop filling out mimosa glasses! LOL, I don't blame him.....

ambesparis

Great report! We are coming in a couple of weeks. I cant wait!

beckytx

When my husband did his grad school internship in NYC, he discovered Taksim as well. A great neigborhood spot!