Thanks to all of you who helped me refine my itinerary and especially those great reviews on Roberto Passon.
We arrived 8/17 at 10:00 AM and had Carmel car service pick us up and take us to the Paramount Hotel located at West 46th St. I thought the hotel was great. Small rooms? Yes, but it's NYC and we paid less than $800 for flight, hotel and car service for 3 nights, so no, you can not complain about the size of the room! My mom's cousin met us and we immediately took the subway to Brooklyn for Grimaldi's Pizza. So glad you all recommended that we go Friday instead of my original Saturday plan. We were in line by noon and seated by 12:30. GREAT pizza. We so miss New England food. Just can't get NY pizza in Florida! We made the hike over the Brooklyn Bridge and my mom who is seriously afraid of heights said it was the highlight of the trip. You don't really feel the bridge height since the cars are travelling below you don't have that bridge feel. Hard for me to describe, but don't hesitate missing this if you fear heights. Ground Zero was our next stop. Can not wait to visit once the memorial is finish. Walked to St. Pauls Church and Ladder #10 where other memorials stand from 9-11. We had reservations at TOTR, and we got inside just in time before the rain came down. We were lucky that it didn't last long and got some great shots of Central Park and the Empire State Bldg. Dinner was at Vynl in the Hells Kitchen area of 9th Ave. I had the smoked salmon wrap and my mom had the eggplant and goat cheese wrap. It came with their homeade potato chips. Wonderful and the bill was less than $20.00.
Saturday we could not wait for NY bagels and hard rolls. If you are from the northeast and live in FL, you understand how much bread is missed! We took the subway to Chelsea and walked to Zabaro's for our bread fix and then to Fishs' Eddy for some great funky dishware. I learned that a lot of my distant relatives came from Ireland and settled in Brooklyn, so I had to have a Brooklyn platter! Found a funky flea market in Chelsea, but not anything that we could live without, so we kept walking trying to find more shops. I have to say that I don't know if we were just in the wrong part of town or what, but it was hard to find shops! Next year I will have a detailed map with shop locations. My next stop was Steve & Barry's to buy SJP's Bitten line. Wow...great bargains. Amanda Bynes also has a line named Dear. Bought lots of good things! We stopped at Juniors and split a piece of cheesecake and couldn't eat it all. So good, hated to throw the rest out. The weather was a cool (remember, we're from FL) 70-ish, so we each bought NYC zippered hoody sweatshirts. They were perfect for the 2 hour Circle Line Cruise that we took Saturday night. I highly recommend. Great views of the city for day and night. Get there early to get a good seat. We went back to 9th Ave and ended up at Delta Grill. It's a New Orleans type restaurant. Great food once again. We split a HUGE small muffeletta which I ate even more for breakfast the next day.
Sunday was church at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I had to stop at the NBC Store at Rockefeller Center to buy something from The Office. I love that show...
We then walked to Grand Central since we knew the #4 subway went from there right to 161st St./Yankee Stadium. So funny that obvious NYers asked ME for directions! So happy that I looked like I belonged. Going to a game at Yankee Stadium was our 2nd highlight. Just to be there, in such a historic place was fabulous. Dinner was at Roberto Passon and again, thanks to all of you who raved about this place. I could not get over the prices. So inexpensive for such a great NYC meal. I started with a feta/tomato salad, mom had a pear/prosciutto salad. Then we split the gnocchi for our pasta course. She had the highly recommended veal piccata and I had the baked salmon. Tiramisu for dessert. Wow...I just can't say enough about the food. Can you tell mom and I are foodies? That's why we travel well together; food is an important part of the vacation!
Our Super Shuttle (never again..I'll spend the extra for the Carmel car service) picked us up @ 12:25, so we ran out to Bloomingdales in the morning which was way over my budget! H&M was next door, and believe me, I'll be spending a big chunk of time in that store next year! Great prices and selection. I didn't have time to even go up to level 2! We stopped at Junior's for an early lunch and it was again, great. I had the beef brisket smothered in melted mozzarella and mom had 1/2 pastrami on a hard roll with matzo ball soup.
Plane left @ 4:30 for home. Already planning next years adventure and bring the 3rd foodie; my sister.

I can't believe anyone still suggests "Super" Shuttle given all the negative experiences ... cab or car service ....

Saturday we could not wait for NY bagels and hard rolls.

I never miss an opportunity to have a hard roll (preferably with seeds) when I'm in New York! San Francisco (where I've lived for 34 years) is not lacking for good bread (that's an understatement), but the hard roll, the kind you can get at any diner in NY (remember Chock Full O Nuts - coffee and a hard roll was my favorite breakfast!). I'm drooling right now and looking forward to our trip in November.

Wow - I knew the rest of the country doesn't have bagels or black and whites - but didn;t realize there was a national shortage of decent kaiser rolls as well.

nytraveler - I've been told that a lot has to do with the water in making the bread dough. Who knows?