NYC Day 3

Let's continue the documentation of this vacation, shall we?

Monday, the 16th

I was feeling like a kid on Christmas morning when I woke up at 7:30 (Yes, I set my alarm. I was just too excited!). To the amazement of my family, I washed up, dressed, made up my face, and was out the door of our hotel room to go exploring by eight.

I was extremely bored so I took several elevator rides to the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th floors where I walked around conference rooms, the workout area and pool, and even discovered a secret balcony above the front door and looked out onto the marina! It was really calming to watch other people go about their days living in the city, walking to work, etc. And Lower Manhattan looked really pretty in sun!


To my dismay, we left the hotel room at ten o'clock (I was really bored) and took the subway to Christopher Street in the West Village, Greenwich Village. It was like a whole different world down there! There were leafy streets, old brownstones, Vespas on every corner, and cute, high-end boutiques lined the streets. I loved it! I knew immediately it was where I wanted to live when I come out to New York

The famous Magnolia Bakery where we had a delicious breakfast
of crumble in a tin. It was to die for! I recommend the apple kind.

After breakfast in a little park, we walked up the streets to go to Washington Square Park, which I have to say was my favorite park I was in while there. It had tons of trees and it was next to NYU! It was shady and when we walked into the center of the park, there was a huge fountain which doubled as a pool and you could just watch people for hours enjoying themselves. It's very relaxing. Next to the fountain there was a large arch which looked like it was modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Very beautiful! These pictures will tell you why I think this: 

A relaxing place in Washington Square Park

A statue of a man I really don't care about. But the man with
the cart was selling water and my dad flagged him down for some!

My very good looking family in front of the fountain. No, we
look like tourists.    

We meandered back out of the park and onto the street and ended up in Soho, where I was not very impressed. It was a bunch of designer boutiques and stores that you could have found on 5th Avenue and it was a little gritty! Anyhow, we walked back towards the park and headed into the East Village, which was REALLY SCARY! There were scary-looking people on scary looking streets coming out of scary-looking buildings. It was definitely not for me!

   

McSorley's Old Ale House on East 7th Street in the East Village, one of my parents' old haunts when they were dating (this also includes the Old Town Tavern and ABC Carpets, which wasn't a carpet store, but a bigger Anthropologie type of store).   

Now, of course we had to stop at my parents' old haunts in the city, so we did. They were interesting, but I couldn't imagine my parents ever coming to these places when they were young and working. They didn't seem like those types of people. But whatever. We finished up at those three places and left to check out Gramercy Park, which is a beautiful park/neighborhood but you can only access the park if you live there and have a key. Which we didn't. But it was still really pretty! 

We walked back to the East Village to have dinner at this place called John's on Twelfth, and decided to check out Union Square park. In the park, we walked past a topless woman playing cards with her friends. We ran out of there as fast as we could. Only in New York.    

John's on Twelfth, where we had a delicious dinner of Italian food. I had the fabulous manicotti.  The bread was good too.  

After dinner, we walked back to the West Village (officially my favorite place in the world) and went back to Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes, on me. We got there right as they were about to close, which was a really lucky break! They were a little melted since we carried them from Bleecker Street on to the subway and back into Jersey City, but they were still delicious!! 

That day, we walked a ton, so we got back to our hotel room to nurse our aching feet. But, my dad, whose feet were fine, insisted that we all go back down to the promenade and take pictures since the city was all lit up. Everyone said no, except for me, so the two of us went and I am so glad I did because the lights were so beautiful. I can see why New York City is always the brightest on one of those Google Earth maps they show at night.   

           

Check it out! Lower Manhattan and Midtown at night on the river. Absolutely breathtaking.  

Another shot of the lower part of town with more lights on the water. Can you imagine being on a boat in the Jersey City marina and this was your view when you went to bed? Amazing! 

This was a hotel right by ours that I took a photo of. It was right on the water and had a night club on top of it what was shaped like a cube and changed colors! That would have been a fun, but loud hotel.