New York City trip - Day 3

We started our final day in New York City with pastries and coffee at a cute coffee shop near our hotel called Gregory's. It was really crowded (like everything in NYC) but we managed to snag a table.

Our big journey of the day was to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art: a museum made famous in the muppet masterpiece Don't Eat the Pictures! We took the subway to the Natural History Museum stop and walked across Central Park to get to the MET. It was a beautiful, cool, sunny day and we had a nice time seeing a bit of the park on our way to the Museum.

When we arrived at the MET, the front was covered in scaffolding (kind of a running theme for this trip), but there were plenty of hot dog stands out front (like the one that Cookie Monster eats at the end of Don't Eat the Pictures). We entered the museum (bypassing the $25 entrance fee again because we are affiliated with the Smithsonian) and headed first to the Egyptian exhibits. There were so many amazing artifacts (and reconstructed temples) here. Except...the one exhibit I really wanted to see, the Temple of Dendur--featured prominently in Don't Eat the Pictures--was closed! Grrr, oh well, we saw plenty of other neat things.

After touring ancient Egypt, we left the MET to have an early lunch at Papaya King, a well-known hot dog place. We had some tasty dogs (I had one with cole slaw and pickles on it!), which we ate in Central Park before heading back in to the museum.

We toured the entire place and made sure to see more highlights from the Don't Eat the Pictures tour, including the medieval armory and Washington Crossing the Delaware. We had a really great day at the MET because there is so much to do and see!

After a full day of art-gazing, we headed back to the hotel for a break before our dinner at Eataly (I told you we would return!). We started our meal with some tasty bread. olive oil, and a cheese plate. After that, Carlos had a seafood pasta dish and I had one with pancetta, basil, and tomato sauce. Everything was very fresh and tasty. We shopped a little (for souvenirs) and couldn't resist bringing a couple of little pastries back to the hotel for dessert/breakfast the next morning.

That does it for this trip report. We left the next morning on our 10 am DC2NY bus and everything went well. Carlos and I can't wait to plan another trip to New York City in the future--it is such a cool and vibrant city!

New York City trip - Day 2

After a good night's rest in our super-comfy bed, we set out the next morning to find some breakfast. We walked to City Bakery and had a pretzel croissant, maple bacon scone, hot chocolate, coffee, and orange juice. It was all really tasty!

After fueling up, we walked to the nearest subway stop and took the subway up to the American Museum of Natural History. We arrived a little before it opened at 10:00 am, but there was already a pretty significant line! Luckily, with our Smithsonian badges, we were able to bypass the line and $25 entrance fee.

This museum is massive (compared to NMNH) and maze-like with so much to see and do. All of the exhibits were great, but among my favorites were the North American mammals--those dioramas were pure art. I also especially liked the dinosaur and evolution exhibits.

After walking miles in the museum (trying to take in as much as we could), we headed outside to the nearby Shake Shack for burgers and fries. We have a Shake Shack in DC too, but this was a nice, easy (and inexpensive) meal. After eating, we walked to the subway and headed back to the hotel for a little break before setting out for dinner and other evening activities.

We walked to Greenwich Village (a really cute neighborhood) to have dinner at Keste: a pizza and wine place. We were still a little full from our late lunch so we had some wine and split a super-cheesy burrata/tomato/basil pizza. After dinner we wandered around, peeking into shops, and looking for the Huxtable residence from the Cosby Show. We found it, but it was covered with scaffolding!

 

We walked back up Broadway to Rockefeller Center (it was getting dark by this time) and looked around that area for a while. One place we found was the Nintendo World Store! We got in 10 minutes before closing and looked at all the cool stuff before getting a snack at Bouchon Bakery across the street. We looked at the Prometheus statue and played around some Stonehenge-like structures before walking back to our hotel and calling it a night. Tomorrow we visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art!