New York

 

Neeeew Yorrrrk , NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!

 

If you were at our house you would see me doing a high kick and jazz hands...

 

Steven took me for a loverly few days in New York.  We went out for the wedding of some good Vandy friends, Sean and Allison.  We were only there for a little less than 4 days but we packed them full!

 

 



Some of my favorite things we did in New York:

 

Walking around Central Park.  The weather was nice, we watched a scene of a movie being filmed, and we enjoyed a breather from the busyness.

 

EATING!!!  I had a list of places I wanted to go to and Steven was pretty accommodating.  We made it to the Shake Shack, China Town Ice Cream Factory,Grimaldi's Pizza, Katz's (send your salami to your boy in the army!), and Levaine's Bakery.  We even tried a few places I hadn't heard of and they were great.  A full Amanda is a happy Amanda.  And if you want to make the most amazing cookies ever, here is a copycat recipe of Levaine's http://lisamichele.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/my-much-talked-about-levain-bakery-copycat-cookie-recipes/.

SO good.

Walking walking walking... Steven and I really enjoy walking a city, it reminds us of living in London.  One of our favorite walks was across the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was raining so we had the bridge mostly to ourselves.  Looking across the bridge at the statue of liberty was kind of surreal.  About halfway across the bridge, we started noticing locks fastened on the iron.  Looking closer, we saw initials and names written on them.  A + S...

 

I really loved seeing the temple in Manhattan.  I didn't know what to expect and when we spotted it, I got a big 'ol smile on my face.  There we are.  And on being Mormon in New York... we met so many tremendously nice people on the subway and eating.  I always had the urge after talking a while to blurt out at them, "I'm a Mormon!  Do you know any?  I'm totally normal, right??"  I didn't, it probably would have been utterly NOT normal, but I did feel the urge.

 



 

My FAVORITE thing that we did was tour the UN center.  Cool stuff!  We got to see the general assembly meeting hall and some really neat artifacts like granaids, a statue that survived the bombing of Hiroshima, and art from lots of different countries.  Being there really reminded me of how interested I am in foreign affairs.   

 

 

 

My advice for visiting New York... don't go as a nursing mom without your baby.  I spent some very awkward time in yucky bathrooms pumping and dumping.  And if you've ever used or heard someone using a manuel pump, it is an awkward slurp/sloooop sound.   SLURP SLOOP SLURP SLOOP SLURP SLOOOOOP dump.  Awesome use of time, NOT.

 

Funny moments, someone rushing past us, saying, "Uh, this... is a SIDEWALK!!!"  Oh gee, thanks.  Admittedly, we were standing on the sidewalk but the rest of it was empty, I thought it was safe.  Also, after every picture we would have a random person take, Steven would critique their photography skills.  "Thanks for taking a picture OF OUR LEGS!!!' He would grumble between his smiling lips.  Nice. 

 

 



 

The wedding was beautiful and so fun.  Everybody danced and we laughed and ate.  We loved catching up with our buddies, Jared and Andrea, quite possibly the cutest newlyweds ever.