New York City: The Good and The Not-As-Good

I'm hoping to finish up my trip to NYC in blog form today, so this post will be a mix of recommendations, tips and of course, my own experience in New York City. I hope you enjoy!

Things I Love About NYC

1. Food.  Obviously I love food, and I also love convenient food. I love being able to walk to get my food. So when I'm staying in a hotel with Starbucks across the street, delicious frozen yogurt just steps from the front door, Whole Foods in the basement (not kidding), I am a very happy girl. Oh, and I should probably mention New York City clearly has some of the best restaurants out there. Some recommendations for special occasions? (If you are going to take these recommendations check prices first, I was celebrating with my family so this was out of the Kelly and Eric budget range).

Morimoto, home of the Iron Chef- Eric was psyched when he learned this was on our itinerary and the food was seriously delicious. I want some more lobster fritters right now...

or the striped bass special would be great as well...

But the best part of the restaurant? The bathrooms. I'm serious. I would seriously consider going into this restaurant just for a drink, JUST to try the bathroom. They have heated seats!!!! My mom and Eric thought they lost me in there but I was simply recovering from being freezing my whole meal. Oh, and taking a picture of how gorgeous the stall was...

Asiante- A very fancy restaurant, and a perfect place to celebrate my Dad's birthday. We had a gorgeous view of New York and perfect food. I got sea bass with potato noodles...

We got a taste of several desserts to celebrate- they were all good, but I only got a picture of the birthday cake :)

We also came back to this restaurant for an end of trip brunch on Sunday morning (and a change of pace from Starbucks haha). I got the best apple french toast, yum...

Trattoria Dell'Arte- amazing Italian food, perfect for a pre-theater meal :) I got my typical plain pasta, but I'm telling you, you can totally judge an Italian restaurant by this meal...

2. Views. But you already knew that if you read my post yesterday :)

3. Spending quality time with the fam. I love any opportunity to spend time with my awesome parents and siblings. New York gave us that opportunity this summer and so I love it for it :)  

4. Historical Sights and Museums. No one could ever see there is not enough to do in New York City. I'm pretty sure you could spend an entire summer touring New York every day and you may not have even explored Manhattan fully. I definitely had to give in to the desire to do it all this weekend, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the stuff we did do!

5. Relaxing in the hotel. We had this awesome seat in our hotel room that I wanted to bring home with me. The view and time to read trashy magazines also added to the greatness. I used to hate celebrity gossip magazines but I've recently decided the ridiculousness of them is a total stress reliever for me. Random, I know.

6. Broadway Shows. I have mixed feelings about musicals in general. I love Glee, but some musicals are just a bit much for me. Granted I was in 13 years old, but what the heck even HAPPENED in Cats? Anyone? However, I saw Wicked this weekend and it was fantastic. As in, go see it now fantastic. Even Eric liked it and I would say he is much less of a musical person than I am. See it. Now.

If you need any extra incentive, they have a full bar and they serve the drinks in cool travel mugs that you get to keep.

Things I Do Not Love About NYC

1. The Crowds. No matter where you walk, you WILL be dodging people. There is no method to the madness and it's every man for himself. I probably have bruises just from walking around the city.

2. The Lines. Okay, so to be fair, this probably goes with the crowds, but it's more specific than that. The Empire State Building was seriously a joke when it came to lines. We must have waited in like 12 different lines and when we finally got on the elevator, it only took us up to the 80th floor. When my mom questioned why we were not at 86, Eric joked that they wanted us to wait in another line. Turned out, he was RIGHT! Luckily we avoided this line by walking up the 6 flights (which turned out to be more than 6 but anyways). The Statue of Liberty was another story. They dealt with the lines better, but they loved this crazy herding technique and all I can say is, it's a wonder there has not yet been a stampede! My tips? #1- I don't think the Empire State Building is a total must, I've heard better things about the Top of the Rock and apparently there are no crazy lines. I'll probably try it next time I am there. #2- I don't think you HAVE to actually go to the Statue of Liberty personally. Take one of the many boats that goes near it and you'll get a great view. I've read good things about the free Staten Island ferry and my parents did a great hop on hop off boat that went right by it too. If you really want to go to the island, just make sure you arrive at Battery Park early. The line was twice as long as we were leaving.

3. Ellis Island. Okay, so I don't actually "hate" Ellis Island, but it can't go on the love list either. I was pretty excited about going there but... maybe I was missing something? I just didn't find it that interesting at all... It's probably worth a stop if you are at the Statue of Liberty anyway, but I personally don't think you are missing much if you decide to skip it.

Tell me what you love and don't love about New York, or about your own city if you've never been to New York.