5 Year Anniversary Trip: NYC! {Part 1}

Back in April, Jonathan surprised me with the news that we were going to NYC in June to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary!  He sent me picture text hints to clue me in on where we were going.  For our accommodations, we rented an apartment for 4 nights through vrbo.com, which was perfect.  We picked where we wanted to be in the city, got in touch with an apartment owner, flew JetBlue up to JFK and were all set!

We got to our apartment on Friday morning with plenty of time still left during breakfast hours.  Before we left town, I had downloaded several travel apps, so Jonathan checked out Urbanspoon and found a place he knew I would love: Alice's Tea Cup.  (Alice in Wonderland is a big thing at Meredith.)  We walked 14 blocks down to Alice's and sat down in the cutest little tea room.  I am still obsessed with how adorable the place was.

The food and tea was just as delicious as the place was cute.  Jonathan got coffee, I got Lover's Cup tea (they were out of the Alice's Blend), and we got pumpkin pancakes, a raspberry and goat cheese scone, and a chocolate salted caramel scone to share.  All seriously delicious and the perfect start to our trip!

Next up? Strolling around Central Park.  My heart is still there.  I LOVED it!  It was gorgeous, shady, a haven for us 'active folk'.  There were walkers, runners, bikers, roller bladers, readers, nappers, photographers and so many others.

We took our time wandering straight through the park and landed on the east side to make our way to the Met, where Jonathan found the perfect display for my inner color theory nerd.

From there, we enjoyed a couple slices of pizza and some coffee fro yo before making our way back through Central Park to our apartment.  Waking up at 4am had finally caught up with us, so we crashed for a couple of hours before dinner.  It was one of those totally zonked out bodies upside down diagonal across the bed type naps.  As the grogginess lifted and after walking around our section of the neighborhood for a while, we ultimately decided on Isabella's for dinner where we split a filet and lots of veggies.

Saturday morning we grabbed some coffees and a couple of Le Pain Quotidien pastries to eat back at the apartment.  The view from the breakfast nook was perfect.  I just loved our street!

View down the street

View directly across the street

The NYCWAY app was a lifesaver as it had the subway map within.  Jonathan became very familiar with the different lines and we got around easily on the subway system.  Our first ride was down to the World Trade Center and Financial District area.  WTC was quite crowded on Saturday morning, so we decided to wait until Monday for that.  Instead, we walked around the Financial District, found ourselves in Tiffany & Co., then made the trek across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was a great walk with some stellar views.

We had two main reasons for going to Brooklyn: Talde and to see a good friend of ours.  After the Bridge walk, we made it down to Talde with about 40 minutes to spare until brunch was over.  Whew!  We knew of this restaurant from our Top Chef fandom. Chef Dale has been on a couple of seasons of Top Chef so we checked out the menu prior to our trip and as soon as we saw 'Bacon Pad Thai', we were sold!

We had been walking quite a long time by now, so I wanted a good drink.  Enter Watermelon Margarita.  It was pretty damn good, the best part being taking a little bit of the salt covered watermelon slice and a sip of the drink together.

My allergies came into play in the entree choosing, but all's well that ends well, and this ended quite well.  We got the Pretzel Pork & Chive Dumplings (yum), Jonathan got the Bacon Pad Thai (he says yum, I couldn't because of allergies), and I got the Korean Chicken Wings & Waffles (OMG YUM!).  The chicken wing sauce was spicy and creamy and everything you could imagine.  Honestly, that Korean Chicken & Waffles (with a coconut brown butter syrup) was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life.  A bite with each of the flavors and ... wow.  We are both still thinking about this dish days later.

We enjoyed spending the rest of the afternoon and evening with our good friend Kunal and his girlfriend Salma.  They showed us so many gorgeous spots in Brooklyn!  

We enjoyed highly recommended ice cream right under the Brooklyn Bridge at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and found the perfect bench in the shade to people watch.  We saw no less than 6 brides and 3 quinceanera celebrations roll through!