Catching Up - Spring Break 2012 - Part III

New York City is a loud, fast, and busy place.  None of the aforementioned adjectives are among my favorites when describing a city.  Laura really seems to love the big city atmosphere and I was glad we could enjoy the city together. 

Here's a quick pictorial summary of our eventful 3 day stay in Manhattan.

Warning: many of the pictures feature our plush penguin who was along for the trip.  He likes to "sneak" into our pictures for laughs.  We still haven't named him yet, so please add your suggestions to the comments!

Wednesday after the ballgame we took a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to Grimaldi's to taste test some local brew and true New York style pizza.  Yum!

Thursday morning we went around the corner from the apartment we were staying at to grab some bagels for breakfast.  I had lox cream cheese spread on mine.  I love trying new foods and this was no exception.  Later we visited the New Museum and we went to the top of the Empire State Building.

We sauntered threw Chinatown and had a snack.  That's my mango pudding that the penguin in protecting from Laura.

Thursday night we had sushi for dinner and took a little stroll through the neighborhoods.  On our walk back to our apartment Laura tried on a $418 dress.  Yikes!   Fortunately for our pocket book we only returned with a HUGE cupcake from a nearby cupcake store.  New York has stores that feature only cupcakes!?!

Friday we took a nice walk threw Central Park and stopped for brunch at the Boat House in the middle of the park.  Oddly enough, the park's bodies of water aren't really big enough for boats.  Why do they have a boat house?  We captured a picture of our penguin looking for crumbs from the restaurant's patrons with the rest of the NYC fowl. 

My technologically savvy wife booked us some two tickets to Liberty and Ellis Islands earlier in the week.  The reservations cut our line wait time down by a good estimated hour.  We spent a good two hours away from the main land and quite a bit of time exploring Ellis Island.  The stories and pictures were simply amazing.

Our penguin from the second floor of the main building on Ellis Island.

We took another stroll through the downtown area to awe at the hustle and bustle. Here's a shot of Laura trying to re-capture our crazy penguin from atop the Wall Street bull.

Friday night we took in a movie: The Artist.  Our feet were pretty tired at this point and a movie sounded like a sound decision.  We weren't disappointed by this black & white and mostly silent film, which was released in 2011.   If you can find it, I gave it two thumbs up. 

For dinner we settled on an Italian restaurant and split a pizza and a bottle of chardonnay to celebrate a fun week away from our lives back home.

Saturday morning we stopped by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) before heading to the airport.Here's the silly penguin riding a goat at the MoMA.  I don't think the museum security person was happy with his decision to hitch a ride on the goat and frowned at Laura and I.  C'est la vie.

Overall, I had a better time than I would have expected, but much of that could easily be chalked up to my travel companion and beautiful tour guide: Laura.