The Sister's Food Tour Part 1

I know I titled this "Sisters", plural, and yes, biologically I only have 1 sister named Emily and she is AMAZING, but we also "adopted" Jenelle a few years ago and she's been a nice addition to our family :) I was very excited to have a Sister Adventure Wkd and it was really nice that they'd both been to NYC before so we could deviate from the normal touristy guidelines. Basically we ate, A LOT, and it was so good.

best $3 spent on dinner.

Em arrived Thursday afternoon just in time to freshen up, grab some dumplings and sesame pancakes from my new fave Prosperity Dumpling, then walk up to St.Marks and meander, get some Pinkberry, then finally make our way to the Ben Rector/Needtobreathe concert. Let me just say, this was a great concert and it was pretty rockin' for "Christian music". We met some really sweet college students who shared our strong dislike for the group of drunk girls beside us (hello, rule #17, you don't get drunk at Christian concerts!) that continually pushed against us and told us to "stop taking their space" and who loudly talked to each other throughout every single song of Ben Rector. Me, being the older and more confrontational sister that I am took it upon myself to make some small talk with them. Our conversation went a little like this,

Ben Rector

    "Hey, seems like you girls have a lot to talk about! I saw you all hand your phones out. Do you have unlimited texting? You do, oh that's great, because I'd really appreciate if you could just text each other what you're thinking instead of saying it loud enough for all of us to hear! I paid to hear the band, not you".
    Their response, "You want us to text and drink at the same time?!".
    Me again, "Yeah, I do. I'm pretty sure you've done that before."

Did it work? Not really but I felt so much better after I said that! Turns out they were "fans" of Needtobreathe so instead of talking they loudly sang most of the songs. Oh well, we still had a good time and I'd hands down recommend going to see both bands if you have the chance!

Needtobreathe

Em and I headed home, and by this time Jenelle had arrived at my apt. Our first official stop of our "Food Tour" was Insomnia Cookies and they have this Coconut Pecan cookie that is to die for! We ordered a few boxes (don't judge, it's way too early in the story for that) to go and made some special deliveries to both the PICU and "Cardiac for Babies" unit so they could meet some of my coworkers and the mother of a patient who I just love (that is a whole different blog post). And then we got hungry on the 10 minute walk home so we grabbed some 99cent pizza!

The next day started out with a stop at Vic's Bagel Bar (are you surprised?) and Jenelle about died from how good it was! We needed that energy for our busy day of traipsing all over Brooklyn, per Emma's request. First we walked down to the LES for a mani-pedi at my favorite, Beauty Cutie, and then we took the subway over to Brooklyn, where we scored some cheap fedoras from a sidewalk vendor, and skipped a traditional lunch for some red velvet ice cream at Shake Shack instead! Our sugar comas led us to a really fun kitchen store, where we bought some amazing veggie peelers & Brooklyn tea towels and we found a cookbook there that left us drooling and decided our next foodie adventure! One Girl
Cookies was such a charming place, it smelled like heaven, and tasted just as good!

One Girl Cookies

cute sister

We decided that we should probably walk off some calories and headed to Brooklyn Bridge Park. While exploring the park, the carousel, and shops (like Brooklyn Industries, love their soft T's) we found Jacques Torres, a chocolatier, who's rumored to make the best chocolate chip cookies so of course we had to try them! By now it's 6pm and we haven't eaten "substantial" food so we got in line for pizza at Grimaldis. After carb-loading on a NY staple we walked the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan and took some AMAZING photos! 

Brooklyn Bridge Park

pretty skyline

probably the most fabulous
picture taken of me, ever

stunning sister

snazzy Jenelle

city lights from the BB

Downtown lights

Somehow, we mustered up some more energy and headed down to Southport to catch the Staten Island Ferry. We decided to brave the cold wind, which we were not dressed for, and as we stood huddled together with my scarf wrapped around all our heads we waived to Lady Liberty and fireworks shot off in the distance. At that moment we all knew, our day together couldn't have been better!

approaching Manhattan on the ferry

Rockaway

The temperatures are warming up a little bit and this is the rare weekend that both Jenn and I are off work AND in town, w/o any company. This combo means we get to hang out with what we affectionately refer to as "Dave's Crew". Bless him, he is manly enough to hang out with 5 women at a time and not be perceived as our gay best friend. Jenn and I had decided to meet the group over at Rockaway Beach after going to church...and then after lunch at Hill Country...and then after some ice cream in Madison Square Park. By now it's early afternoon and we're just starting to make what we thought was just over an hour long trip to the beach. Wrong. It was a 3+ hour ordeal involving multiple transfers due to weekend track work, a few dead ends, a trip to JFK to catch a bus which turned into a "really special ride" and then finally, almost 5 pm arriving at our destination! Of course by this time the gang was about ready to pack it up and head home. We convinced them to stay a little bit longer for us. We desperately needed to smell the ocean, feel the sand between our toes, stare at surfers and pretend that we too had spent our Sunday afternoon chilling at the beach after several weeks of ugly rain.

@ Rockaway Beach

Es running into the cold waters &
one of my seashell finds

on the Jetty

We decided food was a good idea, and earlier in the week Jenn & Dave had met a surfer who had suggested The Wharf so over there we went! Both the food and the views were great!

dinner!

Dave & his harem

We had a pretty fun, car ride home, jammin' to the radio and me coining the phrase "Not my car" each time we hit a bump pretty hard due to the 6 ppl and beach accessories crammed into Dave's old Camry. I volunteered to be DD, partially for selfish reasons as I really wanted to drive across the Brooklyn Bridge at night! I can't help it, I'm just obsessed with that bridge. Even now, as I'm writing this I'm wearing a T-shirt with the BB on it.

city skyline in the back

Dave, Adline, (me), Jenn, Shelly, & Es

Dave & Adline

gorgeous sunset

Once we made a few drop offs and found a spot near Dave's we crashed his place to watch Dumb & Dumber b/c I'd committed the crime of never having watched the whole movie. Everyone else fell asleep, but I now understand "Throw another shrimp on the barbi" and "Lloyd Christmas haircut".

Random NYC pics 'n moments

Here are some random pics that help describe some favorite things about NYC living:

adventurous outfits: mixing prints,
hipster glasses (Warby Parker),
orange lipstick

one of my favorite guilty pleasures:
cheap mani's (weekly)
Mint Candy Apple & California Coral

Ordering in sushi from Seemless.com

the view out my bedroom window,
looking towards Midtown

Jewish baby formula!

necklace inspiration at M&J Trimmings

walking by the Empire State Building
on an almost daily basis

Prosperity Dumpling:
cheapest & most delicious Chinese food

stylin' on my way into work with new
pink lipstick, bangs & mani color combo

not a lot can be said of this night, but these are some
fun chaps

love the Wisteria and Swiss clock tower
near Madison Square Park

i <3 the Flatiron building

yummy strawberry ice cream from
Shake Shack

I Ruv this face

walking around the corner
and running into a
Persian Street Parade

Easter

For the first time in several years I had Easter off, and for the first time in several months I left NYC. There aren't a lot of reasons to leave, just about anything you want to do can be found there, but there are some people that are so important to me that I'd leave fun-land to visit.

I took the bus down to DC to visit with my friend Rachel (you might remember her from my post about visiting the Empire State Building). She's a public health nurse down there and has become a dear friend during these last few months. See, it does payoff to talk to strangers! She allowed me my guilty pleasure of walking the Tidal Basin and visiting the Jefferson and FDR Memorials (2 of my faves) in search of the one, lone, still blooming Cherry Blossom!

We then went and joined some of her friends at Comet Ping Pong, where yes, your tabletops are actually ping pong tables and there are several lively competitions going on in the back of the restaurant. Too bad it was fairly steady or else Rach would've kicked some butt with her customized/hand painted paddle!

Comet was featured on Diners, Dives, and Drive Ins

After staying up way too late (like you should for any good slumber party) we grabbed a few hours of sleep before heading out to the sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial. The service itself was amazing and horrible all at the same time! It was so majestic to watch the sun rise behind the Capitol building and Washington Monumnet, especially as we sang praise songs about our Risen King...but the pastor was that stereotypical "Southern Preacher" you'd see in a movie. Listening to him was just embarrassing. He was this close to being as bad as the "Nascar Prayer" guy who thanked Jesus for his smoking hott wife. This guy referred to his wife as a Vixen and his Bride (guess what, that's past tense...both of them!). He also made some jokes about the offering and that the closer to the front the more $ you should give, it just feeds into people's perceptions of the church wanting your money. Sad. If you've ever wanted to go for the sunrise service there, just consider yourself warned. Not the best message, but if you already know the real Easter message then you'll enjoy the sights and singing.

Rach and I grabbed a yummy brunch together then I took the metro up to Baltimore to spend the rest of Easter with Alicia, Bob, the twins, her parents...basically I was craving a family and they are the closest substitute I have! I had a great time playing with the kids, decorating some cupcakes, spending time just sitting down and talking and being surrounded by a loving family.

It was exactly the break I needed from my past-paced city life. The kids are getting so big, and talk up a storm. It's so touching that they not only know my name, but want ME to do things with them. Yes, I felt special when they wanted to show me that they "pee peed in the potty". And that they wanted me to tuck them into bed. And that they looked for me when they woke up. It was just too sweet! I also enjoyed some fun adult time with Bob and Alicia making s'mores over their firepit. It was a good reminder that I can still enjoy the small things in life. This fancy city life of mine is only for a season, and when it ends, I'll be ok.