A Big Apple 4th of July!

It is my 32nd day in the big city! Let's rewind and fill you in on my weekend...

July 3-5 I had the best 4th of July weekend with my friends in town. It was a full weekend. We hung out in Bryant Park while enjoying Crumb cupcakes, strolled Madison Park and Central Park, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, toured Governor's Island, shopped in Chinatown and hit Times Square. We watched fireworks blow up over the Hudson River. For lunch we ate Lombardi's Pizzeria (hard to beat NY pizza).

Having arrived at Hudson River Park at 6pm and not 4pm street blockades separated us from our group of friends with the dinner/dessert. However, don't feel sorry for us we made friends with a group behind us that, also, got separated from their group but THEY had the food. They offered their extra portions and we accepted. We enjoyed rolls, potato salad, chicken salad, strawberries and sweet tea (yum!). And best of all the locals shared their Billy's cake with us. Which is the BEST bakery in town (it beats Magnolia) only the locals know this. After the delightful dinner we all hung out, took pictures and awaited the BIG light show!

Sunday we headed to the Upper West Side- a beautiful part of NY that I had not seen yet. Now, this is the area I would love to live in. It is the same area that You've Got Mail was filmed. We even stopped in the same grocery store Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks shopped in. This is a much calmer, cuter area of the city with the Hudson River Park on one side and the Central park on the other and neat cafes, restaurants and beautiful residential homes in between. We ate brunch at Sarabeth's (another recommendation from our 4th of July friends).

After touring by ABC studios, Julliard and Central Park- we dropped off Archita at her buss back to DC before heading to the Shake Shack in Madison Park for dinner. This shack has great burgers, fries and custard ice cream. Due to great reviews and highlights on the Food Network this lil shack always has ATLEAST a half hour wait no matter the time of day. I was skeptical at first but reviews don't lie it WAS worth the half hour wait.

July 6 Monday it was back to work for me. After work and on Joey's last night we headed to Jackson Hole for dinner (another recommendation from our local July 4th friends) to enjoy their trademark 7 oz. burgers- again, yum!

July 7 Tonight I am looking forward to playing in my FH softball game in Central Park!