NYC: Part two.

Are you ready for another round? I'll just pick up where I left off. After a semi-exhausting first couple of days, on day 3 we had a very leisure/lazy day planned. We slept in late and then went to lunch at Harry's Burritos. It was good, nothing that we wouldn't be able to find here in Arizona. I almost died laughing though when I read this on the menu:

"Deep-fried like a giant egg roll!" Um, seriously? I think in Mesa you are born knowing what a chimichanga is. I'd like to believe that it was my first word. Those silly East-Coasters, they need a Filiberto's.

Anyhoo, Harry's Burrito is on the Upper West Side, which is the more family friendly NYC, and I fell in love with the houses and the neighborhoods. Have you seen "You've Got Mail"? It was filmed there, and it is as lovely as can be. So we walked along the streets and got ourselves some more treats from another Magnolia's bakery, then walked to Central Park to hang out and eat.

Central Park was AMAZING. We spent over two hours just walking around and sitting and watching people then walking some more and taking pictures...then I kinda got us lost, but it was truly lovely.

The castle was fun to go to, and super pretty.

The view from the castle, which I LOVE. Also, fun fact #1, Central Park is where everybody that owns a bikini lays out on Saturdays. I could not stop laughing at how it seriously looked like a beach because everybody was just chillin' on beach towels. Fun fact #2, the castle is where the weather in Manhattan is taken from every day. I know, intriguing right? I kind of want to marry this picture. I clearly couldn't get enough of how pretty it was. I'm really mature/my mom is shaking her head at me while she reads this. We then walked out on the East side of the park and walked down and saw all of the 5th Avenue shops. My favorite was FAO Schwartz. I should have taken more pictures, it was seriously the most amazing store I've ever been in! The whole time I was there I kept thinking, "Yes, of course I need a 4-foot giraffe for my future babies!" or "These baby dolls are obviously special since the nurses are taking such good care of them...I need one." Yes, they have a nursery for the baby dolls and workers dressed as nurses taking care of them! I seriously wanted to die it was all so cute. And Philip with Chewy was very adorable as well. And if you click on the Chewy picture you can see above the Clifford dogs that Harry, Hermione, Ron and Hagrid area also made of Legos! They were, however, in the middle of the escalators so it was hard to get a picture of them.

.

. That night we went to Ray's Pizza (like on Elf) and it was poo. Don't go there. But later Philip wanted to try the Seinfeld cookie. "Look to the cookie!" Yeah, we're like ten years too late for this one. However, the cookie was surprisingly delicious.

Oh, and this is one of the two pictures we got in Times Square. I wasn't super impressed with it. Like there were lots of lights and billboards and whatnot, but not a ton of cool stores or anything.

. . Okay, now we are on to day #4, which might have been my favorite day. I don't know, they were all amazing, but this one was super amazing. We slept in once again and then went to lunch. After lunch, we went to this AMAZING place called Max Brenner's Chocolate Factory. Honestly, if you are a chocolate lover, this is how you will envision heaven. They have chocolate running through pipes (Philip said they just look like brown pipes) and like a 12 page menu of just chocolate options.

. Philip got:

. The Euphoria Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Brownie Sundae.

The description from the menu reads: Deep chocolate peanut butter ice cream, Dulce de Leche ice cream, caramelized toffee bananas, pure chocolate chunks, milk chocolate sauce, warm peanut butter sauce and chunks of chocolate fudge brownie. Garnished with whipped cream and crunchy hazelnut bits. Served with extra peanut butter sauce, and very pure milk chocolate ganache.

And I got:

The Spectacular Melting Chocolate S'mores Sundae.

(and an awkward hand)

The description of mine is:

Decadent dark chocolate gelato, pure vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate fondue, pure chocolate chunks, mini-marshmallows, chocolate wafer balls & whipped cream. Garnished with toasted marshmallow fluff, and chocolate covered graham cracker cookies. Served with white chocolate cream and silky whipped cream.

We both got:

probably 12,000 calories,

clogged arteries,

type 2 diabetes,

and very full and happy bellies.

They were, to put it mildly, heaven-sent.

After our delightful desserts, we headed over to the Gershwin Theater to see Wicked! I was debating whether or not to see this while we were in New York, since all of the tickets were so stinkin' expensive, but figured that we may as well see the real deal. So after spending too much on tickets, I tried to not think about it because I didn't want to get my hopes up or set myself up for disappointment.

Um, disappointment did not exist. I loved it. A lot. So did Philip. A lot.

We even had like the worst seats in the theater, and this is how close we were to the stage! And yes is bothers me that the picture is blurry.

It was so small and intimate, and at the end when they came and took their final bow, and everyone was giving them a standing ovation, I was almost in tears! I wanted to go hang out with them and thank them for putting on such a fantastic show. If you haven't seen it, you need to. If you go to New York, see it there. I'd like to believe that it was extra special there. Seriously, it is in my top three New York moments.

We then just walked around thinking about Wicked, and I wanted to see the Rockefeller center in it's fullness, and of course, was hoping to bump into Tina Fey/Liz Lemon.

That night we went to the Empire State Building, and it was so so dreamy. It almost seemed fake how pretty it was! I said to Philip, "Doesn't it just kind of look like the tiny town on the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland?" Seriously, it looks that perfectly beautiful. Philip might have been tired of the pictures by this time. Our last day was kind of a bust. We tried to go to Regis and Kelly and that didn't work. We tried to go to this store that Sara told me about, and it no longer exists. Then we tried to go to the Met, and it was closed. So we sat in the park again for a while and people watched, went to lunch at Shake Shack (good burgers, fries taste exactly like Ore-Ida), then went to the airport. All in all though, fantastic trip. I've said it before and I'll say it again, EVERYBODY needs to take this trip, and when you do, let me plan it for you!