We slept even later on Saturday morning than we did on Friday morning and it was WELCOME. I think I woke up somewhere around 9 o’clock, but it was closer to 10 before I made myself get out of that cushy hotel bed. We were just about 15 minutes from the Brooklyn Bridge, so we took our time getting ready and then set out on foot. The last time we were here, it was freezing and when we got to the halfway point we turned around and found the nearest Starbucks to warm up. This time, we planned to walk into Brooklyn for lunch and some sight-seeing. Just in case you haven’t noticed a theme, SD & I are masters at the self-portrait. We always laugh because people volunteer to take our photo (and we let them), but we still take one of ourselves, too. One day I’m going to put together a post of my favorite couple-selfies.
This was our one and only glimpse of Lady Liberty this trip. I still really want to go up inside her crown, but we spent so much time there (and on Ellis Island) in 2011, that we opted to wave from afar this trip.
When we made it to the other side, we hopped under the bridge for pizza at Grimaldi’s. Heralded as “New York’s Best Pizza” we had to see for ourselves how it compared to the John’s on Broadway. We waited in the hot sun for about thirty minutes, but it was worth it when we got our slices. The restaurant wasn’t as cool as we wanted it to be, but that probably had much to do with the pizza ovens. I think I liked the atmosphere at John’s better, but the pizza was delicious and we had a great time getting to know the couple seated next to us in the restaurant.
The sign below was posted right outside the restaurant and Josh loved it. He thinks any opportunity to “troll” someone is epic, so this was right up his alley.
The line waiting to get in as we enjoyed our yummy pizza.
After lunch, we strolled through Brooklyn Heights a bit and made our way down to the water. I considered ice cream for a few minutes before noticing the line wrapped around the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. I was too full to wait in that line for more food!
In my only gaffe of the week, we walked a few unnecessary miles while in Brooklyn. The subway stations look completely different there than they do in Manhattan and coupled with a few under construction, we had a hard time finding what we were looking for. I absolutely HATE asking questions of locals, so we meandered around looking like we meant to be there for about thirty minutes, before stumbling into the station. In upset number two, I read the map wrong and when trying to get us to the Park Slope neighborhood, I got us in a rather sketchy part of town instead. We should have noticed before exiting the train, but didn’t and by that time we were exhausted and bailed on Brooklyn altogether.
Next up on our self-guided walking tour was The High Line. I had done my research on this one and delivered us right to the spot. The High Line is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side (from the about page of their website). It is such a neat way to see the city and we enjoyed exploring.
When we finished up, it was way too early for dinner, but we didn’t really have anything else on the agenda for the day. We decided to walk back to midtown while deciding what to do. We were surprised to see so many people since we had spent most of our stay downtown. We tried to buy tickets for Top of the Rock, but the wait was a little over an hour and we weren’t really interested in standing around. Instead, we walked over to Times Square (just to say hello) and hopped a Subway back to TriBeCa, where we took a quick rest and got ready for dinner.
We ate in SoHo again, after debating for almost an hour about where to go. I really wanted to try 7a Cafe in the East Village (hello goat cheese fettuccine!), but there aren’t really any subway stops in the area and we hated to take a cab both ways. We knew it would be well after midnight when we finished eating and opted not to wander around alone since we’ve never been to that part of the city. Josh found us a cute italian restaurant, Galli, and we walked the few blocks to SoHo to find a darling restaurant. Again with the deliciousness – if we did nothing else this trip, we nailed it on dinner restaurants. Josh had Chicken Marsala and I had Pesto Pasta, but nothing was as good as the massive plate of Tiramisu at the end. We sat in a dark, quiet little corner of the restaurant and had fantastic service. We even got a big ole “Night, y’all!” when the left. We ended up passing the sister hotel of the place we were staying and think we liked it even more. I’ll share more about our hotel tomorrow, but I think we preferred the neighborhood around the SoHo Grand. We will definitely give it a shot next time we visit.
Are y’all tired of New York posts yet? Just one more, I promise!
