rachel

NYC Tourist Spectacular #2

Nov 28th 2009 11:35:40 pm

After fueling up with our traditional Thanksgiving meal we were ready to hit more sights on Friday and Saturday…

Friday started with our usual walk to Prospect Park. Then, the three of us traveled to Bloomigdales and 5th Avenue to immerse ourselves in the shopping insanity. It was crowded, but not much more so than on normal weekends. I bought my first pack of Nuts 4 Nuts from a street vendor. Seth really wanted me to eat street food while he was visiting. I told him that Nuts 4 Nuts would have to count because I am not willing to risk eating street meat.

After we got our fill of shoppers we headed up to the Museum of Natural History. This was my third trip to that museum and I think that affected my enjoyment… It was incredibly crowded and very hot in the museum. We only stayed for a couple of hours because I pretty much freaked out. A nice stroll through Central Park cooled me off, though. We ended the evening in my new favorite location: Dylan’s Candy Bar. A magical place filled with candy where you can pay a dollar to dip a variety of items in a chocolate fountain. I bought a chocolate-dipped rice krispy treat. So tasty!

Saturday is waffle truck day in Park Slope. After a walk to the park, we all got waffles covered in chocolate and whipped cream! You can’t really ask for a better breakfast. Just ask Crusher. He is obsessed with waffles!

We tried to get to Manhattan a little earlier on Saturday so that we could catch the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands. Unfortunately, every other tourist in the city had the same idea. After Seth and Travis tried some more street food, we waited about two hours for the ferry in the cold wind. We had an interesting encounter with a Churro vendor, went through a bunch of security, and final boarded the ferry. It was fun to see the Statue of Liberty, but we were not able to go up inside of it… I think you have to get special tickets way in advance to do that. We took a bunch of silly photos with Lady Liberty and then took another ferry to Ellis Island. I had high hopes for the museum at Ellis Island. I am really interested in the island from a historic preservation standpoint, but the museum was not quite as fantastic as I was expecting. It was fine, but it did not have many artifacts and the exhibits were a bit sparse and spread throughout the huge main building. I would love to tour the complete grounds of Ellis Island someday and peak inside the unrestored buildings!

Standing in the wind all day really tired me out, but the boys motivated me to go back to Manhattan by promising another trip to Dylan’s Candy Bar. We ate dinner at Patsy’s Pizzeria first, and then went wild at the candy store. I got another rice krispy treat at the chocolate fountain and we bought a bunch of fudge, chocolate, and gummy candy… Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs, though, because we barely made a dent in our sugary loot when we got home. We capped the evening with a viewing Home Alone to further cement our holiday spirit. Fun times!

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