Ode to New York

If you know me well, you know that I'd probably rather be a married-stay-at-home-mum than a 31-year-old-single-working-girl.  BUT, since I'm the latter - at least for the moment - one of the perks is that I've been free to travel and explore some fun places.  And I've been reminiscing lately about New York City.

I had always felt like a New York City girl at heart.  For as long as I can remember, I'd known that if I could just get there, I'd absolutely love it.  And in 2010, I spent three wonderful weeks there with two of my favourite people (Brecken & Justin) while they were living in Manhattan for Justin's Masters degree at Columbia University.

Well.  New York City did not disappoint!  It was everything I'd always imagined and so much more:

Business, Hustle & Bustle

Skyscrapers

Rivers & Bridges

Crazy numbers of people. Everywhere.

A thousand and one cultures all mixed together.  

Sights, sounds, tastes, smells

Little Italy

China Town

Central Park.  A thousand neighbourhood parks.

The Upper West side, Washington Heights, the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn... etc. etc. etc.

Times Square!!! 

Musicals, Musicals, Musicals

Culture, Culture, Culture

Jazz!! Classical Music. Any kind of music!

History - both of the city, and the world history collections you find there

The setting of practically every movie ever made

Neighbourhoods and the generations of families who have made them their own

Landmarks and famous food places.

I loved it, and love it still, and I really can't wait to get back there someday.  In the meantime however, I thought I'd leave you with a couple of photos of my favourite memories:

Times Square! LOVE the energy there! :)

Cafe Lalo - The cafe from You've got Mail (Don't they know you're supposed to have a last name?!)  DELICIOUS food!

Central Park. It's like 100 parks in one, and it's HUGE.  LOVE it!

The absolute best Gelato in the world. And I'm not exaggerating. It's THAT good.   

Van Gough at the MET.  Could have spent DAYS there.

Gorgeous square right in the middle of the busy intersection.  You may have seen it in 'Music and Lyrics', 'You've Got Mail ' (I hope your mango's ripe!) and 1,000 other movies.

Central Park, Again. I loved it that much!

On the ferry, heading over to Ellis Island

Two fabulous ladies. Just chilling.

A walk home from the local deli in the rain.  Brecken thought this might finally put a dent in my love of NYC.  She was wrong. Still loved it! If you could see my face, I'd be grinning...

Dinner and a show at one of the city's favourite jazz clubs.  It was open mic night, but they were ALL pros.  Watched them jam for hours, and could have gone hours more.

Cheese, Olives, Salamis, you name it.  These neighbourhood delis are incredible!

The Manhattan Temple. On our way to church.

Broadway and Time Square.  Simply nothing else to say.  Those shows were... beyond incredible!

The Hersey Factory, Times Square

The Brooklyn Bridge.  LOVE it, and love the history.  Can't believe people built it without all our modern helps!

More Gelato... in Little Italy this time.

Looking over the river to New Jersey, from River Side Park.

LOVE this city!!