Back from vacation! New York re-cap

 Omigosh I have been away for some time now! 

Dale & I were enjoying our time away together so much that we stayed a few days extra on vacation and he even postponed his flight back home. It's sooo nice to get away with him ;)

We went to 4 different cities over the course of 2 weeks. 

The 1st was New York City

I'm super blessed that Dale took me on this trip to New York as I've been wanting to visit this much talked about city. I've heard a lot of good things about New York also....but now that I've spent a few days in NYC, all I can say is, I feel the same way about New York City as I did when I came back from Las Vegas (you can read my Vegas post here). What is all the hype about?

I'm not eager to head back to NYC soon - perhaps it's because I live in a big city already?
Here's my overall opinion of New York City:

-everyone seems in a rush. There is a lot of impatience in the city - similar to Toronto. The first thing I heard coming out of the airport were cars honking their horns like I have never heard before. People just holding the car horn down. It's ridiculous and stressful. I'd die 10 years premature from the stress if I lived in NYC!

-I'm not going to name which acquaintance told me New Yorkers are friendly - like dude, I don't know what kind of people you associate with normally. I didn't find New Yorkers friendly - not even the staff in stores. In general they seem a slight bit colder than Torontonians and Torontonians are known to be self centred. :S

-Times Square really is just a bigger version of Dundas Square in Toronto (with the bonus of wider sidewalks). Yes it is very busy at all hours of the day, even late into the night. I didn't like Times Square as much as I thought I would as I generally avoid crowds for shopping

-NYC was more ghetto than I expected it to be. 

There were a few highlights of course :)
Here are some pictures along with the highlights:

Times Square

One restaurant that I really liked in Times Square was Bubba Gump. 

If you love seafood, you'll love this restaurant. It's family oriented and our waitress was super nice (okay, one New Yorker I met that was friendly haha). The seafood is really fresh and well prepared. 

In fact I liked the restaurant so much that Dale insisted he buy me a couple of souvenir T-shirts :P

Dale took us on a carriage ride through downtown Manhattan one night. It was really romantic and nice :)

Dale took me on a downtown bus tour of the city. We made a short walk over to Ground Zero where there is construction going on to build a Memorial Museum. 

*****

The most beautiful place for me in New York City was by far Central Park

Similarly in Toronto, we have a nice place to escape the busy city - it's called Centre Island which is a short ferry ride away from downtown Toronto (you can read my posts on Centre Island here and here)

Here are a few pictures of Central Park 

Not only is Central Park a nice way to escape the rush and stress of the city, but it's lovely. The city is built so beautifully around the large park and if you see any aerial views of Central Park you'll know what I mean

There were various beautiful trees budding and this was one of them. 

Notice my recurring theme of Roots hoodies? ;) 

The weather was a bit damp and cool. I always rely on a Roots hoodie to keep me warm during my travels. You'll notice I wear them in a lot of my vacation pictures 

Another highlight in New York City was another quiet park - a place called Battery Park

Can you see the Statue of Liberty off at the distance? If not, here's a close up

So because Dale and I spent a few extra days on vacation this time, we missed Easter Dinner with my parents :(  I felt so bad as they cooked a nice turkey just for us. Thankfully, my parents were understanding and dropped off some leftover turkey for me on Sunday - so nice!

I have so many pictures to post, but at the same time I've been busy catching up with work and school readings. Plus, Dale & I are planning our next trip to Boston MA later this month :)


Let me know what you have been up to!