I Heart New York

My birthday present was...tada...a trip to NYC with my husband. This is my 4th trip to NY, and those who know me well, know it is my favorite place. We left Saturday and are having a fabulous time!

Our flight was fine and uneventful (besides my constant gasps at every little change in movement or sound - I don't like being in the air) and flew by with constant, uninterrupted conversation, a competitive round of the dot game, and the perusing of Sky Mall magazine. Might I recommend (my wish list) the chewy edges brownie pan, inflatable movie screen, portable microwave, nut butter maker, portable exercise bike, head spa massager, digital receipt scanner, and portable laptop table perfect for when I am on my back in bed.


After checking into our hotel at 10:30ish p.m., we headed down to Curly's Vegetarian Diner. I live in a state with NO vegetarian restaurants, and I'm commonly faced with having only iceberg lettuce salad to choose. That's why this trip was so fun and important. We were really hungry and shared the tofu scrambler with spinach, salad, toast...

and curly fries with gravy - which, I think, is Ryan's new favorite food. He may frame this picture he loved them so much...

and a stack of pancakes with fruit plus "bacon" and sham. I LOVE breakfast food.

We enjoyed a leisurely walk back to our hotel, stopping through all the action at Union Square Park.

We are very happy with our hotel and our room on the 27th floor.

view from our floor - Central Park in the background

The next morning, after sleeping in as late as we wanted (about 9:30), we went to babycakes bakery in the lower east side, then walked around the area.

I chose the chocolate brownie cupcake, and Ryan chose lemon. We also shared a berry/cream biscuit. It was all yummy but a little too expensive.

I'm going to be honest; babycakes is not my favorite place. I think the desserts are a little dry. (The berry part of the biscuit was probably the best for me.) However, I have only been there once, and maybe it was just that day. It's really hard for me to give any sort of criticism toward a vegetarian/vegan establishment. I'm so happy they're THERE. I want them to succeed. It's so much better than anything I could order where I live. And I will bring my kids back here one day because it will be fun to let them order anything they want from the case.

We next headed to the Tompkins Square Park area, where we checked out Sustainable NYC, a really fun store, full of organic, local, fair trade, re-purposed/recycled, and biodegradable products and gifts. One of the things I bought was this wallet. I definitely loved this store.

Ryan, walking by farmers' market area at Tompkins Square Park

Lunch at Kate's Joint, where I've eaten several times before...we ordered the TLT (tofu, lettuce, tomato) and Southern Fried Cutlet sandwiches - both very similar but so good. The really fun thing about going to these restaurants with Ryan is ordering two things and always splitting them. It helps with having to narrow down such a difficult decision.

Accidentally wandered upon Washington Square Park, on our way to the "ice cream" shop

The first all vegan ice cream shop I've ever seen - Lula's Sweet Apothecary. It was really cute with a broad choice of ice cream flavors (which we got to sample!) to choose from. Just like Baskin Robbins, complete with tiny little ice cream spoons. :) No, I didn't eat both of those cones, even though that would have been a fair assessment. Ryan got rum raisin, and I got (SOFT-SERVE!!) cake batter/chocolate nut twist. It was REALLY good. Twist cones were always my favorite (dairy) thing, growing up.

I was so excited about being in Lula's, I remember I said, "They even have flurries!" Ryan asked, "What's a flurry?" "...it's...(as I start laughing) I don't know! But they have them!"

I just realized I got these pictures out of order, with good reason. I naturally would have assumed we ate the ice cream AFTER lunch...not right before supper, as it actually happened...oops.

After lunch, we went to see God of Carnage, starring James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels (you know, from Dumb and Dumber) on Broadway. I LOVE going to shows, and this one was very entertaining. It was Ryan's first Broadway show, and he really enjoyed it, as well.

We ate supper at Candle 79, an elegant, romantic, organic/vegan spot. We sat upstairs by the window, which was really nice. I must stress how nice it has been to just sit, talk, and take our time eating at a nice restaurant. We had the nachos for an appetizer. It's blurry, yes, but I didn't want to retake it. I wasn't going to even take the pictures in this restaurant, but by the time our food came, there weren't many people around us. Mostly just one young couple (weird how we're not a "young couple" anymore) who appeared to be on a date and smiled when I took the picture because my bright flash went off. Ryan apologetically said, "She really likes vegan food."

I got a seared seitan caesar salad, and Ryan ordered the Spring Harvest paella.

For dessert, Ryan ate the mixed berry crumble with chamomile "ice cream." I had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bliss. Clearly, I would pick whatever has chocolate and bliss in the title. When they brought it out, I thought it was the tiniest dessert I'd ever seen (but cute!).

I think it was the BEST dessert I've ever put into my mouth.