I want to wake up in that city that doesn't sleep*

Have I ever told you that I am obsessed with the show Gossip Girl? Like followed-all-the-characters-on-Twitter obsessed, which, in my opinion, is a little much for a 30 year old woman. I'm pretty sure Eric even knows of my crush on Chace Crawford.

So, I'm sorry again, Eric and Rosemary for my thousands of references to Gossip Girl while in New York, but I just couldn't help myself.

I digress.

What else did we do on our 4 day holiday in The Big Apple?

Days 1 and 2 here

Day 3

We were curious to see the iconic Statue of Liberty, and of course Ground Zero, but with Ellis Island closed and the advent of the 9/11 Memorial Museum opening, we decided to save all the patriotic tours for another trip.

But how can you got to New York and not see them? So we took a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We ate at the (in)famous Grimaldis for pizza (cross that bad boy off the 1,000 Things To See Before You Die list) and had ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Much of the day was spent under the Brooklyn Bridge Park. Literally we sat in the grass for a solid two hours and did nothing. It was glorious.

We took the long way home over some sketch suspension bridge (yep, you can get motion sick on those things too) and through Brooklyn Heights.

The night finished with a wild stop at Paper Source (in the flesh! I'd only ever shopped there online. Oh, paper!) and Chipotle. Did you know Chipotle in New York serves Margaritas? For $9, my guess is most people don't know that either. But it was Cinco de Mayo and folks in Manhattan don't celebrate it quite like folks in Atlanta so we did what we could.

Our Sites:

The Brooklyn Bridge
Grimaldi's Pizza
Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory
Paper Source
Chipotle

Day 4

Our last day was super low key, and probably my favorite. With Rosemary, our gracious hostess, back at work and a 4pm flight back to Atlanta, we didn't want to wonder too far away. Rosemary lives about a block from Central Park on the Upper West Side so we saved the park day for our last on-our-own day.

Eric and I had a leisurely breakfast and coffe and strolled slowly through the park. It was so fun to spot locations from our favorite movies and TV shows. We loved seeing folks of all sorts, doing all sorts of things - from playing the harp to hosting a boot camp.

No trip to the city is complete without a lunch at The Shake Shack (there is one coming to Atlanta. pinch me). Also featured in a favorite movie, Something Borrowed, by a favorite Atlanta author, Emily Giffin. (okay, moving on) They have yummy burgers and fries, and Oh! The Shakes! I passed over the milkshake because they had Abita Rootbeer, and therefore an Abita Rootbeer Float. I dream of this meal when I close my eyes sometimes.

We had a fortunately uneventful flight home, other than my unnecessary fully body pat down at the airport. Our flight managed to arrive a few minutes early which scored us the opportunity to see our baby girl before she went to bed for the night.

Such a great trip! We hope to make it up there again soon, as we still have so much to see! Thanks again to Rosemary for letting us stay with her, making our whole trip possible!