TRAVEL: Day 1: New York City!

Right before the fabulous dinner party I hosted, my lovely boo and I were able to take a nice little, pre-Christmas vacation trip to the Big Apple! He finished an exam on the 19th, which was also my last day of work before the New Year! And thankfully, since I used to work at a Marriott, I was able to score an AMAZING rate at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in New York/Manhattan!!! Yes... an awesome rate a few days before Christmas? Who wouldn't go?!

So, we got up nice and early, and after charging up with a lovely breakfast provided by Pookie, we loaded up the car and headed on our road trip!

We got there, left our bags (and car) at the hotel and began our adventures! (Side note: Yes, I drove in New York City, and did very well, thank you!)

Here are a few favorites from our day. We started off on top of the Big Apple on the Empire State Building:

Panoramic View of Financial District 

Panoramic View of Manhattan

Posing on the Empire State Building

From there we walked up 5th Avenue to a little Pizzeria, recommended by our hotel, to have some New York Style Pizza. Right past the Apple Store on 6th Avenue there is a place called Pizza Villagio. It is two floors, so there is plenty of seating, and they offer more than just pizza. It was clean and everyone was really friendly! Turns out the owner was Greek and was very welcoming to us. I tried their Vegetable Pizza and Vasili had the same, plus one Cheese slice. The prices were very reasonable, considering the location. It was on our way up to the MET so it really was great! Slices were big too! I will definitely remember this place for next time!

Enjoying New York Style Pizza at Pizza Villagio Cafe

Afterwards, we walked through Central Park, through the MET (which was amazing!), to FAO Schwartz, Dylan's Candy Bar, and then down 5th Avenue again to Rockefeller Center, then to Times Square, the Disney Store, and then back to our hotel! Here are some favorites from this escapade:

Alice in Wonderland Statue in Central Park

Temple in MET

Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center 

Times Square at Night

After taking an hour to decide where to go for dinner, we wondered off (in exhaustion) along the streets to find something. We ended up at the Albert Hall Tavern, which had a sign advertising Live Music outside. So we walked in to what was a semi-decent crowd in the bar area, but were seated in the dining area, which was completely empty. I am sure a couple of hours before it was packed, but this was no longer the case.

Our waitress was really friendly and sported an Irish accent. She took our order of potato skins (without bacon...I was fasting before Christmas). They were alright. Standard potato skins. But, we were hungry so we ate them all! For dinner, Vasili order the Albert Hall House Burger and I ordered the Vegetable Burger. Both came with sides of fries. The bun that held the burgers was really good! My vegetable burger was very moist and different than your usual black bean burger. The fries were standard restaurant fries. Vasili's burger was nothing special either. The pricing was pricing that one finds in Baltimore, and so was the food. Though this is fine in normal circumstances, we were a bit upset we weren't WOW-ed by the New York food. The service was great, but unfortunately, the food and ambiance wasn't too successful for us. We vowed that next time, we will do our research before we go, regardless of how tired we are!

On our way back to our room, we decided to give NY one more try and hit the SKY ROOM that was on the top floor of our hotel! It's a glamorous two-story bar with two walls of windows overlooking the New York Skyline. There was plush seating all around. On the top floor was a private event, but we ventured up to see the layout. It was great. Probably a great location over the summer when the balcony is open! So we chose a corner and hung out a bit until we were ready to retire.. It was a great hotel and this rooftop lounge just made it better!