New York - the end

This should be my last post on the NYC trip. The next day we actually got up a little bit earlier and went out for NY bagels at Ess-a-Bagel. The place was packed but we managed to be patients and make it through the crowd. The bagels were freshly made and they had all these wonderful flavored cream cheeses. I got a pumperknickel bagel with raisin walnut cream cheese and Heidi has a whole grain bagel with apple cinnamon cream cheese. Yummy! After that we went shoe shopping (I bought a new dress to wear to the theater and had to find some shoes to wear with it), then we went to the nail salon, I got a pedi and Heidi got a mani.

That night we planned our "big night out". We had reservations at Lupa, Mario Battali's restaurant in New York (one of many) and then tickets to see Avenue Q on broadway. Lupa was amazing - the food, wine and atmosphere lived up to my expectations - thanks to Heidi who did the research on where we should go. Here's us at dinner:

Paul & Heidi - don't they made a cute couple?!

After dinner we went to the show, Avenue Q. I really didn't know much about it before going except that there were puppets involved and they had one a Tony award or two since opening. This show was amazing! We were all cracking up - I highly recommend it to anyone planning to visit New York and the less I tell you about it the better. If you have an issue with bad language or sexual references, you shouldn't go and see this but remember - there are puppets - how offensive could it really be?!

My last day in New York, Heidi had to work so I decided I would go to St. Patrick's cathedral for Sunday mass. This cathedral is absolutely beautiful although the tourists continue to come in and out during the service which was a little distracting but overall I enjoyed the service.

After church, I stopped in Grand Central station for lunch - they have a large food court and some nicer restaurants. I opted for Indian food - not bad. I met Heidi at her work later in the afternoon and we went through a street fair that was going on along with a little bit of store shopping. They had a Lululemon that was having it's opening weekend - unfortunately we don't have one in Pittsburgh but I got a new pair of "fancy" pants as Miguel refers to them as - basically expensive exercise pants but so worth the price. After our shopping excursion we met up with Paul and another one of Heidi's friends as Serendipity. One of my favorite movies is Serendipity and they feature the restaurant in the movie. They are most famous for their Frozen Hot Chocolate which has been featured on Oprah but they have other very enormous and delicious desserts. We all ordered something and here they are - quite a finish to my NY trip!

At the top was Paul's choice, I know there was chocolate cake at the bottom with I believe, vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. The middle selection was shared by Heidi and her friend - it was a special of the day and I can't remember the exact ingredients - some kind of pie on the bottom with ice cream and fresh fruit. Mine is at the bottom, a piece of pecan pie topped with butter pecan ice cream and drizzled with caramel - absolutely decadent and worth the full belly ache I got after consuming most (not all) of it!

Well, that was my trip - filled with shopping, dining and entertainment! Thanks to my good friend, Heidi, for hosting my trip! There will be more to come I'm sure - I hope to get to New York around Christmas time - gotta see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular!