NYC get away

In October, Craig and I got away for a little grown up time. We headed to NYC for a long weekend visiting Erik and playing tourist.  We had so much fun!! Sleeping in, eating out, doing things that didn't involve pushing a stroller, sippy cups or picking up toys!!

Our first night, we stayed at Erik's apartment.  He has a great one bedroom on the Upper East side with a private patio.  Rachel and Erik hosted us for a great night out in his neighborhood and even got to visit Erik's old roommate Ashley.  We ended a great night drinking wine and visiting on Erik's back patio.

Who's the nanny and who's the mommy?

On Thursday, we majorly got our dork on by visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  First we walked up to Central Park from Erik's apartment and then walked through the Park to get to the museum.  We came across a really cool playground that is built into Central Park.  It was so cool to see all the kids playing and to think of NYC as a kid-friendly location.  I, of course, was scoping out the stroller brands and playing "who's the mommy and who's the nanny?"

In the Museum, we loved the Egyptian artifacts and the weaponry exhibits.  Craig really liked the old guns and swords. But the European art was one of the best collections I've seen.  And who knew a vacuum could be art??

Two Dorkus maximuses...  maximi?

Incredible marble work

Who knew?

I love wood inlay work

"I love swords"

Egyptian temple

Post-Museum we moved over to Rachel's apartment.  Sadly, she had plans to be in WDW for the weekend and we couldn't convince her to stay in town.  She AMAZINGLY offered up her fabulous apartment to us and we leaped at the opportunity! Rachel as a gorgeous loft apartment in Murray Hill, two blocks from the Empire State Building.  We felt quite posh.    After settling in, we met Erik and headed out for the night. 

Our first stop was the 9/11 Memorial.  While we knew it would be a difficult visit, it was something Craig and I were very much compelled to do.  While it initially looked like our visit would be cancelled due to a lightening storm, after a bit the storms blew out and the afternoon was beautiful.  The memorial was incredibly somber of course.  I was impressed how respectful all of the visitors chose to be; on our previous trips to Ground Zero, there had been many rude and disrespectful visitors.  It didn't surprise me that no one really talked but what did surprise me was that the noise from the waterfalls drowned out all of the city noise outside of the memorial.  There are sky scrapers being built all around the memorial - on the street all you hear are jack hammers, construction noise, and the hum of Manhattan.  But inside, all you hear is the water. Its eerie and somehow, appropriate.  My pictures don't do justice to the beauty of the memorial but I just couldn't fit in all inside a camera frame!

Erik provided us tickets to his show Memphis, which won the 2010 Tony for Best Musical.  He is the Advertising and Marketing Director for the show! His name is in Playbill!! We are so freaking proud of him!!!!!!!! 

Joining us for the evening was his friend Kat, whom he has known since high school in Charlotte.  They have reunited in NYC of all places! After the show, Erik and Kat took us to Hudson Terrace, a swanky rooftop bar where the drinks are as expensive as the real estate you are looking at! Luckily they had a Groupon!!

On Friday, Craig and I got super touristy and hit up the Empire State Building.  The view was amazing, but so was the line to get in, the line to get out, the line to do everything!!!!  But the Art Deco decor was beautiful and Erik had designed the lobby windows as ad space for Memphis - again, super proud!

Rachel's building - as seen from the top of the ESB

Erik's windows

Maximum tourist

After our touristy adventures, it was time to do some grown up weekend fun -- aka drink beer.  We met Erik and Kat at Eataly and went up to the rooftop bar Birreria.  AMAZING!! Gorgeous views of Manhattan - Flatiron Building on one side, Empire State Building on the other!!! Not to mention fabulous beer, wine and cheese.  I was one happy girl!!!

Next, we all headed to Brooklyn to the Brooklyn Brewery.  Delicious micro-brews and good music.

Saturday, we shopped in SoHo, watched football, and stomped around in the rain.  Saturday night, Erik, Craig and I toasted our lovely weekend with champagne on Rachel's roof - what a view! And lastly, had an amazing dinner out at Teqa.  The spicy cucumber margaritas were delicious!