I wanna be a part of it...

Ol' New York!
Last Thursday I finished up my work day early and hopped on the Megabus to NYC.
My Uncle David, Aunt Mary and David Jr came to the east coast from Chicago to look at colleges in the New York area. David will be graduating from high school next year and has been working very hard to make the best decisions possible for his future.

I took the Megabus; this a great inexpensive way to get to NYC. Round trip from DC $29!
When I arrived good friends Rachel and Rusty met me and took me to a wonderful dinner at
Bar Baresco in Chelsea, delicioso! www.barbaresconyc.com

On Friday Rachel joined me for a day of adventure with my family. We started out with a delicious breakfast at the Tiny Cup. With our tummies full we headed to South Street Seaport to meet Chicago folks! After catching up a bit we headed to Battery Park. Along the way we took a hiatus on the Staten Island Ferry. It looks just as it did when I was a kid, minus the cars; blue inside with dark walnut wood seats. Sometimes something old and familiar can trigger emotions; the look, the smell and the sound of the ferry brought back many childhood memories for me. I can see my best friend Jo-Ann and I hanging and spinning on the poles all bundled up in our coats, we were winterized and full of vim.



The ferry is free, so we hopped on to see the Statue of Liberty ('photo op') and then turned around and returned to Manhattan. We made our way through Battery Park, Chelsea Market and relaxed a bit at Washington Square park. Rachel suggested we go to Chelsea market and what a great idea it was! This is where they film Iron Chef. The market is full of ethnic foods including Italian, my favorite!
Rachel found the largest container of Nutella and immediately fell in love!

















While we were at Washington Square we were entertained by a very flexible and possibly double jointed man who asked the crowd to "move in closer so he could look more organized"! He managed to fit himself into a tiny acrylic box as his finale!

We made our way back to the Valentino's hotel. They had a wonderful view of the Empire State building. After a bit of freshening up Rusty and Gary met us for dinner around 8:30pm.

My Aunt Mary suggested Padre Figlio for dinner since they had a fixed price menu and it was Italian AND Zagat rated. But it was boo hooed by some in our group. So, when Gary arrived we walked a bit on 2cnd street found nothing of interest so we ended up walking around the block and back at Padre Figlio's were they welcomed us with open arms.

Dinner was very nice, full of great conversation and smiles. It was wonderful to spend time with everyone!