I don't heart New York

EVERYWHERE around here are those stupid I heart NY t-shirts. For a belated birthday trip a couple of weeks ago, Bryan and I went to NYC. A friend of mine from grad school is now living in NYC, so we had a free place to stay. While we had a fabulous time and she was a great host, I won't ever go back to NYC. It was crowded, dirty, loud, overwhelming, and just generally not the nicest place to go on vacation. But we got to see all of the fun sites, and it was so great to catch up with a friend of mine.

The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island ferry (which was free!).


Riding the carousel in Central Park. Central Park was the best part of the trip, even though Bryan refused to go ice skating with me (and he didn't want to go to a Broadway show...he's well aware that I'll hold that against him forever).

From BK 31 birthday

When you go to Central Park you have to get a hot dog from a vender. Note the ice rink in the background. The weather was downright tropical to us. It was about 20 when we left Rochester, and I think the day in Central Park was about 50. We basked in the sun, and Bryan actually managed to get a sunburn!

From BK 31 birthday

Trying out the first White Castle burgers we'd ever had (that's my friend Tana who hosted us). This White Castle was in the middle of Harlem (which she assured us was safe now...um, yeah...I'd never been so scared in the daylight in my life!). The burgers were G-R-O-S-S. I didn't even eat mine.

From BK 31 birthday

All in all, it was a fun birthday get-a-way. We saw Times Square, Greenwich Village, Harlem, Chinatown (yummy Pho), Little Italy (yummy desserts) and probably many other things I've forgotten. We walked until our legs were going to fall off, and successfully navigated the subway. Thanks to Tana for being a great host and not minding that we took up a good 300 sq ft of her 600 st ft apartment with the blow up air mattress.