the city that never sleeps, part II.

after riding the ferry, we went directly to the 9/11 memorial. we went through pretty extreme security which was similar to the kind at the airport, we walked through a medal detector and they searched our bags. it was a sad reminder of why the memorial is there in the first place. 

the memorial itself was beautiful and has a lot of potential. it is not quite finished but has a good start. it was touching  and heart wrenching to be there and reflect on the horrors of 9/11 almost 12 years ago. 

we walked and walked and walked alllll day on saturday! we saw west village, soho, downtown, the flatiron district....almost everywhere. it was so much fun!!! this picture above shows amanda and katie looking at the teeniest tiniest restaurant. it is the width of that wall. you can see the front of the restaurant on their homepage. 

baked by melissa.

we wanted to sit down, so we came to the bite restaurant on 14th street instead.
it was so delicious. 

i can't remember what this street was called and can't find it online! it is one of the only private streets in new york city and was formally horse stables. the cobblestones and buildings were all antique and beautiful. if you know what this is called, let me know! i'd love to look up the history.

washington square park.

amanda, lollol.

columbus circle.

on sunday morning we ate at good enough to eat on the upper west side, right near my last and favorite apartment. (also here.) 

i got hot chocolate and lizzie and i shared the bacon waffles. it wasn't the best thing i've ever tasted, but i would never advise someone not to get them.

after breakfast we went to macy's! it was sad because it was all under construction so it didn't look as pretty as it usually does. we met amanda's girlfriend from HB and her adorable child. 

have you ever touched chinchilla? it will change your life, it feels like beautiful buttery air. if i didn't know i was moving to texas, i maybe would have dropped 15g's on this hat/coat combo.  

beautiful bryant park.

:(

we had such a fun time, i wish i could go back! our trip was soo short and sweet but we did a ton of fun stuff. i was worried that it was going to be weird and i would feel too contemplative and reminiscent but it wasn't like that at all! new york city is funny in the way that it goes through phases and changes very quickly. there were a lot of fun memories that came to me that i never would have remembered if i didn't go back to visit and there was so much stuff for us to do that i hadn't done before. it was our first all sisters vacation (with no father) and although we wished he was there, it was tons of fun! lizzie was an excellent tour guide! she's been there for 7 months and already knew so much. while we were there we got to see her play (she is a stage manager) and it was really good! it was in a tiny theater on the upper west side with only four actors. it was really nice to see lizzie in her element and hear the actors and director talk so highly of her.

i'm not so secretly hoping that our next sisters vacation is sooner rather than later and involves horses, humidity, the alamo and cowboy boots.

(hint: i'm referring to san antonio)

please read amanda's recap here.

the best part is when she said:

"Some might consider that rock bottom but I like to think of it as the pinnacle of my life." 

restaurants. pt 2.

ever since we moved here, we've been getting emails from Living Social and Groupon.

As of now, Living Social doesn't have any deals in SLC, but they do have deals in other cities.

Groupon recently added SLC onto their list of cities! Which is awesome.

i LOVE the deals they put up, and usually we buy one about once a week. 

Oppera Cafe was the first one we bought. 

$10 for $25 dollars worth of food. You betcha. 

it was soo cute and fun!

we sat on the outside patio, right next to a busy street and across from a live theater.

my handsome man. always texting...

we ordered an appetizer, a meal and dessert and shared all three.

jon usually eats anything. but he did not like the bruschetta. 

i thought it was yum. 

it was a very cute place, pretty reasonably priced. 

check those websites out and see if they have your city, it is SO worth it, 

i promise.

restaurants.

i want to get caught up on all these pictures i have. i feel like i have so much to blog about!

we love going to new [cheap] restaurants, and we always take pics.

i want to blog about them so that i can remember to go back:)

i heard about a free surf museum in Oceanside. i called them, and they said it was free during the street fair. street fair?! i love those! so, i met jon there. he's working at camp pendleton right now. he's doing his training there for his upcoming deployment. that means he drives an hour north every morning. 

so we met halfway and left jon's truck in a parking lot, and drove the rest of the way to oceanside. 

we were both starved. we went into this random little bar and lucky for us, it was happy hour! also, roof seating!

because of happy hour, our meal wassss SO cheap. 

this is our view from our table. oceanside isn't the NICEST area...

before we left, we stopped at DQ for ice cream. 

i worked at dairy queen/Orange Julius in fashion place mall when i was 16. 

while jon was taking my picture, some guy walked past and asked if we wanted a picture together. we were caught off guard which is why we look so awkward. ha!
p.s.