How To See New York in Two Days

To celebrate our 5th anniversary, Ryan and I spent the weekend in New York City. Thanks to our friends and tour guides, Stacey and Shiran, we saw three of the five boroughs and got acquainted with Manhattan. I guess as a sign of our current media-obsessed society, we recognized many of the landmarks and buildings from various movies and television shows. Of course, that makes it all the more interesting when see one of those movies or shows and can say we've been there.

Here's a list of what we saw:

Friday: Grand Central Station, Chinatown, Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve, City Hall, the Merrill Lynch Bull, Ground Zero of the World Trade Center, Serendipity 3 (restaurant featured in the movie "Serendipity" and one of Rachael Ray's Food Network Shows), and the Brooklyn Bridge. We also took driving tours of the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, including a short visit with Shiran's parents in Brooklyn's Russian/Jewish neighborhood.

Saturday: the "Today Show" (we actually made it on TV), Rockefeller Center, Hyde Park, The New York City Library (as seen in "Ghostbusters" and "The Day After Tomorrow"), St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fox News Studio (we saw them taping), the Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, Trump Tower (where the "Apprentice" is filmed), Herald Square, Times Square, the famed windows at Macy's, FAO Schwartz (including the huge piano Tom Hanks danced on in "Big"), a giant Toys 'R Us with a ferris wheel inside, a three-story Disney Store, Central Park and the apartment of a friend who lives in Manhattan (great view from the roof). We also ate lunch at "Prime Burger", one of Sarah Jessica Parker's favorite diners.

Ryan's favorite moment: Seeing Campbell Brown, an anchor on the "Today Show"
Jana's favorite moment: Seeing the Gutenberg Bible at the New York City Public Library
Most somber moment: Seeing Ground Zero at the World Trade Center
Best food: Tie between Frozen Hot Chocolate from "Serendipity 3" and a knish (a potato pastry) from a street vendor

We are exhausted, but we had a fabulous time. Maybe someday we'll get to go back and take Sydney with us. Of course, we'll have to schedule in some "down time" and we definitely won't be able to walk as much as we did this weekend (probably about 10 miles total).

A HUGE thanks to our hosts, Stacey and Shiran. Without them, we'd still be down in the subway tunnels trying to figure out where to go and what to do.