Quick pics ...

Since Bill was joining us for the last two days of our trip, our days of sleeping in were over.  Which was fine … because really, there’s a lot to see and do.  First stop, Tavern on the Green.

New York’s legendary Central Park restaurant is closing it’s doors on December 31.  It’s probably time because the restaurant is looking a little past it’s prime (aren’t we all?!), but it’s kind of sad too as it is such a fixture of Central Park.  It will open next year as The Boat House.

We enjoyed our brunch in the Crystal Room which, although dated, is still lovely.

 From there we went and walked in the park for a bit.  I did my best Jackie O impression with the glasses I had bought the day before (just prior to the locked van incident!).

My mom suggested we ride the Carousel … and I am so glad we did!

It went super fast … in fact, I believed I could fly!

From there we did the Hudson River Cruise.  We wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and this seemed like the best way to do it.

It was freezing.  FREEZING.

But we saw Lady Liberty:

The cool thing about this is that Caroline’s great grandparents (Bill’s moms parents) came to America via Ellis Island.   There is a plaque on the wall with their name on it … that we will have to see sometime … IN THE SUMMER.

The sun set while we were on our “cruise” so we got to see NY in the day and night from the water.

Four hours on a boat with only M&M’s to sustain us left us looking us a bit hungry.  Upon recommendation we went to Joe’s Shanghai Dumpling House.  It is in China Town but well beyond the tourist first couple of streets.  The restaurant was packed … mostly with New Yorkers … and you shared a table of 8.  It was good we sat with other people because they coached us through what to order, how much to order, etc.

We read on one of the articles on the wall that the NY Restaurant Critics voted Joe’s as one of the top 2 places they would tell a friend to go whose trip only allowed for 2 meals to eat in New York City.  And if you go there and only have 2 meals … well I agree with the critics … go to Joe’s!

After dinner we went back into town to take a few more quick pics:

And go to the top of Rockefeller Center:

Someone told us we needed a piece of cheesecake from Junior’s in Times Square (AS IF WE HADN’T EATEN ENOUGH!) so we went there and it was well worth the trip.

And walking back from Junior’s?!?  We ran smack dab into the Baylor Womens Basketball team.  Kind of hard not to miss them…they are so tall!

After that, we called it a day … which, ironically,  is exactly what I’m going to do now!