I’m back and kicking some serious Monday butt.  We had our friend, Brian, in town all weekend, which meant so much eating, walking, drinking and laughing.  Brian made a comment yesterday about how much he wished he would have written down everything that we did so he could remember, so I took the liberty of listing out our last 3 days.  If you are wondering where to find me any night this week, I will be lounging on my couch catching up on my lazy behaviors.

Here is a play by play of our amazing weekend with a few pictures and lots of my favorite NYC establishments.  Sorry in advance for the length.  I haven’t blogged in a week, so it just felt right.

Friday:

9:00 AM – Drank coffee and got a few work things wrapped up so we could enjoy our vacation day.
12:00 PM – Arrived at Chelsea Market and went directly to the Doughnuttery.  Tried a few new flavors and was not disappointed.  That place is amazing.
12:45 – Decided it was time for a vacation day beer.  Started looking for a place.
12:48 – Realized we are in New York City and there is always a place close.  We wondered into the Blind Tiger and enjoyed a beer and a hot lunch.
2:00 – Enjoyed a few minutes of sunshine in Washington Square Park.  Also, spent a few minutes debating the selfie sticks.
2:45 – Wandered into a store called the Little Lebowski and loved the man working there wearing a fabulous sweater and napping throughout our visit.  He must have had a rough bowling night on Thursday.

3:10 – Approached Bleeker Street – you can’t pass Bleeker without a beer, so we wandered into the Red Lion and took care of that.
4:00 – Headed South towards TriBeCa and stopped in my favorite spot, Tinys & the Bar Upstairs.
4:55 – Left and went straight to the Ghostbusters firehouse a few blocks away, because when you have guests, it’s important for them to see the special sites in the city.
5:10 – Got offered all kinds of handbags and watches walking through Chinatown.
5:30 – Stopped in a bar in Little Italy to have a quick drink and use their restroom.  I swear businesses in the city do so much better because there are no public restrooms.  It’s totally fine with me.  The boys had some sort of “shot” that involved a straw and 3 small cups.  I’m glad I opted out.

6:30 – Realized we were still many blocks from our next destination and on a time limit, so we walked incredibly fast.
6:50 – Arrived at Crif Dogs and ordered a Lil’ Ma (vegetarian style) – this would be a “not dog” with peanut butter, crushed potato chips and pickles.  BEST THING EVER.
7:20 – Walked into Theater 80 to pick up our will call tickets for Bayside The Musical.
7:28 – Met the super fans sitting in front of us.  I’ve never met anyone that can recite all the words to every single episode of Saved by the Bell AND carries a Zack Morris cell phone.

7:30 – 9:30 – Watched the single funniest show I have ever seen in my entire life.  Anyone that grew up watching Saved by the Bell would be doing themselves a HUGE favor to check this out.
9:45 – Found our way back to the ferry station and back to Jersey.  Pajamas and bed were my best friend after a day full of walking, eating and drinking.

Saturday:

8:30 AM – Coffee talk with Brian while lounging on the couch and planning out our morning.
8:45 – Read Yelp reviews to find a new brunch spot on the Upper West Side and narrowed down the list.
10:20 – Headed into the city for another day of adventure.
11:15 – Arrived at Fred’s for Brunch.
12:00 PM – Took a bite of Justin’s Crab Cake Eggs Benedict and spent the rest of brunch wishing I would have ordered that because it was one of the best breakfast items I have ever eaten.
12:30 – Got in line at LeVain’s bakery for one of their famous Chocolate Chip Walnut cookies.  The smells coming out of the bakery make that line so much more enjoyable.

1:10 – Wandered into Central Park and spent the next hour enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful fall colors.

2:15 – Fought our way through the crowds on 5th Avenue to get to the MoMA – then fought our way through the crowds inside the museum.
4:00 – Watched Justin get extremely excited because he finally got to see his favorite painting in person.  Is it weird that seeing original pieces in real life feels a bit like seeing a famous person live?  That’s what it feels like for me.

5:30 – Decided we needed to sit down, so we made our way a few blocks over to McGee’s.  This is the “How I Met Your Mother” bar.  That made me ridiculously excited.  I felt bad for Brian though because he doesn’t like the show and we spent the first 20 minutes talking about our favorite moments from the show.
7:45 – Hunger was settling in, so we found a place close.  Yes, we went to a restaurant in Midtown near Times Square, but the food was good and the company was better.  We got a crazy idea that Karaoke was in our future.
9:15 – I found myself walking down a flight of stairs for beg for a key to a private karaoke suite.  They told me that we could be on the calendar for 11:30.  That wasn’t happening so I stomped up the stairs.  The doorman felt a little bad for me because I was clearly throwing a temper tantrum, so he directed us to another smaller place a few blocks away.
9:23 – Stood on the street where the doorman sent us because there were so many unmarked doors and no signs that matched the name he gave us.
9:25 – I opened a door and heard Pat Benetar being belted from a flight up, so I knew we had found it.
9:30 – Found ourselves sitting in a private suite with beer and a remote that had lots of non English commands on it.

10:15 – Finished our hour long session with a group sing of Mr. Big and then Sweet Caroline.  To anyone who received snapchats of my husband singing – you are welcome 🙂

10:32 – Went to the restroom and flushed my metro card down the toilet (accidentally of course).  10:40 – Took a “groupie” outside the karaoke place because it just felt right.  I was secretly wishing I had a selfie stick at that moment – just for a second.  Also, thank you iPhone 4 for having the worst front facing camera ever.

11:00 – Jumped on the ferry back to Jersey.
11:45 – Put my pajamas on and watched a little of Saturday Night Live which disappointed this week.
1:02 AM – Fell into bed and fell asleep immediately.

Sunday:

9:05 AM – Woke up and was extremely proud that I had slept in until after 9.
10:40 – Found ourselves back on the ferry and headed directly to TKTS.
11:10 – Had 3 tickets for the 3:00 show of Kinky Boots and decided to hit a few tourist spots with Brian.
11:35 – Realized the Christmas Market was already set up in Bryant Park, so we helped ourselves to Hot Chocolate and one of the greatest marshmallows I’ve ever seen and wandered through the shops.

12:20 PM – Entered Grand Central Station and found slices of pizza in the food court in the basement.
12:55 – Watched as the boys whispered things to each other outside the Oyster Bar and gaze at the beautiful ceiling.

1:30 – Made our way slowly through FAO Schwartz stopping to watch people dance on the piano and created a live action figure with Brian’s face on it.
2:15 – Enjoyed a little Jacques Torres chocolate since clearly we didn’t have enough sugar, plus Brian hadn’t been to Rockefeller Center yet.
2:45 – Made our way to the theater and found our seats in the back row.  Watched Kinky Boots and got a little annoyed at the Tom Schwartz look a like in front of us that kept swinging his head so his bangs would flip to the side (I hope you understand the picture I’m painting there.)
6:00 – Found our way back to the ferry station and directly home to order Bareburger, put on pajamas and watch Ghostbusters.

Brian went to the airport early this morning and we already can’t wait for our next adventure.

It was a fantastic weekend filled with many of our favorite places and a few new places that we will be adding to our list.  We successfully walked 60,000 steps according to the fit bits and there’s a good chance we will be participating in a juice cleanse this week because I haven’t eaten like that in a while.  It was all amazing.

So, who is coming to visit?