squeezing in all the sightseeing

this was our NYC home for a whole week:

it was one of only a few hotels that i could find that offered two beds in a room rather than, say, a king bed and a pullout sofa.  i didn't want to subject the bean to that crap, because it doesn't matter how nice the room is...if you have to sleep on a pullout bed it's not going to make for a good night's sleep.

that day, we headed out to grab breakfast at russ & daughters, which was high on a list of recommendations from my very well-traveled friends.

i didn't get pictures of our bagels, but they definitely lived up to the hype.  mmmmm.

we decided to go into the hudson yards mall to see what there was to see in there.  i spied a podium that was set up so that you could place your phone on it, set a timer and snap a selfie and somehow managed to get the hub and the bean to stop and take a quick family photo.

and then we were all distracted by this huge sculpture made of chocolate:

this mall is also where we discovered xing fu tang, which really just looked like another boba shop.  there was a pretty good-sized crowd though, so the bean stopped to check out the menu and try one of their specialty drinks.

and as we watched the drink being made, we realized that the boba was being made fresh right there in the shop.  they would take big scoops of that fresh chewy boba and dump it into a huge copper bowl and mix it with a not-too-sweet brown sugar syrup and when you got your order, that boba was still warm and soft and perfect.  i don't often get boba for myself because i always get tired of it after a few sips, but freshly made boba is on a whole other level.  so good.

i'd tried to score a spot in a live class in the peloton studios, but learned the hard way that it's worse than trying to score concert tickets.  i was so bummed, but i still took this because why not, i was there:

i love watching these two stroll along side by side, pointing out interesting sights along the way, chatting and laughing and just enjoying being together.

madison square garden:

and then we decided to tackle the subway for the first time this trip.

i looked, but there were no wizards to be found here.

the bean may not be much of a swiftie, but was willing to pose with me in front of the apartment where taylor once lived.

facts:

i so appreciate that my family is always willing to go along with my shenanigans.  because even though they never actually lived here, i really wanted to find the apartment building where rachel, monica, chandler and joey lived.  am i a dork?  well, we already knew that.

next up, the washington square arch.

we sat and watched the interpretive dancer who was performing barefoot in front of the arch.  she was so graceful and moved with such passion, and her dancing was just lovely.

and then we walked past some of the buildings on the NYU campus before heading into the bookstore.

another subway ride.  when you live in southern california where everything is so spread out and public transportation is shit, the subway system in this city is nothing short of amazing.

another family selfie at rockefeller center, because why not:

the bean came to a full stop at this bus stop, and we stood there for a few minutes to wait for BTS' jimin to reappear:

hey look, it's the fabulous plaza hotel!

the hub ushered us into one of the waiting pedicabs across the street at central park and instructed the driver to take us to glace by noglu so that we could try their s'mores hot chocolate that had gone viral.

the driver was quite confused by the notion of being hired for the sole purpose of snagging a cup of cocoa, and ended up dropping us off across the street from the shop.  the short walk was worth it though, because we were treated to the sight of these dog walkers wrangling what looked like at least a dozen dogs:

and of course, there was a nice long line of others who wanted to try the viral hot chocolate.

the shop is tiny and there were two people behind the counter splitting the duties of taking orders and either scooping out ice cream or cranking out those cups of cocoa.  the line moved slowly, but we eventually made it inside.

money shot:

so was it worth it?  well, it was most definitely delicious.  and that mound of whipped marshmallow, lightly and delicately toasted atop the rich and creamy hot cocoa was pretty phenomenal.  but worth $10?  eh...i wouldn't do it again, but i'm glad we did.

we must have gone somewhere to grab dinner after that, but for some reason i have zero photos of it.  i feel like we did sushi because the bean was craving it, and then the hub hung out downstairs to enjoy a cigar while we made ourselves comfy and snuggled on the bed after a long day of walking and sightseeing.

good night, NYC.

an afternoon with my friends

you know how much i adore "friends," and so of course you can imagine how sad i was when the news of matthew perry's death broke.  quite a few of my own friends reached out to me that day, which i thought was really sweet.  i know that a lot of people think mourning a celebrity death is silly - after all, it's not like i'd ever met him or was his actual friend - but when you have someone virtually in your house on a literal daily basis for years, they're almost like a family member.  does that even make sense?

anyway, when the friends pop-up was announced, i was super excited to go but none of my kids (let alone the hub, lol) were interested in going.  and so of course, i turned to my friends and we picked a date and made the drive down to long beach to immerse ourselves in all things ross/rachel/monica/chandler/phoebe/joey related.

we checked in and were shown into a waiting area where there were selected scenes from the show playing on the screen and quotes from the show on huge posters.

the experience began in a little room that was off-limits for photography, although there wasn't really anything special in there.  we watched a quick video of basic safety rules and guidelines, and then we were led through a replica of monica's apartment door that opened up to this:

there was lots of fun stuff to look at, like scripts and familiar props and pieces of the wardrobe worn on the show.

if you wanted to read all 18 pages of rachel's letter to ross (front AND back!), they were all here.

there were lots of magna doodle boards from joey and chandler's apartment with all the silly notes on them.

the whole thing really was just heaven for any "friends" fan.

and there were tons of photo ops with staffers ready and willing to capture the moment for you.

of course, ya girl had to squeeze in a bunch of selfies too.

and of course, there was a gift shop at the end.

so was it worth it?  well, if you love the show, it's a no-brainer.  casual fan?  hit or miss, depending on the level of your fandom.  as for me - well, you can imagine that i loved every minute.  i would've been happy with more, even.  heh.

rest well, matthew perry.  thank you for bringing chandler bing to life, and i hope that you're at peace.