[

mood

|

excited

]

FINALLY, MY NYC PICTURES! I’ll have to remember to post my photoshoot pics that I got, and then I’ll be pretty much up to date! that’s accurate, because I just PAID OFF ALL MY NYC DEBT!!

( are you ready for it? )
DAY 1
5:00 wake up (dress, makeup)
5:30 dan arrives (with dad, the chauffeur)
6:30 arrive at union station
7:15 train boards
7:30 train leaves
11:00 train arrives in nyc
11:30 check bags at hotel
12:00 go to empire state building

After the empire state building, we walked around for a while, going up to Madison Park, where we decided to eat. After all, we could only go to zaggat rated places, and we looked at the map to see where we were closest to. there were a couple of cool places, but they were dinner only. We decided on eleven madison park.

I had the pea soup and the salmon, dan had the lamb. for dessert we had a passion fruit cake and some ganache tart. I got this because I chose the winter tasting menu, which was soup + entree + dessert for $25 (which is a STEAL! any entree alone was more expensive than that). It had a nice environment, but we were definetely underdressed and the service was a little stuffy. but i loved the person that scraped the crumbs from our bread off! i have eaten at nicer restaurants thatn this where they didnt do that. It was windy outside, but great weather! A freak warm weekend (where before, were were thinking about cancelling because of rain!)

Then we walked around fifth and sixth avenue, passing the LOVE signs, an awesome lit waterfall, and stopping inside SAKS, before hiking up to the MoMa, where we were free! We walked around, but since my feet hurt so much, we went to eat at the pizza place dan ate at w/ his family in Nov, Angelo’s!

dan loves me in the hats.

this picture was taken the next day when we were eating breakfast across the street.

dan and I had an awesome ceaser salad and then a pizza with prosciutto and sausage. so yummy! with the crispy crust and free bread! we took a taxi back to our hotel and fell asleep immediately when we got back, at 9:30! I think the only place we purchased stuff at was H/M where I got a red and blue striped sweater (so 60s), a yellow gingham belt, a headband (cause it was so windy), and some socks (cause they were cheap!). I also bought dan a new white undershirt cause his had a hole in it.

DAY 2
8:30/9:00 wake up (dress, makeup, lounge in bed)
We searched zagats for a good breakfast place, and I chose NORMA’s. It turns out that Norma’s is in the Le Parker Meridien Hotel (which is SO NICE INSIDE) and conveniently across from the pizza place we ate at the night before. Norma’s has beeen voted number one for breakfast in NYC for the past couple of years (5 or 7?). They had an awesome interesting menu and for the first time, I wasn’t ready to order! Everyone around us had orange juice ($7 a person!) so we asked for a sample, we also got a sample of a yummy peach-strawberry smoothie (they have diff flavours each day) and decided on the smoothie. we got a free one too. I ordered the Mandarin Orange French toast, and dan got the Salmon and Egg Croissant. The food was so good, I wish i had more room in my tummy! We only had to wait 15-25 minutes (this place is so popular), and there weren’t any reservations allowed.
p.s. I stole a mini ketchup. I didn’t really steal it, because if we would have used it, they would have thrown it away.

Then we walked around fifth avenue some more, this time more indepth! We first went to bergdorf goodman, which I don’t think I would ever shop in. Too old lady for me. same with saks. I don’t care about paying a lot of money for stuff, but I just didn’t like ANY of it.

I was kind of cold at this point, so we went into Trump Tower (not trump international hotel). IT was freaky because there were pictures of his wife ALL OVER THE PLACE. I stopped by a mini godiva for nostalgia, and asked for a sample. She said no, and I was about to whip out the “yes, you can, it’s called discretionary sampling!” but then figured she hadn’t really been trained since she was just a stupid kiosk girl. Then we went upstairs, used the rest of danny’s starbucks gift card and got a coffee frap. the barista asked for dan’s name and he said “french”. she wrote FRANCE on ther cup in girly handwriting.

We went to places like Club Monaco and Mexx. At club monaco I bought a jerzee dress that looked SO ugly on the hangar but dan convinced me to try on. it was $80. I initially didn’t want to try anything on, but dan convinced me. At mexx, I bought a pair of tailored bermudas, a printed shirt, and an undershirt (at the request of danny). Danny was super helpful, and got all the different sizes for me! I was sad that they didn’t have my jacket in my size, but got over it when I got 30% off with a mexx members scratch card! $40 shirt, $20 undershirt, $70 pants, all 30% off!! yay!
We went back to the hotel room, where we dropped off our bags and went to SoHo/Grenwhich. (I also changed my clothes cause I was cold). We took a taxi, and asked him to drop us off cause he didn’t know where he was going. We walked, and went to BEARD PAPA! A japanese cream puff bakery that was featured on an episode of CREAM PUFFS UNWRAPPED on the food network. (dan and I had been documenting places in NYC to go for about 6 months). The cream puff was only $0.70 I think, or maybe $1.75 or $1.00, but it was SOO good. they pump the cream stuff into it right there, and it tastes like vanilla bean ice cream!

We went to CO Bigelow, the BEST FREAKING STORE IN NYC. I got:
Dr. Harris’ Crystal Eye Gel, Herbal Eye Balm*(present for mom), Blueberry Toothpaste, Evian Water (for my face), and thats all, I think. Danny got a travel size rose silk lotion, chapped hands remedy, marvis toothpaste(which I have now successfully stolen), and poraso shaving cream.
Then, we went to LUPA’s, a restaurant owned by Mario Batali, IRON CHEF AMERICA! We put our reservations in around 7:30 (there was an hour and a half wait) and we went to French Connection. We came back at 8:15, and they had skipped us! We then got a seat on the covered patio (there was only 3 other 2 other people sitting out there) and had food.
Our waitress was CRAZY. I ordered the Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage & Fennel and dan ordered Pork Shoulder with Rose Petal Glassato. I didn’t like mine (it tasted like chef boyardee) and Dan REALLY didn’t like his (though I did!). He complained to the waitress, and even though we were about half way done (because it was a LONG while before she came back to check on us), she took our meals, slammed menus in our hands, and we chose new meals. I got Linguini with Prosciutto (ham) and egg. It was okay. Dan just got spaghetti. THere was seriously a GLOSSARY I had to use cause the whole menu was in italian. IT was okay, only because the dishes were cheap (13-20). We also got potatoes that were cold and watery. They came inbetween our meals (bad and replacement) so there was nothing to eat them with. Also, the noodles were hard, which is more al dente than I’m used to!

We went back to the hotel room and slept.

DAY 3
8:30/9:00 wake up (dress, makeup, lounge in bed)
We went to Chinatown! We tried to take the subway, but the stops didn’t stop by the restaurant we were eating at, and it was raining, so we took a taxi.
First, we at at the NICE restaurant, and ordered Shrimp Ha Cheung, our bill was $4.05 and we left cause no other stuff looked yummy. Then we went to the GOlden Unicorn (3 level dim sum!!) where we had Shark Shu Mai, Char Sui Bao, and Teriyaki Chicken. We went Dim Sum Go GO, but the wait was too long. We then went to goodies, where I was unfortunately too full to eat their famous soup dumplings, but ordered Jyu Chai Sha. I gave her a REALLY BIG TIP, like it was $6.75, and I gave her $15.
Even though I was full, I had enough room for a Hor-Lao Bao (Pineapple Bun!!) at the Golden Carriage Bakery that I was told about from Golden Unicorn. Then we went to Aji Ichiban (number one flavor) and loaded up on tons of candies , for only $8!.

Then we went to SoHo and shopped at French Connection again. It WAS 70% off! Danny got a shirt and a sweatshirt. I got a pair of pants(dark w/ black flowers) and a sweatshirt (blue/orange) and a winter jacket (which was 200 on sale for 40). I also got an umbrella at urban outfitters. i was on a freaking SEARCH for rainboots, but apparently, everyone “just stopped carrying them”. I tried on a bunch of lacoste shoes that were SO cute, but didn’t look good on me.

Then we went to AKI, which is Japanese-Jamaican, and it was SO FREAKING AWESOME. I got to speak japanese. I mean, I only asked for a dessert menu and if I could buy a souvenir, but STILL. We had Dinosaur sushi and Spicy Boston Roll. The Dinosaur Roll was SO FREAKING GOOD (to overuse the phrase), and I haven’t found anything as good yet. We had an eel napolean with mashed potato and fried wontons, and then spicy jerk chicken with mango, follwed with an apple mousse dessert.
Danny loved the soy sauce dist.
Even though we had a reservation, we still ahd to wait becuase there were literally ONLY 5 tables in there!

Then, somehow we went to Times Square (and the virgin store, and toys r us to see the T-Rex) and here’s our hotel!
HOTEL PENNSYLVANNIA.

wako kido, a world renound artist, came to mason and game a presentation on kimono painting. she painted a 30,000 bridal kimono in front of more than 100 viewers. I was sitting front row, and was required to ask her a question. I didn’t really understand the answer, but I was able to take pictures!

She askes us what we would like to have drawn on the kimono, and one of my classmates said “usagi!” which means rabbit in Japanese. Kido-san said that she didn’t really know how to draw rabbits, but would try. when she was drawing, some ink dripped, so she made it into hair. She later donated the Kimono to mason.

a close up of the finished product.

the blank canvas. this wedding kimono had clouds and trees embossed on it.

Kido-san giving us instructions on the different kinds of brushes (rabbit, weasel, etc). she made her paint cover clothes out of a yukata from her childhood.

she used sumi ink then accented it with hand mixed coloured acrylics.

the circus is at mason! I took pictures (even though I parked in J, I drove to C lot) from inside my car because there were some scary people watching the elephants, and I didn’t want to make them mad!