r ellenberger

Our last day in NY dawned picture perfect with blue skies and warm breezes. We had tickets booked to see The Book of Mormon at 2pm so we took it pretty easy in the morning doing a bit of shopping and eating (seems to be a bit of a theme). Had delicious wild boar and beef burgers at Bareburger. After that we made our way to The Book of Mormon. We were right in the back of the theatre and our seats were still $150, luckily its a fairly small theatre so it wasn't too bad. The production itself was funny with some great voices and a lot of swearing. Jackie and I both found it a bit hard to laugh at some of the jokes that made fun of aids or female genital mutilation, but eventually Jackie was cackling with the best of them. After the show we went up the Rockefeller centre for the 'top of the rock' view of NY which was great, and by then it was dinner time so we caught the metro to Brooklyn for pulled pork shoulder and ribs at Fette Sau. Was a bit meh, cool setting but the fo...

We've been keen to visit other boroughs in New York so we set off around 9.30am and caught the metro to Brooklyn. We got off at an area known as DUMBO and walked around the parks before getting onto the Brooklyn Bridge and walking across it into Manhattan. The view was quite spectacular and it was a nice change of scenery walking on a bridge rather than walking among concrete skyscrapers. Then we headed to lunch at Balthazar's which Nugen recommended. It was a Parisian style restaurant with things on the menu we couldn't pronounce. Ryan ordered a tuna nicoise salad and I ordered a macaroni au gratin (basically Mac and cheese). Both were delicious, however the star dish was dessert - we ordered a caramelised banana ricotta tart with banana ice cream and it was AMAZING. Ryan and I hoovered it up and then licked the plate clean. Afterwards we took a quick pitstop at Barnes and Noble before going to Central Park for a bike ride. We rode the full loop around the park which ...

This was a chockablock day which ended in complete drama. After brekky we set off into the city to Madame Tussaud's where we met the likes of Brad Pitt, Beyonce, Johnny Depp, Jennifer Aniston, the Spice Girls, Justin Bieber and more. There was one part which was a dark scary tunnel with skeletons and people jumping out to freak people out and Ryan laughed at me the whole way through as I was about to pee my pants. We then went over to the NBC studio for a "behind the scenes" tour which turned out to be kind of lame. We saw the Saturday Night Live set, the broadcasting room and the Today show set, but it really was not exciting as there were no famous people and not that much to marvel at. But fear not, as the day was not over, we hopped on a train to Harlem and dined on soul food! Basically it's waffles with any meat or fish you can think of. Ryan and I both ordered waffles with fried chicken and were way too full by the end of it. There was a fair bit of rain by t...

Woke up to another warm and sunny beautiful day. Had brekky and then made our way to the Soho and Noho neighbourhoods which aren't too far away. Jackie went shopping while I went to find a decent coffee (which I did, was delicious). Wandered around these now gentrified neighbourhoods and admired the iron clad buildings and street craft. Had lunch in a restaurant called Fat Radish in Chinatown followed up with Chinese pineapple buns and ice longan drink. Decided to check out central park so caught the metro up there. There was some kind of Puerto Rican parade on, running between us and the subway station that we got off at. This meant we ended up on some road that ran right through the park, but which you couldn't actually get off of to access the park itself. After walking the width of the park we finally managed to gain access. Sat down to watch a local game of baseball and enjoyed the nice change of scenery. From there we caught the metro to dinner at Eds Lobster Bar...

Got a slow start to the day so didn't get outside until 10.30. We were happy to see that there was no rain in sight, just blue skies and sun. Made our way to Battery Park and hopped on the 11.30 cruise to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Due to Hurricane Sandy both are closed so we only got a view from the boat, but it was a nice way to see the Manhattan skyline, Brooklyn Bridge and the coast of New Jersey. Afterwards we grabbed some rental bikes and rode down to Chelsea to walk the High Line, which used to be railroad tracks but is now a public park. The High Line is definitely unlike any park we've been to. It really is just a narrow path with plants, shrubs and flowers on the sides, but the setting is so unique. High above the traffic, it links from one side of Chelsea to the other and offers plenty of seating to relish being in the centre of New York. There were a couple of pop up food stalls there so we ate some Mexican before riding back downtown and return...

So our first real day in NY was kind of dampened by the remnants of tropical storm Andrea. We started the day visiting the 911 museum which, in a similar vain to the holocaust museum, was pretty emotional and worth the visit. From there we tried to make our way to the Bodies exhibit but it was closed. Grabbed a coffee and snack from a diner, then off to the Pulse exhibition which is similar to the Bodies exhibit (plastic injected body cutouts) but located further away. Was also worth the visit. On Nugens recommendation we went to shake shack and had a peanut shake with burger. Classic American cuisine, delicious but heart stopping. Jackie and I both reported our mouths acting strangely post meal; probably our tongues having a minor sugar fit. From there we made our way to NBC studio at the Rockefeller building but the tours were all booked out, so we went up to do the view from the top of the building but the weather meant no visibility. Caught the metro to BH photo video to do...

Started our last full day in Washington by going out to breakfast. We were going to a place our AirBnB hosts recommended but it was closed, so ended up going to another cafe. There must have been some gay pride week going on because every shop on the street had rainbow streamers and flag decorations. Afterwards we headed to the Natural History Museum. Saw lots of taxidermied animals haha including a huuugee bear and bison. It also featured a really interesting exhibit on evolution which had model busts of what the earliest Neanderthals and humans looked like. By the time we finished looking at the dinosaur exhibit our feet were hurting and the large amount of screaming kids running around prompted us to call it a day there. We then took a quick look at the Smithsonian castle and headed to the Old Post Office, where we took an elevator up the tower. Saw a great view of the city and realised just how beautiful Washington DC really is. Its streets are spacious and on the top of some build...

There are so many awesome free museums in Washington that its hard to decide which ones to visit, especially when you only have three days. Our place is pretty central so we could realistically visit all of them but its just too much knowledge for the time we have. We decided on the Holocaust museum for Monday (yesterday), with the Air and Space museum and National Portrait Gallery for today. We also threw in a visit to the White House and Capitol in between. Yesterday we started at the Holocaust museum at 10 and ended up leaving around 2, standing the entire time. At this point we were limited by the punishment we could inflict on our feet (being the white collar workers we are). The museum itself was well put together but as expected, really heavy. It left Jackie and I pretty shook up. We found a food court for lunch and then wandered around what's called The Mall. This is the stretch of all the memorials and museums that runs through central Washington - saw the Jefferson me...

Had to attend a timeshare presentation first thing in the morning to get the discount on our park tickets. It was meant to be 90 minutes, but ended up taking TWO hours. The sales guy basically finds out what kind of holidays you like, where you plan to go in the future and then tries to convince you to pay $30,000 for a week of paid vacations every year, for the rest of your life. Afterwards we went immediately to Universal Studios, the other side, and were surprised that there were little to no lines for the rides. Walked straight onto a rollercoaster which had a really steep ascent then drop and went for a while. It was hilarious when we got off though because they record a video of you on the ride and Ryan and I had the funniest faces, especially during the drops. Ended up going on that rollercoaster twice. Also went on a Twister themed studio presentation, Disaster movie making "ride" where we sat in a subway train and experienced a disaster. It had fires sparking, wa...

We managed to wake up at a decent time, 7.30, after doubling up on the alarms. Had breaky and made some sandwiches, then down to the hotel lobby to pick up our tickets. The hotel provides discounted tickets in return for us watching their timeshare sales pitch tomorrow morning for an hour and a half, saving around $130. Not sure if and hour and a half of mind pain is worth it but we'll find out tomorrow. So after picking up the tickets we drove the 15 mins to Universal Studios and parked the car ($15 for the day). The park only opens at 9 and we arrived around 9.15 so we thought/hoped the park wouldn't be too busy. We made our way straight to Harry Potter land and boarded the Harry Potter express (not sure what its actually called) after waiting around 15 minutes. It was amazing. I wasn't expecting much but the whole sensory experience was mesmerising. The ride has areas where a full rap around screen covers your entire field of view; the visuals mixed the movement ...