New York Was Calling

And I answered the call.

It's a place that has drawn me in since I was 13, and everytime I'm there I feel at home. I try to make it a priority to go once a year, but there was a point where it didn't look like it was going to happen this year. Then I found an early morning departure flight and late-night return flight through Southwest on the cheap and booked it.

There's so much to love about New York - the air, the smell, the energy, the feeling.

It's a city my son now calls his favorite place, and this New York loving momma couldn't be happier.

We made most of our usual stops - The American Museum of Natural History and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which are inexpensive because you can pay whatever you want to enter. We usually pay $10 at each stop.

We stayed at our favorite west side hotel - The Lucerne. All the bellmen and hotel staff are the same people each year. I love seeing how many are still there, even though they don't remember us.

We ate at some of favorite places:

Nice Matin, which is connected to the hotel and offers a 15 percent discount at breakfast for being hotel guests.

 Sarabeth's, another great breakfast joint.

Eataly, which was much less intimidating the second time around.

Sweet & Plumm, where we ordered ice cream even though it was 40 degrees outside and ate it in our hotel lobby because the place was so crowded we couldn't find a seat.

This time around we ventured to other places like:

The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), which we visited on Friday night because it is free then.

I should add that a blogpost on Cupcakes and Commentary linking to an article about Picasso's sculptures was my primary motivation for the MOMA stop.

The Statue of Liberty, need I say more.

The Empire State Building, which was great, but may not ever happen again because it is pricey.

Madison Square Park, just to see the artwork Fata Morgana profiled on CBS Sunday morning a few months back. You walk along in the park and look up at the mirrored sculpture hanging above.

And we discovered some new eateries that will be on our list next time:

Jacob's Pickles, a total hipster joint about 5 blocks from our hotel that serves food with a southern flair. We all shared the pancakes and fried chicken. We also ordered shrimp and grits and black-eyed peas with collard greens. I ordered a house-made Bloody Mary, complete with bacon and a pickled egg. The entire meal was a delight for this southerner's palette.

Voila, a chocolatier on the same block as our hotel, offers truffles and a chance to make your own chocolate. We went for the small pack of nine truffles, which included a hand-picked assortment of creme brulee, pralines, pumpkin spice and raspberry.

We also ventured into one of the small pizza shops directly across the street from our hotel. Matt and I figure we should eat there a bit more on our next trip because it was by far the least expensive option. Maybe we'll opt out of the $45-$60 museum cafe lunches to go for the $18 bill at the pizza joint.