My book is finally here!

Hey guys!

I know I haven't been around much lately but there is a very good reason for that, I promise! Now available on amazon.com is the children's book I wrote, Sam Loves New York. It is an adorable tale of a french bulldog who has wonderful adventures in New York City. Meant for kids ages 3-8, this book will enchant readers of all ages. Check it out!

Tea with Eloise

Sorry about the gap in posts, folks! I've been working really hard at getting a children's book I've written illustrated and published so I've been super busy. I haven't forgotten about the blog though!

Take a look at The Plaza!

One of the most famous hotels in NYC, The Plaza is home to a fictional little girl named Eloise (and was briefly home to a fictional little boy named Kevin McAllister!) and you can go visit her portrait and enjoy a meal bearing her name when you visit the hotel. The building itself is lovely and it is right next to Central Park, the Central Park Zoo, and FAO Schwarz!

Le Cirque

First of all, let me say how wonderful it is to be back! We had a heck of a few months this summer but we are officially back in NYC and loving every minute of it.

Restaurant week was not long ago and as a thank you for lots of impromptu babysitting I took my mother in law to Le Cirque for lunch one day. It was fabulous! The room we were in was beautifully decorated.

Take a look at the ceiling!

They also had a really neat wine cellar-type thing too.

I ordered the chicken with fingerling potatoes and it was amazing.

My mother in law ordered the salmon and said that it was great too.

And we got dessert too, of course! A chocolate lava cake sort of thing that was absolutely scrumptious.

The best part of the meal was the waitstaff. Wait, that came out wrong. The waitstaff were wonderful and not at all a part of the meal itself. They were gracious and kind and perfectly fine with the fact that we brought the baby to lunch with us. They never gave us the impression that they weren't happy about having an infant in one of the most famous restaurants in the city and they came by several times to talk to the baby and let her play with their jewelry and stuff to keep her happy. I couldn't have been more impressed with a restaurant than I was with Le Cirque.

Wow, has it really been that long?

I haven't posted here sinch March but for a good reason, I promise!  At the end of March this year I got a knock on the door at 11 a.m.  When I answered the door I was face to face with the NYPD and representatives from various organizations including HHD and the Red Cross.  I was advised that our building was not structurally sound and that we had 7 hours to evacuate ourselves and the things we needed for day to day living after which they were padlocking the building and we would only be allowed in with escorts to pack up our things at a later date.

While we did get ourselves, our baby, and our animals packed up and out of the building on time we then immediately had to move in with my mother in law.  That was temporary so from there we went to stay with my husband's aunt in CT.  During this time I've been working with real estate agents to try and find us a new place to live and it has just been one nightmare after the other.  We are still in CT for the time being but soon we will be back in NY and I will have time to blog again, I promise!

Central Park Zoo

The other day the weather was just lovely so I put the baby in her stroller and headed down to the Central Park Zoo.  We had a great time!  The zoo is very small but they still have some awesome exhibits, which means that it is the perfect place to take very young children who aren't necessarily up to the entire day that a normal zoo would take to view.  Check out some of the animals!

Pictured above are a snow monkey, sea lions, and a polar bear.  They were all out enjoying the sunshine this week!  My daughter's favorite animals in the entire zoo were the penguins.  Because they swim up against the glass she got an excellent view and found them enchanting.  We sat for almost an hour while she watched them swim around!

There is also a children's zoo with domestic animals that you can feed pellets from the machines around their enclosures.  They have sheep, llamas, goats, and pigs among other animals in the children's zoo.

The two sections of the zoo are separated by the Delacorte Clock.  The clock is very famous and has several animals that spin around it and play music every hour.

The zoo may be small but it is very affordable and the animals are simply wonderful to see.  If you've never been you should take an hour or two and go check it out.  It will be worth your time!

Montauk

Last weekend we went to a Murder Mystery Weekend in Montauk.  We had a great time!  We took the LIRR out there and the train station was right across the street from our hotel so we didn't need a car at all, which was really nice.  The hotel was beautiful and we had a wonderful time solving a murder!

One of the great things about living in NYC is that we have access to a ton of fabulous vacation spots for almost no cost.  It was $60 total for 2 round trip tickets to Montauk and next month we will be taking the bus to Washington D.C. to visit family and that will cost us $60 for 3 round trip tickets.  We couldn't have driven to either place for less than $60 in gas so it was very affordable, not to mention how beautiful it was there.  Take a look!

M&M Store

I've been so busy lately!  We had a fabulous vacation (you'll get pictures of that in a couple of days) and a lot of other stuff going on around here.  But even when you're busy there is still a ton of stuff going on in NYC!  In the first week of March we wanted to get out with the baby and do some kid friendly things and there isn't much more kid friendly than candy, right?  So off we went to the M&M store.

The baby isn't much interested in chocolate quite yet but she loved all the bright colors and the fun sounds inside.  Mostly locals never go in the M&M store because it tends to be a very tourist-oriented place but when you've got kids you end up getting to do stuff you otherwise would never have a reason to do.  We did buy about a quarter of a pound worth of M&M's...that is the dangerous part of going there, buying the chocolate you knew you didn't need before you entered!

Nine

Yesterday we met family for brunch at 9.

I had their Marscapone French Toast and it was amazing!  It didn't even need syrup, just a thin strawberry juice drizzled around the plate over fresh berries.  My husband had their short rib hash and said it was excellent as well.  I highly recommend this place for brunch if you are near 9th Ave and 53rd.

Sardi's

I haven't been to Sardi's in a while unfortunately, but the last time I went by I took a picture for you because I wanted to tell you how awesome Sardi's was for dessert!  My friend Amy and I went there after seeing Equus on Broadway a couple of years ago and got dessert.  It was scrumptious!  During dessert we struck up a conversation with the couple at the table next to us and they were so fascinating that we talked for hours and closed down the restaurant.  It was an amazing night.

For those of you who aren't aware of what Sardi's is famous for it is the decor.  The food is great too, of course, but Sardi's is the restaurant with all of the caricatures of famous people on the wall.  It has been featured in loads of movies but my favorite of them all was the scene in The Muppets Take Manhattan where Kermit is trying to make himself seem like a big-shot producer and he sneaks into Sardi's and takes down Liza Minelli's photo and replaces it with one of himself.  That was comedy gold to a six year old, let me tell you!

Lederhosen

Today for lunch we took a trip downtown to one of our favorite places.  Lederhosen is a lovely German restaurant in the West Village.

The food was fabulous, as always!  The place can get a little loud at night as it is a bar as well as a restaurant but everything else about it is perfect.  They offer traditional German fare at a very low price (especially with their lunch specials) and there is a beautiful mural painted along the back walls of the rolling hills of Germany.  If you are in NYC and looking for good German food this is the place to go!  Check out my lunch today!