NYC for free!

Three of my favorite things ever are family, traveling, and getting a good deal on things. You can imagine my excitement when I managed to work out a free trip to NYC to visit Ryan's little brother, Aaron! We had been wanting to visit ever since Aaron moved out there in the fall, so every once in a while I'll search for flights to see if there's a good time to go. After Christmas I did a few more searches only to find that flights were oddly cheap for MLK weekend and one of the cheapest airlines was Delta on which I had large amounts of frequent flier miles. I checked out their site and discovered that I could use my miles to get TWO FREE FLIGHTS!!! That made that decision to go pretty easy!

We got to NYC late Friday night and met up with Aaron and Chena at their apartment. By that time we were all getting pretty hungry so we hopped on the subway over to a little pizza place in the East Village.

Yummy late night pizza!

Delicious bagels with ridiculous amounts of cream cheese goodness.

Saturday morning we got moving slowly and meandered down to a bagel place near their apartment. I have never seen such an expansive collection of cream cheeses. We all got a bagel and shmear and it totally hit the spot to get the morning started. It's always a good sign when you show up to a place and there's a line out the door. That means you're in for something great!

After breakfast we transitioned from the apartment over to a hotel in the Upper East Side. Yet another fun free amenity! I had enough Marriott points to snag a free hotel for a couple of nights, so we took advantage of that! The hotel was pretty close to Central Park, so we started out with that gem. Although it was a little chilly out, we lucked out with a couple of beautiful days in the city!

Ryan, Chena, and Aaron enjoying the view in Central Park

I mean really, how awesome is this view of the skyline from Central Park?!?

Passed by the Guggenheim Museum while at Central Park so we had to snap a  pic!

One of the things I for sure wanted to see in NYC was this building, the Hayden Planetarium. It happened to be right by Central Park as well. When I was in my fourth year in Architecture school, one of my assignments was to build a section model of this building as a study in structures. It has really beautiful exposed structure. I was super excited to see it in real life, and it's an awesome building!

The sun is beautiful setting behind the skyline.

Saturday night we were on a mission to get some delicious dumplings in China town. I was also on a mission to hang out with my High School buddy, Yelan, who also lives in NYC!! We all met up at an awesome place in Chinatown. Again, you know you're in for a treat when there's a line out the door! After some awesome dumplings, we got even more awesomeness at Rice to Riches, where they serve endless flavors of rice puddings!!! It was like an ice cream shop, but with rice pudding. I am still craving that, hopefully shops like that will pop up in Seattle soon! We had a tiramisu rice pudding and a chocolate hazelnut rice pudding. It was awesome. We spent the rest of the night at a local bar catching up with Yelan and her fiancee Matt. So great to see them!!!

Me and Yelan :)

On our way back to the hotel. I bought some new ear muffs in Chinatown and LOVE them!

Sunday morning started out with a trip to the highline; an elevated park located on an old railroad track. There were a ton of people out enjoying the cold but sun shiny day. 

By the time we finished walking the high line, it was about time for some brunch! Luckily we ended up in a great area for little cafes and great food! We found the Grey Dog and once again, line out the door...good sign. It was little place off a side street, and was awesome food! Strangely enough it also apparently has some connection to University of Michigan. They had 'Michigan Sandwiches' and the menu said 'go blue' on it. It was super subtle, but being from Michigan I was super excited to see it!

At the subway station, Ryan found a twin friend. Ryan also currently looks like a bear with his  ever growing beard.

One of the other big things I wanted to do in NYC is see some lovely bridges!!! I love bridges, so it was great to be in a place with bridges all over the place and gorgeous ones at that! Picture above is a view of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.

Brooklyn Bridge!

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge

View of the Manhattan Bridge from the Brooklyn Side

After our bridge site seeing we headed back to Manhattan, caught a few minutes of the football games and wandered around seeing the sights.

Wandering through Times Square

Times Square

Stopped to get some pizza at a great little place where you can run next door and buy a bottle of wine  to bring in to the place!

One of the last things I really wanted to see was Rockafeller Center and 30Rock!! It was super cool seeing it at night too. I love pretty lights! We wanted to go to the 'Top of the Rock' too, and turns out I could get an awesome over half off discount on the tickets!! yay military discounts!!

View from the top!

Observation deck was awesome!

I was having issues figuring out my phone...it made me sad.

Wandering through the streets and came across this view of the Empire State building. It's so pretty lit up at night!

Last day in NYC, we started with some brunch and did a little shopping. I was unaware that there was no sales tax for clothes in NYC. Next time we come here I will pack no clothes and just buy lots of things there ;) This time we both just bought new pairs of boots! 

We wandered through Bryant Park.

Wandered through Grand Central.

We headed to the airport Monday evening and had a layover in Minneapolis. I mention that only to show that the terminal we were out of in Minneapolis is awesome!! Each waiting seat has it's own iPad that you can use to read the news, check your flight status, or even order a drink from the bar! How fun is that?!?

We made it back to Seattle around midnight. When we got back to the house it was a whole 42 degrees in the house because I had turned off the heat before we left. It was a little tough to come home to and try to fall asleep in! Luckily it warmed up pretty quickly! We had such a great time in NYC and I can't wait to go back and visit again!!!