On Saturday, Joe & I took a bus trip from our church to New York City. Since Sunday was our one year anniversary, we figured this would serve as a nice quick getaway to celebrate.
Our main event of the day was the Southern Welcome Tour in Central Park. The bus dropped us off at Bryant Park, so we decided to walk the 19 blocks to where the tour would begin. We had two very friendly and knowledgeable tour guides who took us around to several important park landmarks between 59th and 65th Streets. They also gave a lot of history on how the park came to be. The picture at the top of this post is of the Gapstow Bridge, which was part of our tour. It is popular for weddings, and we did in fact see a bridal couple getting pictures taken there.
After the tour, we spent a bit of time climbing on the rock outcroppings and enjoying the views in the park. Then we made our way back down to the theater district. (I told Joe that next time we should plan to see a show – I think that would be a lot of fun!) It was 1 o’clock by this point so we went to get lunch.
We ate at Carmine’s, which is an Italian restaurant that was recommended by Joe’s sister. Fun fact: Joe’s dad’s name is Carmine. The food was amazing, although there was way too much of it for us to possibly eat. They serve their dishes family style, with what they say is enough for 2-3 people. I am convinced we could have fed 5-6 from the huge platter they brought us! We had rigatoni with meatballs, and it was really wonderful.
After lunch, we decided just to wander around and do some shopping. We went in a few stores, but ended up spending most of our time people watching. There was an event that day in Bryant Park, so that was all cordoned off and we couldn’t hang out there, but we found some other places to sit and take everything in.
All in all, it was a very nice day. We could have planned at least one more specific thing to do to fill more of the time, but it turned out okay anyway. We also spent some time catching Pokemon, so that was fun too. (My son doesn’t have a smartphone so he has a game on my phone and I try to catch some on weekends that he is away with his dad.)
For those of you who have been to NYC, what are your favorite places to visit? We will probably go back again, so we are always looking for ideas.
In So Many Words 
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