NYC Part 4 plus Kat's City Tips

Friday's rest was very welcome! Nothing felt better than sleeping in, cleaning up the house, and getting in a tad bit of blogging and 'yoga for runners' to get the last work day of the week going!

Saturday's long run was to be at Fishhawk which means that hills were on the horizon. Never fret, I had my girls there with me (along with our pal, Caribbean Steve) to get it done! We trekked through 10 miles together with quirky stories and laughs and it was great to be back in the groove (and to enjoy a Panera mango/Stonyfield smoothie)!

The final part of the NYC saga continues ;)

After sleeping in Sunday after the wedding (whiskey...ughh) I still made it up to work some of the alcohol out of my system at the hotel gym - slowly. The entire family was to meet up in Chinatown at a dim sum restaurant called Jing Fong (off of Elizabeth & Canal St) When we asked our Aunts how many...they said 50. People?! At once? Ok...we'll do our best! We had tickets for each set of 10 of us (holy big family) and waited by walking around and window shopping a bit (what?! more sweet buns? ok!)

It'll only be an hour wait..no biggie

Once we got in, I saw the gigantic escalator that took us up to the main part of the restaurant. Escalator? Tip: this is a great place for dim sum but had a long wait even for smaller parties. Plan ahead.

Say Whaaaaat?!

the goods

Lil cousins!

The fam was ready to walk off the oodles of noodles and dumplings we all grubbed on so we walked over to the SouthEast side of the island to the Doughnut Plant in the Lower East Side. I've seen it on Food Network before, but I didn't partake in the donut fun (surprising eh?) since I was ready to hit up more Chinatown shops and eats. Tip: My cousins said these donuts were to-die-for, no one killed anyone, but you get the point.

These are what I was waiting for:

more buns around $1?! Yes please!

We all decided to ALSO walk back to the hotel instead of taking a cab, fitness first! ;) So we got to walk through Little Italy and hubs stumbled over his feet only a few times gawking at all of the awesome pizzas that we saw on our way.

neat artwork in the city

That evening, after a bit of rest from all of the continued eating and walking, we joined our cousins for dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill restaurant. Hubs and I shared the skirt steak dinner + some appetizers including shrimp tacos. Tip: My take on the restaurant was that the food was awesome. The shrimp tacos were amazing. My only downside would be the prices and portion sizes. (Frugal Betty over here.) The shrimp tacos were around $16 and there were 3 bite-sized pieces on the appetizer. Then, again, there were beef ribs that my little cousin got that were bigger than her!

Cousins <3

After getting into some comfortable elastic clothes, we headed out for dessert at Popbar! Gelato on a stick?! It was yummy and the kids loved this new spin on popsicles.

Drool.

Monday, Labor Day! We ventured into the West Village even more. The rest of the gang decided to head uptown and we wanted to explore some of the other areas I'd wanted to stalk see from Sex and the City ;)

Magnolia Bakery. No cupcakes were harmed at this visit, only stared at. Carrie came here quite often.

Pretty market flowers

After looking at onthesetofnewyork.com and Sex and the City tours online, we were able to find some locations ourselves! Most importantly, Carrie's apartment on Perry St. Awesomesauce!
Tip: Look online at places you want to do tours at to see if the cost of the bus tours are worth it. You might just want to venture to some of the locations on your own. For free.

Not sure if this fabulous place was for sale or not ;)

Cafe Angelique was a place we stopped for a quick bite & Chai. The waitstaff was super nice & prices weren't bad!

We even got a chance to meet up with the newlywed couple for lunch and more sightseeing on the West side of town. We found a place called Pinto (thanks Yelp!) for Thai. Eight bucks for a lunch special, What a steal?! Tip: Off-the-beaten-path = smart.

PCU noodles!

I'd told my cousin about my obsession with SATC, so he brought us to the Meatpacking District, where Samantha lived ;)

And we visited a place called the High Line. It's a pretty cool walkway & public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side.

Us <3

The new Mrs. & Mr.!

It brought us to the famous Chelsea Market!

FYI: This market also houses the restaurants to the stars: Buddakan and Morimoto (heard that Beyonce and Jay-Z are big fans?)...neither of which we ate at ;) Buddakan is also the restaurant where Big & Carrie had their engagement dinner in the first movie. Knowledge.

Our entire trip was FABULOUS! Congrats again to my cousins on their pretty pretty wedding! Thanks to my family for the fun times and walking adventures! Thanks to hubs for being my city buddy :)

This is what we look like after 5 days of walking...but mostly after eating ;)

Happy Weekend everyone! What are you doing to put in work this weekend?!

Comment love makes me smile ;)