NYC Part Uno: Biergarten, Sightseeing, Shopping and a 30th Birthday Celebration

Thank you all for your comments, advice and thoughts on our trip to NY!! You ROCK!! We are back in town now and had SUCH a blast. I miss the West Village.... I miss it a lot!! Backing up...

So Thursday was pretty much travel, getting picked up by Tyson’s car service, seeing his awesome place for the first time – LOVE IT! He’s like RIGHT at Hudson & Morton – I’m pretty jealous!! Anywho, within 10 minutes we were freshened up, changed and on the streets – heading to meet his friends Mark and Rich at the Standard Biergarten. LOVED the bar – so cool and outdoorsy, great drinks with this neat drink ticket system and a good crowd. It was pretty chilly but we still had SO much fun and were definitely enjoying the city.

Tyson, Mark, Austin & Me at Biergarten
On our way home we hit up Bleeker Street Pizza – fab – had a great slice of cheese! I ended up at 1,863 calories, 170 carbs, 42 fat grams and 79 protein grams. Here’s what I ate.

Friday we got up early and hit the streets! Tyson had to work, even though it was his big 30^th birthday! Boo! But he helped us map out the day. We left Tyson’s and went across the street to Out of the Kitchen. I got a bagel and cream cheese and ate about half (nibbled on the rest until lunch)! We walked down the river front through Battery Park, where we saw/passed the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Ground Zero. Then we walked through the financial district and saw Wall Street and an Express Runway show – random! Then we took the Subway up to Grand Central Station – SO cool! Then we hit up that little Strawberry store and I got a $15 dress, Lacoste and Austin got 4 shirts and Brooks Brothers. We walked up 5^th avenue and Madison Avenue to Rockefeller center, where we ate lunch at this really cool deli (forgot the name!). We faced out and people watched – beautiful day! I had half of a “mexican hoagie” (grilled chicken, avocado and roasted red pepper with salsa) and half a bag of chips. Then we hit up the NBC store, saw where they did the Today Show, toured the 3-story Anthropologie and stopped by a few more stops! Afterwards we walked to Timesquare, took some pics, saw the Naked Cowboy and then hopped on the Subway for Tyson’s.

Austin at Out of the Kitchen

Walking by the river

Ground Zero...

Austin by the State of Liberty

My turn :)

The walk into the city

Loved the flags everywhere - so pretty

Total tourists - love it

The fashion show

Austin in Timesquare

Me in timesquare

an insane amount of ads - I fondly called it the Panama City of NY

Naked Cowboy

Grand central - so awesome in person

Cheeseballs!

Beautiful anthro - I couldn't get over how much went into all of the stores. So well decorated everywhere.

Me by Rockefeller Center

Austie by Rockefeller - we loved all of the flags and colors - such a fabulously pretty day

When we got back to Tyson’s Austin mapped our walk – 5.5 miles total – crazy! Then we changed and hit up some boutiques courtesy of Eat, Drink and Be Merry, Manhattan. She lives in the West Village and was SO helpful! We appreciate you, Sara! We hit up Jesse James, Otte and Calypso. Loved looking but the sales weren’t enough to get me to buy! Fun to see the shops though. We also had a mini wine tasting and picked up a nice bottle for Saturday! I did have good luck at a pupper boutique on the way - Pa*ri*e*ro NY. We found Reuben 3 shirts we loved – ACDC, Rolling Stones and a cool NY pup tee- love!

Austin in the West Village

Me at the puppy boutique!

Time for wine

Loved this place

Reuben's new clothes!

Could this paper BE any cuter? I loved how they wrapped Reuben's wardrobe!

Then it was back to Tyson’s to get ready! We ordered in Mustache Pitza – SO good. I had hummus/pita of course and a Chicken Kebob sandwich – loovvveeeddd – I could only eat half again – the servings there were huge! Around 8:30 Tyson’s friends started coming over and then we had a crew to go to Rusty Knot for his birthday! Me, Austin, Tyson, Mark, Sam, Jackie, Danielle, Nick, Craig, Paige and Catherine had SO much fun! And guess what??! My friend Katja who I met in Punta Cana (who lives in Germany) was in NY visiting and her and her friend Luca came to visit too! We had SO much fun drinking, dancing and visiting – lots of Auburn people too so of course it was fun to talk college with them, and also fun to talk with Katja (Tyson’s friend Mark even spoke German – how convenient!). After Rusty Knot, Austin, Tys, Nick, Mark, Katja, Luca and me went to Automatic Slims for “one more drink.” Definitely a fun night and, most importantly, Tyson had a great 30^th birthday! I ended up at 1,805 calories, 178 carbs, 46 fat grams and 61 protein grams. Here’s what I ate and drank.

The boys before Rusty Knot

The girls - Jackie, Danielle and me

Auburn crew - Austin, me, Tyson, Paige, Catherine and Jackie

Luca, Katja and me at Rusty Knot - so good to hang out with Katja and to meet her friend!

Last picture of the night around 4 a.m. in the bodega - the boys were getting bacon/egg and cheese sandwiches

That’s Part 1 of 2 – woo! Tomorrow I’ll post about Saturday – which basically made me the number 1 fan of the West Village!!

Do you eat Indian food? If so, what's your favorite Indian dish? We loved it and only hope to find great Indian food in Atlanta!

Any vacation friends that you've kept up with? It was super fun to hang out with Katja again - we're Facebook friends and hope to keep up! Who knows? Maybe next time we'll meet up with her in Germany! LOL