5 Year Anniversary

Hello everybody!  Hard to believe that we began this blog when we were about to leave on our honeymoon to Europe and it's now been 5 years.  It has been a wonderful journey though, and Whitney and I are very blessed by each other.  This past weekend we decided to celebrate by heading back to New York, the site of our 1 year anniversary celebration.  Last time we went overnight and we took a bus from Boston: this time we did it in style, going for two nights and driving directly into Manhattan.  We had a hotel directly across the street from Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center, and arrived there after lunch on Friday, which was our anniversary.

At Washington Square Park

After  freshening up from our 4 hour drive down from Boston, we headed out into the city to begin seeing the sights!  We headed first down to the Highline, the elevated railroad that has been turned into a walking park down in Chelsea.  In case some of you haven't caught on, the Northeast has had a never-ending winter (we might get 1-12" of snow tonight) and thus all the plants on the Highline were dead.  Really really dead.  But the walk was till great.  Even better, we ran into two women on typewriters who would write you a poem if you gave them a word.  Whitney and I thought this would be the perfect souvenir so we waited.  Unfortunately, one dad and daughter cut in front of us, and they each gave a word! We were pretty bummed about that, but didn't say anything because the girl was seven so it felt mean.  But then the dad tipped the women and the park rangers cited them for taking the money, because apparently you can't do that in city parks.  So we were afraid we weren't going to even get our poems, after putting up with Mr. Cut-in-line and his little girl.  However, the women wrote us two poems using the word "anniversary" and we're going to frame them.  After waiting forever to get our poems written, we were hungry and so we headed to Chelsea market where I had heard they had some killer tacos.  We ended up at Los Tacos no. 1, and the tacos were indeed to die for.  Absolutely amazing.  Chelsea market was pretty cool too.  Kind of an upscale Pikes' Place.  After lunch we headed on a walk through lower Manhattan, skirting Greenwich Village and heading to the Flatiron district so Whitney could show me Eataly.  It was a great day and we got some tasty gelato.

The Flatiron Building near Eataly

Well after that we decided to head back to our hotel room and freshen up before heading out to our anniversary dinner.  We were pretty close to Times Square, but all the restaurants there are a trap, so we headed over to 9th avenue in Hell's Kitchen to see if we could get some Thai, which we were craving.  We put our names in at a tiny Thai place and had a 45 minute wait so headed next door to get some coffee while we waited.  At a tiny coffee shop.  Honestly, nearly every place on 9th can only sit like, 30 people max, with many being more like 10.  When we got seated at our place for dinner, there was room for one person to walk by us, so people were constantly ducking into the table area to let others pass in the other direction.  However, we had a delicious Thai dinner, and then strolled into Times Square because I wanted to see it and the Rockefeller center at night.  It is pretty overwhelming, and very fun to look at with all the billboards and the people around you.

The next morning we decided that we'd splurge since we're never coming back to NYC and see a Broadway musical.  After getting breakfast at Ess-a-Bagel we waited in Times Square for the discounted tickets and scored tickets to go and see "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder", a great musical about a man who discovers he's a member of a rich English family but ninth in line to the Earldom and schemes his way to the top.  It was very hilarious, with one of the actors playing all 8 or 9 members of the rich family in a variety of costumes.  We were very glad we decided to experience it and that we picked this musical.  While we were waiting for the play to start in the afternoon, we took a walk through the Upper East side to see the museums and the presidential townhomes around that neighborhood.  There are some ridiculous houses in that neighborhood.  PS we felt like we walked 4-5 miles per day around Manhattan, and by the end of every day were exhausted!  We got lunch at a place called Empanada Mama's, again in Hell's Kitchen.  Believe it or not, they specialize in empanadas, and those little guys are darn tasty!

The Friends Building

After seeing the show, we headed back down to the Village to walk around, since Saturday was in the low 60s and absolutely gorgeous.  We had spotted a British tea shop the day befoon re, and so we decided to stop in at Tea & Sympathy for some tea and scones.  It is run by a British guy named Nick, and there are a lot of rules for the little shop, mainly because it's super, and I mean super, tiny, and so they don't let anyone linger once their tea is done.  But it was an amazing place, and I know Whitney loved it.  I loved it as well, because the jam was amazing and they had clotted cream, something that I've only had in England but I wish could be found in the Stop & Shops here in Boston!  After getting tea we decided to walk around the Village, which is a very walkable and pretty neighborhood lined with cool shops, restaurants, and bars.  We stopped by to see the facade that is the exterior shot from the show Friends, and then continued on out of the village to the East village, because I wanted to go get belgian-style fries at Pomme Frites by NYU.  Turns out that was a pretty long walk, but the fries were delicious!  I am the kind of person for whom the chips and salsa or the free bread at a restaurant is sometimes the best part of a meal, and so a place that makes ONLY fries and serves them with 30 or so different sauces is my kind of place. Afterwards though we were pretty exhausted, and headed back to the hotel before grabbing dinner at a Mexican place on 9th avenue.  It was a normal sized restaurant, and it was great not sitting on a stool or being bumped by waiters.
Our final morning in the city, we went to the Upper West Side to Jacob's Pickles for breakfast.  It was amazing, especially the fried pickle appetizer, and I wish I could go there again.  A walk back through Central Park led to our hotel and car, and then we drove on back home, a great weekend in NYC behind us.  I realized though that I could not live in that city, mainly because a) everything is tiny,  and b) everything is cement, and c) there are way too many people.  Any nice park like Washington Square Park is crowed with literally hundreds of people on a quiet day, and Whitney said that on summer days you can barely walk on the Highline.  I need a little more space and greenery for my living.  In sum, a great city to visit for a weekend, but we're not anxious to really live there or even go back.

So what's up with us now? Well, we're moving in a month to a new 2-bedroom apartment on Commonwealth Avenue, where we will finish out our stay in Boston.  I am returning to medical school at the end of May after defending my thesis on May 9th and going to see my sister graduate college the next weekend.  With less than two years left in Boston, we're getting excited for what's next, though I still don't know what I'm interested in medically.  Pray that I decide next year!  Meanwhile we're just waiting for spring and very excited for year 6 of marriage.  Spring and more is coming!

Chad