NYC must eats

i am by no means a foodie

but i do love food

(just ask husband)

and one of my all time favorite things to do while on vacay is eat

and by eat, i mean eat out

i love to try the "must eats" of the city i am exploring

during our NYC adventure, 

my taste buds and husband's

had the time of their lives

here is a list of why

recommended by my baby sis

the eatery is simply delicious!

try the mac n jac... you will not leave disappointed

the pork buns at ippudo are most definitely worth the wait

the ramen is pretty good too

 come early, this place gets pretty busy!

who doesn't love fried dough?

check out the doughnut plant

they have doughnut flavors from coconut cream to green tea to 

salted peanut to oatmeal

who knew these kinds of flavors existed?

pizza under the brooklyn bridge

the place that husband and i really wanted to try 

was just way too busy (almost a 3 hour wait)

 but we went to the next best and it was delizioso!

one of my favorite types of food is vietnamese

head on over to republic and have the pork chops

so so so yummy!

husband is a ruben sandwich connoisseur

you will find the best in the city

at katz deli

and don't worry they are open until 5am on the weekends

so if you happen to have a hankering for a ruben 

that late (or early!) swing on by!

serendipity 3

i have a soft spot for this place ever since watching the movie serendipity 

(one of my all time favorite movies!)

the frozen hot chocolate never disappoints
and if you want something to go with your hot chocolate
try the meatloaf! it's Yummy with a capital "y"
(thanks andrea for the suggestion!) 

husband and i ate at the meatball shop 

on our second to last night

if we had eaten here on one of our first days

i think we would have eaten here at least four more times

it was that good!

 you can't go to new york

and not have a new york style cheesecake!

check out juniors

it's right in times square

you can enjoy your cheesecake and the lights of time square at the same time

ok, for all you in n out lovers out there,

 you must check out

shake shack--the brain child of danny meyer

the cheeseburger is a slice of burger heaven

seriously

and last but not least

my most favorite of all...cafe habana

the corn.. oh the corn

i could have eaten the corn for breakfast, lunch and dinner

if husband allowed me to

(he didn't)

which is a good thing because i would 

have never been able to eat all the other delicious food nyc had to offer
(thank you husband for being my voice of reason)

thank you nyc! my taste buds thank you

but my waist line does not

our NYC adventure

husband and i were lucky enough to visit one

of our favorite cities last week

it was a just-the-two-of-us getaway

to celebrate husband's birthday and our anniversary (a little belated)

it's not our first visit to the big apple

so because we have already done the "uber-touristy" things, 

(statue of liberty, empire state building etc)

we tried to do "other" touristy things

so, here's a canadian girls'

list of must do's while visiting

one of the most amazing cities in the world

walk! walk everywhere you need to go!

husband and i would leave our hotel 

around 8am and not return until past 10pm

and we walked the entire time

it's the only way to see the city and all the 

beautiful architecture 

my neck cramped from continuously looking up

and admiring all the gorgeous buildings 

 

 

visit strand books

if you are a book lover like me, you will be in heaven

they boast to have 18 miles worth of books

they have the largest collection of vintage and rare books

i could have seriously spent an entire day just walking up

and down the aisles admiring all the books

sigh 

visit times square

yes, super touristy

but there is no other place like times square

as i mentioned on my instagram feed

photos can't do this place justice

the people, the lights, the sounds

if you have the time (and budget)

go watch a broadway show

husband and i lined up at the TKTS booth in times square

we were in line for a few hours but walked away

with awesome seats to mama mia at 40% off!

totally worth the wait
 

visit the met (perfect rainy day activity)

it was our second time here

but we kept saying to ourselves

wow, we never saw this last time

it's huge!  give yourself the whole day

we did... 

and we still walked away feeling like we didn't see everything

(i'm sure we didn't!) 
 

walk over the brooklyn bridge

i have a slight fear of heights 

and it was a little overwhelming walking over the bridge

(it was only a few pieces of wood between me and a couple of hundred speeding cars!)

but most definitely worth it!
 

once you have crossed the brooklyn bridge, you will be in brooklyn (duh!)

walk towards the water

the view of manhattan from across the east river is simply 

ah-may-zing

 

and if you are lucky enough to be in brooklyn

(and a lover of all things vintage)

while the brooklyn flea is still on

it's most definitely worth the visit

 

husband and i walked around with heavy hearts 

because there were so many beautiful items

that we would have loved to bring home with us

but i'm pretty sure that two sidetables

and a coffee table would not have fit in our luggage

 

another definite must-do 

is a bike ride through central park (weather permitting)

there are bike rentals places all over the place

and they are all really reasonably priced

i personally think it's the best way

to see the entire park 

since it's huge

 

and last but not least

visit the new york public library

you must be thinking.. really the library?

but if you love books like me

it's another slice of book heaven

and the building, the actual building

is simply stunning!
 

of course i can't do a must do list of nyc without mentioning

shopping and eating

shopping can be done pretty much anywhere and everywhere in the city!

fifth avenue, soho, maddison avenue

but the eats... oh, the eats

that deserves a post of it's own

stay tuned for that

his 33rd birthday

it was our main man's birthday yesterday

it was pretty low key

we had sushi for lunch

birthday cake in the afternoon

and then left the girls with my parents

and headed into the city to enjoy dinner with friends

of course when i asked him what we wanted for his birthday he replied with

"nothing..."

but i wasn't about to give him nothing since he does so much for us

i sat the girls down and asked them to tell me 

why they loved their dad, 

i wrote all the answers down and they took turns illustrating each reason

and that's how we came up with his gift

"33 reasons why we love Daddy!"

here is a small sampling of what they came up with

as you can see they came up with some pretty funny stuff! 

my favorite is reason # 11: he doesn't smell 

this was one of pia's... and i guess lack of smell is important when it comes to love! haha.

date night: summer afternoon edition

 a few days ago

we dropped the girls off with their lolo and lola

it was a win-win situation because the girls love spending time

with my mom and dad

and the hubs and i had a free afternoon to ourselves

we decided to hit up a local farmers market

all the fresh local produce was so pretty and colourful

i couldn't resist snapping a few photos

there was even a letterpress booth 

and the owner of the booth was doing a mini letterpress workshop

which was really neat

there were a few food trucks there

vancouver is finally getting in on the food truck trend!

we had just come from brunch so we weren't too hungry

but we spotted these fruit popsicles and couldn't resist

they are made from fresh local fruit and sold out of the back of a bicycle!

it's the ice cream bike revival...super cute!

it's nice to spend a few hours, just the two of us

we can actually have a conversation

and not be interrupted by a little person needing something

or yelling above the commotion that the two of them are making, 

just so we can hear each other

it's nice to not have to play referee

or constantly be on the lookout to make sure they aren't touching 

something they shouldn't be

but after a few hours we decided to head back home to our girls

because of course after a few hours

we missed the giggles and the hugs and kisses

we missed the noise and the commotion

we missed them terribly

ah, parenthood