i have to admit that when we were going to new york i wasn't really hoping to see gossip girl being filmed or standing in the cold with a poster for the Today show, but what i was secretly hoping to see was some Law & Order. if you know me, or have ever lived with me, you know i love law & order (da-da). i can watch any type (regular, SVU, criminal intent) any time even if i've seen it before. so, when we passed by the court house i got a little excited and if we walked down a street that looked like a place a "vic" would have been found, i kind of hoped we'd see Olivia. but it never happened. even still it was cool to be in a place where they film one of my favorite shows.

the court house where lots of L&O get filmed i'm sure
anyway

the brooklyn bridge & food tour
one of the first things i heard to do was walk the brooklyn bridge. so before we left i looked at what to do in brooklyn and found a local food tour. it was the one thing i really booked for us. we started of in manhattan and joined the other hundreds on the bridge. and i must say it was fascinating to see a different view of the city for every few yards. the walk was quicker than i anticipated too. after a cool morning the day turned out beautiful and sunny, which made for a perfect day to be outside. we took a ton of pics of the bridge, the buildings and ourselves. it was truly a great way to see the city. once in brooklyn we walked by a famous pizza place but the line was too long. so we wondered around some since we had time before our food tour. finding a taxi in brooklyn was a bit tricky but we found one and headed to the Carroll Gardens neighborhood. we met our guide and it was us and just one other couple. basically we visited a handful of places from a southern inspired restaurant to a cheese shop to a cookie shop to a gastropub. a lot of the tour was walking through the neighborhoods and learning about it's history and buildings, which was definitely a great part of the tour. i mean, i thought there could have been more food involved but it was still worth it. at our final stop we ended up hanging out and watching the LSU game. it was still early and we sat at the bar with a local named Dave, who happened to be from Georgia (so he was going for UGA in the game). we ended up there for the rest of the game and night talking to Dave. it was fun to share our stories and actually connect with someone on a personal level, as opposed to being a tourist. and to top it all off, he secretly paid our bill. he left before we knew this and could thank him. we were blown away by his kindness. but mostly it was just fun hanging out with him.

a little artsy shot of the bridge

maybe a place people leave a lock for good luck?



manhattan from the bridge...new world trade building

the park
i have always been fascinated by central park. i love on tv when they show a sky-view of the city there is this huge green space smack dab in the middle of that crazy building mess. so, this was definitely on our lists of places to go. and i think we did it right. we rented bikes for 2 hours and road around the whole park (just about). we took a break on the northwest side near harlem so adam could have a falafal wrap from a food truck, which was freshly made and divine. it's amazing how much there is within this park. we weren't allowed to bike on some of the walking paths but i think we were still able to see a lot. the weather turned out perfect and it was just lovely to take some time from walking and ride a bike.

our only pic from the park...at some reservoir


the washington square park
one of adam's favorite movies and one we like to watch around Christmas is When Harry Met Sally. if you don't know or remember the movie....watch it. well, the place Sally drops Harry off in new york is washington square park. we had no idea where it was, in fact, we thought it might be at central park. on sunday night after our long day of adventure we headed back out and decided just to walk. i think we were actually going to check out the holiday markets that turned out to be closed. but we ended up walking by NYU and that area then stumbled upon this park. and across the park we saw this big monument, which had to be the one from the movie. not only was the park low key and speckled with a mix of hipsters, students and homeless folks, we had found the one thing from the movie we had really wanted to see. and all by accident. and we got to enjoy a quiet night just walking around and soaking up the city together. it was wonderful.

the monument of Harry's drop off


so, i'm thinking i'll have another post and then one or two with just pics b/c we took so many pics. so many. thanks for letting me share about our trip. it really was so so much fun.