mrs. frakes: NYC Day 2

I love sleep. I mean, I LOVE sleep. I covet sleep, I crave sleep, and I sleep as much and as often as I can. So when it came to busy days in NYC, I vowed to sleep in. We knew ahead of time we would be exhausted every day, so we decided early morning appointments wouldn't work for us. #wise

So on Day 2 we eventually (mid to late morning) made our way down to the Chelsea District and jumped on the High Line. This is a cool deal because #1 it's FREE and #2 it's iconic! The High Line is an old train track that was converted to a garden sanctuary above the city. It weaves through Chelsea, near the Hudson River and has some amazing views along the way. Plus, in parts, you can stare into the windows of crazy awesome apartments that you'll wish you lived in. I mean, I was ready to sign a lease by the time the High Line came to an end.

This is how they have to park cars in NYC.

This is the end of the line, so to speak.

When you get off the High Line, you're sort of kicked into the Chelsea Market which is in itself an awesome place. Add it to your list. It won't disappoint. We ate lunch there and thoroughly enjoyed Creamline, a farm to table fast food restaurant! GET THE CHICKEN SANDWICH and there will be a party in your mouth.

From there, you're just a hop, skip, and a jump down the block from Greenwich Village. Toodle around! You'll love that area too.

At this point, we started walking a crazy amount of miles, making our way to NoLita (which is code for North of Little Italy), Soho (which is short for south of Houston, a street in NYC), and Chinatown. Be careful in Chinatown. It's all kinds of shady. A giant Jamaican and a tiny Chinese woman were grabbing my arms and fighting over me in the street. Technically in a McDonald's on the street. Either way, it was frightening. So do Chinatown at your own risk.

One last stop we made was the Flat Iron building which is in the aptly named Flat Iron District. Ha!

Have you ever seen this in photos? It's trippy to see in person. There's an actual cell phone store (AT&T? Verizon?) located on the bottom floor and you can stare straight through the building. Seems to me there would be a better business to lease that space... but I'm clearly not in charge.

Pictures of the building are hard y'all. Don't judge.

About this time we walked as far south as we could stand and grabbed an UBER for Brooklyn. We chose Juliana's for dinner, which is next door to the famous Grimaldi's. I'm sure both are great, but the story goes that after a family fued, Juliana Grimaldi opened her own pizza/pasta shop NEXT DOOR to the original Grimaldi's. Some reviews on the internet tell you that Grimaldi's is for tourists because it's better known, and Juliana's is for locals. Hmmm. We chose the locals' side in this fight and didn't regret it one bit.

Now, the benefit of either of these restaurants is what's not even on the menu. It's the Brooklyn Promenade that lies just past them, by the water. You can take the MOST STUNNING PHOTOS of the Manhattan skyline at dusk here, and we stuck around til it was dark. SO AMAZING. Put this adventure on your list RIGHT NOW. I'll get my hug from you later.