NYC 2015!

Last weekend my internet friends met up in New York City for our second annual NYC meetup! This time we stayed way downtown in the financial district. This view of the Statue of Liberty was only a few blocks from our hotel!

Ellie and Kate immediately started a weekend-long trend of posing with random items.

For the first night's dinner we went to Trinity Place Bar & Restaurant. They had these fun layered cocktails called Champagne Sangria! There were too many ingredients to remember. They were delicious.

After dinner we walked around for a while and found the Wall Street bull. We also attempted to buy matching I Heart NYC t-shirts but they were all sized for tiny people.

Alexander Hamilton's grave was just up from our subway stop, with One World Trade in the background.

We took the subway to midtown for our first full day and walked through Times Square to Rockefeller Center, where some of us took the elevator to the top. The internet says this is a better idea than the Empire State Building because the lines are shorter, plus then you can actually see the Empire State Building instead of looking out from it. There was no line at all! And the views were amazing!

After that we took the subway back downtown and walked through Little Italy to Chinatown.

We had an amazing lunch at the Shanghai Cafe. We each ordered one or two things and then somehow food just kept arriving long past when it seemed reasonable. We sadly were unable to eat all our dumplings! The total bill for 8 people was $66. I pretty much want to go back to New York right this second to eat this food again.

We walked and shopping throughout the afternoon and then stopped for ice cream from a Mister Softee truck before heading back to the hotel to shower and change for dinner.

For our second night's dinner we went to Rosie's, a Mexican place in the East Village. It was very good, although they didn't seem to have air conditioning. 

After dinner we walked alllll the way back downtown to our hotel. Total mileage for the day: 10.54! Good thing I have that fitbit so I can keep on eye on these things.

The next morning we had plans for brunch at Russ and Daughters but there was about a half hour wait, so we walked around on the Lower East Side taking pictures.

There are like ten more of these in various places. NO SHAME.

The food was worth the wait. We all got some version of a bagel with cream cheese, smoked fish, tomato, red onion, and capers. Plus some knishes to start. Plus an order of blintzes and chocolate french toast to split for dessert. 

The tomatoes are the best I've had all year, for sure. The whole thing was perfect! After all that food we had to walk it off some so continued wandering around and shopping, etc. It was pretty hot, but still early and not too bad if we stuck to the shady side of the street.

This guy was hanging out in a convenience store doorway. 

We were a little worried the Hells Angels were going to come out and kill us for this, but it all went off without a hitch.

Then we did the Hard Times tour at the Tenement Museum, which was really awesome. You have to make advance reservations and it seemed like kind of a pain in the ass but it was totally worth it. There are many other tours you can do, too, so it's a place I'll have to go back to on future visits.

Robert Fulton is also buried at that aforementioned cemetery, near Alexander Hamilton.

For our last night, we took the train to Queens to an internet friend's house for dinner and a big meetup with the NYC area girls! This was on her block.

Most of us had never been to Queens before so it was awesome to see a different part of the city! 

We had an amazing time all hanging out, too. Thank you, Jane Magazine, for having those message boards a hundred years ago. I don't know what I would do without these friends! It would be a sad life.