Exploring NYC on Thanksgiving Day

After watching the Macy's Day Parade on Thanksgiving morning, I explored some of the city on my own. Here's what I saw:

Does anything scream NYC more than a good ol' corner food cart?

I got to sit through part of a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is currently under renovation.

And I walked past the gorgeous NYC Public Library and Bryant Park.

I kept walking up 5th Avenue past some holiday windows,

NYC's finest,

the Empire State Building and Marble Collegiate Church,

and a few other New York City sights.

Clockwise from top left: Sample sales make me think of NYC, the Flat Iron building, and.. yep, you read that right.

I was invited to have Thanksgiving dinner (or "Friendsgiving") with my friend Rachel at her boyfriend Danny's place on the Lower East Side. Rachel and I first met as Hinckley interns in Washington, DC, and she's basically the next Julia Childs.

Rachel cooked nearly ALL of this!

Turkey before, Turkey after -- featuring Danny's first turkey carving ever.

After dinner, we went up on the roof and enjoyed a scenic view of the city.

Freedom tower on the left, NYC skyline on the right.

Williamsburg Bridge

I felt really blessed to be able to share Thanksgiving with such great people. Rachel's and Danny's friends were all so nice and made me feel right at home.

After dinner, we gorged on Rachel's amazing pie (holy crap, that thing was good!).

And THEN, I went back to Lee's place in Brooklyn, where there was further gorging on pies and cheesecake. The highlights were A- Lee's suuuuuper yummy chocolate-chip cookie dough pie (so. good.) and Sara's cheesecake (yum!). And of course, as is customary when you gather more than 5 Mormons in one room, there was definitely some game playing. :) Sadly, I have no photos of any of it! But I really enjoyed getting to know Lee and Sara's Brooklyn YSA friends better (and even a few folks from the Harlem YSA ward and *gasp* some married Mormons!). Everyone was so welcoming and friendly, and it was fun to see a more intimate glimpse of Lee's beloved Brooklyn life.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! May the holiday spirit stay with us even after the holidays are over. :)

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade + Rockefeller Center

To be completely honest, the original main reason I decided to go up to NYC for Thanksgiving weekend was to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It's been on my East Coast bucket list for some time now, and I'm so glad I went this year -- even though we had to get up before the sun to make it down in time!

Crack of dawn + me 'n Lee

The sky was deceitfully blue and clear. We enjoyed free Nesquik as a pre-parade snack. And it was cuh-row-ded!

The start of the parade! (Finally!)

Here are some of my favorite balloons and floats from the parade. Though I will say that the balloons were DEFINITELY my favorites!

Oh, that poor Charlie Brown!

New York's finest

These patriotic floats made me feel like I was right back in DC! (Spiderman IS patriotic!)

Apparently, Pokemon are still IN.

One Direction

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar! (tall one in blue at the front of the float)

Some of the balloons were really old. "Vintage," if you will.

Some of them were just creepy....

Meanwhile, we were all jam-packed like sardines!

And then Santa came, and we knew the parade was over.

We believe!

The whole gang!

In conclusion, the parade was awesome! If you're gonna go up, find a day where it's not FREEEEZING and/or SNOWING! It was chilly this year, but the sun was still shining, and we weren't frozen. 

After the parade, most of the group left, so I explored the area around the Rockefeller Center for a bit.

The Rockefeller tree, in process of being decorated

30 Rock :)

Then I continued my adventures elsewhere. But I'll get to that. :)

Why We Shouldn't Plan Dates

We got to see each other twice in one week! Yeah! :)

OK, first of all, I just want to say that I had SUCH a great birthday! I felt so much love from family and friends, and I feel truly blessed. :) Secondly, I've been too busy to blog much lately, BUT I finally have photos from my birthday party (courtesy of my beautiful, talented friend Janan) and will definitely make time for a party photo post this coming week!

Thirdly, this e-mail exchange is brought to you by two of the most awesome former roomies a girl could possibly ask for as we tried to settle on where to eat for my roomie birthday dinner. It explains quite clearly why we SHOULDN'T be the ones planning dates. Are you ready to roll your eyes in frustration? Here goes.

From: YZ

To: EH, EJ

Re: places to eat

Restaurants that I know of in the general 2020 K St area:

- Baja Fresh (you know... that burrito place)

- Panda Cafe DC (Chinese) http://www.pandacafedc.com/menu.html

- Crepeaway (crepes!) http://www.crepeaway.com/

- Bobby's Burger Palace (except I'm not much feeling like burgers, so I don't know why I just included this...)

Any other suggestions? Latin food sounds good to me right now. How do you girls feel about Baja? :)

From: YZ

To: EH, EJ

Re: places to eat

I mean... I know it's TECHNICALLY not Latin food. It's all Americanized and whatnot, but the only other Latin place I could find in the general 2020 K St area was this Peruvian restaurant:

http://elchalandc.com/menu

Feedback, please? 

PS Sorry for the spam!

From: EJ To: YZ, EH Re: places to eat

Crepeaway= not that good.

I had moe's for lunch so i'm not really feeling a burrito... but if that becomes the final decision, I will live. Obviously.

I actually really like the sound of panda cafe. Or anything asian.  There's also nooshi, which is a good thai placehttp://www.nooshidc.com/menus.html

and there's always the Whole Foods pay-per-pound bar.  It's expensive-ish but usually pretty good.

but in the end, i will eat anywhere.  It's the company that matters!

From: YZ

To: EJ

Re: places to eat

What is Moe's? You know I need to cook more when I'm craving Latin food! (Because craving Latin food means I haven't cooked any...)

From: EH To: EJ, YZ

Panda cafe it is!  5:30? 

Can't wait. 

From: YZ To: EH, EJ

Any places that have Latin AND Asian? :)

From: YZ To: EH, EJ

OK. Let's do the Chinese. :) See you girls at 5:30.

From: EH To: YZ, EJ

I'm game for Latin!

From: EH To: YZ, EJ

It's your birthday after all!  Let's do http://elchalandc.com/menu, 5:30.  Whatever you top-pick is, that's where we'll go!!!

From: YZ To: EH, EJ

OR to please all palates, what if we met at the International Square Food Court at 18th and K?

:)

From: YZ To: EH, EJ

Oh, my gosh. This is why I should never plan dates! Ha ha.

From: EH To: YZ, EJ

HA!  Totally.

I vote this place, that way we can spend more time together http://elchalandc.com/menu. =)   Plus I think it sounds cool.   Any objections?

--Em

From: EJ To: EH, YZ

I feel like the llama in Emperor's New Groove. "cheese me no-likey".  But can we go anywhere but that Peruvian place.... baja? panda? International square?

From: EH To: YZ, EJ

HA!  No problem.  Let's make it international square. =) 

From: EJ To: EH, YZ

Perfect. Then we can burritos AND orange chicken...

From: YZ To: EJ, EH

Will you all hate me if I vote back for Liz's original Panda Cafe option? :)

Suddenly, orange chicken sounds delicious. 

PS I LOVE YOU BOTH!! And think you're wonderful and lovely and patient.... :)

From: EJ To: EH, YZ

ago)

I haven't laughed this hard at work in... well, ever.  Haha i'm totally fine with changing it back.  Poor Em. She was an innocent bystander the whole time...

From: EH To: EJ, YZ

ahhhahhahhahahhaha!   I think this e-mail chain should go on a blog:  "perfect examples of why men can never understand women"   I love it so much!  =) 

Panda it is!

--Em

And this is why we shouldn't be the ones planning the dates! And Em, here you go. On a blog. I hope this was as entertaining for elseone as it was for us. :)