If you're not interested in travel or New York in general, you might want to skip today's post. Although I did try to be as concise as possible, the post is quite lengthy. Hopefully you won't be bored by my account of our trip.
We flew to New York on Saturday (6/9). We stayed at The Roosevelt Hotel which is the same hotel we stayed at when we were there three years ago. It's very nice and it's close to Grand Central Terminal which means you can get to just about anywhere very easily. After checking in, we took the subway to the World Trade Center site. It looked somewhat different from three years ago when we saw it. There were more bulldozers and building materials. We ate dinner at Heartland Brewing on 43rd in Times Square. We first ate there in 2004 and were glad to see that not only are they still there, they have added several new locations. We walked around Times Square for a little while and stopped by the Virgin Records Mega Store. I bought 4 CD's...Cher, AC/DC, Abba and Queen. Yes, I have a very unusual taste in music...hee hee hee.
On Sunday morning, we went to Grand Central Terminal to take the subway to Coney Island. 
Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, was holding a press conference near the top of the escalator and I was able to take a picture. Once we made it to Coney Island, Bill wanted to ride the Cyclone which is a roller coaster. It looked to me much like the Mine Train roller coaster at Six Flags St. Louis and I can handle that one so I figured, what the heck. I'll give it a try. Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to die. I later find out that the highest hill is 85 feet high with a 60 degree drop. I have named it the Death Coaster. We then ate a Nathan's hot dog because you can't go to Coney Island and not eat a Nathan's. We took the subway to the East Village and walked around a bit. We just happen to stumble upon Max Brenner which is a restaurant specializing in chocolate. We had planned to stop by for a dessert at some point during our visit and Sunday afternoon was just as good a day as any. We ordered the S'mores and a mocha. Yummy. We had tickets to Spamalot that evening at the Schubert Theater. I'm not a big Monty Python fan, however, I do like Monty Python and the Holy Grail which is the movie upon which the musical is based. I loved the scene where the knight gets his arm cut off...it's just a flesh wound. After the play, we ate a late dinner at Inoteca which is an Italian tapas restaurant. The entire menu is in Italian so, unless you speak the language, the waiter can translate for you. We enjoyed the bruschetta and a cheese plate followed by the polpette (meatballs) and suppli (risotto balls).
On Monday morning, we started our day by going to the Top of the Rock which is the observation deck on the top of Rockefeller Center. I actually think that the view here is better than from the top of the Empire State Building because it's surrounded by glass rather than fencing. Afterward, we stopped by Trump Plaza and Trump Tower. We ate lunch at P.J. Clarke's...great hamburgers! We then went to The Ink Pad which is a rubber stamp store. It's a very tiny store but it has tons of stamps and other goodies. I bought a few Amuse stamps that I've been wanting as well as a cute beer mug stamp and a stamp that says "Cattitude is Everything" which will be perfect paired with my Fluffles set. We walked around Greenwich Village for a while and then had a beer at a small pub that had sidewalk seating. We then went back to the hotel and decided to eat dinner at Zuni. We had planned to eat at Nonna, however, they only had outdoor seating available due to a private party inside and they were predicting rain so we opted for Zuni. It was very good and we both enjoyed it. We then stopped by Heartland Brewing for a late night brew.
Tuesday morning began with a Circle Island Cruise. It is a three hour boat ride around the island of Manhattan. 
We took this cruise three years ago and enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again. After the cruise, we went to Greenwich Village again and found a cute little Italian restaurant with outdoor seating. It's called Trattoria Spaghetto and it's located at the corner of Bleeker and Carmine. It was exactly the type of authentic Italian restaurant we were looking for. The eggplant parmesan was wonderful. We were going to walk around the neighborhoods after lunch, however, the skies turned dark and it poured. Luckily we had our umbrellas so we made our way back to the hotel. Our jeans and shoes were soaked so we changed clothes and shoes and headed to The Beer Bar. We had a pre-game brew and then took the 4 train uptown to Yankee Stadium. 
We saw Yankees game three years ago and I bought a cap so I brought it with me and wore it again. It must have brought them good luck because, after an hour rain delay, the Yankees beat the Diamondbacks (inter-league play) 4 to 1. I've always hated the Yankees but it really is a lot of fun to cheer for them at Yankee Stadium.
On Wednesday morning, we decided to eat breakfast at Clinton Street Baking which is on the lower east side. They had fried green tomatoes on the menu so I had to order them along with my breakfast. I absolutely love them and it isn't something that you see on menus very often. We then went to Times Square and did a little shopping before heading to Brooklyn. Everyone who visits New York should go to Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Brooklyn. The pizza is absolutely wonderful. They don't sell individual slices so be sure to come with a big appetite or a few friends. We then had ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory which is right on the East River. 
After enjoying the frozen treat, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Since Wall Street was only a few subway stops away, we decided to check it out. 
Ever since September 11, you can no longer drive down the streets surrounding the New York Stock Exchange so it is quite easy to walk around. We went back to the hotel and relaxed for about an hour and then headed to dinner at Stella del Mare. This restaurant was recommended to me by a fellow stamper on Splitcoast Stampers. It is an Italian restaurant specializing in fish dishes. We had the avocado stuffed with crab for the appetizer. For the main dish, Bill had the soft-shelled crab and I had the lemon soul. It was delicious! I enjoyed it so much that I have added it to my list of favorite restaurants. We then went back to Time Square to visit Heartland Brewing for our final late night brews.
On Thursday morning, we ate breakfast at the Brooklyn Diner and no, it's not in Brooklyn. It's in Times Square only a few doors away from Heartland Brewing. We then headed for the airport and prepared for our trip home. We really love New York and will be visiting again soon.
-Melanie-
Little did we know that Japanese Beetles love Linden trees too. We didn't have any problems the first two years but ever since then, we can't control them. Actually, last year wasn't too bad because we were able to spray them with Sevin before the beetles had a chance to do much damage. This year, there were no beetles when we left for New York but when we returned, they were already happily munching on the top quarter of the tree and those leaves have now turned brown. We sprayed the tree several times but it hasn't seem to help very much. There was even a segment on the local news last night about these little buggers. They said that this year has been the worst so far and the beetles are here to stay. Yippee.
It just makes the leaves really look ugly. We decided to buy one of those Bag-A-Bug things. Some people say they only attract more beetles but we figured that it couldn't hurt to give it a try. At the very least, there would be a few less beetles left to lay eggs. Well, the bag was up a little less than 24 hours when I noticed that there were at least 100 of bugs in the bag. It's actually hilarious to watch them because they fly into the plastic top and then just fall right into the bag. Stupid bugs! 
