The Parents Come To Town.

This weekend my parents made the trip out to the big city. Though my dad was born in Long Island, he hasn't been to Manhattan since he was 6, and my mom hasn't been since the early 80's. Needless to say, lots has changed since then. Though a little stressful getting the house cleaned and the groceries bought and everything of that sort, it was fun to have them in town, and I think they had a good time and enjoyed seeing where their daughter has been living these past few months.

When I first arrived in the city, I was kind of overwhelmed with unpacking, getting settled, starting a new job, finding food, finishing editing and shooting weddings, and kind of just figuring life out. Needless to say, exploring the city didn't happen as much as I would have liked. And having a husband who does a million hours of homework a week didn't help matters much. So, having my parents visit and finally being done editing was a great excuse to see some of the sights I've missed out on, or just like to see in general.

We started out on Friday with a little bit of everything. Wandering by the Macy's windows on 34th Street, Times Square, my dad's requisite visit to the Hard Rock Cafe, the Christmas tree at Rockefeller,and FAO Schwartz at my mom's request. We also saw the windows at Bergdorf-Goodman, which, surprisingly, were really kind of cool. Incredibly detailed. They were like a fairy-tale fantasy version of the 4 seasons.









After all that, we met up with Alex and headed to dinner. On the recommendation of my boss, who seriously knows every NYC restaurant ever, we went to Luzzo's . This restaurant was fantastic. My parents hate fine dine, but love Italian. I wanted to take them somewhere authentic, not super casual, but not super fancy. This place was perfect. Our waitress was actually Italian, like, recently moved from Italy, still learning English Italian, something that just doesn't happen in Minnesota. We had calamari, two delicious pizza's, a bottle of wine (though a little pricier then I expected), and a nutella pizza. I recognize the last part is probably not actually Italian, but coffee ruins Tiramisu (yes, I'm crazy, I just don't do coffee. And I could probably learn, but I choose not to.), and who doesn't love Nutella??

Our second day wasn't quite as packed. We started off walking on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was pretty cold though, so we just got a little ways out and then turned back. Then we spent a few hours at the South Street Seaport, which my parents really enjoyed. I think it would be a fun, though touristy, place to have a cocktail in the summertime. We also ran into a Santa Pub Crawl, which was pretty fun to watch.



Mom and I on the Bridge

Battery Park


Cool Hula Hooping Santa Pub Crawler.


Seagull on the Seaport


Dad and I at South Street Seaport


The Santa Pub Crawlers


After the Seaport we headed down to Battery Park and then up to Ground Zero. Bust mostly, it was freezing. After stopping for a hotdog and a $1 slice of pizza we headed home to relax. When Alex got home we headed to Williamsburg for dinner, and tried Chai Home Kitchen. Trendy, tiny, very tasty. My parents were troopers and ate most of their meal just with the chopsticks. I would definitely try this place again. Afterwards we hit up my favorite hangout in Billyburg, Mugs Ale House. Cheap, (NY cheap at least) excellent beer, not throbbing club music, really, that's all I look for these days. :-)



Our last day was spent at Bryant Park, taking a Christmas card picture in Times Square, and seeing Grand Central. Little did we know, they have a light show on the ceiling during the holidays, unexpected, but neat.


Light show at Grand Central.





The Pond at Bryant Park. This place even had a temporary bar and lounge set up outside with fancy backlighting. Only in New York.

My mom also came with some new ornaments for our tree, aren't they cute??