A New York State of Mind....

"New York, New York so nice they named it twice" as the saying goes.  New York will always be "home" - where I grew up, where I studied and where I worked until a mid-life decision to "shake things up a bit" with a move to Florida!

Our most recent visit to "the city" was just a few days before the 2014 Thanksgiving holiday.  We decided to stay in lower Manhattan in the financial district at the Hilton Millenium.  The hotel's location was perfect for what we wanted to do: visit the World Financial Center, the Freedom Tower, 9/11 Memorial, shop and visit the neighborhood we once called home (TriBeCa).

We arrived early evening to the hotel and hoped our room would have a nice view.  We opened the door and stopped dead in our tracks - the view was absolutely amazing! In full view: the new Freedom Tower.

A quick settling in, after more than just a few minutes of staring in awe at the view, we thought about food - what else?  We're in New York, c'mon!  We decided on a BBQ place called Blue Smoke and specifically their new location near the hotel.  Just a few blocks away, it would be great to get out and stretch our legs.  Oh-my-goodness it was bitter cold and windy!  Was it really that cold or were we just being "Floridians"?  It appeared that everyone scurrying along the streets felt the same - heads and necks covered in scarves and couples

huddled together as they made their way to wherever they were going.  The wind had such a bite to it - ouch!  We made it to the restaurant and snagged the last table by the window under the warm air vent...ahhhh.  Tonight it would be a nice glass of red wine for sure!  Menu has changed but the great flavor is still there and the mac'n'cheese is still the cheesiest!

Next day we headed up to 23rd St & 5th Avenue to check out EATALY....what is that?  Several years ago we saw Mario Batali on TV talking about this EATLY thought it was another of his restaurants, but in fact, it is a huge Italian food hall with fresh products (pasta, cheeses, breads, produce etc)

and ready made items plus several eateries within the food hall.  Amazing place to visit!

And if you still have any little bit of "child" left in you, right next door to EATALY is a fabulous LEGO store.  It was fun to walk around and admire all the assembled structures.  There are so many kits to choose from but the best smile came from watching the children all wide eyed and excited to be playing with the LEGOs.

We ended our NYC visit with a tour of the 9/11 Memorial.  It was a moving experience and should not be missed by anyone visiting the city.  I remembered to take a few photos but for the most part I just walked around and gazed upon

photographs, watched a few short videos, looked at some small salvaged personal items and stared at fired trucks destroyed at the scene.  ....silence....

I put together a few pictures in a short video just to give you a snapshot of our visit...maybe just enough to entice you to visit, too!  (Below the video are links to some of the places in this post.)

Fifi

Hotel:
Hilton Millenium Financial District
http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/new-york/millenium-hilton-NYCMLHH/index.html

BBQ Restaurant:
www.bluesmoke.com

LEGO:
stores.lego.com/en-us/stores/us/flatiron-district