Big Apple -- Part 3

On day 3, we had reservations for breakfast at Sarahbeth's on Central Park South. The food was divine and we all enjoyed their signature Four Flowers juice. It was a lovely way to start the day.

After breakfast, we walked up 5th avenue to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibits are everything you would imagine them to be, but we had to laugh when we found out that the paintings we most wanted to see were in visual storage. They were renovating that part of the museum, so we got to see everything in cases instead of on the walls.

Day 3 looking at paintings through glass is not quite what we expected

After the museum, we walked across Central Park so we could say we'd been there and seen that. It was also a beautiful day and quite fun to see how the park is every New Yorker's back yard.

Day 3 walking through Central Park

After walking through the park, we went to Cafe Lalo for lunch. It's a restaurant that was in the latest You've Got Mail movie, so that's the recommendation we went on. We discovered once we were seated that it's basically vegetarian, but the real draw was the dessert, not the lunch. We chose three desserts to share amongst us and they were all wonderful. I had to have cannoli and theirs did not disappoint.

After lunch, we got back on the subway and headed North. We went to the Cloisters, a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that is dedicated to medieval art and architecture. Whitney was especially interested in seeing the Unicorn in Captivity tapestries. They're more that 500 years old and really magnificent. The room they were in had very low light, so pictures didn't turn out well, but you can trust me that they were worth the trip. We also enjoyed the wonderful architecture and religious art.

Day 3 view of a cloistered garden

Once we finished up at the Cloisters, it was already after 5:00. The day had gone by way too quickly, but we'd had a great time with everything we'd done so far. We decided that Whitney needed to see one last place, so we headed toward Lincoln Center, which is right across the street from the LDS Manhattan temple. We got a few good pictures in and then headed back to the subway.

Day 3 seeing the Manhattan temple

No trip to New York would be complete without some shopping on 5th Avenue, so that was our next stop. It was fascinating to see the elaborate window displays, visit Tiffany's, and go the the huge American Girl store.

Day 3 looking at the window displays on 5th Avenue

By the time we were done shopping, it was starting to get late. We had some authentic New York pizza for dinner and then visited our last tourist attraction of the trip. We took the elevators to the top of the Empire State Building and got to see the city at night. The lights were beautiful and it was really cool to look down on a big roof-top party that was going on not too far away. Of course, none of my pictures taken from there look very good, but the view was spectacular and we enjoyed the time there.

Then we spent one more night in New York, headed for the airport again, and went home. The party was over and it was one to remember.