On Willy St.: NYC Fourth of July

Empire state building in the holiday spirit.

My favorite way to travel is to go places where I know someone. It makes the whole trip infinitely easier when you have an insider making sure you see the cool things and helping you out. This means visiting New York City is ten times more fun when your twin sister lives there. I'm sure I would try to have fun if I went on my own, but I would spend half of the trip trying not to be lost.

Aaron and I were really excited to see Ruth and Sean's new apartment, since they recently moved to Manhattan from Astoria and we estimated that their whole apartment was the size of our living room. The place is super charming and adorable though, and I will now refer to it as the doll house apartment.

Unfortunately the weather was horrendously hot, so most of the outdoor activities we had planned were cancelled because nobody wanted to be outside. We did do some things outside and were rewarded with great views, sweat soaked clothing, and mild heat stroke. But yeah. Luckily Aaron and Sean enjoy going to movies, so Ruth and I were able to go shopping and eat a fancy tapas lunch at Casa Mono by ourselves (must go back!). We also got our nails done which I will require on every trip because it is so much cheaper there. Plus you get the cute ladies fawning over the "twinies" (which is how Spanish speaking people say twins in English).

Instead of watching the fireworks on July 4th, we visited the infamous Shake Shack and were serenaded by some young people singing about waiting in line. We also saw a police officer pick up his police dogs poop, so the wait was totally worth it. Also deep fried portabella stuffed with cheese on a bun. Thats all you need to know.

We went to the Met on Friday, (which was our first NYC museum experience.. good air conditioning there!) and walked around Central Park trying not to faint and looking for proposals. We also stopped at Magnolia Bakery to get banana pudding. It was sooo goooddd I need to make it at home, but the 3 cups of heavy cream involved will probably stop me.

Friday evening unfortunately ended with an ant massacre in the doll house. The day started with one little ant on my phone and ended with hundreds prancing around between the patio and the kitchen. The ant killing was followed by lots of wine, pizza delivery, and Mulan.

On Saturday we got to go to ABC Kitchen for brunch/lunch, but this time we took Aaron and Sean along. The only disappointing thing about the meal was that Ruth and I couldn't finish our mushroom pizza. We felt really sad about it. Then we walked around the furniture store and wished we could afford to buy things. Again we tried to do outdoor activities by going downtown to the Brooklyn Bridge. We almost died before getting into a cab and heading to an air conditioned bar. Dinner at the Spotted Pig was super cute and delicious. We ended the night by getting to the Lincoln Center for the last song of Midsummer Night Swing, where we danced and then took lots of pictures in front of the fountain and quickly got home to cool off again.

I would say more but I'm getting tired and now there are tons of pictures for you to enjoy!