NYC Bucket List

The military life is one that is always on the move, and since we won't be in the New York City area indefinitely, I put together another bucket list (with a few repeats from my summer and fall lists) to tackle this coming spring and summer. Of course, you could live in NYC for years and not experience all the city has to offer, but I'm determined to see and do as much as I can so that when we do leave, I'll know the time we did have was well spent and full of adventure.

Without further ado, here is my ambitious bucket list, in no particular order:

• Go ice skating while it is still wintry out! Nice rinks in Bryant Park or Prospect Park
• See a Broadway show (recommendations welcome!)
• Wine tasting in the North Fork of Long Island (or Brooklyn)
• Explore Brooklyn Bridge Park and take a spin on Jane’s Carousel
• Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset
• Finally eat a Shake Shack burger (I’ve been to the original Shack in Madison Square Park, but I didn’t eat a burger!)
• Picnic in Central Park and say hello to the animals at Central Park Zoo
• Shop the Brooklyn Flea Market, and explore the surrounding Williamsburg neighborhood
• Check out the Statue of Liberty, up close or during a harbor cruise (or even from the Staten Island Ferry!)
• Tour the National September 11 Museum (we've been to the memorial but didn't go inside the museum)
• Walk through the breathtaking St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Play date at Coney Island
• Stroll through a city garden: Brooklyn Botanic Garden or New York Botanical Garden
• Take in the view from the Top of the Rock
• Chow down on some great New York-style pizza (I heard Lombardi’s on Spring Street or John’s of Bleecker Street are excellent)
• Shop and dine at Eataly
• Explore the shops and restaurants along the charming cobblestone-streets in the West Village 
• Visit more museums! Especially the MoMA, again, to see the Jackson Pollock exhibition, and the Whitney Museum of American Art
• Spend a sunny day exploring Prospect Park
• Journey to Roosevelt Island and/or Governor’s Island
• Attend a performance of The New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center
• Eat an authentic Italian meal in Little Italy
• Check out the New York Public Library
• People watch in Washington Square Park and take tons of photos of the stately marble arch (OTTO, a Mario Batali pizzeria is nearby for lunch)
• Head to the Jersey Shore for a beach day? Better yet, head to the Hamptons!
• For G: Go to a Yankees game and attend a basketball game at Madison Square Garden

So much to do, so little time! Would you add anything to this list? Recommendations and tips happily accepted. While I may not hit every item on this list, it's exciting to dream about and look forward to the possibility of all these fun adventures. 

New York art prints (1, 2) 

via Rifle Paper Co.

Explore New York : The Met Rooftop

Enjoying a glass of rosé wine atop the roof of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, overlooking Central Park, has been a must-do on my NYC bucket list ever since I read about it as a "kind of" secret way to spend a late afternoon in the city. Of course, I'd envisioned going up to the roof on a warm summer day but with the hubby's busy and erratic schedule the last few months we weren't able to make it happen until it was almost too late. The Roof Garden Cafe and Bar is only open May through October, weather permitting, and we went on the second to last Saturday in October. Fortunately, while there was a bit of a chill in the air, it was a beautiful fall day in the Manhattan.

The skies were clear and the rooftop was nowhere near as crowded as I'm sure it is during the summer months, providing G and I with uninhibited panoramic views of the city skyline and the park below, the foliage blooming in autumn's trademark fiery hues. Despite the cold weather, I still had that (expensive) glass of rosé while the hubs sipped on suds from Brooklyn Brewery. While we did take a quick look at the somewhat odd and not exactly aesthetically pleasing Roof Garden exhibition by Pierre Hughe (this New York Times article explains the meaning behind it much better than I could), our main focus was watching the sky change from day to night behind that famous NYC skyline. Seeing the skyscrapers light up, in all their sparkle, as the world dims is always a little thrill.

A few more photos from our trip, if you'd like to see.

On our way back down from the roof, we took some time to peruse the art—I couldn't help but stop when I spied pieces by Monet and Van Gogh—but a return trip is most certainly in order.

Explore New York : Chelsea Market

When the hubs and I set out to walk The High Line, our end goal was Chelsea Market, conveniently located right along the line between 15th and 16th streets in the Meatpacking District. A former coworker in California, who had recently visited New York, encouraged me to check out the bustling indoor marketplace filled with shops, eateries, grocers and more. My friend said I'd love it, and she was right.

Having just walked about 25 blocks, our first stop was for refreshment. At a wine bar, naturally. G and I cozied up at a table inside Corkbuzz Wine Studio and promptly ordered two glasses of wine (rosé for me) and some simple but tasty apps: a baguette with absolutely divine herbed goat milk butter and a bowl of castelvetrano olives. Satiated, we went out to explore the market.

We strolled through Spices and Tease, astounded by the massive selection of spice blends, herbs and teas and enchanted by all their beautiful colors. A true foodie's paradise, it really gets your culinary creative juices flowing thinking of all the ways you can use and cook with the various salts and spices.

Next up was a spin around The Lobster Place, a wholesale/retail fish market that, in addition to live lobsters from Maine, is stocked with all kinds of fresh fish and seafood chilling on ice. If only we lived in NYC, this would be our go-to fishmonger. (Probably wouldn't make any friends on the subway or bus if we tried to bring the fresh catch home!)

Luckily, we could take home some goodies from The Filling Station. This small shop is just a joy to visit. You walk in and you're surrounded by dozens of metal casks filled with specialty oils and vinegars in unique flavors, with little cups ready and waiting for your sampling pleasure. Same goes for a variety of exotic salts. After taking in the inventory and tasting to our hearts' (and tongues'!) content, we selected a bottle of tangy-and-sweet grapefruit white balsamic vinegar—perfect for dressing salads—and a jar of beautiful maroon-hued merlot salt. (The hubby loves his merlot!)

Of course we couldn't help but make a quick pit stop at Chelsea Wine Vault. Quick because otherwise we likely would have brought too many bottles home! I left with a cute wine sweater that looks like a football (similar) for G and a bottle of White Girl Rosé for me, simply because it made me laugh.

With the market about to close but feeling like we needed more to eat, we ended our visit the same way it began: with wine and appetizers, this time at what turned out to be a fancy (read: pricey) Italian eatery, Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina. Even though the restaurant looked stunning inside, I opted for us to dine al fresco to see the sparkle of the city lights and the people passing by. 

G and I shared crispy speck and zucchini bruschetta (the freshness of the zucchini did a good job of balancing out of the saltiness of the speck, but I wished the bread wasn't sliced into such a thick slab) and G polished off the prosciutto and parmigiano reggiano fritters, since while they looked golden and delicious they were also extremely cheesy inside (and if you know me, I'm not a big cheese fan).

A return visit to Chelsea Market is definitely a must since, although we passed by it on our way in, we didn't get a chance to circle back before closing time and pop into Artists & Fleas, a space filled with local indie makers selling their unique goods and wares. I'd also love to check out the oyster bar Cull & Pistol, grab a crispy oatmeal chip cookie at the famous Eleni's New York and maybe even a Nutella and banana crepe (my favorite combination) at Bar Suzette. 

One thing is certain: when you visit Chelsea Market, you will never go hungry!

Explore New York : The High Line

A week after sharing my summer bucket list I was able to happily cross one item off the list: strolling along The High Line in NYC! 

Thanks to the work of community preservationists, the historic, out-of-use 1930s freight rail line was converted into a gorgeously designed and landscaped linear park, with the first section opening to the public in June 2009. Elevated above the busy and bustling city streets on Manhattan's West Side, it is most certainly the scenic route to take when needing to get around the Chelsea neighborhood.

North to south The High Line runs from W. 34th Street at Hudson Yards to Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, between 10th and 12th avenues. After a quick walk from Port Authority, G and I got on the line at 34th Street (though, the Hudson Yards section was closed that day due to maintenance) and sauntered all the way to 16th Street, where we got off to explore Chelsea Market. (More on that later.) It was a muggy (read: frizz-inducing), late August day and the line was fairly busy; the park in the sky is no secret. But the suspended walkway—with its garden vibes, art installations, and surrounding mash-up of architectural styles—is a pleasant and more visually appealing alternative to the city streets below.

Now a few photos from our stroll, if you'd like to see.

Though I'm glad to have accomplished this bucket list item, I'd love to return again and walk the entire line. We had about five more blocks to go to get to Gansevoort Street, which, as it turns out, is where the Whitney Museum of American Art is located. I see another day trip in our future!

Explore New York : Central Park & the Guggenheim

Today I bring you another installment of Explore New York! If you missed the previous posts, be sure to catch up on my excursion to Times Square (complete with a fancy dinner at Marseille), my trip to the MoMA, and my SoHo brunch at The Dutch. Let's go exploring!

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It was a gorgeous July day when my friend Sascha and I decided to make our way into the city for a visit to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Since the incredible Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building—the shape of which is called an inverted ziggurat, as it turns out—sits just outside the eastern edge of Central Park, it only made sense to take a scenic detour on the way there. Why stay in the stuffy subway when you could walk in the summer sunshine, right?

After a quick subway ride from Port Authority to 86th Street, we were above ground—and right across the street from Central Park. As with everything I experience for the first time in New York, I was filled with excitement to stroll through the grand green space I've seen so many times on TV and in film. Sascha and I took a path that basically made a beeline from one side to the other, so of course there is so much more to see, but it was quite a lovely walk along the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Blue skies with puffy white clouds, a shimmering lake filled with ducklings, and stunning city architecture framed the whole scene. It was picture-perfect.

A leisurely 20 minutes later, we had made it to the Guggenheim. That Frank, man. He was one cool dude. As is often the case, one of my favorite things about the museum is the architecture, inside and out. I'd love to come back and see the spiraling dome tower inverted ziggurat whatchamacallit all lit up at night.

When we visited, the primary exhibition on display, winding its way up the museum ramps, was Storylines, which ended its run earlier this month. As its name suggests, the show brought together more than 100 works from the Guggenheim's contemporary collection to examine the diverse ways in which today's artists engage narrative through installation, painting, photography, sculpture, video and performance. Each piece was imbued with meaning—sometimes overt, sometimes more layered and complex. Also featured at the museum, and still on display through Oct. 12, is the poignant and even haunting work of Colombian artist Doris Salcedo. The exhibition occupies the four levels of the Guggenheim's Tower galleries and addresses the traumatic history of modern-day Colombia, as well as the wider legacies of suffering inflicted by colonialism, racism and other forms of social injustice.

So, what's my take on the Guggenheim? It was interesting, to say the least. Some of the art I loved, some I liked, some I hated but understood and some made me scratch my head in dismay. But that's all part of the museum experience! A good exhibition isn't always a pretty one. Worthwhile art isn't always easy on the senses; sometimes it challenges you, makes you uncomfortable and makes you think. Many of the pieces on display at Guggenheim do just that.

My museum buddy only took a quick pass through the Kandinsky Gallery, so I'd also love to return to take a longer look at the abstract artist's colorful and energetic work. Fortunately for me, that exhibit is open through Spring 2016.

Following our spin around the Guggenheim, we enjoyed a casual late lunch at Sergimmo Salumeria, an unassuming but undeniably charming deli in Hell's Kitchen. My panini was delicious and the guy behind the counter didn't even give me a hard time when I asked to hold the cheese (ha!). It's New York; he said people have asked for weirder things. I have no doubts.

All in all, a terrific day filled with nature, art and good eats. What more could a girl ask for?