Day 3 started with delicious coffee and avocado toast from a corner shop near the hotel, Bluestone Lane.
Then, we headed to NBC Studios where we planned to do a Tour and visit Top of the Rock. Well those plans were derailed when we saw how long the lines were. We opted to wait until the next day, and went on about our day.
Since we were already in Rockefeller Center, we passed through the courtyard and ice skating rink. From there, we walked along 5th Avenue to check out all of the Department Stores and Designer Flagship Shops that we couldn't afford to walk into, lol!
Rockefeller Center
There was so much beauty in this one little place! I bet the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center is a site to see. It typically stands directly behind where we are positioned in these photos. Let's just say we are pretending it was there at that moment! The Christmas preparations were beginning around town but most things aren't lit until November!
We made our way down 5th to the entrance of Central Park! We walked along the outward path as our intent was visiting the American Museum of Natural History first before sightseeing in the Park.
American Museum of Natural History
I think we all had a picture in our heads of what we thought this museum would be or look like. Guess we pictured it wrong. Don't get me wrong it was great and very interesting, but we all thought it would be different than it was. Maybe we couldn't get the scenes from Friends when Ross and Joey worked at this museum, out of our heads. That was filmed in the early 90s so I suppose a lot can change in almost 30 years! https://www.amnh.org/
Upon arrival, around 11:00am, we were informed the museum would be closing early at 1:00pm to set up for a kids Halloween party; so, we were on a time crunch from the get go. The cool thing about this museum (and apparently a few others in NYC) is the entry fee is strictly by donation and a "pay what you can" philosophy. We opted out of the special exhibitions because most were at least 45 minutes long and we knew we didn't have much time.
The museum was divided into themed exhibitions: Earth and Space, Fossil, Animals, Environmental, Human and Culture. I think we were all pretty excited to see the Dinosaur exhibitions. Although, we weren't really sure if the fossils were real or replicas.
Central Park
After the museum, we took another walk through Central Park to find the Bethesda Fountain! The Fountain was featured in many TV shows and movies like Elf, Home Alone 2, Law & Order, Gossip Girl and more!
In the above photo we're standing on the Bethesda Terrace. Photos below are under the terrace.
Central Park is beautiful in the Fall. We got to see what it actually looks like for a tree's leaves to change colors! There was lots of entertainment throughout the park: a violinist, painters, dancers, etc.
After our walk, we needed some grub! We found a pizza joint on Yelp, My Pie Pizzeria. https://www.mypiepizzeria.com/
Our choices:
Brittney: Sausage
Lauren: Chicken Alfredo
Megan: Pepperoni
As we were finishing up, the worker pulled out a pan of buffalo chicken pizza. We all had heart eyes. The worker noticed and gave us a slice to share. Exceptional customer service and the buffalo chicken was AMAZING!! All of our choices were great. Next up, we needed a little dessert!
Serendipity
I LOVE the movie, Serendipity, and always enjoy watching around Christmas time. When we decided on NYC, I knew I had to go there for frozen hot chocolate. We walked over to the shop, and were told 20 minute wait. Not 5 minutes later, they called us for our table! Whoohoo! We get seated and notice yet another per person minimum. This time $12.95! We were all stuffed from lunch, so we knew we'd want to share the hot chocolate, which was only $8. We talked to the waiter and he was kind enough to only charge us the one fee of $12.95. More of that great customer service! The frozen hot chocolate reminded me of a Wendy's frosty but better! It was so good. We all purchased packages of the mix to make at home. https://serendipity3.com/
Dylan's Candy Bar
Right around the corner from Serendipity was Dylan's Candy Bar, owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter! The candy store was featured in Hitch, Gossip Girl, Project Runway and more! This was such a cute 3-story candy shop with some original candies and one-of-a kind brand named candy! The bottom floor had a bakery with macaroons. I tried my first one and it was delicious! https://www.dylanscandybar.com/
We had every intention to visit The Plaza after this for afternoon tea and crepes. Lauren even called ahead to see if we needed reservations. Yet, after leaving the candy shop, we seem to have forgotten that was the plan. We made our way to our next stop across town, before we remembered our plans for The Plaza. At that point it was too late to travel back across town. Our next stop was the Morgan Library & Museum. Although, we quickly realized it was $40 to enter and none of us wanted to spend that much. We looked around in the gift shop and then went on our way.
Lauren and I wanted to do some souvenir shopping so we headed back to Times Square. Unfortunately, Brittney had a terrible blister on her foot that had been giving her problems, so she opted for rest at the hotel. She wouldn't let me take a picture of her foot so you could get the full effect, but trust me it was big and trust her, it was painful! It was Saturday night, so Lauren and I suited up in our LSU gear and headed out to shop! We turned the game on in the room for Brittney so she could text us updates.
After gathering our goods, we met back up with Brittney at the hotel to prepare for dinner. Our dinner choice was Buddakan, influenced by a few bloggers and some good Yelp reviews. It was Japanese inspired food, which we were all on board with!
Buddakan
We made a reservation weeks prior, which turned out to be a good idea because it was packed. Very large restaurant and very full. The decor inside was beautiful and the atmosphere was very cool. We quickly realized it made more sense to split a few apps that we all wanted to try and forego the entrees. We chose:
Lobster Fried Rice
General Tso's Dumplings
Chili Rock Shrimp
At the end of dinner, the restaurant brought out a nice birthday surprise! When I made the reservation on Open Table, it asked for the occasion so I put 3- 30th Birthdays....super cool that they actually read that, remembered and brought us something special. https://buddakannyc.com/
We attempted to have Milkbar for dessert, but once we got there, they were out of their famous cake, so we missed out. On the bucket list for next trip!
End of the day stats:
35,394 steps
16.8 miles