burger bar...

the other day, i had to make a quick trip back home to my parents for a last minute appointment. when that was all said and done, me and dyl decided to make a day date out of it and try a place i had heard a lot about recently, chuck's burger bar. this place most definitely did not disappoint! the portions were massive and you can't beat the price of the poutine. the only downfall was that i had asked for my burger medium-well and it came still pink in the middle. i had thought it would be cooked a little more, but next time i'll know better. i ate all around it and wouldn't have been able to eat any more if i tried, so it wasn't a big deal. the waitress had said they could have remade it (when she noticed it sitting on my plate at the end), but i assured her that i was ridiculously full and it was quite alright.

that's a lof of food.

 pulled pork on top of a half pound angus burger!!

a giant poutine. with massive homemade cheese curds. for only $7. what?!

we definitely couldn't finish the last bit of the poutine and we waddled out of there with very full bellies. i can't wait to get back there and try other things on the menu. but note: if you're in the area and stop by, be prepared that you may have to wait. there's only about 6 2-person tables and a small bar to sit at.

five guys...

i've heard so much about this damn burger chain from you american bloggers. we recently got one near by and we couldn't wait to try it! we happened to be out with dylan's brother and we had an hour to waste before picking up a friend, so i had the bright idea to go get lunch.

i thoroughly enjoyed taking peanuts on the way out. it *kind of* made up for it being expensive (no, not really)

ok, it was decent and all. and dang, it's expensive. no? his brother actually paid, which was great. i got a baby burger, they each got a regular burger, then 2 pops, and 2 regular fries. it came to $35. that seems like an awful lot. i was in shock when that total came up. sure you get a lot of fries, but it's almost wasteful how much you actually get. my overall thoughts on it? meh, i won't be in a hurry to get back. i think i need to try in-n-out; i hear that's pretty good, too.

the highline and more food...

because of the blogger screw up, i lost my post i had ready for today. and i have no desire to type it all up again, so pictures will have to do.

 i went into the marc jacobs store and saw robert duffy! his business partner. i was trying to get a pic of him, but no luck. marc, where were you!?

 the highline

 self timers

 still waiting to run into a food network star here..bobby flay? anyone?

lunch at trailer park lounge again, like last year.

 there's a burger somewhere under there...we even talked to the owner for about 20 minutes after we were done, saying how much we love the place. he was such a nice guy.

i noticed after i booked it, that we were besides the hells angels haha i think i worried my mom a bit, but dylan said we were probably in the safest neighborhood because of it lol anyways, we didn't even see anyone, and it definitely wasn't a problem.

later in the night, we went to a comedy show. dylan had bought tickets in times square. you know those people who walk around hawking comedy shows and broadway shows etc. i had just thrown up and was in no mood to go, but luckily they could be used for the next night. $10 each with a 2 drink minimum. i love comedy shows, but i do not want to be picked on. we walked in and saw how small the place was, then we were seated right up front. get me a drink now. there was only about 30 people or so, and a lot of canadians. but honestly, i have never laughed so hard for 2.5hours in my life. it was about 6 comedians and i was in tears. it was fantastic. and i wasn't picked on! definitely recommend the broadway comedy club!

the next day, our last day,  it was pouring rain all day, so we didn't take the camera. we kept busy indoors at borders reading magazines, eating dinner, seeing scream 4, walking around macy's and such. then it was time to go :(:( the only good thing about coming home?? seeing chloe!!

and yesterdays' post on ground zero because it was gone for a while. thanks blogger :|

nyc part 3: our last day!

our last day came fast :( too fast, of course. we started off with breakfast at empire diner and then took a walk at the nearby pier to work off the breakfast. eventually we made our way to shake shack for lunch. this place has been on my list of places to go to for a while and i've never made it, so this year, there was no exceptions!! but we clearly went at the wrong time (although i'm sure there is always a line..). we got there at 1pm (doh) and waited in line for 1 hour! for a burger! yes, that would be the hour line-up, and the sun was out in full force that day..but it was worth it! and get this, they had red.velvet.ice.cream. i died. it was uh-mazing!!we laid in the grass for an hour or so, because it was beautiful in the shade, and we were really full, and we just didn't have anything else planned; we weren't leaving until 10pmthen there was random flee market, i guess you call it, that we passed and took a look around. not gonna lie, it was a little sketchy..i'll show you what i picked up here, first i just have to find out if it's legit or not ;)that, on the left, is a hamburger cupcake and fries; dylan opted for the spaghetti and meatball one. after this, we sat at a cafe and had iced coffees and waited for 10pm to roll around. then it was time to go home :( sads. overall, it was another fantastic trip to the big city. i'll be back soon enough!

nyc part 2: cobblestone streets, festivals, bridges and more

*if you missed part 1, see it here*

i guess we really were tired, as the next morning we woke up at 930! now, i'm sure to some of you, this is still ridiculously early, but i'm a 730-8am 'waker-upper' type of person. i couldn't believe it when i looked at the clock. and of course, it had to be the day i needed to wash my hair..but, we still had time for mimosas in the garden! after this, we went to the chelsea market again to grab a coffee, walked through the meat packing district and then stumbled across washington square (i think).just hanging out on a bus..hello, perfect little street..then, we somehow walked into this huge crowd of people; everything was blocked around it. we saw that it was 'strawberry fest' and thought it was pretty cool. there were games and food, but we noticed everyone had this strawberry ticket around their necks. dylan asked what was up, and it happened to be an NYU event for students and profs. you needed the berry ticket to get free stuff and play the games. too bad, so sad for us. or not. with dylan having the gift of the gab, we soon got ours! haha (the students were even supposed to sign in to get their ticket..not us!)this was the gem that got us games, strawberry shortcake, ice cream, a bottled drink, snow cones, cotton candy...shhh..for that hour, we were NYU students.look at all this cake!! it was so long, like unreal.

after we enjoyed all our free stuff and were rather full, we found another small book sale on the campus. dylan actually picked up majority of his books here (about 5 or 6 maybe). he got a bunch of classics like to kill a mockingbird, animal farm, clockwork orange..

at this point in the day, it was getting really hot out. what was up next? well, we got a yummy pizza in little italy, walked through china town, then got knee deep in china town and it was a little scary! a walk on the manhattan bridge was next in line..from the bridge...

next time, we're doing the brooklyn bridge..

after getting off the bridge, we randomly saw a bunch of SWAT guys just hanging around, not sure why. we visited more bookstores, got strong (like really strong-mostly my vodka7) drinks at Lorely (a german beer pub), searched for dean and deluca unsuccessfully, checked out an antique market, went to union square, where dylan played hacky sack with some guys, went home, got changed, dylan got the double down, we went to times square (which we really didn't want to do, but the theatre there was closer by the time we got to KFC, but it ended up not playing the movie we wanted anyways), then went back to union square to see alice in wonderland there (it was ok, certainly didn't love it). we got back around 1am, and of course, we were exhausted once again.dylan playing hacky sack with some new friends.

that my friends, was day 2! but, there's still more to come tomorrow! i'll just leave you with this beautiful picture..enjoy, i know dylan did..

nyc part 1: lots of pictures here and to come...

(we took a tonne of pictures-about 350-so i will try to keep it to a minimum haha but it's hard! and also a lot of random videos, which dylan will put something together). so, first off, we stayed in Chelsea-like i mentioned before. the place was called 'a garden in chelsea' and it was just a little b&b on the bottom floor of a brownstone, and we had our own private garden to ourselves too. the location was perfect (west 22 between 9th and 10th), with everything we wanted right at our fingertips. we loved this.after we got to the place around 8am, we were so hungry that we didn't even change, just brushed our teeth and went to get breakfast. however, we ended up wandering around a bit after we ate. we went and took a walk along the highline, went to a bookstore or two, got a red velvet cupcake at billy's bakery (yummy), got some red wine, sparkling white wine and OJ for mimosas, and checked out the chelsea market (also loved this, very similar to the distillery district here in toronto). this was all before 11am i think. then we went back and got changed for the day and went right back out.inside the cute little bakery.we enjoyed a little wine in the garden, then went for lunch @ trailer park lounge-seriously good burgers!!these margaritas were way strong! (and only $4)after lunch/dinner was a few more book stores and walking around. we went back to our room and had about an hour and a half nap-it was great. then around 830-9, we decided to go to the strand bookstore. wow is all i can say about that place; it was HUGE, with an endless supply of books (18 miles of books to be exact). very impressive.well, that's day 1 for ya. i'll be back with more tomorrow ;)