My sister really wanted to see Waitress, which is currently showing in New York. (I was definitely game for anything featuring pie!)
They even sold mini pies in mason jars during the performance. I had such a great time and it made me so hungry for pie! I would definitely recommend this show!
*in my humble opinion
Last time Cecilia and I were in New York, we went on a food tour with Vanessa, and found this amazing pizza place called Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village.
Since then we’ve been dreaming of it and we finally got a chance to go back!!!
What makes it so awesome? The sauce, the cheese, the crunchy crust, and the cute old Italian man behind the counter who is impressed with us when we order more than one slice. Now a trip to New York just isn’t the same without a visit here!
Honestly now that I’m back in Philly I just keep thinking about how New York is less then $10 away. If I only had more time! I would definitely keep going back!
While we were in New York, Cecilia and I decided to go see the musical Fun Home before we left. Fun Home recently won Best Musical along with 4 other Tony awards. It’s based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel and the story covers her life as she tries to come to terms with her homosexuality, her childhood helping with the funeral home and her father’s suicide. I read Bechdel’s graphic novel back second year of undergrad and really enjoyed it. Back then it felt strange reading about her story in graphic novel form but then it came out as a musical and that blew my mind some more.
I absolutely loved this musical. I thought it was really well written and stayed close to my interpretation and understanding of her story. The music was superb and I loved that it played with another unconventional technique by using an arena stage. (This is when the audience forms a complete circle around the stage instead of having a thrust stage where the audience is only on three sides. It creates more difficulty in terms of forming a stage picture since you need to have clear sight lines all the time.) I DEFINITELY recommend going to watch it.
Cecilia and I also took a picture with Sydney Lucas who portrays young Alison.
And here’s their Tony Award Performance:
Earlier this year, they opened up a viewing platform at the new World Trade Center and I think that it’s absolutely fantastic.
I went pretty early in the morning so there was barely any line and I got to go up right away. Normally I’m not a huge fan of super touristy things but this was definitely an experience that I’m glad I had. The elevator takes you straight up to the top and they give you a very neat introduction to the building and then end with a breathtaking view of the city.
You can also get a special guide of the view that tells you about the different buildings around the city. 
Unfortunately I didn’t get to go up with my family since they went earlier that week when I was still in Philly, but I ran into my new friend from first year, Ben!
I would definitely rank this as a top tourist thing to do in New York!
The Disney store in Times Square has a giant SVEN!*
Also, the escalator took you up through a Tangled themed area. Trust Disney to make everything awesome.
*ok Mark you need to go watch Frozen
And now for a random post about New York. I had some picture left but I didn’t want to write a blog post for each set so here’s a compilation!
They have a potato restaurant that literally only sells potato dishes.
Sweet Potato Pie!
We also went to the NY public library.
They had already decorated for Christmas!
We tried to go to the shop but it was closed. They do sell cool things though!
And we did get to see Winnie the Pooh! Piglet is much smaller than I had seen in other pictures.
Lastly, we went to see 2 broadway shows. We say If Then and we were in the first row, about half a meter away from Idina Menzel!
That’s her from the back! They did a special auction where you could donate money to the AIDS foundation and in return, you could sing on stage with Idina Menzel. How crazy was that?
The other show we went to see was Pippin (with Josh Kaufman from the Voice!)
We even got to meet him!
That was pretty cool!!!!
In New York, we stopped by Russ and Daughters to have some food.
Look at their selection!
All the fish!!!
The most delicious bagel I have ever had!
On Friday night, we took the Megabus to New York! Cecilia absolutely loves New York, and had us scheduled down to the minute of what our plans were.
Once we settled in to our airbnb, we ventured out for some food at Sticky Rice. We randomly passed it on the street and since we were hungry (one of us was absolutely starving), we got some Pad Thai and Green curry.
Holy man it was amazing. I literally dreamed about eating pad thai all night long. Actually, let’s be honest, I’m still thinking of pad thai right now. Is there any good Thai food in Philly? I need to know!
In West Philadelphia 