Empire State of Mind

Okay. Turn on Jay Z and Alicia Keys for this next post, just to get yourself in the spirit. Or turn on Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." We'll go ahead and skip the formalities of our wedding and jump straight into the JB/ME adventure to New York in August (Jana says the wedding pictures are coming soon!). We had a few free plane tickets, some wonderful relatives living in Manhattan, and so we hopped on a plane a week before school started to see the Big Apple! (It was Mark's first time, so JB showed him around.)

Here's something important to keep in mind in this post (and Dallin, you'll appreciate this)--One of the great things about New York is the food...so, we're jumping on the trendy bandwagon of putting pictures of food on our blog. We'll highlight some of the "faves" as Jana likes to say.


First, we enjoyed a New York City double-scoop ice cream cone in front of the Natural History museum. Aren't we cute? Following that, we journeyed INTO the museum itself, only to encounter some ferocious(ly cute) wildlife. Here's Jana and the lil' baby deer:

And here's Mark with the DINOSAUR! You can't say DINOSAUR! without all caps and an exclamation point, because it doesn't transmit their ferocity.

Then we shimmied on down to the Shake Shack, baby! One of the best burgers in the U.S. of A. Here we are...


And here is our meal - yum..


And for all of you "You've Got Mail" fans out there (and I know you're out there!) you might recognize one of the three most sacred Jewish-owned locations in the world:


As we walked in, a young Kazahk came up to Mark, and kept pointing at the cheese, saying: "Ah wat is a dis?" (What is this?) to which Mark would reply in a low yet nasaly voice: "'At's cheese" over and over again, until Jana had to drag him away.


Btw, the best souvenir from NY that is 1) cheap, 2) not totally cheesy like a bumper sticker or a cheap t-shirt, and 3) is useful is the Zabar's mugs. $1!! Just a word to the wise - next trip, Zabar's mugs.

We had a jaunt at the Lincoln Center - watched a couple of Paul Taylor's choreographies outside by his company and then saw South Pacific. South Pacific was, as opposed to the awesome deal you get with a Zabar's mug, not cheap. But it was okay.


The next day, we hit the town....to be continued! (More pictures and stories to come)