Solomon J Parker: Bright Lights, Big City

With much anticipation on my end, I give you some snapshots of my experience in New York City. It was my first time visiting the Big Apple, Concrete Jungle, The Empire City, The City That Never Sleeps-- you get it. I was not disappointed, as it lived up to the hype. As soon as we landed in Newark, I was excited to experience the many things that I have seen on television and heard in music. To be truly corny, my little town blues indeed melted away, and I wanted to be a part of it, New York, New York. Frank knew what he was talking about.

We were in NYC to witness and celebrate the wedding of our friends in Central Park. We went a few days early to ensure we had enough time to visit friends and family and to sightsee. Thank you very much to those friends and family that carved out time to hang out with us. We stayed in a studio apartment in Chinatown that we rented through AirBNB. By going this route, we were able to focus more on the food than were we rested our head. At a later date, I will blog about my week of gastronomy. Hold me to it.

To spare you the minute details of our trip, my favorite non-food experiences of my trip were:

1) Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. This is a must-do. The mile plus walk is definitely worth the views.

2) Visiting the 9/11 Memorial. There are no words for what they have done here. It's remarkable.

3) Eating a cookie from Levain Bakery on the Great Lawn at Central Park. Hands down, the best chocolate chip cookie ever. Everyone at the park was jealous of this cookie. Is cookie a food? Does it belong on this list?

4) Walking through the DUMBO Arts Festival. DUMBO = Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. A lot of areas you hear about in NYC are just acronyms. (Soho, TriBeCa, NoLiTa to name a few)

5) Walking along the High Line (an abandoned rail station that was converted to a walking park)

6) Subway Hopping. We refused to ride a taxi-- if you want to do NYC, you gotta do it right. (plus I had the fortune of having my girlfriend navigate us, as she was an intern in the city before moving back to Kentucky).

7) Visiting the Flatiron District

8) and Eating....sorry, I lied, but the food was amazing. It was a great melting pot of cultures, which was reflected with its culinary cuisines.

9) Going to Hoboken to see the New York skyline across the Hudson River and to eat the biggest pizza slice in Jersey.

10) Making a friend drive us through Brooklyn (Williamsburg, Crown Heights, and Bed-Stuy).

I'm told that snowflakes, fingerprints, and visits to NYC are all unique-- there's not one that's the same at any given time. I'm looking forward to experiencing more sights, sounds, tastes, and yes, even smells, for the next time I visit this great city. It won't be until next June, but I hope the anticipation and waiting goes by like a New York minute.