Best Saturday Ever.

A true New York Saturday is a truly amazing thing.  If I haven't said it before, one of my all-time favorite things about Jamie is his incredible knowledge of the city.  No one can take you on a walk-about quite like This Guy.

Our journey begins with a Manhattan tradition:  Dim Sum brunch in Chinatown...

This was my first time having dim sum and let me tell you, it is something to experience if you never have.  Jing Fong restaurant on Elizabeth Street was the spot and it was seriously The Place to Be.

Seriously, look at the size of this place!  There are no waiters, instead there are lots of tiny little ladies with push carts full of all kinds of unknowable items.  You point, they plate and stamp your card that keeps track of what you've gotten.  So simple, so genius.

Just one example of the Carts of Wonderment.  No idea what's on this one but I'm sure I tried all of it.

Seriously awesome spring rolls!  You definitely need a sense of adventure to enjoy an experience like this, you never know what you're going to get...

Is this the happiest face in New York or what?  You'd better believe it!

After a crazy awesome brunch we begin our wanderings around Chinatown.  The thing I really love about NYC's Chinatown is that it's so much more than just cheap souvenirs and tourist stops, (though there are certainly plenty of those as well), it's a real neighborhood and cultural hub of the city.  And it is JAMMED on a Saturday afternoon!

You never know what you'll find in a Chinese super market....

No, really, you have no idea what you might find in a Chinese supermarket.  Live, hopping toads were just one of the surprises.  Mmmm, tasty!

And now, on to SoHo.....

This little guy was tethered outside a French restaurant.  I have decided to call him Gus, the world's most adorable French Bulldog, from the French restaurant.

Oh man, did I want to steal this guy and take him home to be my best friend!

And finally, a stop at The Cub Room for a beer and a sit down before heading home.  Ahhh, what a day!  Come visit and see for yourself!  I should be getting paid by the city for these posts.

First Concert with MCE! ...And Another Zoo!

Well, my first performance with the Manhattan Choral Ensemble was a total smash hit!  It was so great to be onstage with a choir again, performing amazing music with such talented people.  Even better, I was lucky enough to have two of my best friends, my incredible boyfriend and his incredible kids there to cheer me on.  And fortunately we had a sound technician there to record the performance, which I will soon have a copy of, incase anyone would like to hear the deliciousness of the Brahams Ziegeunerlieder and the three world-premiered pieces commissioned for our choir by three contemporary NY composers.  Bitchin!

And away we go!  Hmm, still look just like I did in college singing with the UI Concert Choir, if slightly more...seasoned...

Two of the classiest kids in NYC, my BGF Caitlin and her man Rob the Norlander.  They ate all the cookies and drank all the wine at the reception before this picture was taken.  I believe they're having some kind of tandem seizure in this photo.

Introducing my NYC family unit:  my one and only Jamie with his awesome twin boys, Oliver (left) and Henry (right).  These 10-year-olds sat through the entire concert for over an hour, German, atonality and all.  Hence the reason it looks like their eyeballs are about to fall out of their heads.

Am I glowing or what?  Check out the gorgeous roses my boys got for me!  And now, off to the after-party at Toast!

And what better way to spend the day after such a monumentally awesome event than to have some first time New York experiences?  Being that it was over 60 degrees outside, the Central Park Zoo was obviously in order:

HeeHee!  Sea lions are quickly becoming some of my new favorite animals.  We got to the zoo just as feeding time was about to start, timing is everything!

As much as I've always loved the penguin house, I couldn't stop thinking about the part of the movie Happy Feet when he gets put in the penguin house at the zoo and he's totally freaking out.  And it made me a little sad.  So we moved on.

The two polar bears at the Central Park Zoo would totally win in a fight against their Bronx Zoo counterparts.  They were ridiculously entertaining.  Never have I wanted so badly to hug something that could tear me to shreds with a smile on its face.

And finally, we hiked downtown to SoHo and had dinner at Lombardi's, the first pizzaria in America.  Totally delicious.

Because of the way the restaurant has been expanded over the years, the two dining areas are separated by the kitchen, which you get to walk through if you get seated in the original restaurant (which we did).  Behind me is the original coal oven that is still used to make every single pizza.  Note the date written in tile:  1905