Shannon’s Adventures in New York City!

So there was an NJ Transit Fare Holiday- so it was 100% free to ride the train for a few days and I decided to take advantage of this- and my boyfriend and I went into the city with no plans, no tickets and no schedule!

So I originally wanted to test our luck at the TKTS booth and maybe try to get tickets to see a Hadestown- which we’ve seen but we both want to see again… BUT when we woke up- there was a power outage at my house and I didn’t really want my dog to be all alone in the house with no power. So we got out a little later than we wanted to and we just wanted to get lunch when we got there… and we both really like Juniors- so we went there for lunch.

I’ve always kind of eyed the “Something Different” which is a mountain of beef brisket sandwiched between 2 potato pancakes- served with Au jus or mushroom gravy- I got the Au Jus and Applesauce. This was delicious- but I couldn’t eat it the way that it was served. I kind of picked it apart- ate the brisket separately from the potato pancake… and I ate them together open faced kind of. The brisket was really really good and I enjoyed the potato pancake a lot too- but I would recommend getting a brisket sandwich and a side of potato pancakes instead. The brisket was flavorful enough without the Au Jus- which is not something I say often… I’m a sauce girl… so that’s quite a compliment. Not sure I would order this on its own because it’s a lot of meat for me… but I would order the brisket again it was really really good.

After that we had a nice long walk to Book Off- which is a Japanese book store with a little bit of everything. There’s new stuff, used stuff, books, DVDs, books and manga in Japanese, they have a lot of figures and vintage games… it’s a great store and it’s so fun to look through. I did not find anything this visit- there were no books I was really looking for- I was kind of hoping maybe I could find a Karen Slaughter book or something- but no luck. My boyfriend got some Japanese books- and he got a used copy of IQ which he’s been wanting to read for years… and it was a great price. He used to take Japanese lessons and his teacher taught him about Book Off- so that’s how we learned about it! We had fun… but then I had to go to the bathroom… so we made our journey to my favorite bathroom in NYC: The Disney Store lol.

On our way to The Disney Store- as we were crossing Times Square my boyfriend saw a woman in a car with a Jesus bumper sticker step on the gas- right when I was trying to walk passed… and he grabbed me back and saved me from getting hit… so I spent some money in the Disney Store cause why the f*** not lol. I got 2 munchlings- one was on sale and one was a special Halloween one. I got a Genie that looks and smells like Cotton Candy and a Mummy Goofy Hot Dog that smells AMAZING like a churro. And in the check out line I saw a Nuimo plush of Lilo from Lilo and Stitch and Lilo is actually my favorite character in the Disney parks- so if I ever go to Disney world I will bring her with me and I can dress her up in different Nuimo outfits. It’s very cute.

Right next door to The Disney store was a pop up miniso- which is what I really wanted to go to. Really I wanted to go to the bigger one- which is closer to the Nederlander Theater (I know cause we went there when we saw Shucked) but the pop up one was right there and they had some cute stuff although it was hard to navigate around. I might do a separate haul for Miniso on Saturday or Sunday… but I got some good blind boxes.

After that- we were a little tired because it was pretty hot and we had had our fill of New York for the day… so we rode the train home… which was interesting.

It was a really packed train at first and we couldn’t get a seat- so we were kind of trying to get as far down as we could that way everyone could have a spot. At one point when I thought we were as far as we could… mostly because people that had bikes- which you aren’t supposed to have on NJ Transit- were blocking the way… and some woman behind me said “can we move up? Cause there’s no seats here” there really weren’t any seats up top either- but we moved and the woman told my boyfriend “don’t worry I’ve got her” which like… why would you say that??? We didn’t know this woman and I’m 32… I didn’t really need her help… but whatever. Someone was also punching my boyfriends bag- which he was trying to move out of the way- but he was like “let’s go downstairs” after I wasn’t sure we could push through because of that… but it was also probably good because I think that lady would have yelled at us. Although we did find a seat for her and another lady to sit in.

Overall fun visit even though we didn’t do that much. It didn’t feel like we had to do a lot because of the free train ride- so that was good… we just sort of explored a bit and had fun. And the next day we had another adventure… The American Dream Mall! Which I will talk about pretty soon.

Bye!

-Shannon