The Great Traveling Experiment: Happy Birthday to My Wonderful Husband!

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Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Jason!

Happy Birthday to you!

I Love You!

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For Jason's birthday, he knew he wanted to spend the day continuing our exploration of NYC...

When we found out his mother and Jim would be in town for the same weekend,

we were excited to be able to share the day with them!

We found out they were staying at Jim's friend's house instead of a hotel,

which by the way was located...

*ahem*

IN THE PENTHOUSE RIGHT NEXT TO THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

The views were incredible!

This picture was taken from the second floor out on one of their terraces (yes that was plural!)

The ESB looked massive!

The inside of the apartment was beautiful as well, it didn't even feel like NYC!

Here is what your own private garden looks like on a rooftop terrace...

And then of course your city sunset...

The view was a little different from my "city view" sunset pic, don't you think?

Jim and Deedee made us a yummy BBQ (that we ate out on the terrace!)

and we got to catch up with Jim's children who are wonderful.

Ok, now for Jason's actual birthday day...

Our first stop was Doughnut Plant, an amazing doughnut shop only located in NYC...

It was what I would call gourmet doughnuts and I could barely choose which one I wanted!

I ended up with the blueberry, which I think won for best taste out of all that we tried!

YUM!

We decided to go on a food tour of the Chelsea Market and Meatpacking District.

Yes, it sounds very touristy, but seriously, we still can't stop talking about how much fun it was...

Chelsea Market is a kind of urban food market with only the best of the best let in. It is in a huge building in the Meatpacking District that used to be Nabisco Factory, and is where the Oreo was invented (see, we did learn a lot!)

On the tour, our guide Cindy, (who was great!) led us through all the stores pointing out highlights and letting us try samples of all the goodies...

The best chocolate milk...

Ridiculously good Italian deli selections and fresh bread from Amy's Bakery...

Super fresh seafood that apparently is the main supply to all the restaurants in the city...

Incredible jams and freshly baked biscuits...

(This place was so good that I bought the cookbook!)

The smells were fantastic, coming at us from every direction, and all competing for our undivided attention! This place specialized in the best meats and had us wiping the drool from our mouths. Seriously. That was a good smell.

A view of the inside of the market...

You can still see the remnants from the Nabisco factory!

Here is our tour guide Cindy with the birthday boy!

She definitely made his day special and wished him Happy Birthday about 67 times!

This was in front of one of the old meatpacking houses that was converted into another fabulous restaurant.

After the tour was over, we had to go back to the market and pick up a few more things that we had our eye on during the tour...

I found my cookbook, Jason found a mini pineapple. Yep.

Ok, I couldn't help myself. Before we went out to dinner we stopped by the amazing apartment again and I had to take just one more picture. Here I was sitting inside at the dinner table! What great dinner parties these people must have!

For Jason's actual birthday dinner we ended up going to the Breslin, which is by the same chef as the Spotted Pig. The food was again incredible as were the drinks.