Hello from New York City! I’m here with Maya. This is our sequel to the Paris adventures in 2010, but this time, we decided to meet up in the Big Apple instead of crossing the ocean. I’m so glad that I get to spend the next four days with my BFF, in one of my favorite cities in the world!

We’re staying right smack in the middle of Times Square. We can see a part of the famous illuminations from our 41st floor hotel room. We’re on a FULL ON tourist mode, with maps and cameras and all.

After our red-eye flights landed in JFK (where we met up), we headed over to the hotel to check our luggage and walked over to the Rockefeller Center to watch the Today Show.

It was chilly outside so we went into Bouchon Bakery (formerly Dean and Deluca) to warm up, and to enjoy an amazing breakfast. We even got to watch Today Show from inside the bakery through the glass windows.

I had the Brioche bagel with Gruyere cheese spread, picked onion, and tomato slices, a cup of chocolate soy milk, and two macarons (chocolate and raspberry lemon). Definitely not a bad way to start out the vacation.

After we walked and shopped around the Rockefeller Center, we returned to the hotel and had our first drinks at the hotel bar, while we waited for the room to be available. The hotel staff informed us that the room would be ready in 15 minutes, but we ended up spending almost 2 hours at the bar talking and laughing!

We were getting a bit hungry after a few hours of walking, so we headed to the Grand Central Station for some oysters at the Grand Central Oyster Bar.

We had eight pieces of Kumamoto oysters each, and shared the order of fried oysters and broiled scallops. Everything was amazingly fresh. We opened a bottle of Chardonnay.

Grand Central Market made me wish that I had a kitchen nearby!

We had tickets to go on the NBC Studios Tour so we hurried back to the Rock, but not before taking in the beauty of Bryant Park. This is one of my favorite spots in NYC.

The NBC Studios Tour was a-okay, but we got to see the studios where Dr. Oz, Jimmy Fallon, and Saturday Night Live are taped so that was pretty neat.  I’m happy that I got to take a photo with my TV crush, Matt Lauer, even if he were a cardboard.

I was getting a bit fatigued and didn’t feel like going up the Rock so we headed to a nearby Italian restaurant for much needed rest. The restaurant was called Pasta Lovers but neither Maya nor I ordered a pasta dish.  Instead, we had Salad Nicoise (me) and Sea Bass with Risotto (Maya).

Okay, time to go to bed now. I’m looking forward to another exciting day with ma-ma-Maya!