NYC Getaway - Central Park, Highline, Meatballs, Chelsea, Soho and Little Italy

Our little getaway fell smack in the middle of my Marine Corp Marathon training.  Luckily, it was a recovery week in my training plan so I *only* needed to run 10 miles.  Our hotel was about a mile from Central Park so we decided to run to the park, take a loop around the park then run back.  The total distance wasn't quite 10 miles but it was close.

The weather was perfect at about 54 degrees when we left the hotel at 8 am.  Fall has arrived!

Quick photo-stop by the lake.

After getting cleaned up after our run, we walked to "The Highline".  It is an elevated park/walkway that used to be a rail way.  It was a beautiful, relaxing walk in the cool Fall weather.

View from one spot on Highline.

After our Highline stroll, we were really hungry.  We did a quick Zagat search and found a restaurant called "The Meatball Shop" not far from us in Chelsea.  We ate outside to enjoy the nice weather, scenery and people watch.

WE LOVED CHELSEA.  If we ever had the opportunity to live/work in NYC, we would move to Chelsea in a heartbeat.  It was such a quaint part of the city with lots of families and small parks, and was not crowded.  At lunch we sat next to a local family with a son about Hayden's age.  It was such a different life than anything we have ever experienced.  

My lunch at "The Meatball Shop".  I had a spicy pork meatball sandwich and we shared a carafe of white sangria.  I ate every bite!

After lunch, we regrettably left Chelsea and took the subway to Soho.  Soho is in "Old Downtown New York".  It was beautiful.  I snapped a couple of pictures, but the lighting was bad (direct sunlight) and I couldn't get a good angle without a bazillion people or taxies.  As you walked down the street, you could imagine how beautiful the city was 100 years ago.

We did some shopping for us and for the kids.  We laughed because we mostly went to the stores we would go to at home, but it was so nice to take our time and not worry about keeping the kids entertained, getting back for naps, etc...

We both planned our footwear poorly for the amount of walking we were doing each day.  We averaged 10-12 miles per day in "cute/trendy" footwear.  Ouch.  In Soho, we both picked up a new pair of comfortable shoes that made the rest of the day/trip so much better.

We crossed through Soho into Little Italy.  We got a table at a Cappuccino/Pastry restaurant that had been there since 1892.  We each had a cappuccino and shared a gelato.