New York, NY - 9 upcoming outdoor Spring attractions

This Time Out NY article is full of great suggestions for things to do outdoors in the Spring (or Summer). Some of these things will be brand new experiences, even for the most veteran of NYers. For example, the second section of the Highline will be opening up, and Brooklyn Bridge Park's expansion will (finally) be complete. Granted, with the horrible winter NY has been having, some NYers are starting to doubt that Spring will ever arrive.

New York, NY - Where to drink for the non-drinker

New York, The NYTimes did a nice article about where to drink for non-drinkers. Apparently some high class bars have taken to concocting elaborate non-alcoholic drinks. Good news for non-drinkers who probably get sick of drinking water or soda at bars (or not going to bars at all).

New York, NY - Park Avenue: Winter (or Spring, Summer, Fall)

My favorite restaurant in New York City is Park Avenue: Winter. Or well, Park Avenue: (insert season here). They change the menu and the decor of the restaurant with every season, but most of the times I've been there have been in the winter (not intentionally, it just worked out that way) so I think of it as Park Avenue: Winter. Winter is pictured above and Spring is pictured below to give you an idea of how much it changes. It's pretty pricey (think $30-50 per entree) but the food and the customer service is amazing. And actually, it's really not that pricey considering the overall experience.

I found out about the restaurant because they were featured on Gossip Girl and they had a promotion, which was listed on one of the "cheap things to do in NY" blogs that I read. The promotion was that if you came dressed as a school girl, you got a free meal. FREE. So I went with five friends on St. Patrick's day of 2009 and I was thinking it would be, you know, a free entree and everything else you had to pay for. Nope! They gave us a free appetizer, free entree, two free side dishes, two free alcoholic drinks AND a dessert. The whole meal would've cost probably $120-140 per person had we paid for it. Not only that, but they still treated us like royalty even though they knew we were eating for free. At this same meal, I had the most delicious filet mignon I've ever had (to this day).

I have to say, this whole free meal thing was a genius move on their part. While at first we wondered how they weren't losing massive amounts of money on this deal, I have been back to the restaurant several times since, as have most of my friends. And I've recommended it to countless other people. So they've definitely made their money back off of at least our free meal, and then some. The second time I went really stood out to me, as well. For one thing, they had this side dish of broccoli and cheetos that was surprisingly amazing (albeit rather incongruous with the rest of their menu) and secondly, the table was wobbly so my drink spilled on my skirt and they rushed to make it right immediately: they put something under the table so it wouldn't wobble, they gave me soda water for my skirt and (best of all) they took a few items off of our bill. Really, their customer service is amazing. You really feel like your business matters to them and I find that improves my restaurant experience almost infinitely.

So if you can only afford to splurge for one meal during your time to New York, make it Park Avenue: Winter (or Spring or Summer or Fall depending on the time of year you go).

Seattle, WA - The Space Needle

I often shy away from tourist attractions, but the Space Needle in Seattle was awesome. Eat at the restaurant there if you can afford it (it's quite pricey but completely worth it - day/night tickets cost $22 for adults if you don't eat a meal there, so why not get a nice meal too - and you don't have to pay for tickets if you're eating at the restaurant). We went at dusk, which was really perfect because we got to see everything in the sunlight, then getting duskier (it's called "magic hour" in film for a reason - that warm glow that dusk settles on everything) and then we got to watch the city light up as it became night time. The Space Needle rotates ever so slowly, so you get to see the mountains, the harbor, and the city no matter where you sit, and it really is a breathtaking view in most directions.

One of many breathtaking views of the Seattle skyline from the restaurant in the Space Needle

The food was exquisite, as well. I had the Oven-Roasted Jidori Chicken and for desert we shared a rich, mouth-watering chocolate cake (which I can't find on their online menu to tell you what it's called). It really was a spectacular meal and a very romantic night - my boyfriend and I were there celebrating an anniversary, and this was the perfect way to do so.


If you go during the summer, there's a whole amusement park at the base of the Space Needle, but that was closed when were were there, as it was October so I can't tell you if it's any good or not.

Baltimore, MD - the Inner Harbor

I was lucky to be staying in a hotel just a few blocks away from Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We were staying at the Hilton Garden Inn, which has one of the nicest gyms I've ever seen and is smart enough to have a separate pool for small children, so it's actually pleasant to swim there for adults. Plus it had free wi-fi, which should be a requirement for all hotels but unfortunately is not. The Inner Harbor is a really nice area, not nearly as dangerous as people keep telling me the rest of Baltimore is. We were there on a beautiful weekend, and so we spent a lot of time just walking around the harbor, people watching and seeing the sites. There's a cute little red lighthouse that you can go up into, and many ships from different eras and even a submarine to check out. The harbor was bustling with people, including street performers in a little square that gathered quite the audience. It was a really pleasant little area, though I was disappointed that most of the restaurants seemed to be big chain restaurants - I wanted to eat on the water but I didn't want to eat somewhere that I could eat in NY.

My favorite Inner Harbor experience was paddle boating. I always find paddle boating on a sunny day to be quite relaxing, and it was interesting to see the harbor from the water in a teeny tiny paddle boat. You can go in a regular paddle boat for $11/half hour (half an hour is typically plenty of paddle boating) or you can go in a brightly-colored "Chessie" (pictured above - the Chesapeake Bay's version of Nessie, the Lock Ness monster) for $17/half hour. We chose the regular paddle boat because the wait was longer for a Chessie, but the Chessies seemed bigger, so they're probably more family friendly for those of you with kids. Plus they're just a lot of fun. Definitely a great activity when the weather is nice.

Baltimore, MD - The National Aquarium

The main reason that my boyfriend and I went to Baltimore was to go to the National Aquarium. If you're planning on taking a trip there, there are a few things you should know. First, it might be best to go during the week (although there may be school groups then so I'm not quite sure how accurate that statement is). We went on a Saturday, and during a holiday weekend, so it was packed. We bought our tickets around 11am and the next entrance time we could get was at 1:15pm, the next dolphin show we could see being at 3:30pm. I think this is common practice there, so be prepared to have some time to kill between buying your tickets and going inside unless you go really early in the morning.

When we got inside, it was often really hard to see anything because every aquarium had a swarm of small children pressing their faces against the glass. So a lot of the smaller aquariums were very hard to see. Note: There are ledges for kids to stand on, so be careful when approaching the aquariums if you are trying to get in close - I banged my shin really badly trying to get close to take a picture of some anemones and not seeing the ledge in the darkened room.

One cool part is the sharks and rays that are in an ovular 3-story tank, and you start at the top (on the inside of the oval) and work your way down and around. The rays are really quite beautiful in an eerie/not-of-this-world kind of way, and one of my favorite discoveries was the sawfish, which is bad ass (and is actually a ray, and not a shark, though it looks more like a shark at first). We also got to see the rays being fed, which was quite cool. Two scuba divers were in the tank and the rays just swarmed them and were swimming all over them. I imagine that would be a little freaky at first, having rays swimming on your head.

The rainforest exhibit was kind of disappointing in my personal opinion - it was really hard to see anything with everything hiding in the trees, although we did see a few different types of birds that I hadn't seen before. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Australian exhibit, which we both really wanted to see but after a long day and not seeing any signs for it to remind us, completely forgot about.

We ended the day at the dolphin show, which was a bit underwhelming compared to the Miami Seaquarium's shows, but still fun. Dolphins are just so amazing - so smart! Seeing these shows makes me really want to abandon my film career to be a dolphin trainer and swim with the dolphins every day.

Baltimore, MD - The Glass Grill

One of the most interesting ideas for a restaurant that I've ever heard of is a restaurant attached to a glass blowing studio. I found out about "Date and Demo night" at the Glass Grill by looking through events on Baltimore's Citypaper.com, which seems like a pretty useful resource if you're thinking about going to Baltimore - we also found out about the Walters Museum's free First Friday event on Citypaper.

The Glass Grill is kind of a strange place upon first glance. The restaurant looks like a hole-in-the-wall, greasy spoon type of sports bar (and has a menu full of burgers to match), but then has beautiful glass pieces everywhere, not to mention a gorgeous chandelier. You have to go outside and across the yard to the glass blowing studio, where they give demonstrations and later in the night you can make your own pendant, flower or ornament if you want. And even if you don't make your own, the demonstrations are really interesting to watch.

In terms of food, I just got a traditional cheeseburger from the place, but I have to say it was one of the best cheeseburgers I think I've ever had. I was quite upset because I wasn't feeling well and couldn't finish much of the burger, despite how savory it tasted (note: it doesn't reheat well unfortunately, a lot of that flavor is lost). All in all, I would definitely recommend this place as a unique and worthwhile place to visit if you're traveling to Baltimore.