A Day on the Upper West Side

As I said in my previous post, we took advantage of the 3-day weekend to do some sightseeing! One of the neighborhoods that we have barely explored since we moved to NYC is the Upper West Side. So MLK day we set off for a full half day on the Upper West Side.

First stop was the much talked about Popover Cafe. I've heard so much about this place and I've wanted to try it for awhile. We kept it simple and each ordered a popover with strawberry preserves and a fruit salad to share. The popovers are sooo good! Light & fluffy and just delicious with jam or without. The atmostphere of the restaurant is incredibly cozy and friendly. We loved it!

Next we headed up to Ulysses S. Grant's tomb. It was designed after Napoleon's tomb in Paris, which we visited back in 2005. I love learning about the President's so I was very excited for this particular part of our day. We were greeted by a very eager National Parks ranger. I would imagine people aren't pouring into Grant's Tomb. We spent the first 30 minutes in conversation with the Ranger. We had lots of questions and he was more than happy to provide us with the answers. Then we read the two bulletins they have set up that provide information on Ulysses S. Grant's childhood, marriage, presidency and the civil war. While off the beaten path a little I would definitely recommend visiting this National Park. It's a quick visit and you learn a bit about history while you're at it. The space is beautiful - it's right along the path along the Hudson and has a big park leading up to it. It's quite magnificent looking and I would image even prettier when not covered in snow.

Then we walked over to Columbia and walked the campus - neither of us had ever been there. Next we headed over to St. John the Divine's - a beautiful unfinished Cathedral. We spent a good 30-40 minutes exploring the cathedral and appreciating the amazing stained glass windows.

Our last stop on our little UWS tour was to head to Tom's Restaurant most notably known as the place the Seinfeld gang frequented. Jon loves Seinfeld so this my little surprise for him. The outside is exactly the same but the inside is very different - they obviously didn't really eat there during the show:) The food however was very good. We both had turkey burgers and they were delish. It was crowded and fast paced but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would return in a heart beat if I ever found myself at West 110th and Broadway!

All in all it was a great day and we thoroughly enjoyed our Upper West Side Adventure!