Brooklyn Bridge & The Russian Tea Room

On our last day in New York, we made one of my dad's life long dreams come true, to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge!  Lucky for us, the weather decided to clear up and was beautiful and clear. There did happen to be a protest on the bridge that morning, it was something to do with charter schools so there were thousands of kids, teachers and parents walking across the bridge all morning.  We went a little later in the day, after the protest had been going for a few hours, we were hoping we had missed the crowd ... it took us a good 45 minutes to even get on the bridge but by the time we hit the main part of the bridge, the protest was over and all the kids were gone.

Tonight, for our last dinner in New York, we dined at the famous Russian Tea Room.  On our way there, we split a cab with a couple that was headed to the airport.  They asked us about our dinner plans and we told them where we were headed, the wife answered with:

"Everyone should eat at the Russian Tea Room at least once in their life."

I totally and completely agree.  It is a magical experience.

The food is extraordinary, authentic Russian.

I can't even talk about the decor, there are no words for it.

Unfortunately, all these photos were taken with my phone so, of course, they don't do the place justice and all the colors are a little off, but they still capture the enchanting-ness of it all.

We were seated on the first floor.  Isn't it gorgeous?!

There are four floors in this fairytale of a restaurant.  We asked our waiter if we could go sneak a peek of the other three floors.  He said "No" and we gave him disbelieving looks of disappointment.  Then he went on to explain that there was a private wine tasting going on.  But then he told us that if we happened to get lost looking for the bathroom, he wouldn't tell anyone ... 

So, we snuck in and tried to look as un-tourist-y as possible while trying to take pictures of all of the amazing decor.  The Russian Tea Room is most famous for their giant bear aquarium, I am SO glad our waiter let us up there to see it, because it really is something else.  Those blurry orange spots are fish, it truly is ginormous aquarium.

We didn't make it to the other two floors.  I have to come back to see them.

My dinner consisted of:

Borscht 

Beef Stroganoff 

Chocolate Volcano  

We ended our time in New York by going to see Jersey Boys.  It was a first for all of us.  It was so much fun, that music is so classic.  The voices of those actors are unbelievable!