I resisted buying an “I ♥ NY” T-shirt during our last visit to the Big Apple, but I couldn’t stop myself from expressing the sentiment. In fact, I was so enamored that I’m looking into apartment hotels on the Upper East Side for our next — much longer — visit.

New York is clean and safe, and local residents made us feel very welcome. There are lots of other reasons to love New York, here are my top three:

Theater, Theater, And More Theater
Big musicals are my thing, but Broadway and off-Broadway stages offer a wide range of choices. With only two free nights to see shows, we studied the “what’s on” guide weeks in advance and purchased tickets through Telecharge.com. Billy Elliot and Memphis (which we’d somehow managed to miss at La Jolla Playhouse) were both really good.

However, after arriving in the city, we read the review of A Little Night Music with Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch — and knew we had to see it. The concierge at Andaz 5th Avenue called the box office and learned that our only option was to turn up and hope for the best. Andaz is well located for theater goers. In less than ten minutes we’d scored a pair of great seats — fourth row center — for the matinee, as well as a recommendation for a restaurant across the street from the theater.

Hurley’s is a real gem. Seated at a window table on the second floor, we watched people arriving at The Walter Kerr Theatre for A Little Night Music and at the Longacre Theatre for La Cage Aux Folles. Hurley’s red leather chairs, exposed brick walls, and 19th century iron filigree created a wonderful old New York feel. (www.hurleysnyc.com)

Dine, Dine, Dine
This brings me to my second reason to love New York: wonderful restaurants, ranging from holes in the wall to purveyors of haute cuisine.

On this trip, our favorite find was Veselka, a Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village. In truth, we can’t take credit for discovering it. That honor goes to our friend and favorite La Jolla chef Urs Baumann who met owner Tom Birchard many years ago. The neighborhood eatery was opened by Tom’s father-in-law, a Ukrainian immigrant, in 1954 and has been serving authentic Eastern European dishes and American comfort food ever since. These days, that means 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (www.veselka.com)

Our lunch included the best borscht soup I have ever tasted, pierogi with a variety of fillings (the ones with spinach and cheese were my favorites), and some very good stuffed cabbage. Veselka, which means “rainbow” in Ukrainian, is a multicultural hangout for young and old New Yorkers.

Walk And Walk And Walk
After a lot of sitting and more than enough eating, we were definitely ready for some exercise, and New York offered several great options. We started by walking from one end of Central Park to the other, which took about two hours. If you’ve done this, you know that this legendary greenbelt is home to the Central Park Zoo, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir (encircled by a popular jogging path), horse-drawn carriages, remarkable outdoor sculptures (including a kid-friendly bronze of Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter), and all sorts of street performers.

What you may not know is that if you make it all the way up to 105th Street at Fifth Avenue, you will be rewarded by the sight of the Conservatory Garden, which is as pretty as any I have ever seen. Visitors enter this six-acre retreat through the wrought iron Vanderbilt Gate. Once inside, there are three distinct areas: the French Garden, the Italian Garden, and the English Garden. Each has its own distinct style and abundant plant life.

My nephew also tipped us off to the new(ish) High Line Trail, a park built on an old elevated railway line that runs along 10th Avenue south of 20th Street. This creatively landscaped path, which provides great views over the city and the Hudson River, is a fantastic example of adaptive re-use in urban design. (www.thehighline.org)

I thoroughly enjoyed our walk on the High Line Trail and — even if I didn’t buy a T-shirt — I have to admit that I really do love New York.   ELIZABETH HANSEN

More New York

In addition to being located near Times Square and the theater district, Andaz 5th Avenue is right across the street from the handsome New York Public Library, home of the “library lions,” and very close to Bryant Park. We enjoyed a pre-theater supper and a post-theater slice of delicious lemon cheesecake in the hotel’s restaurant.

Hurley’s Saloon, 232 West 48th between Broadway and 8th, was established in 1892 and is an official New York Historic Landmark. Having said that, both the prix fixe theatre menu and the a la carte offerings are very 21st century. The chicken satay appetizer was excellent, as was the portobello mushroom sandwich. The box office at The Walter Kerr Theatre provided us with a discount coupon, which made our lunch a real bargain. I felt so at home at Hurley’s that I dashed across the street during the intermission of A Little Night Music and used their restroom rather than wait in the long line at the theater.

Amarone Ristorante (686 Ninth Ave, between 47th and 48th) is another good place to eat in the theater district. We sat at a sidewalk table, where we could watch the colorful parade of passersby. The other diners were mostly locals — some of them real New York “characters.” It was October 12, and the pair of men at the table next to us spent their whole meal dissing Christopher Columbus.

My nephew, a long time NYC resident, suggested the R Lounge in the Renaissance Hotel on Times Square for after-theater drinks. Seated at eye-level with the huge electronic billboards cycling through ads, I felt like I was watching an ongoing fireworks display.

Veselka is located on the corner of Second Avenue and Ninth Street in the East Village. The New York Times wrote an entertaining piece about the restaurant. If you go to Veselka, please tell Tom you read about his restaurant in Ranch & Coast. Elizabeth Hansen. Photography by ADAMS / HANSEN STOCK PHOTOS