Our day started before dawn, on my 40th birthday, yay! We had a 6:30am flight so we got to the airport in plenty of time. It had been five years since I'd flown and even longer for my husband, so passing through security/the body scanner/liquids in quart bags and all that was interesting. Glad I'd brushed up on all that beforehand by looking at Delta's website, because hubby was clueless to any of these rules.
The flight was six hours east. I had the middle seat, blah. But everyone had their windows down so they could sleep anyhow. One of the coolest features on the plane was this trip ticker. It showed the plane over a simulated map so we knew where/what we were flying over as well as details about the outside temperature, the speed and the estimated time of arrival. Old hat to most people, but cool beans to us "country mice" who never go anywhere!
I had detailed instructions on an email from my boss about getting to our hotel from the airport and thus, our adventure began.
From the air train we transferred to the subway.
A group of kids got on and started playing music and dancing around the poles, that was fun. And it was the least crowded subway we'd see for the rest of the weekend. Getting a seat was nice, that didn't happen very often!
From Grand Central we walked about 8 blocks to the hotel. Isn't this place gorgeous? And it was always busy like this when we went through. They must film all those movie and TV scenes here at 2am or something!
That's my husband's elbow in the corner of the shot above. Poor guy, I'd only packed us a carry-on bag because the rolling luggage was too large and we didn't want to have to check luggage. Unfortunately this thing was heavy and he ended up having to carry it to and from the airport and the hotel. He's okay, he's young and strong!
We were starving by this point, having gotten up at 3:45am, shared a bottle of water and a Belvita in the airport and then scarfed down peanuts and Biscoff cookies on the plane. A slice of NYC thin crust was just the ticket. It wasn't the best pizza but by this point we would have eaten cardboard we were so hungry!
We were staying at the W Hotel, an "intimate" space in mid-town. "Intimate" is code word for tiny. See the bed? You pretty much have to crawl over it to get to the window. But hey, what do we need a big room for? It's the two of us and we weren't here to hang out in the room, we were ready to hit the town.
We headed out to explore the neighborhood. And we had a 7pm dinner reservation at Lavo! It was part of my winner's package, a $250 gift certificate. The restaurant was about a 20 minute walk and along the way we stopped to look inside shop windows and admire the buildings. First thing I noticed about the streets is that nobody waits for the crosswalk light to change, everyone just looks at the direction of the traffic and jaywalks. After a few blocks we got the hang of it too, easy with so many one-way streets. The traffic was never terrible that I noticed. Yes, there were a lot of taxis and yes, a LOT of honking! But we never saw any traffic jams or congestion where we went the entire trip. Still would rather walk and take public transportation though. All the cabs zipping around were wild, I would have been very nervous to drive!
The restaurant was lovely with a bar in front and dining in back. Our servers were wonderful too, very attentive. We thought our guy looked like he could have been Leonardo DiCaprio's brother! They brought us a nice little loaf of garlic bread with marinara on the house and we each ordered a drink. We had a gorgeous plate of meat and cheese for an appetizer (they curled the delicate meats like roses!) and then each ordered a filet with asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes to share. Hello, that was a LOT of food!! Of course we couldn't finish it and Danny took our main and side dishes to-go. Total bill: $196!! Well, when 15 little asparagus are $11 a dish, you know that the dinner bill is going to be high. We tipped nicely and went for a walk.
Our pretty appetizer
We stopped inside FAO Schwarz, what a cool toy store. Oh how I love my Nerds! But one the size of a cereal box, wow, never saw that before! I certainly could have made a dent in it though...
The following morning we were up early to take the subway to the 9/11 Memorial. Talk about high security, it was like flying again, but we could understand of course. The water features are beautiful and there are kiosks where survivors can look up their lost family members and see a photo and directions on how to find their name on the memorial. We were sorry to have missed the museum but it doesn't open until next year.
Unfortunately the memorial has no bathrooms and the closest public restrooms were many blocks away, at Battery Park. That's where we headed, to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and were fortunate enough to see an Indian wedding celebration (and a horse!).
We walked a bit into Wall Street and being a Saturday, it was quiet. We took the subway to Times Square. I think I'd be more impressed at night with everything lit up. We worked our way back to the hotel, through Rockefeller Center, past Radio City Music Hall and stopping occasionally to window shop.
If you know my husband you know he's not shy. One of my favorite parts of the trip is that my husband wanted to have his picture taken with every police officer he saw. And not one of them every rolled their eyes at him or gave him a hard time. They just wanted to know where we were from and if we were having a good time. Walking by Saint Patrick's Cathedral we saw a group of construction workers near their trailer. Danny asked if he could have a picture with them and explained that he also worked construction, mostly military jobs in California, which they thought was cool. These guys were so funny and showed us inside the church where some major reconstruction is being done.
"Jerry! Get off the phone Jerry! Someone wants to take a pitcha!" (see Jerry there, trying to hide his phone!)
I never felt uncomfortable or nervous walking in the city, even at night. We were always surrounded by lots of people and we could always find someone to assist us. When we were looking for a place to eat dinner the following night, a nice man and his friend directed us to a great Irish pub with fantastic burgers and shoestring potatoes. When we were wandering around after the High Line, a young man and his wife showed us where Chelsea Market was. When we couldn't find the subway entrance to get to Times Square, a lady (finally someone with a classic NY accent!) directed us.
But the best help was our concierge in the W Hotel. I can't recall his name but nearly every time we went in or our of the hotel, he was standing in the lobby with a warm hello or good evening. The first night Danny cut his ear shaving and this man quickly fetched antiseptic and a bandage. He was great with assisting us each day to point us in the right direction. And after a lengthy nap (all that walking tired us out!), he told us it was not too late to see a bit of Central Park.
It was about 20 minutes to get there and we were able to walk in the park for about a half-hour before the sun started to dip. My mother-in-law had given us specific instructions NOT to be in park after dark, so we obliged with her wishes and walked back out. I would have enjoyed exploring there a bit more, it looked so beautiful, having the greenery and trees set against the backdrop of skyscrapers.
After burgers and beer for dinner (and great conversation with the adorable couple from Connecticut that sat next to us) we had ice cream from Walgreens in bed and went to sleep, feet throbbing! Boy, we sure did walk a lot that day.
The next morning was our spa pampering at Bliss. Danny got a massage and I had a facial, so lovely. For lunch we headed back to Lavo. The accommodating manager had told us we could use the balance of our certificate and he even comped us each a drink! We headed back out for walking, visiting the High Line, eating handcrafted coconut milk popsicles, and walking through Chelsea. Loved all the stoops, we had to stop for a picture!
Please ignore the dorky ensemble of dressy top, sweater (now around my neck because I was warm), jeans and sneakers. I was going for comfort at this point!
In all, it was a fantastic trip and a totally new experience for us. I liked the busyness, that never bothered me. I liked to see how much New Yorkers loved their city and were always interested in helping you get where you needed to go so you could enjoy their city! We were told that we were experiencing the best weather week of the entire year! Back home it was over 100 degrees so we were happy to have comfortable sight-seeing weather, especially when walking so much!
Some of the subway stops had really intricate tile murals
Public transportation (despite being filthy!) was really well-operated and surprisingly easy to navigate (except on Sunday getting back to the airport, when some of the trains were not operating!). The girls in NYC wear some terribly impractical shoes. Either flat sandals or sky-high stilletos! It was Fashion Week so we did see lots of 6' tall models in little skirts and wild shoes!
Such a fun trip and a lovely vacation with my husband, thank you again Armitron!
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