Neither of us had ever been, so we decided early October would be the perfect time to go. Before it got too chilly, but after the summer heat had passed. We planned on doing a lot of walking, so it was the perfect time of year to go.
We left on Thursday afternoon and got to our hotel around 10:30/11pm. I had slept some in the car and RJ had been drinking coffee to stay awake.. so he ended up staying up late! Friday morning I let him sleep in while I used the hotel internet to plan out of day.
We had a coffee maker and some fruit in our room which was really nice.
We got ready and headed out around 11:00 and walked around the Chelsea neighborhood, where our hotel was. We had inadvertently chosen a hotel in the Flower District, so there were a lot of flower shops and people selling flowers on the street, that was really neat. We walked all around and through Times Square on our way to get to our lunch destination : Shake Shack. I follow some bloggers who live in NYC and they all can't get enough of this place, so we decided it would be a great lunch. The line was out the door so we figured it had to be as good as they all said!
It was so good. I got a fried mushroom burger that was a portabella mushroom fried with melted swiss cheese inside - delicious! We also got french fries and cheese sauce on the side. Yum.
After we ate, we walked around a little bit more and headed toward the river to get tickets for the boat tour that Halley had suggested. We got tickets and a seat at the back of the boat. It was the perfect day! 70's and sunny, perfect for walking around and a river tour.
On the river tour, we learned a lot and got to see the Statue of Liberty, New World Trade Center, Trump Tower, Brooklyn Bridge, Ellis Island, etc.! It was the perfect way to see the many landmarks.
The tall one is the World Trade Center:
Lady Liberty herself:
Ellis Island:
We got to Central Park and it is just beautiful!
Especially this season with the falling leaves, it was so pretty! We walked around the park for awhile and then decided to walk toward China-town for dinner. We went to a place where we got lucky and got the last open table! After dinner, we walked toward Ground Zero to see where the Twin Towers once were. It was dark by the time we got there and we couldn't see much, but it was still neat to imagine where they were. After walking around more, we worked up our appetite again. We had eaten dinner fairly early and kept passing places with $1 slices of New York Style pizza on the way back to the hotel. Of course we had to try a late night slice and it was fantastic!
On Saturday our main goal of the morning was to get New York City Bagels. We walked to a place pretty close to our hotel. We knew it must be as good as the reviews online because there was a long line there too. I got the most delicious pumpernickel bagel with jalepeno cream cheese and smoked salmon. It was called the "Spicy Rachael", so I had to get it! RJ got a bagel breakfast sandwich with sausage, egg and cheese and loved it. We got a few bagels to go as well.
After breakfast, we headed toward the Subway to go into Brooklyn. We wanted to explore the Brooklyn neighborhoods and also check out the Brooklyn Flea. Riding the Subway was a cool experience too! Luckily RJ is good at figuring out Subway routes and which trains we needed to take to get where. It was $2.75 per person per ride, so much more affordable than a cab.
It was fun looking around the Flea Market but also really crowded! After checking out the flea market, we walked around Brooklyn and it's really a pretty, more neighborhoody, part of the city. Luckily we had bagels to snack on and stopped at a juice bar to get some fresh pressed vegetable and fruit juice.
By 2:00pm, we were exhausted (mostly me) and decided to go back to the hotel and rest. As long as I eat enough, I usually feel fine with infrequent waves of feeling kind of light headed. I do, however, get tired really easily! Since we really pushed it on Friday and were out allllllll day walking around exploring (over 12 hours!), by Saturday afternoon my body was ready for a rest. I ended up taking a nap in the hotel room which I never do. The old me usually feels more groggy after naps, but this was just what I needed! There was some golf thing on TV for RJ to watch which worked out perfectly to put me to sleep and keep him entertained.
We left that evening to walk around more and get some tacos for dinner. We really wanted to try a Tacqueria we had walked passed Friday night, Pinche Tacqueria. We thought about trying to get discount tickets to a Broadway or off-Broadway show, but decided to save that for the next trip.
The food was pretty good but not as good as El Campesino or Monterrey :) After we ate, we walked around the SOHO and NOHO neighborhoods and ended up at Patricia Field's store. She was the main costume designer for Sex and the City, a famous fashion person. We went in to look around and I ended up trying on wigs! They gave me a wig cap and everything, to keep my own hair tucked out of the way. I tried on a few and ended up really liking a pretty pink one with bangs.. so we got it! We are going to a Halloween Masquerade Party at the Akron Civic Theatre on the 26th with some friends, so I figure it will be the perfect place to wear it! Plus I'm sure I can find other excuses to wear it too. Maybe to church? Haha!
The next day, we had breakfast in the hotel and decided to head home after check out at noon. We had already seen and done a lot and and figured it would be good to get home earlier than later. We were both working the next day so it was back to the real world! We got home around 7:30 and were able to do a load of laundry which was nice.
Overall it was a really great trip and we saw and did a lot. We can't wait to go back and see even more!
