We went to NYC! Just me and Michael! No kids! Haha, I absolutely adore my kids, but about a year ago I told Michael that I really wanted to go on a vacation without them.... And then I was dead set on it happening, assuming something drastic didn't happen to prevent it. This trip was actually the first time that we were BOTH away from them overnight. Glad we left them in good hands! (More on that later). We'd both love to go to Europe, but since that is definitely not in the budget right now, I gave Michael two choices - Hawaii or New York City. Neither of us have ever been to Hawaii (it's on my bucket list though!) and I'd only been to NYC once - for less than a day- when I was in high school. I've been wanting to go back ever since! I would've been happy with either choice but Michael decided on New York and I was so excited!
Anyway! We flew out on a Monday and came back on a Friday, leaving us three full days in the city. I tried really hard to plan it out well so that we could make good use of our time there. I knew I wanted to do a lot of the tourist-y stuff so it was pretty easy to Google or look up on Pinterest all the stuff I wanted to do. My mom flew in on Sunday night and then took us to the airport the next morning. We kissed the kids goodbye but I'm pretty sure they hardly cared the whole week that we were gone. Good thing or bad thing? Haha! I guess I'm glad because it means they were relatively well-behaved. ;-)
While both me and Michael like traveling, neither of us is a fan of the actual process of getting to our destination. Car trips and airplane rides= ugh! (But I must admit they're both way, way easier without little kids, ha!) We had a layover in Chicago and it was pretty delayed so it took us a while to finally get to the city, but we made it that evening! We bought our Metro cards for the week at the airport and then took a bus to the nearest subway stop that would take us near our hotel in Long Island City. (Basically, Queens).
As a side note: Michael did ALL the navigation during our trip. I seriously would have been SO lost without him. While I did most of the planning as to where were going each day, I totally depended on him to get us everywhere I wanted to go and he did an amazing job so props to him!
As a second side note, I am ridiculously horrible on subways. Whenever there weren't any seats available I tried to stand in a way in which I wouldn't fall but I was still SO unstable. At one point I even toppled onto this poor girl who was sitting - like, I fell right into her lap! So embarrassing! She looked like she wanted to kill the dumb blonde tourist and I didn't blame her one bit. Michael looked like he wanted to pretend he didn't know me (ha!) but luckily he helped me up... even if he was trying not to laugh. From then on he was pretty good about helping keep me steady whenever I couldn't get a seat. ;-)
Anyway, we had a little bit of a walk from the subway stop to our hotel and we weren't a huge fan of that walk since it was kind of a sketchy part of town, it was getting dark, and we had all our luggage but it went by fast and we finally got checked in and settled in. I loved our hotel room because it had a pretty nice view of the city, yet we only paid a small fraction of what we would've paid had we stayed in Manhattan.
After dropping off our stuff we were anxious to go check out the city! We walked to the nearest subway that would take us into Manhattan (this walk was pretty short which was nice since we'd be doing this walk a lot!) and made it there super fast! We didn't really even know where we wanted to go - we just wanted to explore- and eat! (We were super hungry). We chose a stop randomly in the heart of Manhattan and were pretty much in awe when we looked up and just saw awesome skyscrapers and beautiful buildings. There is just nowhere else like NYC. So cool. As it turns out, we ran right into Fifth Ave so we walked down the street. And by walked, I mean that Michael was walking so fast that I basically had to run to keep up with him. He did this for pretty much the whole trip and I had to keep reminding him that I did not feel like jogging all day on my vacation. ;-) Ha! I don't think he really meant to walk so fast - he said that taking subway trains and walking so much made him feel like he was on his mission again, and he and his companions always walked super fast on his mission. Funny. We also saw St. Patrick's Cathedral and the famous LOVE sign.
After some exploring we ate at a place called The Burger Joint, (a recommendation from a friend) explored some more, saw Times Square, and then headed back to our hotel for the night.
On Tuesday we got up, ate breakfast, and took the subway aaaaall the way to Brooklyn. I wanted to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan because the view going that way is better, but we ended up just walking partway down down the bridge, enjoying the view, and then turning around to come back. :-) Might seem silly but it was perfect. We still saw many of the best views and were able to save that walking energy for the rest of the day.... and week. (By the end of each day, my feet were KILLING me). We then ate lunch at a place called Juliana's (under the Brooklyn Bridge) which is right next to the famous Grimaldi's. Grimaldi's always has an insanely long wait but Juliana's is basically the same thing (or better!) and had no line. My sister had been to NYC the week before with her family and had recommended it and it did not disappoint! My husband, the pizza lover, was in absolute heaven. I was too. :-) We got the margarita pizza with pepperoni and it ended up being the perfect choice. We still crave this pizza!
After lunch we took the subway to Downtown where we boarded the Staten Island Ferry. This ferry is free and takes you by the Statue of Liberty while providing a lovely view of the city so I highly recommend it.
18 week baby bump!
After getting on the return ferry and getting back to Downtown Manhattan, we walked around there for a while. We saw most of the attractions there including Wall Street and the NYSE, the bull, and the 9/11 memorial.
World Trade Center
9/11 memorial.... so sad!
I had debated whether or not to go into the 9/11 museum but ultimately decided against it. It was expensive and while I'm sure it would have been really interesting, I didn't really feel like it was something that I MUST do. After our long exploration of Downtown we were pretty hungry so we went to Shake Shack. I thought it was delicious! (Though I wish we'd known that we needed to actually request lettuce/tomatoes/onions/pickles.... the things that pretty much automatically come with your burger at most places). And the caramel shake? Mmmm.
And then we decided to start heading back to the Times Square area because we had tickets to Broadway's Aladdin and we definitely didn't want to be late. Well, when we got near that part of town we had a little time to kill so we went to check out Grand Central Station. Very cool looking! My one regret was totally forgetting to check out the Whispering Gallery. Darn.
And then we saw Aladdin! While preparing for this trip I seriously considered seeing Wicked or The Lion King, but decided against Wicked because even though I love it, both me and Michael have already seen it. (I saw it in LA, and Michael saw it in London). And The Lion King? SO stinkin expensive! Ugh! Both Aladdin and Cinderella looked fun, had good reviews, and were more reasonably priced so I went back and forth between the two and ended up choosing Aladdin. I'm sure Cinderella would have been good too, but oh my goodness! We both LOVED Aladdin! The music was amazing, the Genie was hilarious and so so talented, and it was just an overall great experience.
When we got out of our show we were both SO tired and our feet couldn't take much more walking so we FaceTimed the kids before they went to bed and then headed back to our hotel. Michael was hungry so we ordered some surprisingly delicious Chinese food. :-)
The next day, Wednesday, was Michael's birthday! After breakfast we headed to the Upper West Side, which is where we'd spend most of the day. We checked out Columbia University (such a pretty campus!) and just explored area, looking into a couple shops and running into the Seinfeld restaurant. (I've never watched the show so I wouldn't have recognized it but Michael did).
Columbia
Then we grabbed some pizza at a place where the slices were HUGE! I ate way more of mine that I'd care to admit.
And then we took the scenic route across a park (not Central Park) to get to Levain Bakery. I'd heard wonderful things about their cookies and wanted to check it out. I was surprised when we got there and it was soooo tiny and also only had like 3 options for cookies.... Chocolate Chip Walnut, Oatmeal Raisin, and Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip. What the heck? I just wanted Chocolate Chip or any cookie that, you know, a regular human being would crave. Ha! Well, since I don't like nuts or raisins in my cookies I decided on Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip.... okay, I am not really a dark chocolate fan but OH MY GOODNESS this cookie was soooooooo good! I totally get the hype. And I still crave this dang cookie all the time.
Then we headed to the Natural History Museum. YAY for museums that let you pay whatever you want! Full price would have been a bit of a rip off for us since we didn't stay that long. (We had lots of places to be!) :-) This was probably the place that I missed my kids the most - they would have loved all the animals and bones- especially Matthew. I think my favorite part was the huge room with the gold and precious stones and jewels..... ;-)
And then we headed to Central Park! It was a beautiful day so we sat on a bench enjoying the scenery for a bit and then rented bikes. We toyed with the idea of getting a tandem bike but luckily ended up ditching that idea - riding a tandem bike with me just sounds like an accident waiting to happen. :-) We biked by the Bethesda Fountain, the Bow Bridge, and got out a couple times to enjoy some pretty views - especially on the Great Lawn. So neat looking.
I kinda wish that more leaves had changed colors already but whatever - at least the weather was beautiful!
After we returned our bikes we walked to the nearby LDS Manhattan Temple. Kinda cool that it's in the middle of the city like that. And across the street was a super yummy-looking waffle truck so of course we capitalized.
Then it got pretty windy so we headed back to the hotel to get Michael a sweatshirt because we were going to do the Staten Island Ferry again later that evening so that we could get an amazing view of the city at night. After we got his sweatshirt we made a stop in Chinatown before heading downtown. I wasn't that impressed by Chinatown (though I'm not really sure what I was expecting) so we didn't stay long. Then we went back downtown and rode the ferry. So so pretty! Obviously my iPhone pictures could not do it justice.
We had plans to go back to Juliana's in Brooklyn but by the time we finished with the ferry we wouldn't make it in time before it closed. : -( We ended up eating fast food (I know, I know! But we were starving and didn't know where else to go!) Then we walked by NYU, checked out that area, and got some delicious lava cake for the birthday boy at a dessert place recommended to us by one of Michael's friends. That was pretty much it for Wednesday!
On Thursday we got up, got ready, and headed to the Empire State Building. I'd heard that it can get kind of crazy the longer in the day that you wait so I wanted to get it done first thing. Since we stayed on Arizona time the whole time we were there (we stayed up late and woke up late) we didn't get there right when it opened and still had to stand in a line, but it wasn't too bad.
And the view was definitely awesome! While it's not something I feel anyone needs to do more than once in a lifetime, especially because it's kind of pricey, I totally think everyone should do it once. I mean, it's the Empire State Building!
cool panoramic shot by Michael
We checked out the big Macy's and explored that area and then went back to Brooklyn for that dang Juliana's pizza.... and as our bad luck would have it, they were closed for a private event! Nooo! Poor Michael was SO bummed. Since the Grimaldi's wait was of course insane, we ate at a Shake Shack down the street. It was good, especially since this time we got lettuce and the works, but it was still sort of a bummer. We then got ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (it was super yummy) and then took the subway up Manhattan and into the Bronx! ;-) The first stop in the Bronx is where Yankee Stadium is and we wanted to check it out.
We visited the team store and then went to head back into Manhattan but found out that the subway going that way was broken down at our stop and if we wanted to get back to Manhattan we'd have to take the subway DEEP into the Bronx before being able to get onto a subway going south into Manhattan. Well, that experience was... interesting. There were so many shady looking people and my goodness, the Bronx really is GHETTO! The subway train runs above the city in the Bronx so you can get a really good view of it and it was definitely not somewhere I'd ever ever want to walk around! Yikes! I mean, I grew up in southern CA so I've driven through some ghetto areas there, but you can't see much when you stay on the freeway so I didn't often really see much into those ghetto areas the way I saw into the Bronx. I was super glad when we finally made it back to Manhattan - or the Upper East Side, to be more specific.
The Upper East Side is super nice and there are some super ritzy places. I told Michael I wouldn't mind having an apartment there. ;-) Anyway, we headed to the MET.
I didn't think I'd enjoy the MET that much, but oh my goodness, I LOVED it! So many awesome things to see. Even Michael loved it! I was SO bummed when I found out that it closed way earlier than we expected and there were a couple areas we didn't have time to see. Oh well - at least we saw most of it!
After the MET closed we hung out for a little while in Central Park on the east side and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
And then we went to Serendipity for dinner! I sort of felt like I had to eat there since it's so famous.... and admittedly the atmosphere is cool... but the food? Eh. I thought it was okay, but Michael was not a fan at all. We ended up buying a pizza at a place called John's Pizza near Times Square for him to eat that night. Haha!
We also went into a few tourist-y shops near Times Square because I wanted to get a shirt, and after I found one I liked we went into the Hershey's Factory and M&M Factory, took one last look at the beautiful city and called it a night!
The next day we we got onto the subway, onto the bus, and reached the airport with plenty of time to spare! We were super tired but had a BLAST! And we were excited to see our little munchkins. THANK YOU MOM for watching them all week! They had so much fun that I'm pretty sure they almost didn't want to see us when we came back! Ha! Apparently they were well-behaved and slept super well for my mom (they never sleep good for me!) and I'm so glad. They pretty much got as much of a vacation as we did.
I am so glad that we got this vacation in before Baby #3 makes his appearance!!! We made so many fantastic memories that we will always cherish!
