Six years ago, I visited "The City" for the first time.
Everything seemed magical when we arrived. The taxi ride, Times Square, Starbucks, the policemen, even all the trash (which I hadn't anticipated). Really, just everything we saw. We were super excited. Rheem had been before on a high school trip, but we were in college now and excited to be in New York. Jamie flew separately from us and met us in the city, but the airline lost his bag so he was pretty cold until his bag arrived (the weather in Austin and NYC are drastically different in October). We gave him a scarf to borrow...
Side note -- this was the night I learned that you must demand things from airlines to get what you want/need. They happily sent Jamie's bag to our hotel front desk after I told them we would NOT be spending hours of our first trip to NYC going back and forth to the airport. (It was completely their fault that they lost the bag. Weather related issues would be a different story).
I have to explain that I was immensely excited for this trip. I planned out everything we were going to do by creating color coded note cards for restaurants, activities, museums, stores, etc., that I wanted to visit. It was a little crazy but extremely effective. We always knew where we were going and what subway stop it was closest to.
Our first stop was, well, Winnie the Pooh!! I'm such a little kid sometimes. I really wanted to see him, so we did!
Then we checked out 5th avenue...
We had to get photos in front of Tiffany's and FAO Schwarz!
We discovered the Noho Star,
did some ever so shady shopping on Canal St.,
and just enjoyed New York.
We were all so happy at the end of our trip, and I was content -- I had seen New York! Little did I know what the future had in store...
Fast forward 3 years to 2009. Jamie and I got MARRIED, moved to BOSTON, and were only 4 hours from the big city. Two of our good friends from college were living in Queens and Brooklyn at the time (Now they both live in Brooklyn), so we paid them many visits and learned to drive in the city. If you can drive in NYC, you can drive anywhere!
Then, in the summer of 2009, we MOVED to New York. Well, sorta. We lived in an Extended Stay America in Elmsford, NY for two months while Jamie interned at IBM. We payed NY state taxes, though, so it counts. That summer was a blast.
My little sister came to visit, and I had so much fun showing her my favorite spots in the big city. We took the above pic for our parents who are die-hard Seinfeld fans.
I took her to see my beloved friend Winnie, and he had moved! They put him up on a higher pedestal and even gave him his own room -- this time in the main building of the NYC library.
Rheem came to visit, too, with Alex, and we enjoyed restaurants, shopping, and
cupcakes!!
In the fall of 2010, I showed my wonderful mother around the big city, and we enjoyed the Bethesda fountain, Serendipity, and Phantom of the Opera.
We went back to visit Winnie the Pooh again, and this time, he had his own mural of the Hundred Acre Wood. So cool!
Then, a month later I was back with friends just for fun.
We enjoyed The Creperie (thanks Ilya),
and discovered Petite Abeille (my new FAVORITE place in the city).
Later in 2010, we went back to visit our friend Katherine and at a restaurant in Brooklyn, our menu was handed to us in an old book sleeve about MIT... so cool!
We brought Flat Stanley along to see the Christmas Tree!
In February, we were back again! This time I was with my mom and aunt Sally to see my sister play in her band at Carnegie Hall.
By this point we were in love with Shake Shack, so it was our first stop.
And we enjoyed the live music at Smith's Bar near Times Square.
Later in the year we witnessed a proposal in Central Park.
In 2011, Rheem and Alex came back to celebrate Alex's birthday.
We celebrated at Pipa followed by FuerzaBruta!
The next day we went back to Petite Abeille, and enjoyed seeing Katherine and Ilya!
To wrap up our trip, we brunched at Cafe Lola,
shopped at Bloomingdales,
and slurped up our Frozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity.
All in all, I have way too many wonderful memories from the big city, but I feel very blessed to have been able to have them all. I love to visit New York! (and at the end of my trips I always love to come home!!)
If you made it this far through my life story of New York, you may be interested in more information about my favorite NYC places:
Restaurants/Cafes
Serendipity
225 E. 60th St. b/t 2nd and 3rd
212-838-3531
You really must make reservations.
Creperie Cafe
112 MacDougal St. 3rd and Bleeker
Shake Shack
multiple locations
Grimaldi's Pizza
Under the Brooklyn Bridge
Often has a long line.
La Petit Abeille
multiple locations
Pipa
38 East 19th Street b/t Park and 5th
Shows
Usually you can find discount tickets to FuerzaBruta.
Note: everyone has different budgets and also opinions on theater seats, but I have always found Broadway Box to be the best place to get Broadway tickets. In my opinion, the lines at TKTS are just too long while the deals are just not good enough.
Attractions
NBC Tour
Top of the Rock
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Museum of Natural History
The Guggenheim
The Statue of Liberty
The Empire State Building
Beautiful Buildings, Parks, and Views
The Brooklyn Bridge
Grand Central Station
Washington Square Park
Central Park
The Highline
