This post has been basically two months in the making. I'm sorry for my hiatus in February, but nothing extravagant was going on and Laura (roomie) and I were planning our New York/Washington, DC spring break trip! Which brings me to this post. I'm about to give you a compact two day itinerary to the city that never sleeps...
ever, New York!
Let's start from the beginning, shall we? Our original spring break plans consisted of skiing and playing in the snow in the mountains. Well, it turned out that neither of us really wanted to ski and we didn't really want to go to the mountains all that much either. One night in January, Laura and I were sitting on the couch in our little dorm and got to thinking about alternative spring break ideas. Nothing was set in stone yet and we started to brainstorm. All of a sudden, the idea of New York hit us like a ton of bricks! *Let me point out here that in that moment, it was the beginning of January, a full two months before our actual spring break, and we didn't really think it was possible for us to go to New York.* Everything happened so quickly after that! We booked our hotel within the next few days,
after many conversations with our parents, and all that was left to do was plan our two days in the city and our one day in Washington, DC!
I think planning the trip itself was so much fun! We printed out a map of New York and marked where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. We even bought a little chalkboard and kept a countdown in the kitchen! We were winging our Washington plans because everything we wanted to do there was around the same area. Here's the final itinerary we came up with for NYC:
Monday, March 2nd - Day One:
- Museum of Natural History ($22)
- Central Park
- LOVE Statue (1359 Ave. of the Americas)
- Rockefeller Center ($29)
- Grand Central Station
- Times Square
* We did not end up going to the Museum of Natural History because of personal preference, but I know it would have been amazing! We just had a lot of things planned that day and wanted to get to them!
Tuesday, March 3rd - Day Two:
- Empire State Building
- Flat Iron Building
- F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Apartment (90 Bedford St.)
- Chinatown/Little Italy
- Brooklyn Bridge
- 9/11 Memorial
- Staten Island Ferry/Statue of Liberty
* We did not go to the Empire State Building because we saw it from the top of the Rockefeller Center! The pictures and views we got from the Top of the Rock were awesome. We also did not go to the Flat Iron Building. We decided to bypass it and go to Greenwich Village first.
I would recommend this plan to anyone! The first day is completely walkable. We left the hotel around 10:30am and we were done by 3:30pm. Our hotel was one block away from Central Park, we stayed at the Comfort Inn on 71st Street. It was great to be so close to the park! There were several subway stations around and lots of little local restaurants. The second day we rode the subway most of the time, but that was an experience in itself. So fun!
Now, let's talk about our time in the city! Driving to NY was interesting to say the least. We took turns driving and we stopped a little over halfway in Woodstock, Virginia to grab a hotel room and recharge for the second half of the drive the next day. The weather got pretty bad the second day. The roads were completely covered in slushy snow and we fish-tailed a couple of times. That was scary, but thankfully we did not wreck or spinout. We saw probably 10 or 12 cars that had smashed into walls or were in ditches. We took our time and made it to the city! I drove into New York- it was so nerve-wracking! Laura and I were yelling at each other for directions, which we laughed about later, but we couldn't see the road lines because of all of the snow and that was stressing us out!
We found our hotel pretty easily, we were thanking sweet baby Jesus that it was on a one-way street. Now it was time to find parking and that process
sucked. The parking garage that our hotel was affiliated with wasn't taking overnight cars! We stopped by 3 different parking garages and they wouldn't let us in! That was a blessing in disguise because we were able to find parking on the street for free the whole time we were there. That saved us a chunk of money!
We met the sweetest lady and she explained the parking rules to us. We were so grateful that it was snowing because parking was suspended that Monday. The streets have Tuesday/Wednesday parking and Monday-Thursday parking. Since it was suspended Monday, we got to park all three days! Laura backed Ferg down a one-way street and parallel parked her in the spot!
After we got settled into our hotel, we went to grab a bite to eat. The manager at the front desk (who was so nice and answered our many, many questions) told us about Big Nick's pizza right across the street. Laura and I both got cheese slices and they were delicious!
Homemade NY pizza is amazing. After eating, we walked to Times Square. It was magical, just like in the movies. It was also snowing! I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. When I think of New York, I think of snow and cold weather anyway, so it was perfect.
We were apprehensive about the people we would meet because everyone was warning us about different things before we left. I can honestly say we did not meet one rude soul the whole time we were there. Everyone was so incredibly helpful! They gave directions and answered all of our questions. I know this may be stereotypical, but being down South, you always hear about how "rude" people up North can be. But, let's be real- anyone, anywhere can be rude or unfriendly. We were thrilled to meet everyone that we did!
Day one recap!
We started off the day walking through Central Park. This is really the only time I had wished the weather was warm, so everything could've been green and lively. It was still beautiful, but I would definitely want to see it again in the spring or summer!
It was around lunchtime when we finished walking through the park, so we asked around about spots to grab a good sandwich. A man told us about Bill's Bar and Burger. We decided to try it and it did not disappoint! I ordered a burger and Laura got a chicken sandwich. Both were so yummy! It's right off of 5th Avenue on 51st Street. Definitely try it if you're ever in the city!
Next we walked to the LOVE statue and that was so neat to see. I thought it was going to be a lot bigger, but it was awesome to be able to stand in front of it and snap a picture! The statue is located at 1359 Avenue of the Americas and it's very easy to spot once you're on the avenue. On a side note, we're pretty positive we saw Dylan/Cole Sprouse walking around. Y'all remember the
Suite Life of Zack and Cody, right?
My favorite thing about the first day was visiting the Rockefeller Center, which is what we did next. We were packed into an elevator like sardines and ascended 70 floors to the top of the building. It was like a Disney ride! The elevator went dark and then a video began to play as you went up and up past all of the floors. The weather was crystal clear and beautiful that day, so it made the views even better!
Empire State Building
Central Park's towards the back left
The last big thing on our list that day was to see Grand Central Station. It was magnificent! When you're in there, it's really like you're in a movie. Everything is so fast moving and times and places are being called out over the intercom. It definitely gives off the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan rom-com vibe. It was cool to stand in there and take it all in.
We wanted some real New York style cheesecake while we were visiting. Our waitress at Bill's told us about Junior's in Times Square, so we swung by there and grabbed a couple of slices. It was heavenly and probably the best cheesecake I have ever tasted!
We were done early in the day, so we decided to visit the TKTS booth in Times Square to see what Broadway show we could see for half-off. We ended up being convinced by the booth boy that the off-Broadway show
Newsical the Musical was spectacular. It was supposed to have a Saturday Night Live feel to it,
and I do love SNL, but I did not enjoy this show. It made me laugh a few times, but I don't think it lived up to it's reputation. I know others like it, but it just wasn't for me. We ended our night walking around Times Square and into a couple of stores. We were ready to get day two started!
Day two recap!
This day was definitely my favorite of the two, although they were both pretty spectacular. We started out with a subway ride to Greenwich Village to spot the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. apartment building. This is something that I have always wanted to do! In January, to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary, Central Perk was re-opened for a week. If you've never seen the show, that was the groups go-to hangout coffee shop. I wish I could have gone, but seeing the apartment building was great!
Laura and I still hadn't bought anything to commemorate the trip. We decided that new Alex and Ani bracelets would be the perfect things! There was an Alex and Ani store in Greenwich Village, so we stopped by it and got our souvenirs!
We walked through Chinatown and Little Italy next. They both weren't what I was expecting. Laura and I were talking after we left and we think they're a couple of places that are probably better in the summer season. I've seen pictures of the umbrellas and lanterns hanging over the streets in Chinatown during the warmer months and they are so pretty. It was mainly little booths on the sides of the roads while we were there with not much of a variety. We walked through both places until we found a subway station that would get us closer to the Brooklyn Bridge, which was next on our list!
We took the subway to City Hall from Greenwich Village. We got off and walked to the bridge. It's massive and beautiful in person. We walked all the way to the middle where we could see a good view of the city and water.
As we were walking off the bridge, it began to pour snow! We ran to the subway and rode it as close as we could get to the 9/11 Memorial fountains. As soon as I spotted them, they were breathtaking. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. The snow was coming down hard by this time and there was a steady stream of workers brushing off the fountains so you could see the names of the ones who had lost their lives. While we were there, we learned that the treeline around the fountains are how big the actual bases of the buildings were.
By this time it was basically blizzarding, at least that's how we felt. We decided that since we saved money with parking we would go to the 9/11 Museum. It turned out to be free-admission Tuesday! We were in the museum for almost 2 hours. We completely lost track of time because we were so consumed by everything in there. If you ever get to spend one day in New York, you have to go to the 9/11 Museum. I was so young when the attack happened, I never really realized how much they salvaged and saved from the two towers. It's was amazing to see it all.
The museum itself is built around the foundation of the World Trade Center. The wall to the left in the photo below is the slurry wall of the WTC. There was one built around each tower to prevent flooding from the Hudson River. The column to the right of the photo is the "Last Column" removed during the closing of the recovery effort. It is signed by all of the volunteer organizations, fire departments, and rescue workers that contributed that day and throughout the recovery process.
The beams you see in the photo below blew my mind. Those are the beams from the North Tower that the plane hit when it crashed into the building. I was amazed that the recovery workers found these and could know that they were the exact beams that were struck. They also found the set of beams from the South Tower as well. Every beam that went into both towers had to be labeled and numbered by what floor they were on when the towers were being built in the 1960's and 70's,
The museum was definitely an emotional experience. There couldn't have been a dry eye after walking through the whole thing. We also learned that during the recovery process, workers found colonial remnants of a ship from the 1770's. Skeleton keys and knobs were displayed in the museum. I thought that was so interesting.
Once we were out, the snow turned into a down pour of rain. This really sucked because we didn't have umbrellas. We ran to the subway station to make it to the last destination on our list, The Staten Island Ferry. We wanted to use the ferry so we could see the Statue of Liberty! If I could do it all over again, I would go on the ferry during the daytime and while it was not raining. We didn't really have control over either because we spread our time in other places, but seeing the statue was on our list and we were going to do it!
After we got back on land, we took the subway back up to Central Park to get back to our hotel. We both knew the next day was going to be a long one. We would be traveling to Washington, DC for the second half of our spring break! It's the how long part we had no clue about.
Things we noticed in New York:
- Houston Street is pronounced like 'house-ton'
- Separating checks is a rare thing, at least at the places we ate at
- We were saying Greenwich all wrong, forget the 'w' is even in the word
- Don't buy the $9 subway metro card, it won't get you very far
Stay tuned for the second-half of spring break mishaps and adventures!
