It’s been my husband’s dream since we first started dating to go to NYC. He especially wants to see Hamilton on Broadway. For Christmas, his family, new in-laws, and myself pooled together to send him to NYC (obviously with me as well). Here’s how these Idaho hillbillies spent their time in the big city. Day 1: We flew out on Christmas Day because it saved us $150 per plane ticket. We also only did carry on bags to save money (check out our link with more ways we travel on a budget). If you want to see how we packed for 10 days with a carry on, check out our blog post on it. After security, we got breakfast in the airport. It’s hard to eat breakfast at 3 am and we find that eating a bigger meal at 5 am helps keep us full for the flights. Our flight left at 6 am and we somehow we were lucky enough to have good weather. All our flights ran 15-30 minutes early. We landed in Newark, NJ at 4 pm (1 pm our time) so we had to find lunch/dinner when we landed. It took us a while to figure out how to get out of the airport and get to NYC. We ended up taking the Skytrain (free airport transport out of the terminal) and bought tickets to go to Penn Station NYC (around $10 each). From there, we needed to go to Brooklyn for our AirBNB which was still an hour out of Manhattan by transit. We were starving so we decided to get food before starting the trek to Brooklyn. We ended up at McDonald’s because they had places big enough for our luggage. We wanted food and to move on and McDonald’s did the trick. If you can wait to eat, I’d recommend you wait for one of the great restaurants you can choose from. We finished our dinner and wandered aimlessly for a while trying to figure out the public transit system. It ends up you can’t buy bus tickets without a metro card or exact coin at the kiosks along the road. We went to a subway station where they had all the options we needed to get tickets. We bought the single trip good for two hours pass. We didn’t know what transit metro cards covered so we decided to do some research before taking the plunge. After an hour on the subway, we found our cute AirBNB in a quiet Brooklyn neighborhood. The streets are lined with brick townhomes and it’s so much quieter. I can already tell it’s going to be worth the extra transit time to be in Brooklyn. I also think it’s important to acknowledge how awful the time between your plane landing and getting to your AirBNB can be. You’re in a strange place, you’re tired, and you're dragging everything you need in heavy bags. All you want is a place you can *kinda* call your own and where you can nap. Getting out of airports and to the city transit is such a pain. We always get confused at some point in the process. Then once you reach the city, the new transit arrangement will throw you off for at least a little bit. I just wanted to remind you that your initial experiences at a place don’t necessarily set the tone for the rest of your adventure. Day 2: We started today a bit later than we usually do since we were catching up on sleep and recovering from jet lag. We got bagels at Cropsey Bagels. We took the subway to Rockefeller Center so we could see the Christmas tree while we still had some Christmas spirit. We got sidetracked when we saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We stopped inside and toured the beautiful interior. Even after countless European churches, it was still stunning. We then went across the way to Rockefeller center. We saw the tree, snapped some photos, and moved on. My husband wanted to see the Nintendo store so we stopped by for a bit. We went to Radio City Pizza and had pizza by the slice. It was nice to sit down and the pizza was pretty cheap. After food, we set off to Top of the Rock. We wanted to see the Empire State building on the skyline which lead us to picking Top of the Rock. They’re all around the same price anyways so don’t fuss over the decision too much. We spent a lot of time here and really enjoyed the skyline. We then made our way to Time Square. It was cool but definitely not the highlight of the day. We strolled through and moved onto the New York Public Library. The library is a very impressive building inside and outside. We were both hoping for more book stuff but we still were glad we went. We took the subway to another side of the city. We initially went for the Flatiron building which was under construction. We still didn’t think it was that cool. We then enjoyed new views on our way to Strand bookstore. They had lots of selection and variety. Unfortunately, it was pretty busy and the new and used were mixed. We’re notorious book bargain hunters so we like the used and new separate. For West Coast folks, it reminded us a lot of Powell’s in Portland. We were hungry after book shopping and got dinner at The Famous Cozy Soup and Burger. I ordered a grilled cheese and my husband ordered chili. We really didn’t want anything fancy and we enjoyed the simple, familiar meal. We picked up cookies from Ben’s Cookies down the road. They were delicious and we highly recommend stopping by. I was craving tea so we stopped by Peet’s Coffee (great tea). We then set off for our AirBNB to rest up for tomorrow. Day 3: We started off the day with more Cropsey Bagels. We love this place more each time we eat there. Then we made reservations for the Statue of Liberty. First off, make sure you only get them through the National Park Service. They have one person actually allowed to take you to the island which is Statue Cruises. They have a link in the National Park Service website. I’d recommend you go through NPS’s website to make sure it’s the right company. It’s also illegal to resell these tickets so don’t buy them from anyone except the source. The Park Service even warns you about pushy salespeople in Battery Park. It’s definitely true but not a big deal if you just keep your focus ahead and just walk by. Second off, only Statue Cruises are allowed to dock at Liberty and Ellis Island. Sure a boat can drive you past it but not actually on the island. The overall moral for this story is to do your research. Not just for the Statue of Liberty but for anything you do. We somehow were able to get day of reservations for the ferry. For the love of all things good, MAKE A FERRY RESERVATION. We bought the tickets 3 hours in advance online and we’re so glad we did. You can buy tickets at the dock but it’s a pretty long line to buy them. Then the line to get onto the ferry is insane. It loops around the park and is around 50 times the length of the reservation line we got into. We also were able to get one of the last reservations for pedestal access. This lets you see the inside of the statue and go into a museum with far less people than the main one. You get to go to the top of the pedestal and look at the Manhattan skyline. It’s free to add the pedestal but you have to reserve in advance. It’s cool but not pay extra money cool. We’re glad we did it since it was free. You can hike the stairs to the crown for only $3 but you have to make reservations way in advance. We personally didn’t feel like the 200 odd stairs anyway for a similar view. I also want to add the disclaimer that we went in December. We are definitely not here in the high season of NYC tourism. I’d plan farther ahead than we did if you’re coming really any time of year. We ended up eating lunch at the Statue of Liberty restaurant. It was surprisingly good and cheaper than expected. If you can’t avoid it, it’s not a big deal to eat there. I’d also recommend that you eat elsewhere if you can schedule around it. We could only get noon tickets and we ate a late breakfast so we were kinda stuck. Our ferry tickets took us to Ellis Island next. We both preferred Ellis Island to the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is a must but it’s fun to look at and then move on. Ellis Island is filled with so much history. Both sides of our ancestors came through Ellis Island so it was very interesting to look at what they experienced. It also has a wealth of information on the immigration that created the country we have today. We really enjoyed feeling the hope like our ancestors did so long ago. We also looked at the somber reality of what happened to Native Americans and Africans who were forced out of or into our country. It’s so interesting to look at that information side-by-side. The diversification of our country was beautiful and terrible at the same time. It’s so important that we take the time to learn about both sides of history. We got on the second to last ferry back to Manhattan to make sure that we made it back. We unintentionally ended up on a sunset/night skyline ferry ride. It was so beautiful. The sunset behind the Statue of Liberty and the skyline ahead was starting to light up. We then went to the Museum of Modern Art. They currently have free Friday’s starting at 5:30pm. We looked through the list of art and really all we wanted to see was Starry Night. We knew it’d be more hectic but since we only wanted to see one work, we decided it was worth it. The line wrapped around the entire block but it also went by very quickly. It really wasn’t bad. Once we got inside, we went straight for Starry Night so we could then enjoy the rest at a leisurely pace. Starry Night is on the 5th floor and so are so many other incredible paintings. I don’t know how we didn’t see them on the list before. So many Picasso paintings, Salvador Dali’s most famous piece, Frida Kahlo’s self portrait, and so many others. Then we found Starry Night which was an absolute NIGHTMARE. It was a mob of people trying to catch a glimpse. We stood there for half an hour and made no progress forward. The goal was for people to glance at it and then loop around. Unfortunately, many people don’t get the taking turns thing (hence why we never moved). The few people that did take turns had a certain exit route…which was in front of the other featured Van Gough paintings. We were shocked at the lack of order or logical organization for viewing one of the most famous paintings in the world. If we could redo this, we wouldn’t do the free night. We didn’t know just how much we would be seeing. It would’ve been worth the money to enjoy so much beauty in peace. The line in was fine but it was too much chaos inside. I will also say we didn’t enjoy very many pieces outside the 5th floor. We really enjoy art but we’re far from artists. We really were stumped by the actual hole in the wall with nothing but board underneath as art. Or the random rocks on the ground (but I did like the rocks themselves because I love rocks) or the fake hair tied to a wire frame. There was still some cool stuff but also the typical modern art that gets made fun of. We got out around 8pm and had dinner at Dos Toros. It was a great spot and we really enjoyed it. Then off to home we went! Day 4: Today was dedicated to Brooklyn. We started again with Crospey’s Bagels…shocker. But we did switch it up from bagels to muffins and pastries. It was so good. We set off for our first stop which was a bit unusual. We’re both fans of the show Brooklyn 99 and we found out what precinct they used for the outside shots of the precinct. My husband assured me it wasn’t weird because he was sure lots of people visit the building. The actual answer is no. There was literally no one there in the middle of a Saturday. We really enjoyed it though as fans of the show. Next was a bookstore nearby before jumping on the subway for Brooklyn Heights. We started off at Brooklyn Heights Promenade. It was cool but would prove to be our least cool view of the day. It was lunch time and we went to Cranberry’s which was up the way. It was super good and we’d highly recommend. They have minimal seating so we ended up eating in the Promenade with a view. We then moved onto the Brooklyn Bridge. This was high on my list for more than just the epic architecture. It was completed by one of the first female engineers. She had no formal training but she took over when her husband fell extremely ill and could no longer work. She never was the official engineer of the project but her husband never went on the bridge again after his accident. She basically ran the project for the final 14 years of construction. I loved how this woman took over one of the most famous features on the NYC skyline in the late 1800s while also caring for her bedridden husband. She’s just so dang cool. Then we moved onto Dumbo which was super cool. We went to One Girl Cookie and got cupcakes. We honestly didn’t think the cupcakes were that great. We also may have ordered something they’re not famous for. But we also won’t complain about cupcakes. We then moved onto the parks looking at the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge. We enjoyed strolling through the parks and admiring the views (much better than the Promenade view). We then moved onto another bookstore. I found an autographed copy of one of my favorite books: Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky. She’s awesome and you should look her up if you don’t know who she is or what her work is. We returned to the parks from earlier and watched the sunset and the skyline start to light up. We picked up some groceries and had pizza back at our place for dinner. Day 5: Today was mostly dedicated to the Natural History Museum. As a scientist, I could spend an entire day there. My husband, as a culture and history enthusiast, could spend an entire day in a whole different section of the museum. We also knew that that meant we should eat lunch before we went. So this is how our day turned out planning around that. I know this may shock you but we had breakfast at Crospey’s Bagels…again. Our first stop was in Manhattan along 5th Avenue. In 1915, the largest suffragette march to date took place on 5th Ave. They marched 5 miles in all white holding banners to try to swing the upcoming vote on women’s voting rights. I wanted to walk this route and pay tribute to the women that helped make our world what it is today. We walked around 5 blocks of their route until we reached Central Park. We planned this route specifically because we had to walk Central Park to get to the museum. We were able to walk two thirds of the park with this route. We walked through the Minton Tiles in Bethesda Arcade which was quire beautiful. Then we saw the Bethesda Fountain which isn’t very impressive but it also had no water since it’s too cold. Overall, we were very underwhelmed by the park. We think it’d be cooler in different circumstances. First off, it’s winter. All the trees are just twigs since there’s hardly any conifers. Next, we literally live on lake view property right now and we’ve spent our whole lives in a beautiful natural area. Basically, we’re snobs about our nature. So don’t let our opinions of the park stop you from visiting but maybe don’t plan a whole day for it until you know it’s for you. We walked through the park to get to a restaurant called Cilantro near the museum. It was the nicest place we’ve eaten at so far and had good Mexican food. It was around $15/plate and was the most reasonable food pricing nearby (besides the food carts and trucks). We both got enchiladas (mole and tomatillo) and they were good. Mole is an acquired taste though so maybe stick with the tomatillo. We next got to the museum which was pretty busy. It was Sunday but we chose today because it was supposed to rain in the afternoon (and it did drizzle all afternoon). The line went to the corner of the block but moved pretty fast. When we got inside, it was chaos. They had two giant lines zig zagging to get tickets. It also ends up that you can just buy tickets online within 2 minutes and get in right then and there. In case you missed that, we skipped what probably would have been a 30 minute line by BUYING ONLINE. I have no idea how more people in that line didn’t have that figured out because it was super easy. Once we got inside, the early attractions where pretty crazy. I get a bit bitter at these things because I want to read about science and some 5 year old is screeching like a banshee or cutting in front of me when I’m trying to read s omething. ADULTS WANT TO LEARN TOO. I also want to use this opportunity to link to our blog about being a considerate traveler. Look around, be aware that other people are trying to enjoy the exhibit, and just try to make it so everyone can enjoy. With this initial chaos and a pretty hard to understand map, we got really lost. The map was easy to read once we oriented ourselves but it took us two hours of exploring the museum to finally use the map effectively. The exhibits were super cool though. It had an awesome variety of material that’s very visually interesting and lots of engaging information even if you’re not huge nerds like we are. I don’t want the chaos we’ve described to keep you away from this epic and must-see location in NYC. I’d just mentally prepare for some chaos. But then again, you have to be ready for a general level of chaos at all times while in such a large city. We spent 3.5 hours at the museum. We did all the biology sections and scan through 4 ancient civilizations exhibits. We only saw maybe half the museum and half of what we saw we had to skim. I will say, we were so tired for the last hour. We wish we could’ve seen everything and absorbed all the information but we were mentally and physically spent after 3.5 hours. So plan knowing you could spend all day, open to close at this museum (it even has a cafeteria) but it may wear you out. We then went to find dinner. We can across the 71 Ave Cafe. It has just about any food you could want. We got chicken noodle soup and it was amazing. We then back tracked to Ben’s Cookies because my husband couldn’t dream of only having those cookies once. They were again super amazing. After the only subway that could get us home ran 40 minutes late, we finally made it back to rest up for tomorrow. Day 6: The weather was terrible today. It misted all day and there were gale wind warnings. We had our usual Cropsey Bagels and then slowly got ready for the day. By the time we made it to Manhattan, it was lunch time. We ate at Burger One and it was one of the best burgers we’ve ever had. We’d highly recommend it. Next we planned on going to The Met since the weather was bad. Unfortunately, everyone had the same idea. It was a huge line, it was raining, and we didn’t think we were there early enough to be able to take it all in. So we decided to save The Met for a better day when we could take your time. We were cold so we decided to find a coffee shop for a hot drink. In typical NYC fashion, most of the places had full seats. We wandered for what felt like forever until we found Irving Farms Coffee Roasters. They had a huge seating area, a variety of drinks, and some fun snacks. I ordered a chai tea and a blueberry crumble donut. My husband ordered a mocha and a brownie. Everything was so good and we really loved the atmosphere. While we were there, we tried to find stuff to do in the rain in NY and didn’t have much luck. So we decided to head home early and order pizza delivery at La Casa Bella. Day 7: So let’s just get this out of the way and say we had Cropsey Bagels again. We immediately went to The Met. We set aside all of today for it. We felt rushed at the Louvre in Paris and we didn’t want to repeat that. We did our research before we went and planned our priority spots as soon as we got a map. There’s no way for you to really enjoy everything in a day. You have to pick your favorites and musts, take your time through those, and then go down your list of priorities from there. All of these places we’ve been to so far also have some kind of cafe or lunch place inside. We ate a small lunch there (planning ahead to a bigger dinner) of soup and a yogurt parfait. They also had sandwiches, gelato, etc. so we easily could’ve made a meal of it. We spent 6 hours at the museum and we were able to look at everything we wanted to. Our priorities list worked out well. We could’ve easily spent another 6 hours there. I’d describe ourselves as mid-range art admirers. We like looking at things and reading up on the history but we also aren’t analyzing the style of the century or the brushstrokes. Just realize this isn’t just for artsy types. Then we went off for dinner at Serafina’s. It’s on the pricier side of what we usually eat but it was so beautiful and delicious. We were celebrating 6 months of marriage and it was a perfect date spot. We then picked up cheesecake from Wrap it Grill and went home to avoid the New Year’s craziness. Day 8: Today was another chill day starting with Cropsey’s Bagels. We’re honestly starting to run a bit low on stuff to do. We have lots of food we want to eat but we’re not so sure what to do in the middle of all the good food. We started today off with lunch at Oaxaca Taqueria in Hell’s Kitchen. The tacos were soooooo good. We’re taco snobs so we’re always on the hunt for good tacos. Next we want to Schmacker’s cookies for some dessert. Also amazing food. We wandered Time Square some more waiting for the Tkts to go on sale. As a side note, Tkts is an official retailer of Broadway and NYC show tickets. When tickets for that day aren’t sold by 3pm the day of the show, they get handed off to Tkts to sell at a discounted rate. It’s actually a non-profit with the goal of allowing everyone to enjoy the arts. We’ve checked for tickets every day at 3pm like clock work. You have to go to one of their 3 booths to buy the tickets and can’t purchase them online. It’s not as streamline as scheduling early and buying online but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper. Anyways, we’ve been keeping our eye out for Freestyle Love Supreme (featuring different Hamilton cast members as random appearances so my husband wants to go; it’s an improv hip hop show) and the Rockettes (I’m a former competitive ballet dancer so I always want to see a dance performance). Today the Rockettes were only $35 a ticket so we bought those for the early show. By the time we got through the line (and it’s a pretty long one but it’s also well managed by employees), it was around 4pm so we made our way to Radio City for the show. The show was awesome! My verdict was that it was an awesome show with some epic dancing. They do a lot more than just kick their legs. They’re very talented dancers. My husband also enjoyed the show but he said he wouldn’t have gone without me. There were also several more theatrical or musical style parts to the show. This is pretty normal for performances like these. They don’t want it to seem like a dance recital and most people aren’t trained dancers so they need something for everyone. We personally enjoyed it and we’re glad we went. Hopefully our assessment of the show can help you decide whether it’s for you. After the show, we found a place that looked more like a convenience store at a gas station with a brick oven for pizza. We got by-the-slice pizza that was good but I honestly don’t remember the name of the place. Then we went home to prep for tomorrow which will be book stores and Hamilton. I think my husband may have a heart attack from all the happiness. Day 9: Today was the big day, the main point of the trip: Hamilton. We started off the day with Cropsey’s Bagels. The performance was at 8pm so we needed to keep busy but also easily get to Broadway so we could be early. My husband made an extensive book crawl in Manhattan for this occasion. I’ll let you read his blog on that yourself. We started in Soho which is a cool neighborhood that’s more chill than Time Square where we were yesterday. Our first book store had a coffee shop so we could sip a chai latte and mocha. Then we went from book store to book store, wandering through various neighborhoods. We found Ott’s Tacos along our path and decided to stop by for lunch. The tacos were amazing. We also ended up close to Ben’s Cookies. So we stopped by Strand Books and Ben’s for the third time in 3 days. After some more book stores, we were still pretty full but we also had to head towards Broadway. We found Potbelly’s which has soups so we could have enough of a snack to hold us over through the show. Bob got chicken enchilada soup and I got mac and cheese. Then we went to Broadway and waited for the show. Hamilton was a great show! I enjoyed it even though I’m not into musicals. My husband said it was one of the best days of his life. I’ll let him talk about Hamilton because it’s definitely his expertise. The show got done at 11pm and thankfully we could still catch our normal subway at the normal schedule. Day 10:
Today we just wanted to have a chill day in the city. After our usual Cropsey’s, we went to the Mysterious Bookstore which was a store with only mystery books. We noticed that a taco place we tried to go to earlier but was too busy was down the road so we decided on that for lunch. Los Tacos No. 1 was great and we highly recommend. We were in the Wall Street area where we hadn’t been before. So we wandered around the area exploring. We went to Trinity Church and saw Alexander Hamilton’s grave. We walked past the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge and we decided to go back to Dumbo. We walked the whole bridge and went back to One Girl Cookies to relax. Last time we got cupcakes but this time we got the tea cookies along with some hot drinks. I’d highly recommend the cookies more. Get the more artsy, unique ones. My husband got chocolate chip cookies but they were just okay. Likely because you just want a giant cookie with lots of chocolate chips and a fancy cookie place isn’t the place to get that. My fancy cookies with apricot, layered sheet cookie, and mini macaron type thing were awesome. So we just enjoyed some cookies and drinks for a while looking over the city. We moved onto picking up Chik-fil-A for dinner. We don’t have it back home so we usually end up eating there at least once if it’s in the area. Then we want back to pack for our trip back.
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Miki & BobWe're an adventurous couple that travel internationally and travel nationally in our RV. We have a corgi named Sophie that comes along on our adventures. Our goal is to encourage others to travel and show genuine travel over Instagrammable travel. CategoriesArchives
April 2020
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