It should be noted that prior to our trip I have been watching the PBS Documentary on NYC by Ric Burns. I have appreciated knowing so much about the city prior to my visit and recommend the series of DVDs.
We arrive late Easter Sunday and catch the midnight NJ Transit train into Manhattan. It's about a 2 block walk to our hotel and we walk by trash piled waist high. We had been told about the middle of the night trash pickup but I had no idea we'd be walking by trash piled high in the streets every night of our trip. Welcome to New York! We felt completely safe as we made our way to the hotel La Quinta.
During our stay we'll have 5 full days and will see 4 Broadway musicals. I'm so glad we have sprung for 4 shows because they will be some of the highlights of our trip. This also caused us to be in Times Square more than anyone should on a trip. I can see why the locals avoid the area. So crowded and chaotic. We shopped at Toys R Us, Disney, M&M Store, Aeropostle, and Hershey's, which is worth the stop just to get your free chocolate kiss. Times Square is a must see once for any tourist, but I think I've had my fill of walking and shopping in that area. The shows however -- I long to go back just to see more musicals!
Since we've already seen Wicked and Lion King and Jersey Boys and Mary Poppins we plan to see some different selections. Our first show is Newsies and I am blown away by the dancing and choreography. A stage full of young handsome men dancing -- what's not to love? This is my favorite show of the week. I really hope it tours some day. Our next show was Annie. I have been to Annie years ago but my daughter hasn't. She loved it as expected. Next up was Chicago. We had plans to see this in Denver but then it was cancelled so we jumped at this opportunity. It's a very simple set but the dancing is impressive and my daughter declares this is her favorite musical of all time. Our last show was Nice Work if You Can Get it. I wanted to see this for one reason: Matthew Broderick. I figure this is a uniquely New York experience -- he'd never tour with it, so this is my chance to see Ferris Bueller and War Games Broderick live on stage. I worried a bit that my tween child would not appreciate the show, but my fears were soon gone when she was laughing at all the jokes. She thought the show was hilarious and enthusiastically agreed that we should line up to try to get an autograph at the stage door. Getting that autograph and photo was a thrill for both of us and a great way to end our week of Broadway.
Just a comment about the theaters. I loved them. I feel so spoiled now to have sat so close to the talent on stage. In Denver the Mezzanine feels so far back, not desirable seats. Here we sat in the Mez for all 4 shows and I couldn't have been happier with the seats. Many of those theaters are about half the size of what we're used to and we loved the intimacy of them. I really do want to go back and do a long weekend of Broadway shows. I'd better start saving my money!
Our days were full of tourist attractions and sites in the city. We planned to do and see a lot and we accomplished nearly all of it in spite of the cold weather.
Monday: We walk by the Time Warner CNN building -- no sign of Anderson Cooper -- and make our way to the Original Soup man to grab a snack which we eat while sitting on a bench across from the historic Ed Sullivan Theater, home to David Letterman. We then go on our Onboard bus tour. What I like about tours is the narration and getting to see a glimpse of places I may not have otherwise gone. What I dislike about them is that you don't get to spend any significant time anywhere and often only see things out the bus window. We did enjoy this tour and it was a good introduction to the city. It also provided a boat ride by Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, since both are closed due to hurricane damage, this is as close as we'll get to them. The boat ride was very cold and toward the end it started to rain and drizzle. A cold front was moving in and it was so windy you couldn't even use an umbrella. Thankfully the precipitation would be brief, but the cold temperatures would remain for the week. After our bus and boat tour we head into Times Square for a quick dinner and then Newsies. Great first day.
Tuesday: This is our coldest day and we have set ticket times for the 9/11 Memorial and Tenement Museum. We head to the memorial at 10am and the line moves along reasonably well. It's a beautiful and fitting memorial and after we pay our respects we decide to continue with our plan to walk the Brooklyn Bridge in spite of the cold temperatures. We take the subway into Brooklyn and it is so cold we nix our plans to walk around the promenade but instead have a delicious lunch at Siggy's before heading across the bridge on foot. Thankfully it is not windy on the bridge as I feared it might be; it is also not scary, which is a relief because I have a fear of heights. The views are wonderful and I'd love to take this walk again on a warm day. As we are crossing we see a digital display on a building tell us it is 36 degrees. Brrr! No wonder we are so cold. We spent time in Chinatown and my daughter loves this area. She loves all the jade and Chinese trinkets. She makes several small purchases and really enjoys shopping. We buy mini cakes from a food cart for $1. I have no idea what they are, probably similar to waffle batter, but they are yummy. We also eat ice cream, green tea and taro. We walk to a small park and sit on a bench enjoying our ice cream in the cold while we watch Chinese locals playing music and games in the park. While we are in Chinatown we experience the quintessential NY traffic experience as we see a lady get out of her car yelling at the guy behind her who's leaning out his car window cursing and honking at her. My daughter laughed at the scene of drivers behaving badly.
Tuesday continued: We head to the Tenement Museum for the Irish Tour and I appreciate the narrative about life in the late 1800's. There isn't a whole lot to look at as you only see one part of the building on each tour, but it was interesting and worthwhile and I wish we'd had more time to do another tour. My daughter loved Chinatown so much that we head back for more shopping and a noodle dinner before making our way uptown. We don't have show tickets for tonight so we decide to swing by the Empire State Building and go up at night. The "touts" in front are shameless, telling us all sorts of lies about how long the lines are, trying to get us to buy their upgraded tickets. I'm so thankful I've read to avoid them and we go in to the regular ticket line. The line for security is nearly 30 minutes long, but once we are through this line it's easy to get tickets and ride the first elevator. The second elevator takes you the last 6 stories and since the line is long we opt to walk up the stairs. We are breathless before we even take that first breath taking view of the city all lit up at night.
Wednesday: Museum day! We start at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, spending a lot of time looking at the Egyptian art trying to wrap our minds around how old these artifacts are. We also look at some Medieval and Asian art. We ate lunch here and then saw some of the Monet’s Picasso’s and van Gogh’s. There is so much art to see here I thought about just staying but really wanted to venture north to the Cloisters. We took the subway and enjoyed the rest for our legs. At Fort Tryon we really enjoyed our stroll through this beautiful park. We hit the ice cream truck and then walked to the Cloisters. This area feels very isolated and we didn’t run into many people as it was a cold windy day. We only had about an hour at the Cloisters but I’m so glad we went. The building is so amazing, made from parts and pieces of old monastery buildings mostly from France. We enjoyed the Unicorn tapestries because we had read the Magic Treehouse book about them. The art here is interesting and the building is magical. It’s about a 15 minute walk from the cloisters back to the subway. We have dinner in Hell’s Kitchen at Pam Real Thai and finish the day at Annie.
Friday: Our last full day and time to squeeze in the things we didn’t get to do yet. My tween is tired so I let her sleep in while I visit B&H Photo. I mail order from them and have heard how vast their store is. I’m impressed by the inventory as well as the sheer number of employees. I wake my tween and we head down to the Merchant House Museum. We do the self guided tour and appreciate life in the early 1900’s. It’s a sunny spring day so we spend time in Washington Square Park. I sit and listen to some musicians while she does gymnastics on the lawn. The park is full of locals and we ask one where she bought her tasty looking lunch and she directs us to Sushi Yawa. After lunch we head back uptown via subway to 5th Avenue. I must see the “Big” floor piano and Zoltar machine in FAO Schwarz. We walk down 5th, stop at Tiffany’s so we can say we’ve been there and also in Trump Tower for a chai latte. It’s free day at the Museum of Modern Art so we head that way. I expect it to be busy but I had no idea what awaits us. The line to get your free ticket and to check bags is so long we contemplate skipping it all together and check out the museum store which really has some interesting household items. As we are leaving we notice the line for tickets is gone so we decide to go in and take a quick peek at some of the main attractions, mainly the Andy Warhol’s, van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Munch’s The Scream. A quick bite at McDonald’s and we’re seated for our last Broadway show: Nice Work if You Can Get it. Getting Matthew Broderick’s autograph afterward left us floating on cloud 9.
Saturday: We only have a few hours before we have to catch the NJ Transit train to the airport and fly home. I purchased Top of the Rock tickets in advance to avoid the drama of the other evening. This was not necessary as the place was quiet with no lines for security or the elevator. 10am on a Saturday was the perfect time to go and when we reach the top and see those stunning views of Central Park we realize this was a great way to cap off a great trip. As we walk back to our hotel we stop in the Public Library so we can see the original Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and Kango stuffed toys.
Our impression of the city is that it is lively and vibrant and
energetic. We loved everything about it
and would love to return someday soon!
We found great meals all around the city. Wonderful food at reasonable prices. Only once did we eat at a national chain -- the McDonald's in Times Square. My tween insisted and we were running short on time to grab dinner prior to a show. As I expected, finding quick food in Times Square proves to be a bit of a challenge. The area is so busy and so packed with people. We did eat in the area 4 times.
I think the best quick food in Times Square would be the Europa Cafe -- nice fresh chopped salads and Chai tea latte is what we had. Very good and fast. We also ate dinner at Juniors. Yes, it's pricey, but we split the salmon salad and it was enough for 2 and very tasty. Of course we had cheesecake too. Our other Times Square dinner was over on 9th at Pam Real Thai Food. Excellent food and so obvious this is a favorite with the locals. Highly recommend. Our other dinner was in Chinatown at Great NY Noodletown at 28 Bowery -- we shared a huge bowl of noodles and chicken. So good and so inexpensive!
One of our 5 various lunches was at the Original Soup Man. I can't say I'd rave about the soup, but we had to go for the experience. We even got to see him scold someone for trying to cut in front of us. We ate at the Met cafe and it's exactly what you'd expect for a museum cafe -- overpriced and chaotic, but the food was fine. We ate Sushi Yawa, about a block from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Huge lunch sampler plate for $10 and plenty for us to share. Delicious. We tried the Shake Shack behind the American History museum. Line was out the door but it was worth the wait for those french fries. Our favorite lunch was Siggy's Organic in Brooklyn. We had the salmon dinner and it was delicious and plenty enough for us to share.
Our hotel was the La Quinta Manhattan in Korea Town, right near the Empire State Building and 1/2 block from a subway station. I thought the location was great. They provide free wifi and continental breakfast. The accommodations were great for the price I found (cheaper than most in the area). The breakfast room was crowded so we often took breakfast back to our room. We also had to wait a few times for an elevator, but overall I'm pleased with the room and would stay there again. The street noise didn't bother me at all. The British girl in the next room over sure did. I had to call the front desk and my other neighbor just stood in the hall and screamed at her to shut up. Thankfully this only lasted 3 nights and then she was gone. Even earplugs didn't drown out her booming voice in the middle of the night. Amazing.
Lastly -- we used NJ transit to get to Newark airport. NJ Transit from Penn Station NYC is a bit of a chaotic mess, but we still got on the train. It worked very well to get back and forth to the airport. And we used the subway to go as far north as Fort Tryon park and as far south as Brooklyn. I'm proud to say we never got on the wrong train or in the wrong direction! It took a bit to figure out the map and reading tips beforehand helped immensely, but until you're there and trying to read the map and figure it out... well it does take a bit of patience. I often found when we'd come up after riding that I would have a hard time getting oriented -- sometimes we'd walk a 1/2 block in the wrong direction, *sigh*, but I got better as the week wore on! "Dirty" is the word my daughter would use to describe the subway. I think the newness and cleanliness of the DC Metro system set the bar very high. "Efficient" is the word I would use for the subway and I can't imagine travelling around the city any other way.
NYC has a pulse and I now understand people's passion for this city. It was a great way to spend our spring break.
I've posted more photos on Shutterfly:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2EZsWjNo2ZMSQ
