#17 NYC with Pierre-Antoine

Pierre-Antoine and I didn't have a summer vacation planned, and July 12 was our 5th Disney wedding anniversary, so we decided to head to nearby New York City - PA's first time and my third! For my first quick trip in 2007, I did a NYC layover en route to London and visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty with my dad and brother. Then in 2016, I attended a Balkan music festival in Brooklyn and my first Broadway show (Aladdin) but did not get to see all the tourist sites. Thus, PA and I could embark on NYC 101 for Tourists together!

Saturday

We took an early BestBus based on recommendations from friends and its cheapness compared to the train (only $40pp RT). The four-hour trip left us at Penn Station where we could easily walk to the Hilton Garden Inn New York/Midtown Park Ave to drop our bags and start exploring.

We grabbed some pizza by the slice from Cafe Rustico II and then started walking around Midtown by the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, and the New York Public Library up to Times Square. We then got in line at the Times Square TKTS Ticket Booth for half-price tickets to Beetlejuice for the evening!

Our first dinner out was The Lobster Club for sushi and teppanyaki. The day we got courthouse married, we went out to a hibachi place to celebrate, so we have a tradition of eating Japanese food to celebrate our anniversaries. We had some amazing "wasabi lobster," toro sushi, and wagyu beef! Can't wait to sample more of the same in Japan this fall... :P

Walking from dinner to the Winter Garden theater for our 8pm show, we noticed that a lot of the streetlights were out and businesses had their doors open - apparently, there was a power outage that affected over 40,000 people and made Times Square go dark! Luckily, our Broadway theater was still lit and we got to enjoy the craziness of Beetlejuice - PA's favorite musical so far!

Sunday

Sunday was a day trip to Brooklyn! We took the subway and stopped by the DUMBO Brooklyn Flea Market where I picked up a cool Oak Ridge, TN pennant and found a "J'aime Ike" pin for my brother's Presidential memorabilia collection.

Next stop was brunch at the River Cafe, a Michelin starred restaurant on the riverfront looking out at the Manhattan skyline. The meal was as delicious as you can imagine, with fresh tuna, black bass, fois gras, duck, and chocolate mousse cake! I would totally go back for dinner to get the Manhattan night skyline views.

We then ventured to the gorgeous Brooklyn Botanic Garden and spent a few hours exploring. I loved the Japanese and fragrance gardens the most.

After a bit of a rest at the hotel, we ventured out again on foot heading downtown. We walked through a lot of city parks and saw the Flatiron building along the way. It was nice to see people out and about enjoying the city on a Sunday evening.

Dinner was a recommendation all the way from a friend in Naples - a pizza place there had a sister restaurant in the Bowery, Sorbillo. Amazing Italian style pizza!

Thus, we were fueled up for a self-guided walking tour of SoHo to see some really interesting cast-iron architecture before it got too dark.

Monday

We started off the day with breakfast from Bagels and Schmear. I think NYC bagels are slightly lighter/fluffier than other places, but PA did not think they were any different.

We took the subway up to the southeast corner of Central Park and wound our way up past all the main sites via a self-guided walking tour. I loved the Balto statue and the dairy and castle buildings, they were just so charming and unexpected! PA loved the turtle pond!

The tour path led us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a huge and crowded attraction even on a weekday! They have some of everything from ancient Egypt to medieval decor and Impressionists to modern art, and we got through about two-thirds of all of it.

I remembered suddenly that the Met is the setting of my favorite childhood book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler! I made PA backtrack to find the fancy bed the main character would have slept in!

For the evening, we decided to stroll down the High Line, an elevated railroad track that was converted into a walking trail park. It gave some nice views of interesting buildings, and we used another self-guided tour to learn a bit more. We stopped at the Chelsea Market for a dinner of Berlin Currywurst, then I found the Standard Biergarten a bit further down for German beer. To cap it all off, we grabbed some Amorino gelato on the walk home.

Tuesday

On our last day, we headed straight downtown to the One World Observatory for morning views over the city. Arriving at 9:30am, we were able to grab tickets and go straight up to the 102nd floor to enjoy 360-degree views to all parts of NYC and neighboring New Jersey.

From there we walked to the 9/11 Memorial fountains and then found the Charging Bull and Fearless Girl statues nearby. We then took the free Staten Island Ferry out and back to see the Statue of Liberty and get views of Manhattan from the water.

We started walking back uptown along Water Street and ended up stopping in the super cute Seaport District for lunch at quaint The Paris Cafe, which has been open since 1873! Mussels and fries were a great last meal in NYC!

Our BestBus back to DC left promptly at 5:30pm, and I was glad to be sitting still in some air conditioning for the four-hour trip back home and listening to some podcasts.

I checked out our steps for the weekend and discovered that we had done 34.5 miles of walking in only four days! It was certainly a good warm-up for our two week trip to Japan this fall, but I need some better walking shoes.

Can't wait for our next visit!

Item 17 Completed 7/13-16/19
15/43 items complete = 34.9%