A Long Time Coming

This post and the trip I'm going to write about have both been a long time coming. Hard to believe the trip to New York has already been over a week ago. Life and time just passes too quickly for my liking these days!

But the point here is to tell you about my fabulous trip! I could not have asked for a better travel partner or a better introduction to the city. We were blessed with beautiful weather the entire time, although a little cooler than I might have liked. I however was not blessed with on time flights on this trip, the airport Gods were not with me coming or going. My arrival to New York was delayed by almost 3 hours and my flight leaving New York was delayed almost an hour. However, I made it to both destinations safe and sound and I guess that's all a person can really ask for. You haven't traveled if you haven't had a delayed flight :)

So first day I arrived in New York a little later than I had planned, but welcomed by a smiling and excited friend who was gracious enough to wait at the airport for me so we could share a cab. It was all quite simple, getting my bag, getting a cab...we looked like we traveled to New York all the time. When it was actually the first trip for both of us!

Off we went in the taxi to our hotel. I might have feared for my life a few times, but hey it's not New York if you don't have a crazy taxi driver right?! The hotel was great and we were greeted with lovely views from our room on the 43rd floor. We dropped our bags and immediately went walking, happy just to wander and get a little lost on the streets of New York our first few hours in the city.

Our hotel was in Times Square so we were fortunate enough to be sooo close to many things. First night we saw the excitement of Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and where they film Dave Letterman's Late Show. We decided to eat at Angelo's next to Dave Letterman's and experience our first New York pizza. The food was amazing! I ate pizza quite a few times while I was there and this was the best for sure! I almost forgot to mention the celebrities we saw!!! We saw Barbara Walters and Kathy Griffin at the opening of Evita and two doors down from our hotel we saw Rascal Flatts! Lol I was definitely not a smooth New Yorker in those moments! I was pretty excited!

Friday we decided to brave the Subway and head to Central Park. I was pretty proud of us for handling the Subway as well as we did. It wasn't perfectly executed, which was my fault, but we made it to our destination :) I didn't realize just how HUGE Central Park is. My feet probably hurt the worst after this day, but it was beyond worth it. We walked and walked and walked through Central Park. We went to the Guggenheim Museum which was nearby, deciding against the Metropolitan on this go around.

Friday night was the night of our Broadway show. We had tickets to see Memphis, which is an unbelievable show!! If you have the opportunity you definitely need to see this one! It's loud, it's fun, it's touching, it's meaningful. So many things that will make it worth your while.

Saturday I had the chance to see a friend that lives in Jersey. I met this friend when I was living in Florida, doing an intership for Disney World. I hadn't seen him in 4 years, but we had kept in touch pretty well over the years. It was unexpected that I saw him, I hadn't told him that I was going to be in New York until I got there. So Saturday morning he made the twenty minute trip to come see me and take a stroll through the city.

This might sound a little silly, but it felt good to take that Saturday morning walk with him. I felt like a NYC native out with my boyfriend. It felt good to walk the streets with a man, someone that wanted to be close to me, to hold my hand, and was just tickled to be spending a few hours with me. It was a nice, unexpected addition to the trip.

We walked to Bryant Park and sat and talked while he had breakfast. After that we walked down 5th Avenue. We first stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is just gorgeous. I had seen it from the outside the first night, but this day we went inside. It was a special moment for me. The Cathedral is just so majestic. It's not something I can explain, but something that would have to be experienced first hand. I chose to light a candle and took a moment to just take it all in. As we were leaving the Cathedral, standing in the lobby my friend decided to kiss me for the first time. It was quite a morning.

We continued up 5th Avenue from there. I did a little shopping on the street, we went to Bergdorf's where a cute, sparkly, cat handbag cost only $4,500. We went into Trump Tower and FAO Schwarz. We continued back around to Times Square and ended our day together by eating at Ray's Pizza before he dropped me off at my hotel.

My lovely traveling partner and I then regrouped back at the hotel before hitting the streets again do some shopping. We hit up this massive and extremely busy H&M. I love that store and we're not fortunate enough to have one here in Memphis. From there we rushed back to the hotel to change before heading out to our dinner reservations.

Sunday, our last full day in the great city was jammed pack! We started the day by St. Patrick's Cathedral where the road was closed off for an Easter Parade. We then hopped in a cab and rode to Battery Park to catch a ferry and get our first glimpse of Lady Liberty. After a small debate and a short stint standing in line for tickets to Ellis Island, we decided on the Staten Island Ferry. While it would have been pretty special to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty up close, I didn't want to spend over an hour simply waiting to board the ferry on our last day there. The Staten Island Ferry was easy and gave us our chance to snap some photos. We absolutely froze because of course we had to stand outside, but again, completely worth it!

After the ferry we walked to the 9/11 Memorial. I can't tell you how glad I am that I got to experience this. Again it's one of those moments you have to have for yourself. I couldn't possibly begin to put this Memorial into words. It was an unreal feeling to stand in a place where thousands of our people were deliberately and maliciously murdered by an act of terrorism. The mood there was quiet, somber, respectful. I was proud to see that everyone that visited the Memorial still got it; that even after 10 years, people still feel the impact of that day. I know I do. I can promise I will never forget 9/11.

From there what did we do? We walked. And walked. And walked. We took our little feet to Chinatown where we had lunch and did some much needed shopping. Food and shopping cheers me right up and I forgot all about my aching feet. You can't really beat the deals in Chinatown.

We then walked to Little Italy. Walking down the street you can just feel the excitement and the atmosphere coming from the restaurants. People eating dishes of pasta and drinking wine at cafe's on the sidewalk. We couldn't resist and decided to stop in and have an afternoon drink. We just so happened to walk into a Cuban Italian place complete with live music and a singer that danced with me.

We then walked through the streets of SOHO before getting a cab to take our tired bodies back to the hotel. There we recharged with our $10 slice of New York cheesecake we had purchased the night before. After a little rest we then hit the streets again for our last night in town. I attempted some souvenir shopping before we grabbed some dinner of yes, pizza, before calling it a night.

Monday morning my Jersey friend came back to the city to see me one last time before I left. A quick walk and a purchase of an I heart NY tee and I was off to the airport.

It was quite a whirlwind of a trip that was completely fabulous and filled with so many special moments. NYC is a place I have talked about going for years and I am just thrilled it became a reality. I have no idea when my next trip there will be, but I can assure you there will be one. I'm already planning my must see list for round two. Another Broadway show, the Empire State building, Lady Liberty and Ellis Island up close, the MOMA or Metropolitan Museum. I hope the next trip is a little longer. I want to be able to take my time, to really be able to soak up the unique vibe of this city.

What a long update this was, but I hope you enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane with me. Up next I'll be conquering London and Berlin! Stay tuned for that! :)