How do you plan your first trip to New York City - when there's so much to do and so little time??
Well, our first trip went a little something like this...
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THURSDAY May 22
9PM - Catch a red eye Jetblue flight to Washington DC and connect to JFK
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FRIDAY May 23
7am - Arrive at JFK. Rise and Shine! Okay - so we only got about 3 hours sleep total... and we rose, but we were barely shining...
11am - Arrive at the Hilton Garden Inn - Time Square. Home Sweet Home for the next 4 nights!
1pm - Meet Dave for lunch! He introduces us to pedestrian tricks for maneuvering through traffic and gives us insider advice!
3pm - We walked for miles because we weren't ready to try the subway or bus yet... Grab our Citypass from Empire State Building... We stop by the Rockefeller Center for pictures... cool off inside the Public Library... discover the Flat Iron building6pm - We each buy an unlimited 7 day metropass. Bring on the Mass Transportation Maps! We return to home base.
8pm - Dinner time! We dare to rely on my cell phone GPS navigator and subway maps to get to a highly raved Mac N' Cheese place called S'Mac. We made it there and back to the hotel in an hour... and Herman got to catch his Laker game!---
SATURDAY May 24
9Am - Take the Subway to Central Park. While waiting for the museums to open, we find a little deli called Lenny's for breakfast.10:30 - The American Natural History Museum opens their doors. We catch a 30 minute Space movie in the Rose Center part of the Museum - and both fall asleep. Refreshed we check out the rest of the museum. Lots of cool stuff to check out.
2pm - Stomach growling. We leave and find a cafe for lunch. Then on to the Guggenheim Museum! We find the hanging Chevy Metros pierced with lights... interesting.
5pm - Just a few blocks away is the Metropolitan Museum. We oogle over the statues and paintings... but have the most fun on the rooftop of the MET, overlooking Central Park.
8pm - While we're in the area... we check out FAO Swartz and the Apple Store. We return to home base to recoup.
10pm - We re-emerge to check out Time Square at night and find dinner. Dallas BBQ calls us in and we grub on ribs and bbq chicken.
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SUNDAY May 25
10am - We make our way to the Museum of Modern Art, aka MOMA. Thinking we'd be more confused then inspired... we discover the museum had a lot of engaging displays. We loved the spectrum room, and at one point we became gray scaled.
1pm - I had looked up the Shake Shack, which is this burger stand inside Madison Square Park - that comes highly reviewed. So well reviewed that the line stretched across the park... and we held fast - and got to the front of the line 2 hours later. Was it worth it for burgers, cheese fries, hot dog, and shakes? I say YES!
5pm - We had to race back to home base to change. We had a Broadway musical to catch! It was Herman's request. Can you guess? We went to Spamalot!
10pm - The show was hilarious and we walk a few blocks back to home base, grabbing some munchies along the way. We're so tired we end up eating the munchies for dinner.
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MONDAY May 26
10am - head to Pier 83 to catch an 11:30 Circle Line Harbor Cruise to see the Statue of Liberty! We use the bus and snag a seat right in the front. Too bad everyone gets up and stands at the windows, blocking your view. But we did get some pretty cool shots and videos.1pm - Dave highly suggested to try the Steak houses - so we GPS some of his recommendations... Uncle Jack's Steakhouse, Spark's... little did we know... they all were closed for Memorial Day! We started to just call other steakhouses in the area... and one was open... Shula's steakhouse.. as in Bob Shula.. the football coach! :) Herman goes for the New York Steak while i try the Prime Rib Sandwich... Not sure if it was the best thing ever - but it was sure good!
3pm - Proceed towards Battery Park and Ground Zero / World Trade Center site. We almost got lost since there were subway re-routes and shuttle buses - but we managed to still get to it. It was really hard to believe how big the gaping hole was among these giant skyrises... but amazing to see how good the area looks after such a tramatic disaster. It's hard to believe 7 years has past. I still remember talking to Herman over the phone during the 911 events - when we were still barely getting to know each other.5pm - After hanging out by the port, sipping starbucks and people watching - we make our way back and plan our night visit to the Empire State Building Observatory
8pm - We get in line to go to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. Although we already have tickets, it still takes us almost 1.5 hours to mosey through the security line with almost no real air conditioning... then wait to go up the 15 person at a time elevator to the 80th floor... wind through another line to get to the next elevator to go up 6 more floors... then crowd into the observatory floor and wait for people to leave their spots along the edge so that you can snap some shots. The views were amazing but somehow I didn't get vertigo or feel any sudden fear of heights... But not long after you snap your pictures, do you realize that the line to go back down is now growing longer and longer... so we get back in line... take the stairs down 6 floors so that we could save ourselves 15 minutes waiting for the elevator... then wind through a new line to get to the last elevators that would take you down the remaining 80 floors. There was way too many people up there and the methods to move people were way too slow. This was probably my lowest part in the trip... I was just so relieved to be out of there.
11pm - After all this time, we still did not try New York Pizza! So for dinner we got Famous Original Ray's Pizza on our way back to the hotel. Herman got the Ray's Special (Meatball) and I got a Ham, Mushroom and Cheese one. We weren't totally sure if this Ray's was truly the famous or original one.. but it didn't matter after our first bites... YUM!---
TUESDAY May 27
8:30am - Oh No! Our last day in New York! And the first time we've seen rain in the city! Well, the good news was that we got to use all the passes in our citypass- which means we got our money's worth! For our last morning we decided we should check out Grand Central Station and then proceed to Chinatown. Grand Central was very cool. There was even a violinist playing classical music in the dining concourse section. Also, the rain stops for most of our morning.10:30am - We have brunch at Big Wong Restaurant. It had good reviews online and it's a pretty standard looking chinese hole in the wall restaurant. I had to try my favorite Beef Fried Chow Fun, and Herman had Roast Duck Noodle Soup because he was starting to get a sore throat. Good food. Even better price tag.
11:30am In chinatown, we wanted to check out a place called the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory - which also garnered a lot of great reviews on the web. Herman ordered Almond Cookie and Red Bean Ice Cream and I ordered Peach and Chocolate Panang. Mine was okay - Herman liked his... but there was nothing 'amazing' in our minds. The gal at the counter was annoyingly eager to get us out of there. "Are you ready?" "Not Yet" 10 seconds goes by. "Are you ready to order now?" "Can we try this flavor?" "You only can try two flavors per person" "That's fine" "Here you go... Are you ready to order?"1pm - Back at our hotel, we packed and said goodbye to our home base for the last 5 days. Although our flight was not until 6pm, we had to await our Shuttle at 2:30pm to ensure we'd get to JFK in time.
6pm - We're loaded into our plane earlier than expected and start to taxi around the airstrip. The rain is coming down at this point. Then we stop again and we're told we may be delayed another 30 minutes. 30 minutes turns into 2.5 hours. When we finally land in Burbank, we've realized we've spent the last 8 plus hours on the plane... breathing in the nice recycled air... might be why we're both coughing and tending to runny noses all week.
But that was our trip! It was jam-packed with sights, sounds, food and fun. And we can't wait to go back... :)
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