10/31/2014 – 11/2/2014
I’ve wanted to go to NYC for a while now, and with the opportunity to go before a work trip I decided this would be a good time. The original plan to get Megan a ticket and totally surprise her while at work didn’t quite pan out, but she was still surprised when I told her the Sunday before leaving, and, this actually worked out pretty well since she was able to help plan out the trip and find things to do.
Jump to Friday afternoon.
Good boarding positions on Southwest and a long flight ( made shorter thanks to the movie Godzilla!! (which was really good by the way, but a bit dark on the phone screen)) and our first real cab ride (37 bucks!) and we were there! We stayed Friday and Saturday in an Airbnb which was great and located in the Upper West Side, a few blocks from Central Park.
Oh and Friday was Halloween! After checking in with our host we took the 1 train downtown to people watch and trick or treat (not really). Crappy weather be damned, Megan dressed up as colors, just colors. Doesn’t she do that everyday? It was windy and rainy and cold but fun. I think we ended up at a gay bar, and actually one of the highlights was the 2am crowd headed back uptown on the subway. One chick was rapping/singing and basically single-handedly entertaining everyone in a VERY crowded subway car for most of the ride back.
Saturday again was not great weather but we after a good breakfast at a neighborhood bakery, we headed to Chinatown. This was very cool and I only had one umbrella fold in half due to wind. Good thing we were in Chinatown, umbrellas on every corner for 3 bucks. We brunched on noodles and dumplings (oh, and I think we also got a pizza slice between breakfast and brunch), and then headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge. Yes we are already many miles of walking into the day. The bridge walk was crowded but I imagine it would be packed on a nice weather day. Once in the middle we were able to get some good views of downtown and even could see the Statue of Liberty but by this time my rum filled apple cider was empty and the cold wind and rain was winning out over the rum.
Once back on land we headed over to make our 5 o’clock ticket at the 9/11 memorial and museum. This was a great experience but not one to tour if you’ve got other plans and a timeline to keep. Megan and I spent almost 3 hours in the museum alone. The apps they offer for audio tours were nice and we watched two films as well while inside. I’m usually not big on museums and tend to not be affected by them much but I think the combination of the quality of this museum and the fact that the subject was a recent event in my lifetime wound up keeping me engaged throughout and thinking more about the attack afterwords.
At this point Megan and I were both very tired. Some street meat refueled our tanks enough for a trip to the ‘Top of the Rock’, but the continued sub-par weather and the miles on our feet meant we were headed back uptown soon. Still not an early night with us arriving back at our apartment around 11.
Sunday morning we awoke to the forecast wind howling outside in the street. Being our last day, we didn’t waste too much time getting going and quickly landed in a recommended French bakery for breakfast.
After this we headed to Central Park. The NYC marathon was going on Sunday and after strolling for a while we came upon the race course just as the first racers were coming by (about mile 23 I think). This was cool and for the next few hours we weaved back and forth between the unoccupied areas of the park and the crowds around the race course. I’m glad this was going on as it was a cool thing to see both the fast racers and the huge crowds closer to the finish near the boarder between the park and mid-town. Megan was scheduled to leave in a few hours so after a quick swing by Grand Central Station, which was pretty nice, we headed back to get our bags and send her on her way.
I stayed in Brooklyn Sunday night in another Airbnb before leaving for Albany by train in the morning.
