Until two Sundays ago, when I was chatting with two girls I knew and one of the girls, Kathryn, mentioned she was going to go to NYC the next weekend. She finished that statement with, "if you want to come with!" And I said, "yeah, actually I do!" And 5 days later, I found myself on a bus, heading up to New York City.
And it was AWESOME.
(Me and Kathryn on the bus, on our way to the Big Apple. This was the best of many attempted pictures...)
I have a friend going to graduate school in the city there - we had both moved to the East Coast from the West at the same time, so we decided we would have to use this casual friendship we had made shortly before our moves to our advantage. So I called him up and asked if my friend and I could crash on his couch. Turns out, he and his roommates are perfect hosts. Kathryn and I got in late Friday night, and after chatting for just a bit, the boys showed us to our room (one of the roommates, who has his own room, was out of town for the rest of the month, so we got to stay in his room), motioning to the sheets, blankets, and towels sitting in the room waiting for us (and throughout the weekend, they also offered me their shampoo and conditioner for my shower - like, they both offered theirs, trying to one-up the other with their hygiene products - and pointed out the milk in the fridge and the cereal on the counter for us to have breakfast before we left Sunday morning. They were so cute!), so we enjoyed our accommodations for the weekend. It was like staying at a hotel, but with such a better price ($0) than you could find at the dingiest of NYC hotels, and more enjoyable employees.
But where we stayed was, believe it or not, not the highlight of the trip, so I'll continue on.
So we got in late Friday night, but still managed to get out and attack Times Square around 10am Saturday morning.
We walked around TS a bit, then I decided I was beyond famished, so we went looking for brunch. My co-worker had told me about Ellen's Stardust Diner at Times Square, which is where a lot of singers/actors work while they wait to make it big on Broadway. They spend most of their time singing different songs they love, and sometimes they serve you, too. We thought it sounded fun, so we stopped in.
(So excited! And soooo hungry...)
I tell you what - the food wasn't great (I'm pretty sure I've made better pancakes than I ate there, which is saying something) and it took one HOUR to get our food. BUT, while one might complain that we overpaid for just decent food, Kathryn and I saw it as we paid a for lunch and a show - these waiters and waitresses are GOOD singers. And by good, I mean really good. They had an order they went through, with each person singing a song. They mixed in duets and whole performances. And we ended up sitting at a table which was right where the performer/waiters would often get up for the big moments of a song and perform on the backs of the booth seats - that doesn't even make sense, I know. Just look at the picture:
(Did I mention we were seated right where they perform? Yeah, I meant it.)
(Our waitress. Couldn't get us our food fast at all, but she had a great voice, so we'll give her a shout-out here)
My favorite performance was probably a song from the Lion King (which is not in the movie originally, so I hadn't heard before) - a guy sang the main lead, and our waitress (see above) and another girl with a great voice provided the African music back-up vocals. It was like we were watching the musical itself, it sounded really great.
The meal and show took a good 90 minutes of our day up, but we made up for lost time and walked through the city to the Macy's store to check out it's famous window displays. I thought they were really cool-looking. It was so crowded, I didn't get to just stand and soak them in, and we kind of walked them backwards, so the story written through it all didn't really make it's full effect on me as I read it the wrong way. But I liked the windows - I'm just so impressed with the designers for 1. the idea, and 2. the engineering. It was a ton of marionettes and stuff, everything was moving, and it ended with this interactive feature (that we never would've gotten close to testing out) that allowed you to create your own ornament, I think to be put on a tree Macy's had or something? Anyway, I thought it was really cool.
We also went into Macy's for a bit - and it was packed with people! But it really is huge - we didn't explore it too much, because we didn't really want to get lost and never make it out again.
When we left Macy's, we stalled a little bit in our activities. We had come to NYC with only two places we needed to go - and both were evening activities. So the "day" part of our day was completely unplanned. We tried to think of some other places we thought we should go, but everything was kind of far away and I was getting a little tired, and it was a little bit cold at that point. So we decided to head back to the boys' apartment for a minute, get freshened up and make a better game plan for the evening (like figuring out how to actually get to the places we had planned to go) and perchance watch a few minutes of the BYU/Baylor basketball game one of the boys was so excited about the night before (spoiler alert, BYU lost, but it was a very close game, and fun to watch).
After taking a bit of a break, we went out on our way again for the evening. First, we remembered that we probably needed to eat dinner - the diner food couldn't last in our tummy forever (I was surprised it lasted as long as it did in me...). So on a recommendation, we went to a Cuban restaurant called Guantanamera (or something like that). The service was quite a bit better, but we were too early for the live band and dancing, sadly. But the food was really good, and my water cup was always full, which attention I certainly appreciate.
(I just can't figure out how to make my camera stop taking non-orange pictures in dark restaurants...sigh)
After dinner, we headed out in the direction of Central Park. In a happy twist, we ran into the Holiday Market on Columbus Circle, which was so fun to wander through. I almost got some Belgium hot chocolate, but decided to wait until later, when I was really cold, to get some cocoa (another spoiler alert: I never did get my hot chocolate...I'm so deprived). But I did buy a little something there that was festive and happy.
(All my Christmas decorations are in Utah, and I needed something. I don't think I'll ever not love penguins...)
After we made our way through the whole market, we finally got ourselves into Central Park - for ice skating! It just seemed right. It was so fun! A little overpriced, maybe (what isn't in NY?!), but it felt so festive and it was so fun skating with the city as my backdrop. While we were skating, the rink guards started blowing their whistles, and Kathryn and I looked to the middle of the rink where they were standing - and a guy was proposing to his girlfriend. So sweet. Skating in Central Park = Success! So much fun!
(My eyes look totally creepy, but the picture is mainly so you can note the skates on the feet - evidence! I tried to raise my foot up for the picture, but it seems my balance isn't all the great on one razor-thin piece of metal. Weird.)
After about an hour of skating (with an additional 30 minutes in the middle of it, for the rink to get cleaned and re-iced), my ankles and arches were getting tired and achy - I'm such a wuss! - so we left, to make our way to our next adventure.
Which adventure turned out to be...Rockefeller Plaza! At this point it was about 11pm, and it was good we left when we did, because I guess they turn off the lights on the giant tree around 11:30? That's what the photographers selling their services were saying, at least. We had wanted to go up to the top of Rockefeller Center - the Top of the Rock - for a view of the city, but we just missed the last chance to go up for the night. Bummer! But the plaza looked great. It was also ridiculously crowded, and we also witnessed another proposal (not as exciting to me, it seemed too crowded to get a proper question out to a girl). But I liked the plaza a lot, it was great to see the tree, as well as the other decorations all around.
(Made entirely out of phone or modem wires! I thought these angels were really pretty and unique)
After spending some time at Rockefeller Plaza, we decided it was probably a good time to start heading home. Of course, we weren't quite sure where the closest subway entrance for the subway we wanted to take was, so we just started walking, hoping we'd end up somewhere useful. In our wandering we saw the Bergdorf/Goodman window displays, which were quite impressive, and some other fun holiday art pieces on the sidewalks.
We ended up walking all the way through Times Square again, when we decided just to head for the subway entrance we had arrived from. Along the way, we bought three bags of honey-roasted walnuts and cashews (sooooo goooooood...) and attempted to find somewhere interesting for hot chocolate for me - but I could never make up my mind on whether to go in somewhere across the street or down the road, so we threw in the towel and just went home.
We came home Sunday morning, which trip was significantly faster than the way there. We got home around 1pm, and I walked up to my room and collapsed on my bed for awhile. It was a pretty busy weekend, and it totally wasted me. My energy has yet to re-charge, but we're getting there. And it was totally worth it.
Christmas in New York City was so fun. I'm really feeling Christmas now! Thanks, Kathryn, for being such a fun travel buddy, and for making the decision to go. I'm really glad I got to join you! Now I just need to experience New Year's Eve in New York City and I'll have truly experienced NYC during the holidays. Of course, that idea totally freaks me out (the agoraphobia in me has started my heart racing just thinking about it), but my friend Dave said he'd go with me next year, since he's done it before, and I will only trust my life with someone who knows what they're doing there...so we'll see if that actually happens. Yikes.
But now, all the pre-Christmas activities are over for the year. The parties and festivities I've had the last two weeks rounded out with this trip to NYC. Up next: Christmas with the Frandsens, Arkansas branch. SO EXCITED!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
1 comment:
I love Christmas in New York! Thank you for letting me re-live it through you.
Ben
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