48 Hours iIn NYC

Old Jul 19th, 2011, 04:33 PM
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48 Hours iIn NYC

My husband and I were able to squeeze a couple nights in NYC prior to our cruise to Bermuda. This was the first visit for both of us so there were lots of things we wanted to do and see.

We had a 7am flight from DFW to LAG on Friday, May 3. Our checked bag weighed in at 48 lbs – whew! During some small talk, we learned that my husband forgot his toothbrush. Then jokingly I asked him about a couple other “obvious” packing items, and discovered that he didn’t pack any bathing suits, which are a necessity on a cruise. Ugghh … shopping was not on our itinerary. Being modest shoppers we were dreading having to dish out the dough on bathing suits but came to grips with the situation on hand and agreed we didn’t want to burn precious time bargain hunting so we were prepared to buy some swanky expensive swimwear.

We landed around 11:15am and hit the ground running. Taxis were plentiful as we walked out of the airport. Before long, we were sitting in the back seat of the taxi heading to our hotel, Comfort Inn and Suites, on 47th street in midtown.

The taxi driver said that he couldn’t drop us off at our hotel because it was a one way street so he dropped us off in Times Square about a block from our hotel. I found this quite odd, but we proceeded down the street with all of our luggage in tow. As we approached the hotel, there was a taxi dropping off guests in front of the hotel. Oh well, guess we had “sucker” written on our foreheads or maybe the taxi driver was just in a hurry. In any event, we were at our hotel and had a full day planned ahead.

Our room was ready so we dropped our bags off and headed to the nearest subway entrance. We made a pitstop at Margons to grab a sandwich for lunch. I had never had Cuban cuisine before. It was yummy although the place was packed as it was the noon hour frenzy. We tried not to slow down the line too much as being from Texas we are accustomed to a much slower pace at restaurants. After about 20 minutes, we were on our way to the subway. At first, we were a bit intimidated but we figured out how to load our card and before I knew it we were on our way downtown.

We started at Battery Park. Saw the Sphere, Bull, Wall Street, Stock Exchange building, Trinity Church, etc. High on my list of “must sees” was the bible in the Capitol Building that was used during the swearing in process by George Washington. When we got inside the building, I found the place where the bible was to be but there was just a note that the bible was on loan to another museum. There was a photocopy of a page left in the case. It was still a neat experience and I was soon over my disappointment.

On our way to the 9-11 memorial, I saw a sign for Century 21. I remembered reading about this store during my studies so I told my husband we should stop there to try to find some bathing suits. The place was packed! We made our way to the men’s swimwear. I had to cover my eyes as we walked through the jewelry and accessories and shoes!

My husband quickly found some suits that were to his liking and they were only 15 bucks each! We both were proud of our shopping excursion. We were back on track to the memorial.

What a moving experience it was. We wanted to be sure to pay our respects to our fellow citizens who lost their lives and also to all the brave souls who pulled the city and country together again. Afterwards, we stopped by St Paul’s chapel.

We were supposed to head to SoHo for the rest of the afternoon and then we had reservation at Emporio at 6:45. Finding ourselves way ahead of schedule, we decided to head to Chinatown to just walk the streets and take in the sights. Although not a highlight of our trip, I’m glad we ventured that way.

We then headed back to SoHo where we got lost on the cobblestone streets and among the cast iron buildings. We soon found ourselves in front of a corner pub with awesome Happy Hour specials. This was very welcoming to us as we were beat. We got a table for 2 outside where we enjoyed some drinks and people watching. At this point, we realized that we forgot to bring our dinner reservation paperwork and we couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant. As we were arguing over whose fault it was that we forgot the paperwork, I had a call from a number I didn’t recognize. It was the restaurant confirming our reservations. Yeah!

Several drinks later, I found myself a little tipsy as we headed to dinner. We requested a table in the back room. We ordered some sort of appetizer, a pizza and a bottle of wine. Yum! We really enjoyed our dinner and would eat there again if given the chance.

Next on the list … Empire State Building at night! We hopped on the subway and headed to the ESB. The line wasn’t long at all. We went up and enjoyed the spectacular views. Afterwards, we decided to head back to the hotel as we were both rather wiped out. As we were walking from the subway station to our hotel, we walked past a little sports bar that had a burger and beer special for like $8.99 or something like that. We couldn’t pass it up so we went in and grabbed a late night snack. Nothing fancy, but the fries were awesome! About an hour later, we were sound asleep.

Woke up Saturday morning around 8ish. Got ready and headed down for the free breakfast in the hotel. We wandered around Times Square to take in all the eye candy. This place is hectic every hour of the day it seems. We took a few pictures and checked out some of the street vendors. We made a quick trip to a liquor store a few blocks west of our hotel to pick up some wine for our cruise. My husband ran the bottles back to the room then we ventured to Rockefeller Center. We went to Top of The Rock and must say the views were spectacular. The weather was gorgeous which made visibility terrific. We took some more pics and savored the views before heading back downstairs. After getting our bearings, we headed toward St Patrick’s Cathedral, followed by Grand Central Station and the Library.

Hopped on the subway to the Flatiron district. That building is absolutely amazing! We planned on grabbing lunch at Shake Shack but there was no way we were going to wait in that crazy long line for a burger. So, this threw me off our detailed itinerary and I forgot my guide book this morning so we just had to wing it for lunch. We stumbled upon New York Burger Company with no regrets. The food and service was great and we loved the seats looking out over the streets. My husband was thrilled they served beer After finishing lunch we were off again. Headed toward Gramercy Park where we stopped in Pete’s Tavern for a quick drink. We got a little table outside on the corner. Before long, we were walking toward the Village, Columbus Park, West Village, then the Meatpacking District where we walked a short while on the High Line. It started raining a little bit so we headed back to the West Village where we had dinner narrowed down, based on prior research, to Keste or Arturos. We ended up at Keste because we got their first and there wasn’t a long wait. We shared a pizza and carafe of wine. We weren’t as impressed with this meal as we were the first night. I felt the seating was a little too crammed for my liking and the service wasn’t particularly friendly and we felt rushed.

We headed back east in the hopes of finding a place we could hang out and have a drink. We passed a zillion little places on our walk the first time, but couldn’t find anything on the way back. We found ourselves back at Columbus Park where we enjoyed some live entertainment. It started to sprinkle again so the crowd scattered quickly. We got back on our quest to find a place to catch the Texas Rangers game. We finally stumbled across a little bar & the bartender was happy to put on the game as he was originally from the Dallas area which made for great conversation for the next several hours. We met the nicest people at the bar & sat around and talked for hours. The drinks were great and reasonably priced and to top it off, the Rangers won.

After the game, the young woman we met invited us to go to an improve show in which her boyfriend was performing. My husband pushed her bike for her (we all were a little over-served at the bar the 20 some odd blocks to the location of the improv. What a cool experience. There were 4 different groups of performers. It was after 1am by the time we got out. I was so tired. We grabbed a cab and again got dropped off more than a block from our hotel, but we didn’t argue.

Morning came fast. I wanted to be on our ship by 1:30 – 2:00pm so we only had a few hours this morning. The hotel staff was kind enough to allow us a late check out. After grabbing a quick breakfast in the hotel, we hopped on the subway and headed to the Upper West Side. We went to Riverside Park, Zabar’s, and Magnolia Bakery. I’m a die hard “You’ve Got Mail” fan so we visited some of the locations (the park, the restaurant, the bookstore, etc). There were a few other historical buildings we wanted to see so after finishing up our UWS tour we headed to Central Park.

My legs were like jelly after walking what seemed like 50 miles over the past 48 hours so when I saw the guided bike tours, I talked my husband into doing that instead of walking the park. Of course we couldn’t see all the park, but we got a nice flavor in the 2 hours we had. What an amazing little oasis in the middle of a hustling city.

Our last destination was the Gugg Museum. My husband is an architectural engineer so he really wanted to just stop by and see this building. I thought it was a long journey just to see a building, but I was in no position to complain after dragging him on the “You’ve Got Mail” tour. After getting some great exterior and interior pics, we headed back to the hotel. Since it was already after 1pm and I was a little anxious about getting back, I wanted to just take a taxi but my husband insisted on using the subway, which we both ended up regretting because we got mixed up on the transfers and it took us a while to get back to the hotel. We picked up our bags and got a taxi to the ship with plenty of time to spare. What an amazing embarkation out of New York, cruising past the Statue of Liberty!

We had one day of rest before three and a half days of fun in Bermuda, which will be in a different trip report.

I know our itinerary probably sounds a little crazy, but we had a blast & the weather was very cooperative. The ironic thing is that our most memorable experiences were those that we didn’t plan for … the drinks at a sidewalk café, the live entertainment at Columbus Park, the friends we met at the bar while watching the Rangers game … So my advice is, yes, have a good plan and good guide book to help you plan and organize your time, but be open for the unexpected and take time to smell the roses along the way. Good bye New York, until we meet again!
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Old Jul 19th, 2011, 04:39 PM
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Great report. Come back soon!
SueNYC is offline  
Old Jul 19th, 2011, 08:06 PM
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Sounds like a quick but fun trip.

Were you in Columbus Park or Washington Square Park when you enjoyed entertainment in a park near the Village? Columbus Park is in Chinatown. Washington Square Park has the big arch and is located at the foot of Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village. (Just want to be sure for others who might like to use your ideas.)
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Old Jul 20th, 2011, 07:08 AM
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Wow, you packed a lot into two days (in a good way). Sounds great!
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Old Jul 20th, 2011, 12:51 PM
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Sounds like a wonderful, frenetic, typical NYC experience. Glad u had fun and hope u will go back sometime and experience more of the kindness of new yorkers and the great cultural offerings of the city

although i immigrated to canada, i was born in brooklyn!

cheers
AndrewDavid
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Old Jul 23rd, 2011, 01:58 PM
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Ellenm, We were in Washington Square Park ...
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Old Jul 23rd, 2011, 02:29 PM
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Thanks for the confirmation. Washington Square Park has always been a hub of activity, but since its recent renovation it is truly beautiful. Glad you had so much fun there.
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