Welcome to New York... It's Been Waiting for You

{New York City Trip Recap}

So this may be 3 months late, but I hadn't originally planned on writing a post about our trip.  As most of you know, I recently graduated from college. As a graduation gift, my mom and step dad let me pick a place to travel to. NYC has been on my bucket list so I figured why not? After hours of planning and list-making the time came for us to head to NYC!

DAY ONE
Along comes June 8th and we're off to the airport at 3 a.m. We ended up arriving 45 minutes early and took a cab to our apartment in Chelsea. No one should have to wake up that early and endure their first NYC cab ride during rush hour.. Oh my.  We were cranky, tired, and hungry which isn't a good combination when traveling! 
We settled into our apartment, a third floor walk up, and decided to head out and explore. We bought our 7 day MetroCard and took a train to lower Manhattan. We wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty first so we purchased a NYC CityPass, which includes admission to 6 NYC attractions.  The security at the Statue of Liberty is similar to airport security so it took a few minutes to get through. We spent an hour or so walking around Liberty Island and enjoying the view of the Manhattan skyline. The Statue of Liberty is definitely a must-see (obviously) for anyone going to NYC for the first time. We were looking forward to going up to the crown, but were disappointed to find out our tickets were for admission to Liberty Island only... It was still an amazing experience! We also had the option to get off at Ellis Island, but at that point it had started raining and we were starving. 

I wanted to try Shake Shack and we were in the mood for something fast so we could go back to our apartment and rest. We walked a mile in the pouring rain to Battery Park City to get a burger... It was miserable. By the time we go there, we were soaked and freezing. The food was really good though! I had a ShackBurger and a Wall-nut Street Concrete, mom had a SmokeShack, and we split cheese fries.

We went back to the apartment and rested for a few hours since we were exhausted and didn't want to walk around in the rain. After resting, we got back out and explored Chelsea. We got some essentials for the week at Trader Joe's and split a huge waffle from the Wafels & Dinges food truck for dinner! It had nutella, whipped cream, strawberries, bananas, and powdered sugar and it was amazing. We stopped at Momofuku Milk bar on the way back to get some goodies to take home. We got the crack pie, birthday truffles, compost cookie, confetti cookie, and cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie. I bought their cookbook on Amazon and can't wait to make those cookies!!

DAY TWO
For day 2, we scheduled a 6 hour walking tour. We started off with breakfast at Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company since it was a block away from our apartment. We both got everything bagels with cream cheese and lattes. I think New York has ruined me for bagels. I am officially a bagel snob! These things were monstrous. We ended up splitting one and saving the other for later. 

We did the Dozen Apples tour through Real New York Tours. This was such a great way to see the city and help us for adventures later in the week even though we still got lost. We started in Times Square and made our way through Hell's Kitchen, Central Park, Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, Wall Street, and Ground Zero. We had lunch in Greenwich Village. Mom and I went to Artichoke Basille's for an artichoke slice and then grabbed some fries with fresh parmesan and herbs at Pommes Frites, obviously not concerned about the carbs on this trip... haha. Gregory, our tour guide, was super informative and kept us entertained throughout the day! He asked us what else we had planned the rest of the week and made some recommendations, so overall we were very impressed with him and the tour.

 

Since we had tickets for the 9/11 museum, we decided to stick around the Financial District. We needed a break and the line was super long for the museum anyways, so we headed to Birch Coffee. Birch was my favorite coffee shop and we ended up going back 3 or 4 more times throughout our trip. I even bought a bag of cold brew coffee beans to make my own cold brew at home.

On our way back to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum we stopped at St. Paul's chapel. Amidst all of the chaos on September 11, 2011, the chapel served as a safe haven for the first responders. We got there 10 minutes before they closed, so we only had a few minutes to take it all in. There are not any words I can say to describe my experience at St. Paul's Chapel and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum besides you need to experience it for yourself. It was extremely emotional and we walked through the museum for about 2 hours... 
We took the subway to Chinatown to grab some dinner. We had the famous soup dumplings at Shanghai Cafe and beef with broccoli. On the way home we stopped in Little Italy and enjoyed a cannoli and a tri colored cookie from Ferrara Bakery and Cafe. 

DAY THREE

Today was all about shopping! We didn't have much planned for the day so we walked through Soho, West Village, The Flatiron District, Union Square, and Midtown. We started our day with donuts and cronuts! Our first stop was Doughnut Plant. We split a coconut creme and creme brûlée donut. So delicious... We took the subway to Soho and it just so happened that Dominique Ansel Bakery was right by the station. Of course we stopped to get a cronut at the birth place of the cronut! We didn't have to wait very long and it was well worth every penny. 

We were on a sugar high by the time we finally got to shopping. 
We shopped till we dropped. Some of our favorites were Dean & DeLuca and Eataly, which are specialty grocery stores, Century 21 Department Store, and The Strand bookstore.  I got a ceramic anthora coffee cup that looks like the blue paper cups you get from the street carts and it's one of my favorite souvenirs. We stopped at Luke's Lobster for lunch and both got lobster rolls. Hands down one of the best meals we had in NYC. My only complaint is that it was a little pricey for the amount of food you got, but I would do it all over again!

We walked around the Flatiron District and Union Square and ended up at Brooklyn Roasting Company for an afternoon pick me up. We went back to our apartment to relax and got ready to go back out. 

Before we left Indiana, I bought tickets for the wax museum, Madame Tussauds, on Groupon. We ventured out to Times Square and spent a few hours at Madame Tussauds.  Some of the wax figures were so life-like, it was creepy! 

Times Square was insane and we could barely get around because it was so packed. It was such a spectacular experience though. We went to the Hershey, M&M, and Disney store. By this point, it was probably 9:30 p.m. and we were starving (what's new?? haha.) I pulled out my handy list of NYC restaurants and we walked to Le Meridien hotel to eat at Burger Joint. If you go to NYC and want to eat here, it is an adventure finding it! Once you get into the hotel you have to walk behind this huge curtain and it's literally a hole in the wall restaurant. The menu is hand written on the wall, the line was long, and the food was amazing. Another top NYC restaurant in my book. We traveled back home and crashed after a long day.

DAY FOUR
On day 4, we had tickets to see Wicked on Broadway! We started the day at Ess-a-Bagel, which had a line down the block. An hour and a half later, we finally sat down to eat.  This was by far the best bagel we had out of the 3 bagel places we visited. It was an everything bagel with lox, onions, lettuce, tomato, capers, and cream cheese. This is a MUST NYC bagel joint!! If you plan on going, try calling in an order or go on a weekday if you are in a hurry. 

From there we walked to the Rockefeller Center. With our NYC Pass, we got tickets to go to the Top of the Rock and the Empire State Building. We were able to see a view of the city during the day and night. The views were incredible. My mom is afraid of heights, so I was proud of her for going all the way up. We spent the day walking around and exploring. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Chrysler building, Radio City Music Hall, and Grand Central Station.

We stopped at the Halal Guys street cart and split the Gyro platter which game with lamb, rice, pitas, lettuce, and tomato. I forgot to get a picture, but this was $7 well spent. Make sure you get extra white sauce! Throughout the course of the day, we also stopped at two bakeries. I fell in love with Magnolia Bakery, an iconic NYC bakery that was featured on Sex and the City.  I ended up buying their cookbook and we stopped to get their banana pudding twice more because it was that good! It made the perfect midnight snack for when we got back from Wicked.

We went back to the apartment to rest and get ready for our show. At the show, we bought two of the Wicked "specialty" drinks and they put them in a cute souvenir cup! I am ashamed to say that I have never been to a broadway show or seen Wicked before this day!! Our lives were forever changed... We loved Wicked so much that we contemplated seeing Waitress, but sadly couldn't find tickets that fit our schedule.  The Tony Awards were actually going on that very night and Waitress won a lot of awards, so their shows sold out fast.

As recommended by Nettie Dalley, we went to eat at Carmine's Italian Restaurant after the show. Carmine's serves their food family style, so we were disappointed that we couldn't try more. We shared spaghetti and meatballs and took some leftover to eat for dinner the next night.  

DAY FIVE

On Sunday, we wanted to explore another borough of NYC, Brooklyn! We initially had plans to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, but we were honestly so exhausted and wanted to keep the walking to a minimum today. I regret that we didn't get to do it, but it's on the list for next time We rode the subway to Prospect Park to hit up Smorgasburg. Well, knowing us, we got off in the wrong area and ended up walking 2 miles through Prospect Park trying to find this dang thing! We were starving at this point and were excited to try some new foods. We tried a lemon poppy seed donut from Dough, spring rolls from Lumpia Shack, and a ramen burger from Ramen Burger.  To drink, I got a soda from Brooklyn Soda Works and mom got a maple lemonade that had Vermont maple syrup in it that was amazing. Mom also had a mini maple bacon cupcake since she's obsessed with anything maple bacon! To take home, we bought two 16 oz jars of maple syrup from Dorset Maple Reserve and some homemade licorice from Anya's Licorice.

Next on the agenda was Brooklyn Flea. Mom loves to watch those flea market shows and Brooklyn Flea is always on them. To be honest, we thought it didn't live up to the hype. From that point, we rode the subway to Coney Island. It was extremely packed. I wanted to ride the Cyclone, but I couldn't talk mom into it... We walked to the beach and did some shopping at the souvenir shops. We were starting to get hungry, so we stopped at Rita's. Rita's was another game changer for us since we have never had true frozen custard or true Italian ice.  I got cotton candy ice with vanilla custard and mom got brownie batter ice with vanilla chocolate twist custard. We made sure to stop here again before we went home since there was one in Manhattan.

To end the day, we stopped to get a pizza at DiFara on the way back to the apartment. This place was a nightmare and we received some of the worst customer service I've ever experienced. We originally ordered two slices of the classic pie. Little did we know, they don't put the pizza in for slices until someone else orders slices for the same pizza. We had been waiting for an hour, when we were told this... So thinking we would get our food faster, we ordered a whole classic pie. NOPE! She put us to the bottom of the list. It was ridiculous, but the pizza was pretty good, despite half of the pizza being burnt on the bottom and the 2 and a half hour wait. There were only two people making the pizzas and they had one oven. We were too hungry and too tired to leave and go somewhere else. If we went back to NYC, I would not go here again. I'm not a complainer when it comes to food because I work in the restaurant industry so I know how it is, but I definitely would not want someone else to waste their time here.

DAY SIX
We started off the day with brunch at Sarahbeth's. We split the Eggs Benedict and Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. The food was delicious, but extremely pricey for breakfast. We walked a mile from Sarahbeth's to The Met. With our CityPass, we had tickets to The Met and the American Museum of Natural History. If you're familiar with NYC, you know that there's limited public transportation on the Upper East Side, so we had to walk a little further today. We aren't "museum people" but we enjoyed The Met and mainly went to the American Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs.

We were mentally and physically drained at this point of our trip, so we didn't spend as much time as we could have at the museums. We had walked way more than we were used to walking at home, getting very little sleep, and dealing with too many rude people that it had started to take a toll on us. We spent the rest of the day window shopping on the Upper East Side and Fifth Avenue. 

We stopped at William Greenberg Desserts to get the famous black and white cookie and I ended up getting some mini black and white cookies to take to my brothers and sisters at home. If you've never tried a black and white cookie, you need to. They're the perfect mix of cake and cookie!  I also stopped at Levain Bakery to get cookies to take home. They know what they're doing with that chocolate chip cookie!! Both of these bakeries should be on your NYC food bucket list.

We went back to our apartment to eat dinner, which was salad and leftover Carmine's, and get some things packed. We went back out around 10 p.m. to go up the Empire State Building. Mom did even better here with her fear of heights since she actually went to the edge!

DAY SEVEN
Today started with a walk on the High Line, which was only 3 minutes away from our apartment. We stopped at Chelsea Market to get some lunch. We went to Los Tacos No. 1 and split the carne asada tacos and homemade horchata. They were having a special on their cookbooks, so I ended up getting both of the Chelsea Market cookbooks for $20! I have the carne asada taco recipe bookmarked, so hopefully I make it soon. I got a delicious latte at Blue Bottle Coffee and we walked to Aux Marveilleux de Fred to get some meringues for dessert. 

Since the tragic Orlando shooting happened a few nights before, we stopped at the historic Stonewall Inn to pay our respects. We stopped to get a slice at Joe's on Carmine Street and went to Dominique Ansel Bakery to get frozen s'mores on a stick. Joe's and Dominque Ansel Bakery are a must! We went souvenir shopping and ended the day in Times Square. There's nothing like Times Square at night! We stopped at Shake Shack and headed back to our apartment.

DAY EIGHT
We had a full day left to spend in the city before we had to head to the airport at 6 p.m.  We headed to Lower Manhattan, to pick up breakfast at Russ & Daughters and lunch at Katz Deli. Before we left for our trip, I bought two Groupons for rental bikes in Central Park, so we wanted something we could take to eat lunch in the park. I got the lox bagel at Russ & Daughters, but I preferred the one I got at Ess-a-Bagel. We got the pastrami sandwich to split for lunch from Katz Deli. It was humongous!! I had to take half of the meat off of my portion because it was way too much for me.

We definitely got our workout in while riding the bikes up and down the big hills in Central Park.  At one point we had to stop and walk our bikes up the hill because it was so much work... I'm glad we made time for it because it was a great way to see the park. We stopped at Rita's on the way back to the apartment to cool off. I got the same, cotton candy ice and vanilla custard, and mom got the mango pineapple ice with vanilla custard.  
The plane ride home had a lot of turbulence and of course I started reading a book about a plane crash... Bad decision. We made it home safe and sound and slept for like 3 days straight to recuperate! Haha!

Reflecting back on our trip 3 months later makes me want to go back! After we got home, I said never again, but I definitely appreciate it more now that it has been awhile. I think 8 days was too long for our first trip since we had so much scheduled, but we got to do everything we wanted to do and more. We had plenty of encounters with rude people, more than we're used to in Indiana, and we were running on very little sleep each day, so along with all of the walking it made for a bad combination. On a positive note, since we did so much this trip to NYC, the next will be more laid back because we won't be rushing to get everything in. I'm so grateful for this experience and can't thank my mom and stepdad enough! 

Be on the lookout for my next NYC post... tips for NYC first-timers! I am going to post my advice to make your trip to NYC as great as possible!!

Now I have some questions for you...
1. Have you ever been to NYC? What did you think?
2. Do you like to plan things out before a trip or go with the flow when you get there?
3. What's #1 on your travel bucket list?

Until next time...

XO,

Jayna