I Heart New York

If you would have told me a year ago that this was going to happen, I would have NEVER believed you- which made our Spring Break trip all the sweeter.  My parents offered to come and stay with the girls so Steve and I could have a kid-free vacation.  I know, amazing right?!

We had a great time!  When we got in Sunday night we met up with Chris and Alison (they've been living there for 5 years while Chris works in a lab at Columbia) for dinner.  We went to a great little place in Greenwich Village and the food was SO good, but the company was even better.  We miss the Fetches so much!  After dinner we walked around the neighborhood and Washington Square Park.     (Not sure how we didn't get any pics of Chris or the kids the whole time we were there.  Sad face emoji.)

We stayed at a fun (read: hipster) hotel a few blocks from Times Square.  We mostly walked or took the train to get around.

We had a corner room on the 25th floor with a great view!

We took our time getting ready each morning (no one to wake us up and ask "where are we going today" or "can we watch cartoons"). Monday morning was COLD for these Texas peeps, after a bagel and coffee/chai at a great coffee shop, we bundled up and took the subway to the 9/11 Memorial.  We both really appreciated the memorial; the design is beautiful and incredibly impactful.  Two large square infinity pools stand in the place of the two towers and water flows down into a center square that is too deep to see the bottom.  Names of those who were killed are printed on panels around the edge of the pools.  It was surprising that the buildings surrounding the area were mostly undamaged.  In fact, there is a pear tree in the plaza that miraculously survived and was replanted in it's place after the area had been rebuilt.

We walked from the memorial, past the gorgeous Trinity church (unharmed) where Alexander Hamilton's grave was, and over to Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange building, and the famous bull.  (Two days later, Women's Day, they placed a statue of a young girl staring down the bull.  Wish we had passed it that day!)

Trinity Church

Alexander Hamilton

Wall Street

New York Stock Exchange

Our next stop was Battery Park on our way to see the Statue of Liberty.  We decided against waiting in the long lines to travel to island and go in the statue.  Instead we took the Staten Island Ferry ride past Lady Liberty.  It was SO cold but awesome to see!

On the way out we were on a ferry that didn't have an open air deck, which meant it was a little warmer, but resulted in bad pics through the dirty windows!

On our way back to our hotel we stopped at Joe's Pizza to get some authentic new york style pizza.  Apparently this place was in the Spiderman movie and the line out the door was proof of it's popularity.  The pizza lived up to it's hype- yum!  We quickly realized that if you have 20 square feet of space in NYC, it is plenty to open a restaurant with tables to seat 12.  It's sort of the opposite of Texas!

We had reserved "non-guaranteed" tickets for the Daily Show for Monday evening so, after a little nap, we braved the cold some more and que-ed up for a seat.  After about an hour and a half of waiting we were at the front of the line and someone came out and said they had 1 ticket left.  Wah, wah, wah.  I gave him my pouty face and told him we needed 2, but no luck.  We didn't really have a back up plan, but decided to make a run for it to the TKTS stand in Times Square to see if we could get discounted tickets to a show instead.  It turns out not getting into the Daily Show was the best thing that happened because we scored 50% off tickets to Kinky Boots, 6th row center!  I think it was the highlight of the trip for both of us.  It was an AMAZING show- great story, incredible actors, performers and costumes.  I would highly recommend it!

We stopped for cookies and milk and then crashed at our hotel after a long, cold day.

Tuesday morning was overcast and drizzling.  We planned ahead for this scenario and had a museum day.  First stop was Ess-A Bagel for breakfast.  It was so hard deciding what kind to get.  I could eat bagels and cream cheese every day!  We decided MOMA was the art museum we wanted to see most and it definitely didn't disappoint!  Around every corner was another famous artwork and we spent half of the day there.

Yum!

Andy Warhol

 Matisse

Eek!  Monet's Waterlilies

Bigger than the one we saw in Paris!

Salvador Dali (So small I almost walked right past it!)

 Wow!

Jackson Pollak

After the museum we walked through Chelsea Market and had another difficult time deciding what to eat for lunch- so many good choices!  We ended up with a Thai beef pot pie and Taiwanese noodles.  Each bowl had one loooong fresh made noodle that we watched them stretch!  It was delicious!  I also grabbed what turned out to be a $9 bottle of juice-ha!

We decided to walk back to our hotel from the market because we were able to follow the Hi-Line much of the way.  It is an old elevated railway turned into a park/walking path.  It was very well designed and landscaped and we had some good views of the city and even into people's apartments right along the rail line!

That night we had tickets to see Book of Morman with Chris and Alison.  This was Steve's choice and he and Chris laughed hysterically throughout the show.  I thought the acting was once again great, and really enjoyed several of the songs.  The humor wasn't my favorite, but being on Broadway with Steve and our friends was super special for sure.

Our late-night snack that night was ice cream and fries at Shake Shack were we waited in line down the block again.  Yes, we ate a TON of food on our trip but we didn't feel too guilty because we walked SO much that our feet and backs were aching by the time we fell into bed each night.

Wednesday was the best day weather-wise.  We ate crepes at the Plaza Hotel for breakfast and got the girls some Eloise souvenirs at a little shop there.  Across the street from the Plaza is Central Park, where we planned to spend part of the day.  We rented bikes and spent a couple hours riding all around the park.  It was beautiful and quite compared to the noise, bustling city.

The Plaza Hotel

Looking for Eloise

Didn't see her, but checked out a cute little shop

 Central Park- The Mall (would be beautiful in the spring or fall)

Alice in Wonderland

After returning our bikes we ran into a Day Without Women March right in front of Trump Tower.  I cheered them on as they chanted "Hey hey, ho, ho.  D--- T--- has got to go!"  (If you look close you might even see the a-hole in the MAGA hat.  Barf.)
NYC Women's Day from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

Next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge where we walked across and enjoyed a beautiful day and view of the city.

We hustled back to Times Square to see if we could get tickets for a third night of shows, but realized that we wouldn't have enough time to squeeze everything in.  Instead we literally rain to Grand Central Station and jumped on a commuter train to Riverdale where Chris and Alison live.  We got great Greek take-out and had a chance to see Ethan, Cameron, and meet Noel.  So crazy to think how little the bigger boys were the last time we'd seen them (2 and a few months, I think).  They were all just as exactly as I'd imagined them though thanks to the miracle of the internets and blogs!  I'm thankful we got to see a glimpse of their life in New York and even happier for them that Chris got a job offer and they will be leaving the high rise apartment life soon!

We had one last amazing late night snack on our way back to our hotel.  Wafels and Dinges was on a list of places I'd made and surpassed our expectations.  Oh my goodness.  And yes, after a 2 hour bike ride and miles of walking, we each got our own!

So much walking!

Thanks for an amazing time NYC!  Hope to see you again someday!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Gaga and Grandpa for making this trip possible!