Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Kid-Free in New York City: Day 1

Back in late 2021, the whole family took a super quick trip to New York City right before Christmas. I was feeling my post-pandemic oats and I could not wait another minute to finally see Hadestown on Broadway!

In retrospect, I really should have waited another three or four months, because our trip coincided with a COVID surge in New York City and a lot of the stuff that we'd wanted to do got canceled--including Hadestown, sob. 

Over the next couple of years, I often thought about trying to schedule another quick trip to see the show, but I just never did it. And then for Christmas last year, my partner did it for me!

So just a few weeks after dropping our older kid back at college for the semester, my partner and I left our younger kid home alone to chug along with her school and ballet and take care of the pets, and he and I flew to New York City, just the two of us, for a two-day adventure.

Here's me trying to figure out how to get from Newark to our hotel:


But here's what I consider my REAL first thing in New York City:


My egg, cheese, and pastrami breakfast sandwich is on the poppyseediest poppyseed bagel I have ever seen!

Fun fact: my partner ordered bagels from bagel shops twice during our two-day trip. Neither time did he check the bag. BOTH times he got shorted by one bagel!

New York City has some hard lessons to teach...

We stayed at 3 West Club and were quite comfortable there, with nearly everything that we wanted to do within walking distance. There was kind of some weird decor, though, and when I Googled to figure out what on earth... yeah, the place is apparently run by the Women's National Republican Club, oops. Guess that explains all the Teddy Roosevelt paintings and elephant statuary!

Anyway, we were really only there to sleep. The rest of the time, we were out here!



My partner thought the Museum of Illusions looked interesting, so we did that first. 



It WAS very interesting, but maybe not $23 a person interesting... or that may just be my New York City sticker shock in general? 



Regardless, it was fun to see all the cool visual effects and take photos of ourselves looking like one of us is really tiny while the other is really short or like we're hanging from the ceiling or standing at an impossible angle, etc. 



Someone who actually knows how to work their camera phone would have done better, because I was fighting for my life trying to figure out how to take selfie videos or use the self-timer or not have fourteen chins.


I think this illusion is the coolest, but my teenager says she can't see it! Can YOU see the dots undulating in a wave-like motion?

If I ever go back, it will be well-researched and with a shot list in hand!


I'd wanted to do Chelsea Market and the High Line the last time we were in New York City but the weather never seemed right for it. This time, though, the weather was wonderful, AND we were just a few blocks away!



I had to looky-loo at every single food stall and menu board, but all we actually bought to eat were these delicious mini doughnuts:



Then, to the High Line!



While we were on the High Line we saw Little Island and decided that what we ACTUALLY wanted to do was go there.

So we did!



There are some really lovely vistas of Lower Manhattan and the Hudson River from the upper levels, including a tiny Statue of Liberty super far away. 


For most of the afternoon, we just wandered--



--detoured back to Chelsea Market for a proper lunch--


--wandered some more--



--and then got completely lost in Penn Station. Fortunately as we were wandering determinedly in what turned out to be the absolutely wrong direction, I saw two people in Rangers jerseys walking the way we'd just come from. So obviously we let them go by, did an about face, and followed them straight to Madison Square Garden.

How is this for happy coincidences? Before we scanned our tickets, I spent ages in the gift shop mooning over the New York Rangers knit hats. I really wanted this one, but I would have taken any of them, but mostly I didn't want to pay what they were charging for anything so I left empty-handed. 

New. York. City. PRICES!!!

So imagine my hysterical excitement (or do not, because it was A Lot) when we finally scanned our tickets, and just on the other side was a guy handing out free New York Rangers knit hats!


It's itchy as hell and I do not care. I love it!

You know you've got great seats when you take every escalator that exists, then finally emerge into the arena, show the usher your seat number, and he points up and says, "Last row." Lol! Who doesn't love a bird's-eye view!

Somewhere around here in between plays the DJ played "Suffragette City" so I texted my teenager a video--David Bowie is her favorite!

The Rangers weren't playing very aggressively that night--in fact, they spent most of the game just sort of skating leisurely around the rink, handing the puck over to Calgary whenever they got tired of passing it back and forth--but Calgary seemed fine with it enough to let them score twice, so we got to watch the Rangers win in their home arena!


Afterwards, I wasn't up for the bar hopping or clubbing or M&M store shopping or whatever on earth the other billion people out in the streets were doing at 10:30 pm, but happily our walk home led us through Times Square, so we got to sneak in a little more sightseeing:



Then it was back to our Republican stronghold for pizza and Princess Bride on cable.

Tomorrow: HADESTOWN!!!!!!!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!
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Monday, February 5, 2024

To Do in New York City: The Trip Without Teenagers


Because after all, I DID tell Patience and Fortitude that I would come back to see them again!

Later this winter, my partner and I are taking our second whirlwind trip to New York City, this time without the teenagers. We're going to see if we can take another run at my all-time favorite Broadway musical that I've never seen live, the musical that we traveled all the way to New York City once already to see but it was cancelled because of COVID so I still haven't seen it: HADESTOWN!

Could I possibly be more excited than I am right now? Nope!

One excited fact of the many that I could spout: Ani DiFranco, who sang the role of Persephone in the 2010 Hadestown concept album, is joining the cast to reprise that role! I'm going to try to figure out how to stage door afterwards to get her autograph (and yes, I have literally looked up YouTube videos of the Hadestown stage door so I can learn the social script...).

Other than Hadestown, Matt and I will have approximately 2.5 days in New York City to sightsee. I cannot even triage what I want to try to fit into 2.5 days--my Google Map of stuff that I want to do in New York City has 80+ pins!

Here, though, are some of my current favorite ideas, mostly in case I get there, freak out with excitement, and can't remember what I wanted to do most:

Museum of Illusions

As the museum on my list that my partner is most excited about, we're definitely going here! He's a graphic designer, and graphic designers apparently get VERY worked up about visual illusions...

I actually feel a little guilty that we're going here without the teenagers, because they would LOVE it, but in this Year of Our Lord 2024 I'm trying to convince myself that I cannot not do something just so I can save it to do with people who do not, or shortly will not, even live with me full-time. SOB!

Chelsea Market



Because if you don't go to a food hall, have you even been to the city? This has apparently been my rallying cry of the past year, since I've somehow managed to find an indoor market in every city I've visited since the day we dropped my kid off at college and decided to check out North Market on our way to watch to the Blue Jackets play.

Chelsea Market is a very short walk from the Museum of Illusions, so we'll head there afterwards for lunch and window-shopping.

The High Line


Will it be too cold to walk the High Line after Chelsea Market? Maybe! It definitely felt too cold last time we were in New York City, also in the winter, so we didn't do it. 

New York Rangers Game



Guess who's going to be screaming her head off from the nosebleed seats in Madison Square Garden?!?

I am almost as excited about this as I am about Hadestown!

Big Gay Ice Cream



I think there's supposed to be a location of this local ice cream chain actually in Madison Square Garden, because what more thematically-appropriate food for an ice hockey game than ice cream?

Museum of Modern Art



Unless the second day that we're in NYC is insanely beautiful and we decide to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge instead, I think we're going to hang out in the MOMA. Y'all know how I feel about Vincent Van Gogh so I really want to see "Starry Night," and I'm also excited to see their Dali and Wyeth works.

Ellen's Stardust Diner



The kids are going to be thrilled that they weren't invited when I tell them about this place, because I can tell you right now that Ellen's Stardust Diner is Not. Their. Vibe. Tbh, it may not turn out to be quite my vibe either, ahem, but nevertheless I really, really, really want to experience it at least once!

Hadestown



Watching this show is the whole reason for our trip and I can. Not. WAIT!!!

The Rum House



Bars intimidate me because I never feel like I can crack the social script, but my partner and I DO like to try new cocktails, and this one is very close to Walter Kerr Theatre, so it would be a nice place to unwind afterwards and talk over every second of the show.

New York Public Library



We'll have to leave for the airport halfway through our last day in New York City, but I think we'll have the perfect amount of time to FINALLY go inside the New York Public Library to meet Winnie-the-Pooh! 

Metropolitan Museum of Art

I most want to see the Temple of Dendur and the Greek statues. This isn't at the top of my list for this upcoming trip, but it will quickly move higher up my list if the weather is gross!

Ess-a-Bagel



It's one of a billion bagel shops in NYC, and one of a hundred within easy walking distance of our hotel, so maybe we won't hit this *exact* one, but we're definitely going to stuff ourselves with bagels the whole time we're there... so maybe we will!

My college kid still talks about the bagels she ate in New York City and wants us to try to mail her one? 

Intrepid Museum



They have a space shuttle!

Doughnut Plant

Doughnut Plant was almost the first thing that we did during our first trip to NYC because it's in Grand Central Station, where we were currently lost. We could not for the life of us figure out how to buy 7-Day Metrocards so we decided to take a breather and eat a doughnut.

Sufficiently sugar-fueled by my Brooklyn Blackout, I finally realized that the ticket machine I kept unsuccessfully trying to buy subway tickets for was a TRAIN-ONLY ticket machine. Finding the subway ticket machine was a whole other thing, but it wouldn't have been possible without my Brooklyn Blackout! If we end up anywhere near Grand Central Station on this trip, I'm eager to try another one.

Morgan Library

It's always fun to see how the fancy people lived, but mostly I want to see what my future library should look like.

The Greene Space

This spot is the NYC NPR venue for performances and live radio shows. I would be STOKED to attend a taping of an NPR program, especially. 

Dominique Ansel Bakery

I am already going to be well-fed with all the bagels and pizza and doughnuts I plan be continually eating... but I also want to try a cronut!

American Folk Art Museum

I'm pretty excited to see a free museum on a topic that I'm very interested in! 

The Skyscraper Museum

I'm not sure what-all is in this museum, but all they had to tell me is that it's free, lol! If we do anything else in Lower Manhattan, stopping in here would be worth it just to have 30 minutes when we're not spending money. 

Stonewall National Monument

This is another place that I ran out of time to take the teenagers on our previous trip to NYC, so I'd feel a little sad seeing it without them--but also, I really want to see it!

The Tenement Museum

I also wish I could take my teenager to this museum, which would give her such good insight into her AP US History class. 

Empire State Building

I kind of want to go just for the Percy Jackson vibes, but it's bonkers spendy and anyway, my partner is afraid of heights... We'll at least find a good viewpoint one night to check out the tower lights!

Ghostbusters Headquarters

My partner and I would both be beyond excited about this if you could do more than just look at it from the outside... but if we find ourselves in the neighborhood, we are 100% going to walk over, look at it from the outside, and take a million photos of each other pretending to be real ghostbusters!

Trinity Church

We walked right past Trinity Church on our previous trip to NYC, but it had a ton of scaffolding and assorted construction around it so we didn't go over, thinking that the cemetery (and Eliza and Alexander Hamilton's graves!!!) would be blocked. I've since learned that we probably could have seen them around the construction, dang it.

Museum of Broadway

The reviews that I keep seeing about this newer museum waver between "it's so cool" and "it's a tourist trap," so I don't really know what to think. It doesn't look like they have a ton of artifacts from most of my favorite productions, though, so I think it's probably skippable at least for this trip?

Okay, y'all: THIS is the mess I'm trying to narrow down into a 2.5-day itinerary! Please let me know if you've got awesome tips or must-do activities, or if you can recommend/warn me away from any of these spots.

Except for Ellen's Stardust Diner, that is. I already know they sing there, and I promise that I want to go anyway!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, handmade homeschool high school studies, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

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