Back in June, when Greg was visiting for Father's Day, he brought up the idea of me coming out to visit him in New York City. His current consulting project is at the Federal Reserve, and it would be a fun, fairly cheap trip since he gets his hotel paid for through work. Our summer schedule has been busy, but it was nice to be able to sneak away for a few days here before school starts up again. Plus, Abby was at Miriam's for "Camp Carlson", and Norah was able to stay with my parents, so it all worked out.
I flew out Tuesday afternoon, after a meeting at school. Even though parking and the security line were crazy, the flight was quick and uneventful. Greg wasn't scheduled to get in until much later than my 7ish p.m. arrival time, so I navigated my way to the hotel myself (thanks to some tips from my dad, who had visited Greg earlier this summer). It was a quick bus ride, then a subway ride, then a brief walk to the hotel. By the time I got checked in, I was so hungry. I texted Greg for a recommendation about where to get food, and he said Joe's Pizza was his favorite. It was only a couple of blocks away, so I picked up a slice of pizza and a (glass) bottle of Coke and brought it back to the hotel to eat. We were staying on the 41st floor--crazy and amazing views! I did some work and relaxed while waiting for Greg to get in. He got to the hotel around 11:30ish, and we stayed up talking for quite awhile.
Wednesday morning, Greg left for work around 8:30, and I stayed at the hotel until about 9:45 getting ready for the day and doing a little more work. My first stop was the 9/11 Museum and memorial pools. This was such an emotional and powerful place to visit. The line was long, so I didn't actually get in until 10:45, but I ended up staying until about 1:30. This was definitely one of the best places I visited on the trip. After the museum, I met up with Greg for lunch at a fancy shopping center's food court. We had the best quesadillas at Dos Toros Taquiera.
After lunch, Greg headed back to work, and I visited St. Paul's chapel next to our hotel. I stopped back at the hotel quickly, then made my way to Battery Park on foot. Here, I had a view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Next, I walked to the Wall Street area to see the famous charging bull statue. I didn't get a picture, as there were lines of people on either side of the statue. After seeing the statue, I decided to see how far away Brooklyn Bridge was. It was fairly close, so I started my walk. When I got to the waterfront, I realized I had typed in Brooklyn Bridge Park and had been directed to the ferry, so I had to do some extra walking to get to the pedestrian part of the bridge. I was able to walk through the South Seaport area, which looked like it had some neat restaurants and a Titanic museum. I made it to Brooklyn Bridge and bought a water, since it was very hot and muggy. The walk across the bridge was neat, but there were tons of people. Once I made it across to Brooklyn, I decided not to go all the way off the bridge and down to the park, since it looked like bad weather was coming. I walked back over to Manhattan, then made my way on foot back to the hotel. My feet were killing me after all of the walking, and I needed a second shower of the day since it was so muggy and hot out. While I was taking it easy, the storms started rolling in and we were under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. Being on the 41st floor when the winds and rain started to come up was a little freaky, so I went down to the lobby to sit and read/people watch. Many people were taking shelter in the hotel lobby/under the overhang and across the street at the subway station entrance. After the rain settled down, I went back upstairs to relax until Greg texted.
That night, we met up at the subway station and headed over to Broadway to see "Mean Girls". We had 2nd row seats, and the show was amazing! Such a great show. We hadn't eaten dinner, so after heading back to the hotel area, we got slices of pizza at Joe's around 11:00.
Thursday morning, I decided to check out the American Museum of Natural History. Since it opened at 10, I left around 9:30 and took the subway there. I made it through all of the rooms/displays, and it was an impressive building, but I had enjoyed the 9/11 museum more. I ate lunch at one of the cafes in the museum. After the museum, I walked across the street to Central Park. I wandered along paths, around a lake where several people were rowboating, past a little theater and Shakespeare's Garden, and walked up to the top of Belvedere's Castle. My loop brought me back to the museum, and from there I took the subway to Greenwich Village. There, I walked to the "Friend's" apartment/coffee shop and then walked over to Washington Square Park. There was a fountain that people were sticking their feet in. I was getting tired and hot, so I decided to head back to the hotel. When I got off the subway, I came through the Oculus, which has a lot of fancy stores and was across the street from our hotel. Back at the hotel, I was able to do some reading and take a nap, and of course take another second shower of the day (it was another HOT and humid day). Greg texted about meeting up at the subway station again, since he had gotten tickets for a play.
We saw "The Play That Goes Wrong" Off-Broadway--it was so funny! It got out around 9, and we found a diner near Times Square, where we both got some yummy breakfast food. It had started raining during the play, and it was finally starting to cool things off a little bit.
On Friday morning, it was still raining, so I decided to check out the New York Public Library when it opened at 10. I took the subway to Grand Central Station and checked that out first. I had brought a book, so when I got to the library, I sat and read until about 11. It had pretty much stopped raining when I left. I walked behind the library through Bryant Park, then found a Paris Baguette near Times Square. We had enjoyed Paris Baguette several times in South Korea, so it was fun getting a chocolate chip twist and remembering all of the yummy breakfasts from our trip last year. After that, I took the subway to the Chelsea area and found a stairway to get up to the High Line. I read a book to my students called
The Curious Garden, which is about the High Line, so I have been wanting to walk along it. It was really neat, and so unique. I walked from the Chelsea Market area all the way down to the end at Hudson Yards. While I was down there, Greg texted to say he had gotten out of work early and would meet me for lunch, so I headed back to Chelsea Market. We had hot dogs and macaroni and cheese at a meat market food booth. It was weird having daytime company after being by myself for two days, but also nice to have company. We decided to go back up to Central Park and walk around a different portion than I had the day before. We wandered around there for quite awhile, then walked down 5th Ave., Madison Ave., and Park Ave. When our legs were getting tired, we took the subway down to Madison Square Park and found a place to sit. At that park was the original Shake Shack, so we enjoyed some fries and shakes while relaxing for awhile.
That evening, we went to a couple of improv comedy shows. The first was at the People's Improv Theater (the PIT) and was an improvised 30 Rock show. It was okay, but pretty short and not our favorite. From there, we walked a little over a mile to see the Upright Citizen's Brigade do an hour-long show, where they had a few people from the audience share something about their week and then they made their sketches about those stories. They were really funny, and we wished we had gone to the 7:00 show of that instead of the PIT show. The UCB show got out around 9:30, so we headed back to the hotel for dinner and to pack. Of course, we ended up at Joe's Pizza again! This time, I got the white pizza, which was amazing! We packed and got to bed around 11ish.
This morning was an early morning--5 a.m. alarm and out of the hotel by 5:15ish. We took an Uber to the airport. On the way, I realized I left my iPad and headphones on the bed, but luckily, Greg messaged the hotel and they found them and put them with the luggage Greg left at the hotel (he'll be back on Monday). The flight back and getting home went smoothly, and it was back into real life! The house needed cleaning, laundry to do and put away, unpacking everyone from all of their trips, and school starting Monday! It was nice to have this getaway, though, and great to have some time with Greg (and time to be by myself!).
