My first trip to New York City was delightful. I had some flight vouchers for getting bumped on a couple flights and I had really been wanting to go to New York since I'd never been. I also wanted to see Newsies on Broadway so much that I couldn't contain my excitement. I would listen to the Newsies Pandora station and Tyler and I would sing at the top our lungs. The songs are just so good! We booked our trip while we were in Hawaii actually because my mom called me (while we were riding down the volcano on our bikes) and said the tickets were a good deal. We booked them the next morning! Katelyn couldn't come because of school so it was me, Tyler, my mom and Jocelyn. We went from April 4-8th. We all drove up to the airport from my house. Carol gave Tyler a HUGE bag of snacks and treats for the trip which I thought was so thoughtful! Our plane was delayed about an hour so we got to JFK pretty late. We took a taxi to our hotel, the Courtyard Marriott in Times Square. It was an amazing location and we loved staying there.
The next morning, we woke up and got ready and headed right to Times Square! It was so much fun to see the area that I had seen so many times in movies and TV. We walked into a few shops like M&M World and Hershey's World then walked to Magnolia Bakery to try out their famous banana pudding. We got tickets to the Top of the Rockefeller Center and saw all of Manhattan from the top. We got a hot dog on the street for lunch (not as good as my mom had remembered ha ha - when she went before she must have tried a different place!) then we went to stand in line at the TKTS booth in Times Square to get tickets to see Newsies. It was a little deceiving because we thought we would be able to get super discounted tickets but they really only sell the premium seats at a discount. The tickets were more expensive than we thought they would be, but we ended up with incredible seats at least! We wanted to go to Grimaldi's for pizza in Brooklyn but got a little lost trying to find our way on the subway so we ended up finding a delicious salad and pizza place. We then saw Newsies and it was incredible and everything I hoped it would be! The songs, dancing and acting were the absolute best. I could watch it again 5 times over and not get sick of it! I'm so glad I was able to check that off my bucket list!
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at McDonald's then took the subway to the 9/11 Memorial. It is a sacred ground where many lives were lost. One of the volunteers was a man who had been in the North tower. Many of his friends had died. I imagine it was very healing for him to talk about that day with those who came to visit. There was a visitor's center outside of the memorial with some stories told by people effected by that horrible tragedy. One man lost two of his sons that day who were both firefighters. He was able to say "I love you" to both of them over the phone which he thought was such a blessing. It brought us to tears!
After the memorial we walked over to Wall Street and saw some of the famous sites like the stock exchange, statue of George Washington where he was sworn in as the first President of the United States, the bull and Trinity Church. We walked over to the Staten Island Ferry to drive by the Statue of Liberty and got the best almond croissant of our whole lives at Au Bon Pain. I really liked seeing the Statue of Liberty because I love America and am so honored to live in this country. We saw the other statue when we were in France. After we traveled back on the ferry we took the subway to Brooklyn and had Grimaldi's pizza. There was a long line and we thought we might have to wait an hour...then the manager of the store I'm assuming (he was in his 60's) walks to the back of the line where we were at, asks us how many people were in our group then takes us past everyone and seats us! It kind of felt like a celebrity moment and we couldn't figure out what we did right to get such special treatment. We also saw Grimaldi himself and he told us "it made his day that we came out." I'm sure he says that to everyone but it was such a lovely evening and the pizza was great!
After dinner we took the subway to Central Park and took a nice little walk through the park. We also got some of the candied almonds that we had been smelling which are delish. We walked to Laduree but they were closed, then we walked to Kate Spade where I got some darling striped and polka dot acrylic straws. After that we went to Dylan's Candy Bar and spent at least an hour in there walking around and seeing all of the fun candies and decor. Jocelyn and I wanted so bad to have a real life Charlie and the Chocolate Factory experience and this is as close as we have come! We then walked down the block to Serendipity. We wish we would have put our name on the list before Dylan's because it was an hour wait and we didn't want to wait that night. We went to Shake Shack instead and got cheeseburgers, fries and shakes! I really wish they had a Shake Shack in Utah. The shakes were really creamy and the cheeseburgers were SO good too.
The next day we went to take the subway to get David Letterman tickets for my mom and sister (Tyler and I had gotten the call that we won the tickets a few days before). We got really lost because Tyler took us in the wrong direction. My mom and I were so hungry that we got pizza for breakfast that was absolutely delicious and then got some fruit at Whole Foods. We then got back on the subway and finally made it so Jocelyn and my mom could do a quick interview to get tickets. We then went to Carnegie Deli for brunch. Mom and I got an omelet to share and Jocelyn and Ty got pancakes. We wanted to get their famous cheesecake but were full! Jocelyn go the call that the got the tickets while were were at the restaurant. After eating we all got "I love New York" sweatshirts then went back to the hotel to drop off our goodies. We stopped at the Majestic Theater to get Phantom of the Opera tickets for that night. After that we went back to the studio to get our tickets to Letterman and they put a special red sticker on ours that we noticed no one else had. When we went in to the next room, we were put on one side and everyone else was put on the other side. We were then taken out to the front where we were told that they liked us so they wanted us to sit in the front rows! We left to get a drink then came back and were first in line. We waited inside after that and all of the sudden Lindsay Lohan walks right next to us. I guess normally celebrities walk though the back door but she walked through the front! The show was really fun and Dave was standing right in front of us when he came out. He is really funny I think. Before he came out and the band was playing, Tyler was dancing really funny so the announcer told him to come up and and dance in front of everyone! I wasn't surprised :)
After the show we went to get cupcakes at Crumbs. The squiggle cupcake was amazing! It was raining so luckily we all had our umbrellas with us. We stopped to get coconut cream pie for my mom at Carnegie Deli to go then we went to Burger Joint for dinner. We would have never found it unless my friends had recommended it because it's in a hotel hidden behind a big curtain. After dinner Tyler went to check out the Nike store and the girls went to FAO Shwarz only to find out that it was closed :( We then found our way to the subway. I thought New York was so pretty in the rain. I felt like I was in movie because it was just so pretty! We saw Phantom of the Opera that night then went back to our hotel room.
The next morning when we should have been leaving we went to get breakfast, then some croissants and ended up missing our flight! We were all being air heads that morning. Luckily we got a flight out a few hours later after we arrived to the airport by subway.
I love New York and would love to go back someday soon!
