I haven't been on a full week vacation in awhile. In fact, I was hesitant to do an entire week in New York City, as I'm pretty stingy with my vacation time (I hoard it actually). But the Stinauers usually do a full week trip each year, and and we agreed there was enough to do in NYC to spend our week, as I have always wanted to go (where don't I wanna go?). So the 8 of us Stinauers hopped on a plane to The Big Apple, for an unforgettable week.
Perfect Location
Perfect location... for first timers in NYC. 47th and 6th avenue is in the heart of the bustling uptown Manhattan. We were within blocks of Times Square, 5th Avenue shopping, Central Park, and Broadway St. The second we stepped out of our two story apartment, we were rushed into the moving foot traffic on the busy Manhattan sidewalk. It was insane. It was smelly. It was fun. But next time I will be staying in Nolita, my favorite neighborhood.
I LOVE the Subway
If you know me fairly well, you would know I love public transportation. Seriously. It's efficient, cost-effective, great for people watching, and much better for the environment.. and without traffic! I took the Amtrak many, many times in college, the El in Chicago on several trips, and the Milwaukee Public Bus maybe one too many times.
I love it. It's weird, I know.
I honestly hadn't even looked into the NYC subway before the trip. I planned everything else, but had heard terrible subway stories from podcasts, blogs, and friends. Yet when we pulled up, we realized that a subway stop was mere feet from our door. We loaded some cards up and used the subway THE ENTIRE TIME.
Watch out Uber: the ole NYC subway is older, wiser, and here to stay.
STUFF WE DID
Central Park
It seems like such a cliche to go to Central Park, but it's really not! There is an incredible amount of stuff to do, see, and it's great for kids. Rocks and boulders to climb, tons of bridges for amazing photo ops, ponds, playgrounds, and merry-go-rounds. We walked through parts of it two separate times and we barely saw a quarter of it. The almost 800 acres of park is a great reprieve from the chaotic city.
Museums, Museums, Museums
I'm really not much of a museum person. I feel like that's probably a pretty average statement from a 24 year old woman. However, the NYC museums are different. They are world-renowned; they are special.
Here's a power ranking of my favorite museums:
1. 9/11 Museum - Being in the 3rd grade when the terrorists struck the twin towers, I have only vague memories of the day. The museum is breathtaking. Quiet, emotional and somber. Thousands of visitors surrounded us, yet the museum is incredibly silent. The timeline of events of the day really put the last hours of almost 3000 people into focus. If you can only go to one museum, go here.
Tip: Get on a tour, it's with headphones and the tour guide silently walks around with his mic. Due to ill planning on my part, we missed our tour day! Bummer!
2. Ellis Island Museum - Having many family members come over on Ellis Island, this place is also very emotional for me. I wish I could have stayed longer.
Tip: Prepare to stay an extra half hour and set up an appointment with a historian to find your ancestor's names in the registry for a small fee. After doing hours of Ancestry.com for my dear grandma, this would have been amazing to do.
3. The Met - My sweet aunts, Val and Jane are big museum people. I hope to be more like them one day. My aunt Val even has a Starry Night and a Lily Pad shirt. It's so adorable. They really wanted us to go to the Met and the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). We only had time for one so we went to the Met. It was great. You get to see incredibly famous paintings up close.
Tip: If you only have an hour, head to the 19th and early 20th century European paintings and sculptures to see the best: Van Gogh, Seurat, Monet, Goya, etc. Also, splurge and rent the $7 headphones to listen to the audio for the paintings if you can!
4. The Museum of Natural History - To be fair, it's going through a ton of renovations, but that meant many, many empty exhibits and walkways. I really think Chicago Field Museum is much cleaner and put together (metaphor for the cities themselves). For a science geek it's pretty neat.
Tip: This may seem odd, but don't go during the week! The amount of kids on school field trips was overwhelming. And loud. Even in the summer!
China Town and Little Italy
This was my favorite part of the trip. China Town and Little Italy are actually really tiny neighborhoods, only a couple of blocks wide, and they even overlap. John, Jay and I basically sampled our way around them both for a couple of hours.
In China Town we got bubble tea at Yaya Tea, which is like tea/juice with tapioca chewy bubbles at the bottom. Next we ran into Mei Li Wah Bakery for the best pork buns ever. I'm not kidding they are the best. Then we finished the Asian part of the day with a great foot rub at Zuyuan spa. Walking 6+ miles a day, we really needed it.
We hopped over to Mott St., or over the "Pacific Ocean" if you will, to get a taste of Little Italy, and holy cannoli. Literally. I was hit straight on with this lovely woman behind a glass case offering peanut butter cannolis. I don't even like dessert, but WOW, those were bomb. We walked into Alleva Dairy to sample some of their famous mozzarella. Not surprisingly, it's not even on the same planet as Linn Lanes bowling alley mozzarella sticks. Then we finished off the trip in NoLita (North of Little Italy) for some amazing Sicilian pizza at Prince Street Pizza. NoLita not only had the best food, but the cutest boutiques shops and quirky people set in a much quieter neighborhood.
Broadway Shows, Late Night Shows & My Fifteen Minutes of Fame
I was never a musical girl until my mother-in-law, Cheryl, took me to see Hamilton in Chicago. Since then, I've been hooked. John, Jay, and I needed to see a show while Bob, Cheryl, Jesse and the girls saw Frozen: The Musical, so I contemplated the best show for a couple of guys and a comedy-loving gal. The easy answer was The Book of Mormon. It was raunchy, hysterical, extremely detailed, and the best part was we had great seats. I wish I could have seen more shows, but this was a great one stop musical for the trip. Apparently Frozen was amazing too!
OK so many of you probably saw I was on the Today Show.
This was just the end of a very exciting morning. I have watched the Today Show with my mom and dad since I could remember. I am now fully obsessed with Savannah and Hoda so I just had to go.
We arrived about 6:15 am, which was probably about 15 minutes later than the ideal time. We went through a metal detector and then stood behind some people at the railing. Eventually those people left as we had to wait until about 8:00 am to see anyone outside.
Al is SO nice, he came out and shook hands with everyone around the railing.
Then Hoda and Savannah came out and Hoda briefly stopped at the railing to talk to a little girl. She kept walking down the line past a couple of people and stopped in front of me. AND SHE HUGGED ME. Then she ran on to the group and in front of the camera. I felt so special.
Later on I ended up sticking around to do a workout segment with my mother-in-law, Cheryl. We had no clue we would be smack dab in front of the camera. (Why didn't you put makeup on that morning ANNA?!) It was pretty nerve-wracking.
On one of the last days, we got to attend a taping of Jimmy Fallon on The Late Night Show. The entire process is really crazy. His tickets are free, but not guaranteed. You have to follow @FallonTix on Twitter (S/O to Steve for helping a non-Twitter girl out!) to see when the tickets are released. It happens about a month before. Then you request tickets, wait a few more weeks and get an email you have tickets. Even then, you may not get in. So go a half hour early than the time it says. After doing that and waiting in a lobby for even longer we were finally shuffled into the theater. As luck would have it, we were seated in the last row. However, with Chris Pratt and Christina Aguilera as guests, it was great nonetheless. Jimmy is also incredibly nice and spent a good amount of time answering questions from the audience. Still a big fan!
Must Stop Restaurants
A couple of really great restaurants for families and big groups are:
Carmine's - a family style Italian restaurant where we passed around huge plates of Italian food like calamari and meatballs
Tavern on The Green - the beautifully famous restaurant in Central Park with great cocktails and beautiful decorations, just steps from the park
Flame - the hibachi-style restaurant we indulged in for Bob's birthday that is probably the best hibachi I have ever had
Keste - where we shared different neopolitan-style pizza and red wine in a tiny restaurant
Joe's Pizza - in Greenwich Village, arguably NYC's best pizza and the setting for many famous movies
Coney Island!!!
If you are coming to NYC with anyone under the age of 15, Coney Island is the place to be. About 45 minutes to an hour on the Subway to the south side of Brooklyn, Coney Island is incredibly fun for kids (ok and adults). While the little ones get on all the rides, grab yourself a beer and a famous Coney Island hot dog and relax. Maybe a couple more beers would do the trick.
See you again soon NYC, I love you (and your subway!)
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