nyc: day one. – gentino family

David and I were given the astonishing gift of a trip to New York City this month.

Some friends knew that seeing the Broadway musical, Hamilton, was near the very top of his bucket list, and gave us tickets and their airline miles so we could go. We’ve known about the trip for a couple of months now, but the reality didn’t really start sinking in until a few weeks ago, when it was time to book a hotel and plan in earnest.

I’m excited to tell you all about it here!

The plan.

So this is how we planned the trip.

We decided that if we were going to do NYC, we should stay for three nights. David’s folks were in Seattle with our west coast family, so I was very thankful to be able to piece together three nights and four days of childcare between family and friends. Honestly, that was the most stressful part of the whole trip because I do not like to ask for help, but God blessed us with people who were excited to spend time with our kids. Amelie turned nine while we were away (!!!), and was able to have a special birthday with my family.

We started making our plan by asking friends for their NYC recommendations. Thanks especially to Jessica and David and Kelly for all their help. We wanted to make the best use of our time, so put as much in place as possible before we traveled.

Probably the best advice we got (from friends who learned the hard way) is to pay the extra money to stay midtown. We decided to take a bit of a risk and book our hotel through Priceline to get a better deal, and it paid off! From there we listed everything we wanted to try and do, and David printed out this handy map to write everything out (yes, his handwriting has always been that microscopic).

We used long term parking in Charlotte, NC, and flew from there. It’s less expensive, and friends also warned us way better than flying in and out of Columbia, since that flight is often cancelled.

Our neighborhood.

Through Priceline, we requested a hotel in the Bryant Park area, but were put slightly north, at 5th Avenue and 51st Street. The location was still great: we were across the street from the Rockefeller Plaza, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. And if you’ve been to NYC, our hotel, The Jewel, is right next to the American Girl store.

Here’s the view from our 15th floor room:

If you have the money to avoid Priceline, we’d still recommend choosing something right at Bryant Park, because it’s quieter and a lovely spot to take breakfast. We didn’t spend any time in our immediate neighborhood because it was loud and chaotic, but it was still preferable to being in Times Square.

After all the planning, finally being in New York gives you a feel of the size of the city: it is enormous.

Even with staying midtown, we walked 8 miles that first day we arrived, then 10 the following two, and that’s with using the subway. We’re both active people, but still hit a couple of low points with all that walking (and inevitably getting lost once or twice). I was surprised that I ended up preferring my cute, flimsy American Eagle sandals to my Birkenstocks; less foot support but they also didn’t give me blisters.

We took an Uber straight to our hotel at around 2:30 pm on Monday, and once settled in, we decided to set out and explore.

First up: lunch. Our friends recommended the Food Hall at the Plaza Hotel. It’s the most upscale food court you’ve ever seen, and so much mouth-watering fun. David got a lobster roll, and I found a turkey quinoa bowl (my first and last healthy food choice of the trip).

Afterward, we took coffee and a chocolate scone across the street to Central Park.

We’d each been to NYC once alone, and twice together. If you’ve followed along with our blog for a few years, you may remember we lived there for a month (with a one and two-year-old!!!) as part of our pre-field training before moving to South Asia, so we got a good feel for the city, and had done a few tourist-y things. You know what I realized? That was 2010, and David watched the World Cup in NYC that year too.

No matter how tired and grimy we felt on the subway this trip, we would look at one another and say, “Remember doing this with a stroller and an Ergo carrier and two kids melting down?” (You can find posts about this adventure at our old blog here).

As we planned this trip, 8 years later, one of my favorite bits of advice from a New York blog I perused was to “choose a neighborhood, go there, and wander.”

So that first afternoon, after we felt revived, we took the subway to Greenwich Village for the evening.

Greenwich Village.

The neighborhoods of New York are so much fun. The skyline is lower, so there’s a feeling of more sky and more space, and our favorite thing is the diversity of cultures, accents, and languages. Greenwich Village was New York’s music and art hub — the “Bohemian capital” — of the 1920’s, and still has that feel.

Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village is crowded and energetic.

We found Washington Mews, a historic cobbled street built in the 1800s.

Next we roamed through The Strand bookstore, which boasts “18 miles of new, used, and rare books.” It was truly a treat, and remarkable that David and I made it out of there without buying anything (it helped that we were sticking to one very full carry on suitcase).

We made the decision before our trip that our food theme of the week would be “cheap ethnic food.” So we scoured blogs and made notes of things like, “best hand-pulled noodles for under 10 bucks.” You’d be surprised at how much great, reasonably priced food there is. Typically we’d buy one order of something and share. Even then, I sort of had the feeling money was just pouring from our wallet. Two cups of coffee in NY is 10 dollars!

We had delicious falafel to-go from Mamoun’s, then found a cafe where we could sit with a drink and people-watch. The weather was incredible. It reached the high 80’s during the day, but was only really hot in the sun. Mornings and evenings were so pleasant.

David and I commented after the trip how little conversation with each other we had in New York. Just being there in the city is overwhelming and overstimulating. There’s more to take in at all times than the senses can possibly absorb, and so often you’re dodging throngs of people, on the look-out for the right street, landmark, or subway station.

It was a different sort of trip together, and that made it so very fun.

One of the highlights of the entire trip for us was that first evening in Greenwich Village.

I’d never tasted proper Ramen, so we found a place on Yelp, and got an order to take to the park and share. It ended up being our favorite meal of the week. We sat in Washington Square Park at dusk. There was live music everywhere, and laughter and people playing chess.

We just rested our tired legs and slurped up spicy noodles and soaked it all in until about 10:00. On the way back to our hotel we ducked into a wine shop and found a bottle of Malbec for the same price as the glass I’d just drunk, and resolved to have our drinks back in our room from then on.