New York City

For our long vacation this year, Dustin and I decided to visit New York City and Washington D.C. I'll split the two cities into separate posts to save you all from too much photo overload. 

Some random notes: 

We bought two 7 day bus/subway passes for $30 each. I assumed that we would use the transport enough to pay itself off, even though we would only be there for 4 days. We didn't calculate it all out, but I'm pretty sure we came out even on that. It was also very nice not to worry about putting money on the card all the time or using exact change.

We also bought the CityPASS, which included tickets to the 1) Empire State Building's 86th floor observatory (we read that going all the way to the top wasn't really much better) for the day and then again that same night, 2) American Museum of Natural History, 3) Metropolitan Museum of Art, 4) Museum of Modern Art, 5) Top of Rockefeller Plaza (we could have gone to the Guggenheim Museum instead, but wanted to compare the views between the Empire and Rock), and 6) Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We did everything on the CityPASS, which did save us some money.

Our hotel in New York had breakfast included, so each morning we walked a few doors down to a little restaurant to hand in our tickets. Most days we got breakfast sandwiches to go.

Day 1 

We took a red eye flight, landing in New York around 9 a.m. Saturday morning. I was pleasantly surprised at how awake I was when we landed, since I hadn't slept very well on the plane. We traveled toward our hotel via the subway and, after a little bit of phone navigation when we discovered the train we were looking for wasn't running that weekend, found our way onto the streets of New York. We found our hotel and dropped our bags off before heading back out to wander around. We ended up randomly coming upon Grand Central Station, where we decided to stop for some food. We devoured some delicious burgers from Shake Shack. Then we wandered some more and found our way to Rockefeller Plaza (and the Lego store, much to Dustin's happiness) and Times Square (which reminded me of the Las Vegas strip). I was starting to get grouchy from lack of sleep, so we headed back to the hotel and took a nap for a few hours. We woke up just in time for dinner and located a place nearby that served NY-style pizza. 

On the plane before takeoff

Tired but full of Shake Shack burgers in front of Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building

Lego store!

Times Square. Busy, and not all that interesting

NY-style pizza

Day 2

The next morning we went to the top of the Empire State Building. It was a nice, clear day, perfect for viewing the city. After that we attempted to find a bus that would take us north to Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was a parade that day, so some of the regular buses weren't running and it took us a good amount of time and temperament to get the correct bus. 

We finally made it to the MET and saw as much as we could before it closed at 5:30 (though seriously, they kick you out at 5:15). It was amazing (Greek statuary, paintings from Monet, Van Gogh, Seurat, etc.), but we totally missed the Egyptian and Asian art sections, which was a bummer. We actually considered going back another day and paying the entrance fee again! 

We started to wander around Central Park a bit, but I decided that I was tired and hungry. It didn't hurt that we weren't very far away from Two Little Red Hens Bakery, which I had heard great things about. We picked up three cupcakes (carrot cake for Dustin, yellow for me, and a chocolatey Brooklyn Blackout to share). After that, I decided that I was ready to go on. We took the bus back up to Central Park and wandered around there until it got dark and the fireflies came out. Later that night, we went back to the Empire State Building to see it at night.

South view of the One World Trade Center and Liberty Island

Outside the MET

Seurat

Van Gogh

Monet

Best cupcakes!

Why eat dinner when you can have cupcakes instead?!

Central Park

Those little bumps are ALL turtles!

A statue of a Polish king

Alice in Wonderland statue

People were feeding raccoons under the bridge

Day 3

On Monday we grabbed our breakfast sandwiches and took the subway south to Battery Park. We took the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands. After visiting the Statue of Liberty, we headed to the One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. We ate a philly cheesesteak from a vendor and decided to check out Chinatown and Little Italy. We were not at all impressed with Chinatown when we got out of the subway. It was very trashy and sketchy safety-wise. We quickly walked over to the few blocks that are left to Little Italy and got a cannoli. Little Italy seemed to consist mostly of Italian restaurants, so we headed north to Madison Square Park to get cookies from the City Bakery (I was informed by multiple sources that they had the best chocolate chip cookies in New York and I was not disappointed) and see the Flatiron Building. 

Ellis Island

The One World Trade Center

One of the two memorial fountains (with the museum in the background)

Amazing photos from a photographer who helped in the immediate aftermath

Cannoli in Little Italy

The triangular Flatiron Building

Day 4

Tuesday was our last full day in New York, so we packed it full. We started the morning out at the top of Rockefeller Plaza and were disappointed to find a haze had settled all over the city. We then went to the nearby Museum of Modern Art. Frankly, the MoMA was pretty disappointing, but I guess Dustin and I just don't 'get' most modern art. They did have a few paintings, like Van Gogh's Starry Nights and Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth, that were cool to see in person. After that, we had tacos from a food truck and I dragged Dustin to yet another bakery. Levain Bakery is a tiny little basement shop, which is a little hard to find, but their chocolate chocolate chip cookies are amazing! That evening we went to the Broadway musical Book of Mormon, which was the perfect ending to our stay in New York.

The view of Central Park

Empire State Building