New York
Thursday, April 1st, 2010We arrived late in the evening. An hour later than we were supposed to and it had been a long day. We had been planning our honeymoon trip for months, so to actually be there in the city was awe inspiring to say the least. Once we landed, we took a shuttle that got us a few blocks closer to our hotel.
At first, the city looked to me like Tampa. It was dark and dirty with large buildings in the distance. I would later figure out that we were in Queens. The closer to Manhattan we got the brighter the lights and more impressed I became! We got let out at Grand Central (a beautiful building) and trekked the few blocks to our hotel, with luggage rolling behind us. Our hotel turned out to be very nice and quite accidentally in the perfect location for our trip. The main Subway, the no. 6, was right near the doors to our hotel. We would get very acquainted with the No. 6.
We settled in and grabbed dinner at a known place, California Pizza Kitchen. We were starving and it was delicious!
The next morning we grabbed breakfast and planned our trip. We learned that it would be nasty weather for the next few days, but we didn’t care-we were in NYC!! We first checked out Grand Central Station and Times Square. I rather liked Times Square, I thought I wouldn’t, but it is so big with all kinds of shops which reminded me a little of Downtown Disney. The Naked Cowboy was nowhere to be seen. I assume it was a bit too chilly for him!
We then took a subway to the Museum of Natural History. This was located in a different part of the city which was very beautiful. At the museum, we got to see huge dinosaur bones and explore different cultures and beliefs. It was very interesting and very TIRING! Plus, it was the weekend and there were families everywhere. I got to hear a lot of different languages that day. We found a great little restaurant for dinner where I had the best Sangria ever. It was called Spring Sangria , special to the restaurant, that I wish I remembered! We sat by the windows and watched the people walk by. Our waitress reminded me of the friend on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I would have mentioned this to her, but I found that the servers in this town are all business!
The next day was our only day to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) because it would be closed the next day and then we would be leaving. We got there and omg, there were blocks of people standing in line to get in and it was already crowded inside!! We decided to skip it (I was so sad!) and head to Soho instead. I read a neat blog and wanted to visit the yarn shop where all of the ideas come from. Soho is also very different from Times Square. It has a Portland feel to it that made me miss my friend. I got some beautiful yarn and asked for a good place to eat lunch. They pointed us across the street to a place called Local. It was so great. It had a variety of organically and locally grown produce and very interesting sandwiches. One of my favorite places so far and it was so tiny! I think it sat six at the most and the menu was written strategically on the wall in chalk. :o) Loved it! It rained all day, but that didn’t stop me from taking pictures.
On Tuesday, we had hoped that the rain would stop, but it turned out to be the worst day! It was raining hard for most of the day, so much that we had to break down and buy an umbrella! Our plan was to go see Lady Liberty, and we did, but only from afar. I had done something to my knee the previous day and could barely get up the Subway stairs! It was a yuck day. Had it been sunny or at least not raining we might have taken the ferry to liberty Island, but instead we took a few pics and headed back. I did some research and found that the Metropolitan Museum of Art was open and we decided to head over there and take a peek. It was our last day and we maybe had two hours to see everything. A lady stopped us once we got close to the museum to point us in the right direction. She also gave us some lovely advice about the pricing at the museum. It is a recommended price, which means you could give them a quarter if you’d like and they still have to let you in. We did see a few people who did this… The suggested price is $20 a person! We didn’t give them a quarter, but we didn’t give them $40 either. Like I said, we only had two hours until closing.
Wow. That’s all I can say really about the museum. I am glad we decided to go and I am also glad that we didn’t make it in to MoMA. The Met was beautiful and the exhibits incredible. There was so much to see that you could spend DAYS wandering. They had period scenes of living rooms and such in the 1870’s and earlier. The artwork was unbelievable and even though I didn’t get to see a Monet or Picasso, I was mesmerized. I enjoyed it very much even though the museum workers were so RUDE! Seriously!
We got up Wednesday morning and got ready to leave. I was exhausted and really missed the kids. Again we made our way down the streets and Subways to the shuttle that would take us to the airport. With only a few hiccups, we made it (with only 15 minutes to spare before takeoff). I can safely say that my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our honeymoon. ;o)