New York City

Never again can I say I've never been to the Big Apple!

We had a big time exploring NYC the last few days. We stayed 3 nights at an awesome airbnb in Brooklyn which was right next to a subway stop so it was a quick ride into the city. We left the truck parked by the airbnb for the duration of the trip and only used public transportation since we didn't want to have to deal with traffic, parking, etc.

The afternoon we got there we decided to make the most of before it started to rain so we rushed to the subway to get our Metro cards and went to Manhattan. Our first stop was the 9/11 memorial. It is a very nice memorial and we stayed there for a bit remembering that tragic day. We also marveled on how long it's been since that happened; we've personally lived more years post-9/11 than we did before!

After the memorial we rushed to the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty before it got dark. The ferry is nice because it's free and takes you right by the statue. So that was cool! It took about 1hr round trip. Then we went down to Little Italy for dinner and found Lombardi's Pizza, which claims to be the first pizzeria in the US. They had lots of pictures of famous people on the walls, so that was cool. The pizza was pretty good, too!

Manhattan from the ferry:

Lombardi's Pizza!

The next day was pretty rainy but we got to do some things, including eating some staple NYC things. After walking by the famous Friends apartment (which didn't look like much, I could hardly recognize it) we started by going to Bantam Bagels, which was featured on Shark Tank and had some unique bagels in that they were ball-shaped and had the cream cheese inside. We each got two different flavors and were very impressed! Shortly after that we split a slice of NY-style pizza: large and thin such that you need to fold it in half. We choose Joe's pizza which is a well-known place, but there are lots of others as well. Then we strolled through Washington Park for a bit before my next treat, which was cookie dough from a place called "cookie dough confections". It was so delicious! Then we strolled along the High Line, which is an old railroad track that has been converted into a walking path. It was pretty cool to walk above the city between the buildings with flowers and trees all around you on the trail. It started to rain then so we went back to the airbnb to rest for awhile.

Joe's pizza!

Washington Park:

Cookie dough, yum!

The High Line:

In the evening we went down towards Times Square and found a ramen place to eat dinner, which was really good but not quite as good as Japan! After it got dark we went to see Times Square all lit up which was really cool. Then we went to a show which had had gotten tickets for that day. We decided on Kinky Boots which turned out to be very entertaining and with a good message. I've seen better plays but I wanted to see something new and our options were a bit limited for cheap, last-minute tickets. But we still liked it!

Times Square at night:

Kinky Boots!

The next day we started by taking the subway to Grand Central Station and checking that out. Then we walked along 5th Avenue to the Empire State Building. Then we grabbed some breakfast, bagel for me and a hot dog for Matt, before walking back over to Times Square to see it in the daylight. It's definitely a bustling place! Near Times Square we found a place called Juniors which is well-known for their cheesecake, so we split a piece of raspberry swirled. It was amazing! Then we walked briefly through the M&M and Nintendo stores before walking over to Rockefeller center. We walked some more along 5th Avenue and saw some of the big churches as well as some fancy clothing stores and the Trump Tower. We also walked past Carnegie Hall before stopping for a drink at a bar called McGee's, which is the bar that is the basis for the How I Met Your Mother bar called Maclaren's where the gang spends much of their time. They have a ton of HIMYM stuff and pictures of the cast there, and apparently they do trivia based on the show every Tuesday night. Then we spent about an hour strolling through Central Park which was very pretty. My allergies were acting up though so we didn't stay as long as planned and instead we cut the day short and headed back to the airbnb for a couple of hours so I could take some medicine and rest in the A/C. Dang allergies. 

Matt getting a famous NYC hot dog!

Times Square during the day:

Delicious NY cheesecake:

Central Park:

Later in the evening we went back to Little Italy for some delicious pasta. We found a place called Da Gennaro which made most of their pasta in-house and it was wonderful. I got ravioli and Matt had fettuccine alfredo. While we ate we enjoyed the ambiance and people watching, since we were seated in the perfect place to be able to look out at the people walking by. We almost went to Benito One which was a smaller place but also looked super good, but we didn't make reservations and they weren't able to seat us right away. After dinner we walked some of our dinner off by strolling around in search of a nice bar to watch the Chiefs-Patriots football game. We finally found one and we posted up at the bar for the first half of the game. At half time we went back to the airbnb to watch the rest from there. How about those Chiefs?! Undefeated so far this season, and Patriots have the worst record in the league, hehe.

Yum, Da Gennaro!

This morning we checked out of our airbnb and hit the road. On our way south we stopped at Coney Island for a bit. We had some breakfast on the boardwalk since it was a beautiful morning and it was nice and quiet since things were just starting to open up. Then we walked along the boardwalk a ways before turning back and walking back in the sand along the water. It was a very nice morning. Then we drove for 6ish hours (stupid traffic) to Virginia. We'll spend the next two nights here for a wedding! After Virginia we plan to make our way down to North Carolina before starting west to Nashville and back to Madison. Stay tuned!

Coney Island:

We really liked NYC and would enjoy going back. Since we were only there for a few days we only hit the highlights of the touristy things so I think there would be much more to explore and I would like to spend more time in the different boroughs next time. Since we were in Tokyo less than 5 months ago I felt that NYC was a little underwhelming and would've been more impressive before seeing Tokyo. But a benefit of doing it the way we did is I think we were much less stressed in NYC than we would've been otherwise. We're much more seasoned travelers now so the city didn't really faze us at all!