New York City

I’d never spent much time thinking about New York City. But a few years ago I got the idea that I wanted to visit during Christmas time. And as the years went by, my desire to visit this city grew and grew until the next thing I knew, I was buying plane tickets this past November, to visit the city just a few weeks later.

The last time I had flown on a plane, I was four years old. All I remember is eating fig newtons and being in a cloud the whole time. For years I had convinced myself that I was afraid of flying, and vowed to never set foot on a plane. But eventually I realized that was silly because I love traveling and there are so many places I want to go. It’s been years since got over my fear, but still hadn’t actually flown anywhere, so it was time.

When the plane finally took off, after driving around on the runway for what felt like an inordinate amount of time, I was so freaked that I couldn’t bring myself to look out the window for at least half an hour! It was such a tiny plane, smaller than a train car, and when it turned all you could see was the ground. But I was so excited to go to NYC it helped to cancel out how freaked I was. We were only in the air a little over an hour before we landed, I couldn’t believe how fast we got there!

The next adventure was getting our subway pass at the airport, figuring out what bus to take to get to the subway, and then figuring how to navigate the subway to get to our hotel.

After the long subway ride from Laguardia to Canal street in lower Manhattan, we climbed up the steps and found ourselves directly across from our hotel. Success! I hadn’t gotten us lost.  I was pretty proud of myself for successfully navigating the way there, by car, plane, bus, train and foot!

We didn’t have any major plans when we got there; just to wander around and explore.

Our hotel was on the edge of Chinatown, which was a blast to explore.

We walked on the High Line, which had some great city views.

I got to see all the Christmas sights I had dreamed about, including the giant Christmas tree!

I finally got to try an authentic NY bagel that I’m still dreaming about. Also, our hotel was conveniently located close to a pizza place that sold $1 cheese slices, which I forgot to take a picture of. We tried out a few pizza places during our stay, but the $1 place called Joey Pepperoni was the best.  I looked it up a few nights ago when I was craving a slice, and it’s only an 8.5 hour drive from the house 🙂 WORTH IT.

We visited the World Trade Center and saw the memorial, plus this insane structure.

We saw all kinds of crazy skyscrapers, including this giant cube which is the tallest residential building in the world, and full of billionaires.

And we went to the top of 30 Rockefeller Center for a 360 degree view of the city.

I never expected NYC to be so much fun, and I am already dreaming of going back! My favorite part about the city is that you never know what your are going to see. Almost every time you turn a street corner you see something new, crazy or unexpected.

It’s a crazy city and I definitely recommend visiting it at least once in your life. I want to visit as many times as I can.