Let me start by saying that we managed to see a TON of NYC (Manhattan and Brooklyn); however, there is only so much you can do or experience in a day and a half. We had to pick and choose. We wanted to SEE a lot so we opted for a 48 hour pass on a hop-on, hop-off double decker bus that afforded us the opportunity to have a tour guide show us around and let us on or off wherever we liked for as little as 15 minutes at a time. A big chunk of the day and a half was spent simply getting to and from NYC from Newark, which was where we stayed. This was a good option for us as 1. it was inexpensive, 2. it had free parking, yes, FREE parking and 3. we are two chicks not afraid of public transit.
I do want to spend a few minutes here discussing those methods of transportation so we get a real idea of our trek to the city. 1. Leave hotel on airport shuttle to Newark Airport 2. Take AirTrain across the airport
3. Find the #62 Newark bus taking us to Newark Penn Station 4. Arrive at Penn Station, buy the PATH card, hop on the PATH train to the World Trade Center (WTC) 5. Get off at WTC, walk 1 block to the subway 6. Take the subway (with one transfer) to our favorite stop at 42nd and Bryant Park (or Rockefeller Center). I coined this our.... bus, train, bus, train, subway, subway travel into the city. I think M got sick of me referring to it as such. It is quite the mouthful. Anyway, this worked out well until Friday night.
Here come some stories...
Friday...
Friday night, we decide that we'll leave our hotel at 6:30pm. We made it to Bryant Park by 8:00pm. I about freaked out when I turned around and saw Times Square staring back at me. Holy Cow. I digress. We walked around Times Square, took in some street acrobats dueling on some scaffolding, got some tour tickets and made our way to the tour pick up location. We took the night tour across Manhattan and Brooklyn with Tommy. Although it was cold on the top, we wouldn't have had it any other way.
Fantastic tour, by the way. After the 2 hour tour, we went to dinner on 46th between 8th and 9th on Restaurant Row. We ate at a Steakhouse and I had Italian. It was cute, quaint and delicious. We chose to do some shopping and walk around Broadway a little more before heading back even though it was already after 11pm. We finally started looking for a subway around 11:30pm only to find that the ones we needed we under construction so we made it back to our fav at 42nd and Bryant for the ride home. When we got to the E transfer point there was a sign saying that after 12:01am on Saturday there were limited trains and express stops only. Since it was just after mid-night, we were so lucky to be affected. The E train took forever to arrive, but it did and it eventually dropped us off at WTC. We got to the PATH station just as it arrived at 12:30 but had to wait until nearly 1am before it took off headed to Newark. When we arrived at Penn Station it was near 1:25am and the next bus headed to the airport came through at 2am. That was a fun 40 minutes that involved a change in bus lanes, finding some cops and sticking close to each other. M made it her personal mission to stay within eyesight or said cops so that if we had to scream or run they could hear us or we knew where to head. I wouldn't like to duplicate that night if I wouldn't have to. This was not a fun 40 minutes as it was freezing, dark, spooky and a bit scary altogether. Needless to say, we made it to airport and out to the pickup dock to wait on the shuttle. We called, and called, and they kept "sending someone" so we waited. We got wonky. M started clapping and "dancing." She was entertaining everyone. Then she started recounting the evening and I cannot tell you all how entertaining that was. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. I wish, I REALLY WISH, that someone somewhere had been recording us. It was comical and I think we could've made millions on youtube if only we had videoed it. I think people may have thought we were tanked, but we were just exhausted. We finally made it to our hotel around 3:30am. We passed out. We had 4 hours of sleep and did it all over again...
Saturday...
Got into the city without incident. Stopped in Bryant Park for coffee and pictures.
Walked to Times Square. Got tickets from TKTS for In the Heights (Tony Award Winner for Best Musical in 2008). Got some incredible fresh watermelon from a street vendor. Hopped on the Uptown Tour loop where we saw Harlem, Central Park, the Met and a whole lot more.
Then we got off, had some New York style pizza pie -- mine tasted like spinach dip on a pizza -- incredible!!! I haven't stopped talking about that pizza yet.
After that we went to In the Heights starring Jordin Sparks from American Idol.
We didn't know what to expect, but it was really good. We both cried off all of our make-up but it was so worth it. We were in the 9th row and the theatre was small and intimate. Great seats, great show.
As I type, we've just entered RI on our way to Brown. We're 15 minutes away! I'll be posting about today tonight hopefully.
I will say that there was a ton more that I could've done or eaten or saw or shopped, but I think that we tore up Manhattan in the best way for us in the time we had! We're now ready for some more relaxing and less urban sights.
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