New York City Day 1

Over Christmas Break we went to New York City. This post covers the evening that we got there as well as our first full day.

Wednesday, December 19th
As soon as Alex got out of school, we booked it to Atlanta with a quick stop in Valley for lunch at Zen House. Our flight left at 5:50pm Eastern Time. Going through security went fast and we had time to kill, so we made our way to the international terminal and then made our way back in time to board our flight.

We arrived at Laguardia at 10:50pm. We grabbed our luggage, huddled our way through the Taxi line, but then got confirmation that 99% of taxi drivers will not take a party bigger than 4 because it’s against the law. So thankfully these days we now have Uber and Lyft. Rob got on the Uber app and we waited about 20 minutes for our driver to show up. Then we were off to our Airbnb which was located in the building above Pure & Fresh (58 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018). This was a great location for us. The place we stayed had steep stairs and no elevator to get to it, so be mindful of that when looking at airbnbs in NYC. I highly recommend staying in an airbnb.

After we dropped our stuff at the airbnb, we went to the grocery store. Our host at the airbnb sent us a list of places to go that were less pricy. We grabbed snacks, drinks, and stuff for breakfast.

We were starving, so from there we walked to a little deli called Al’s Delicatessen & Catering (458 Fashion Ave #1, New York, NY 10123). After enjoying dinner, we needed to get some meds for Alex who was fighting a cold, so we stopped at a Duane Reade drugstore before hitting the hay back at our airbnb.

Here’s a couple pics I got as we walked around.

More pics of this night here.

Thursday, December 20th
The next day we hit the ground running. Drew made us eggs and bacon to order. Then, we hopped on the subway and made our way to the 911 Memorial. We got some pics at the outside memorial. We had tickets for the first tour that morning. They do require you to get there early to go through security. We had a little time before the tour so we walked around the gift shop and some areas at the front of the museum.

This is the Civic Center, which is where we came out from the subway. This is such a picturesque building inside and out. I’m bummed I didn’t get more pics, especially because I didn’t get any pics inside.

When planning the trip we debated on whether to do a tour or just walk around on our own. Since Rob and I are the only ones old enough to remember that day we decided to go ahead and book the tour. I highly recommend it even if you were old enough to appreciate the magnitude of that day. Lots of interesting info given during the 1 hour tour. There is a large portion of the museum where you are not allowed to take photos.

The way the schedules worked out made it a little bit exciting with getting finished at the 911 Museum, eating lunch, and then getting to Battery Park for the time slot we booked for the to Statue of Liberty. We walked over to Brookfield Place and ate in the food court. Since we didn’t have a lot of time we all ended up getting pizza.

During Christmas they have these hanging luminaries, which were so cool. You could touch a cube and they change colors.

Then, it was time to walk over to Battery park to board the boat for the Statue of Liberty. If you have tickets to the Pedestal, you can’t have backpacks.

Freedom tower towering over us.

There’s Freedom Tower!

So many cool things to take pictures of as you walk through the city.

If you have tickets to go to the crown, you can’t have any bags, period. We had some visitors on our ride over.

Lots of picturesque views as you ride over to Statue of Liberty.

Once we got to the Statue of Liberty you can get headphones to do a self guided tour. We ended up not using them.

We got back on our boat and taxied over to Ellis Island. They do a couple free tours, which aren’t too long or in depth, but worth the time because they cover some interesting facts about the immigrants and it just helped me put myself in the shoes of someone so eager to become an American.

That evening we were feeling like some authentic Italian, so as we headed over that way we stopped on Wall Street and got some pictures.

Once we got to Little Italy, we perused the street looking at all the menus, but then the rain started coming down a little harder and we ended up at Da Nico (164 Mulberry St, New York, NY 10013.)

We were in the mood for cannolis after that really good Italian meal. Cannolis are always so expensive as a dessert, so Rob hunted down this Italian bakery called Ferrara (195 Grand Street between Mulberry & Mott St. (212) 226-6150) and we got a box of cannolis and cream puffs to eat back at the airbnb.

One of the really unique things about New York is the window displays. After we dropped our dessert off along with Alex, who wasn’t feeling so great, we walked back over to Macy’s to see the windows and we ended up walking around inside as well.

More pics of our day here.

Want to read what we did the next day? New York City Day 2

New York Christmas Trip Highlights page