For my college graduation trip, my parents and grandparents planned a trip to NYC. Me, Mama, Hannah, Meme, Robin, Ali, Kay, and Paige, all packed our bags and flew out to the big city two days after Christmas. We flew into Newark, NJ and had a bus pick us up from there and take us to our hotel.
We stayed at the Hilton Times Square and it was literally right smack in the middle of Times Square. Just about everything we wanted to do was in walking distance of our hotel, which I loved.
On day one, we did lots of shopping and went to Rockefeller center and it was absolutely beautiful. We ate supper inside the shopping center at Bill's Bar and Burger and I don't know if it was because I was super hangry or what, but that was one of the best burgers I have had.
We all went back to the room early that night to plan the next three days and get some rest. But I say early lightly because it was more like 11:00 by the time we actually went to bed, compared to 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning the other nights we were there. I mean, we were in the city that never sleeps, so why not?!
On day two, we re-visited all of the big shops we wanted to see again. We walked through Bryant Park and what seemed like every square mile of Midtown. We met our cousin and he treated us all to lunch at Park Avenue Tavern. Grand Central Station and the Vineyard Vines store were next after lunch. And of course we stopped at every Starbucks we found.
We ate John's Pizzeria that night for supper and I am not joking when I say that was literally the best pizza I have ate in my entire 22 years of life.
Day three was quite possibly my favorite day in the big city. We woke up early that morning and went to Top of the Rock, which I highly recommend. We bought our tickets and got the add on so that our tickets were good for two visits: one in the day light, and one at night time to see the city lights.
After the morning trip to TOTR, we did a little more shopping and site seeing before packing into a van and heading to New Jersey to visit the mausoleum where my great-grandmother, great-grandfather and great-aunt are buried. We returned to NYC just in time for a quick trip to the Met before we had to get ready to go to the show.
We saw The Lion King that night and OH MY GOODNESS!! It was nothing short of amazing. I wasn't so sure how much I would enjoy it because I typically get tired at shows like that (live plays, the Rockettes, etc.). But this show...just do yourself a favor and go see it. Totally worth it!
After the show, we took a bicycle carriage back to TOTR and that was quite possibly my favorite form of transportation in NY.
On day 4, we took a ferry boat tour around Manhattan to see all of the sights...the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge.
After the ferry boat tour we went to see the 911 memorial, which was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. The environment there was so much different from anywhere else in NYC. Throughout the entire museum and memorial, everyone was so quiet. There were tears being shed all around as everyone reminisced on that monumental day in history. I highly recommend everyone to take the entire tour if you visit NYC.
That night we made our way to Little Italy where we ate supper at Sophia's of Little Italy. I had the best shrimp alfredo EVER. We did the touristy things around Little Italy. We got all of our souvenirs at a little shop by the restaurant and ate homemade gelato in the snow right before catching a cab to take us back to the hotel.
After about two hours of sleep, we left our hotel at 2AM to drive to Jersey to catch our flight back home.
I definitely want to go back to New York for a longer amount of time and during a different season. If you have been, what are your recommendations?
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