Dreaming of the Big Apple

A long over-due recollection of the best trip I've been on to date: New York City at Christmas-time. When I say I've been dreaming of this day, I mean this is the trip I knew I'd take the second I could save enough to buy plane tickets. I dreamt of the Rockefeller Tree lit up (funny story on that down below), the 5th avenue store window displays and the crisp air that just seems to exude bustling excitement.

Friday:

The trip started off on a Friday, where we left good ol' Wichita bright and early in the morning. Of course I was overcome with anxiety as making sure I make flights, get to the right gate and navigate airports is something I always over-prepare for. We flew from Wichita to Dallas to NYC. The flights were good and went by fast, probably because I was so anxious to get there. Once we were almost to our destination, you could look out the window and see the sky-high buildings and even the Statue of Liberty teeny tiny off in the distance. I was looking at New York City, I couldn't believe it. Once we landed, we waited for our bags and ordered an Uber. My first big-city question to tackle: a shared or private Uber? I knew shared Ubers were very NYC, but we wanted to take this one on alone and get there without stops, so we splurged for the private Uber. Our driver was THE best. He was from Brooklyn and told us all the must-see's, what to avoid and where to eat near our AirBnB. The AirBnb was a studio, but bigger than what I imagined and extremely cute and cozy. Not to mention the building was secured and had a door man, so we felt safe too. Once we settled into our AirBnb in Midtown, we were staaaarving. Without wanting to search far, we ended up at a place right across the street called Jackson Hole Burgers. I'm going to be honest, it was subpar and expensive but it did the job. We had tickets to see KU play in Brooklyn that night, so we had some time to kill. We explored the streets of NYC and seeing the Empire State Building lit up and soaring high into the sky was so beautiful. We ended up at a cute coffee shop, desperate to warm up our hands, called Birch Coffee. I had a Chai Tea that might've been the best one I've had to date. After the shop closed, we set out to do some more wandering and ended up two doors down at a cool looking museum called The Museum of Sex. I know, sounds weird and like something you may not want to venture into, but let me tell you it was an awesome experience. When in NYC, ya know? It's not all you expect and there's actually some very interesting displays, not to mention a super cute and fun museum. After our venture through the sex museum, it was time to head to Brooklyn. Next comes our first subway encounter. Let me tell you, this is what I was most nervous about. I've seen the movies, I know what can happen below the streets of NYC and I had totally psyched myself out. Not only that, but wow subways are confusing. You have to get to the right station, get on the right train and hope you're going the right direction. The app, Citymapper, was a lifesaver. You put in where you're going and it tells you the fastest route by subway, drive or walk and then tells you how to get to your subway station. We opted for the unlimited weekly metro pass, which was a life saver because we took many wrong trains that I would've been irked if I had paid for just to hop right back off. Now on to Brooklyn. Our subway took us right to the Barclay Center, which happened to have a Shake Shack right across the street, so of course we had to go get a shake before the game. This was our first Shake Shack experience and the shakes definitely lived up to the hype. After leaving Shake Shack, we saw our first street rat run in front of us and I have to say, he was actually kind of cute. Then it was time to cheer on the Jayhawks. Our seats were upgraded to just a couple rows above the court and we watched KU play Tennessee and win, of course. It was a really good game and even better that we got to watch our favorite team play in Brooklyn, NY of all places. The venture home was extremely confusing trying to find the right subway and it was already midnight, so we opted for an Uber ride back. That first day was exhausting, so it was right to sleep to prep for an even longer day ahead.

Saturday:

Saturday was cloudy, chilly and rainy. It started with a walk to Brooklyn Bagel and it was SO good. So good that I would spend $400 on a plane ticket again just to get one Brooklyn Bagel. It was the real deal bagel experience--pick your schmear, load it on and go. After breakfast we headed to the Chelsea Market. The shops there were to die for. The area of handmade goods was the best part. I got the cutest cards to commemorate the trip. I was told to walk the highline if I went and if you go, it's a must do! Some of the prettiest sights. Next was one of the things I've had on my list of to-do's for a long time, mainly because you always see celebs hyping it up -- Sugar Factory. It was conveniently right around the corner from where we got off the highline and we had to stop in for one of their famous goblet drinks. One thing I learned in NYC is that it's better to travel in two's because you get seated much faster than larger groups. We hardly had to wait at restaurants which is not what I was expecting. Anyways, back to the large goblet of sugary alcohol. It definitely delivered, it was fun to watch her pour it in the glass and see the dry ice spill over the edges and onto the table. There was candy inside and it tasted delicious. The fun stopped when the bill came--one drink, 60 oz and $40 later...I think I've had my fill of Sugar Factory goblet drinks. Our next stop was Washington Square Park. It wasn't the best weather but it was so fun to see, next time my hopes are that the fountain is on and running. Across from the park was NYU. We walked by the buildings and of course had to stop in the bookstore and buy all kinds of shirts and sweatshirts we didn't need. I'd always half-dreamed of going to NYU someday, so seeing it in real life was pretty cool. Our lunch was spent at Sweet Green, an over-priced, but good salad place that seems to be popular with healthy people. After lunch we had to feed Cody's boba addiction and try The Boba Guys. Cody had a dirty horchata boba and I had the strawberry matcha boba...wowza it was good and worth the long line. Next we wandered over to Rockefeller Center where I wanted to see the long-awaited Rockefeller Tree, only to find out it wasn't lit yet. It would be lit the day after we left. What an enormous planning failure on my part, considering my NYC dream trip was somewhat centered around this gigantic Christmas Tree, but life goes on and there will be more trips to NYC to accomplish that someday. We then met my friend from my sorority who is living in Newark, NJ and explored Times Square. That was surreal and exactly as amazing as I'd imagined. This is the only area of NYC that I found insanely crowded and hectic. It had started raining at this point so we hurried to dinner, somewhere where the line wasn't out the door and around the block. We settled on The Perfect Pint, a small Irish pub. My friend insisted I try Yeungling beer, which is only on the East coast and it did not dissapoint. If only it would make it to this side of the Mississippi! After dinner we grabbed the famous Junior's Cheesecake to go and trecked miles through the rain back to the AirBnb for some much needed rest for our feet.

Sunday:

Sunday was bright, sunny and slightly warmer weather. We started the day by walking to Grand Central Station to get Doughnut Plant. Grand Central Station was beautiful and everything Gossip Girl had chalked it up to be. The ceiling artwork was incredible and there were so many restaurants and stores inside, which was something I didn't expect. After we had some pretty delish doughnuts, we walked down 5th avenue and saw all the big store windows - Macy's, Saks and so much more. We even went to a 5 Below store (which in Wichita is no big deal) where we were greeted by a live host on a microphone and taken down a flight of escalators to the store, definitely NYC style. Next we were back at Rockefeller Center where we got tickets to go to the Top of the Rock. This was one of the best experiences. You could see everything, from Central Park to the Statue of Liberty and every building in-between. After we traveled down in the fastest elevator ever, we saw the Radio City Music Hall and NBC buildings, where I stared longingly wishing I was seeing Jimmy Fallon's show. We strolled past the LOVE statue, where we of course had to stop and take pictures. We had lunch at Joe's Shanghai, where we had to try the infamous soup dumplings. These were probably the best things we ate the whole time. We loved them so much we've searched everywhere in Wichita for them, looked them up on every trip since and even have contemplated trying to make them. After lunch we walked across the street to Milk to try their corn cereal ice cream, it was interesting and probably not something I'd order again. Central Park was up next. After we were hassled several times to pay for a bike tour or horse drawn carriage, we walked through and saw some iconic sites. My favorite being the bridge from Gossip Girl or the carousel talked about in the book, Catcher in the Rye. We saw Bethseda fountain, the famous 'mall' walkway, the ice skating rink and the Alice in Wonderland statue. The Met was incredible, huge and provided some good steps for me to take a picture on (another Gossip Girl moment). One of the best perks of walking around Central Park was the abundance of adorable dogs we saw. We then wandered around the upper east side and had a coffee from the Nespresso Cafe, leaving me 100% needing a Nespresso machine asap. Then it was time to eat again. I had several people tell me I needed to try Black Tap, so we waited in line for 30 minutes for a burger and insane milkshake. It was delicious, one of the best burgers I've had and the most enormous cookies and cream milkshake I've ever seen. We ended the night by strolling through Times Square again, checking out the MnM world and seeing some street performers.

Monday:

Monday's weather was another cloudy, cold and rainy day, but we weren't gonna let that get in the way of our last full day in NYC. We started the day with the 9/11 memorial, which was beautiful and serene. We then ate breakfast at a place called George's, where I noticed almost everyone around us was speaking another language. Something I truly loved about NYC was the culture. So many different kinds of people in one place. After breakfast we headed to the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. We opted to just cruise pass it in the ferry for free instead of doing the whole tour. It was still close and incredibly cool to see. Our next stop was Brooklyn, which we got to by walking the Brooklyn Bridge. I have to point out that the first, uphill half of the bridge totally sucked and I was exhausted by the time I reached Brooklyn, but luckily we stopped for lunch after so we could recharge. We had to try NYC pizza, so we ate a highly recommended place called Grimaldi's right under the Brooklyn Bridge. It was the best pizza I've had no lie. We walked and explored Brooklyn, the mall and some other shops and ended our exploring with coffee from Hungry Ghost while we watched it pour rain outside. We hurried to the subway to take us to China Town, which was Cody's most anticipated venture. We were in such a hurry that we thought we were going to miss our train, which then led to me getting shut in the subway doors. I literally had to pry myself out of the doorway and later on had bruises on my arms. This was probably the most hilarious part of the trip. China Town was next to Little Italy, which both had huge light up signs to tell you where you were, which I thought was pretty cool. In China Town we saw the Glossier store, got some loose leaf tea from Sun's Tea, some zodiac stone necklaces from Magic Jewelry and some souvenirs. After our rainy walk around China Town, we took the subway to Grand Central Station, which was a hectic mess. We stopped at the Vineyard Vines store and decided to order Uber Eats to the AirBnb for dinner because we'd been walking around in the rain since 2 p.m. We got Atomic Wings and settled in for the night.

Tuesday:

Our last day in NYC. I woke up feeling sad because I had truly fallen in love with NYC, in fact, I still am and wish I could go back right now. We, of course, had to have our last breakfast at Brooklyn Bagel. It's is a 30 minute walk away and we had walked about 100,000 steps at this point, so if that doesn't tell you our dedication to Brooklyn Bagel, I don't know what does. We stopped at the Lush store on the walk back to the AirBnb. I have to make it a point to stop at one in every city we visit because Wichita sadly doesn't have one. We then walked back to pack up and call our Uber to the airport. Our venture back home began and although we missed our dogs and families, I reluctantly got on the plane back to Wichita. Many steps, sore feet and a hurting bank account later, our trip to NYC was over. Ever since I left, I've been dreaming of going back. My hopes are to spend my 25th birthday there, fingers crossed. Please send me any must do's that I didn't cross off the list this time, see you next year NYC!