Just 53 hours, that’s all we had in New York, but we definitely made every second of it count. We drove down mid-morning on a Friday, only stopping once for gas and lunch. We made it to New York around 1:00PM and checked into our hotel. citizenM was beyond what we thought it would be. The rooms are small, but they’re perfect for couples, and packed with everything you need. The wall-to-wall king size bed looks out over the city, the shower has a color changing light effect, and the entire room is controlled by the convenience of an i-Pad. It was a combination of cutting-edge and cozy. We had a long list of things to see and do, so we dropped our bags, and headed out. We managed to navigate the subway, (a lot easier than in Boston) and were in Times Square within 20 minutes. We walked around for quite awhile, seeing all of the lights, billboards, and street performers; we even had a quick stop in the m&m store (this MAY have been my idea…) We were pretty tired from the long drive, so we decided to head back to our hotel. Along the way, we stopped and grabbed some pizza slices for dinner. We got back to the hotel and ate our pizza in bed, overlooking the city. We were living the ultimate dream.
The next morning, we woke up early and headed to Battery Park (of course, not before a quick stop at Starbucks along the way). When we got to Battery Park, we caught the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty. I’ve never seen the Statue of Liberty myself, so I was just as excited as Mason. The forecast said it was going to rain, so we were crossing all of our fingers and toes, hoping it would hold off. Once we docked, we walked around the entire statue, taking “mom and dad selfies”, as Mason calls them. It started to rain a little, but luckily, our tickets allowed us to climb up to the pedestal of the statue. We went through security and climbed up all 215 steps to the pedestal. (You can also climb up to the crown, but those tickets unfortunately sell out months in advance.) It’s pretty stunning, climbing up the statue, but it’s even more amazing to see the skyline of the city across the bay. It was rainy and cold, so we decided to get back on the ferry and head to Ellis Island.
Ellis Island was the immigration inspection station for over 12 million immigrants to the United States for over 60 years. After walking around the museum for a while, we started to get hungry. We hopped on the ferry back to Battery Park, and walked down the street to “Bill’s Bar and Burger”. We got cheese fries to start, (mostly because Mason had never had them before) and then each ordered the “BIG CAT” burger. (Honestly, probably the best burger I’ve ever had in my life.) Once we were fat and happy, we headed towards Ground Zero. It definitely has a powerful effect on your mood when you arrive. Standing there, overlooking the memorial, you can’t help but feel uneasy.
We were planning on heading up the World One Observatory, but unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see anything, so we kept making our way through our list of places to see. We hopped in an Uber to the Flatiron building, but our driver ended up dropping us off miles away from it… Since it had stopped raining, we decided to just walk the rest of the way. We passed the Flatiron Building, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and walked through Grand Central Station, before we decided to call it a day. We grabbed an Uber and headed back to the hotel. We were only in New York for two nights, so we figured we would have pizza for dinner again. (And yes, we ate it in bed.)
The next morning, we got up and headed out for breakfast. I had to show Mason what New York bagels were all about, so we headed to a little cafe called “Black Seed”, and got smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels. (I think he’s finally starting to understand my obsession with bagels.) We then made our way to Central Park to walk around for the morning. Luckily, the rain had cleared up and it was sunny and somewhat warm. We walked for about an hour and a half through the park, stopping to take plenty of pictures along the way. We then moved on to our final stop of the trip, Rockefeller Center. It was a Sunday afternoon, so it wasn’t too busy, and there were no crowds outside The Today Show building. We stopped at a dumpling place down the street called “Hong Kong Station“, and then headed back to the hotel to grab our bags. We made one last stop at Starbucks, and then headed home around 6:00PM. 53 hours, that’s all we had in New York, but we definitely made every second of it count.