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Published: January 13th 2012
NYC
Top of the Rock-- light pollution from Times SquareNew York for Two Days
Everytime New York City would come up in a conversation, Lee would always say, "You know, I've never been there..." So I thought it would be a great Christmas present to surprise him with an overnight trip. It took me over a week to decide on a hotel because there are sooooo many!
Getting There We woke up at 5:30am because we had decided to get an early start to our trip into NYC. However, we both were quite sleepy and decided to sleep in until about 8:30am. As we did not want to drive in the city because of expensive parking and crazy drivers and traffic, we decided to drive to Lee's work in Ardmore and leave the car there in the shopping center. We took the train from Ardmore into Philly and then took the MegaBus from Philly into NY. Lee's work pays for public transportation so we did not have to pay for the train.
Our MegaBus left Philly around 11:30am. We love MegaBus because it is so cheap and quite comfortable! Our tickets were $11 per person and the ride is about 2.5 hours. The seats
are cozy and adjustable and there is ample space for your legs. You can adjust your own AC and each seat has a plug to charge your gadgets.
Carnegie Deli We arrived in NYC around 2pm and started walking. We walked right past our hotel because we were hungry and Lee already knew where he wanted to eat. He wanted to eat at Carnegie Deli. Carnegie Deli is famous for their delicious sandwhiches. We saw a huge sandwhich going past us when we were seated so we decided that we would order one between the two of us. There are many different options, but we ordered the Woody Allen which is a pastrami and corned beef. We also ordered a side of cole slaw to slather on our sandwhich. It is impossible to eat it like a normal sandwhich as it is half a foot high! I couldn't even finish my half of the sandwhich!! In all, I am glad we went there because it was sooooo good. The prices are okay for what you get. I think our sandwhich was almost $25.
While we were in Carnegie deli we had the pleasure of sitting
near a family that we were awed by. The woman walked in with a fur coat and asked if there was a coat check. A coat check? What the hell lady, this is a freaking deli! Anyhow, she swore she recognized the man sitting at the table next to us and proceeded to ask him what his line of work is and if he is Jewish... When he asked her where she was from she literally named eight different places! All of which are very wealthy areas, and then added that they own a whole block at camel back or whatever. How could you possibly "be from" more than one place?! It was so ridiculous. She kept motioning for the waiter every five seconds asking for something new.
...Oh yes, I am extremely wealthy and believe that I am a very important person. I pretty much own everything. The Hamptons, oh yes I own them. HAHAHA we joked back and forth saying ridiculous things like this for hours afterwards. Oh the funny people you run into in NYC.
The Hotel I knew that I didn't want to stay right in the middle of Times
Square because of the constant light and noise, but I also knew that I wanted to stay somewhere central and within walking distance to many of the attractions.
I ended up booking our night at The Michelangelo and I am so happy that I did! The Michelangelo is about three blocks up from Times Square and right around the corner. This was perfect because the noise was minimal and there were no bright lights shining through the windows of our room. It is located on 51st and 7th Ave which is within walking distance to fifth ave shopping, Times Square and the Theatre District, the Rockefeller Center and so much more.
The rooms are expensive, but I wanted to stay somewhere nice since we were only staying for one night and it was a present for Lee. When we arrived in our room there was an obnoxious perfume smell. It was very overwhelming. I usually never complain but because of my over-sensitivity and allergy to smells such as perfumes, colognes, and febrezes, I called the front desk to ask if there was any way that we could switch to a room that hadn't been hosed down with any
Top of the Rock
A picture of Lee taking a picture... stinky perfume. They were very quick in sending someone up to take us to our new delightfully unsented room. I was very excited when we walked into the new room because it was a bit of an upgrade from the one we were in. For one, it was bigger, the bathroom had a sitting area and we had a nice view. Everything was great.
Top of the Rock After checking in to our room and looking around a bit we decided to go to the Rockefeller Building. I had heard that the view is even better than the Empire State Building so I thought we would give it a try. I wanted to go when it was still light out, but just before sunset so that we could see the view in daylight, at sunset, and at night!! The tickets cost $25 per person and as silly as it is to pay for a view, it sure is worth it. There was only a small line to buy tickets, but after that there was no waiting.
I recommend to anyone going to the Top of the Rock to go at the same time that we
went. It is such an amazing view during the day, and even better at night! Lee and I had so much fun taking pictures and walking around. There are a couple of different viewing areas which is really nice. If it is cold outside there is even a even an area inside to sit and wait.
They ask you when you are buying your tickets if you would like a map for an extra $2. Lee and I decided to get it so that we would know what we were looking at. I guess it is a nice thought, but we really didn't even look at it. It was easy to tell which building was the Empire State Building and we honestly didn't care about the rest. I mean, we took pictures of everything but without really caring what the names of the buildings were.
It was cold out but we hardly noticed. The view really is breathtaking. With all of the city lights and buildings of varying hights it sure is something to see. I was happy that there is tall glass around all of the edges of the building. I guess if I had thought about
it I would have assumed as much. I can't imagine they would want people jumping off or accidentally falling off.
This was my favorite part of the whole trip. I think we were out there for two hours, but honestly if it wasn't so cold we could have stayed out there all night. We took around two hundred pictures from up there!! We played around a lot with the camera settings because we are still trying to get a hold of how to work this fancy gadget. I like having Lee with me because he is better at it then I am. It was like having a personal photographer with me. "Oh wow, I want a picture of that!" "Wait, that would make a great shot!" ...and Lee would reach for the camera 😊
St Patrick's Cathedral & Atlas Statue Next we stumbled upon St Patricks Cathedral as it is directly infront of the Rockefeller Center. It is a pretty magnificant sight to see in the middle of NYC with its neogothic decorative style. I was honestly more impressed with the Atlas Statue. However, I am obsessed with Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged so of
course a statue of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders would stop me in my tracks. The Statue was installed in 1937 and is a total of 45ft tall!
Fifth Ave Shops and The Apple Store Oh New York City and it's millions of shops!
As we were not there to do any shopping, Fifth Ave was just a nice stroll for us. We endulged in some Star Bucks since there is one on every other corner and made our way to the Apple store at this location. Of course we had to go to the Apple Store!! Lee got a private tour since he works for Apple and he was quite impressed. This Apple store is open 24hrs and is underground! It's pretty neat.
Food, Beer and M&M's By this time we both were very hungry. We walked around looking for Chinese food because Lee was craving it. We finally found somewhere to eat and boy was this the most expensive Chinese I have ever had! That's just NYC though. I guess because it was so expensive I was thinking it would be the best Chinese I have ever had,
but it was far from that. After Chinese we stopped at Heartland Brewery to sit and have a beer because our feet were pretty tired. After the beer we headed back towards Times Square.
We wanted to see what Times Square looks like at night. It was, just how we thought it would look, bright! While we were trying to take timed pictures of ourselves some goofy guy kept jumping in our photo because he thought we had a hidden camera that put peoples pictures up on the big screen... hmmm. We passed the M&M store and just had to go in and get some chocolate! They evidently have the largest wall of M&M selection in the world, go figure! After our chocolate we were ready to head back to the hotel and hit the sack.
Day 2 We set our alarm for 8am and then we reset it for 10am. I was happy that checkout wasn't until 1pm; that was quite nice. We forgot toothpaste and I was having awful cramps so my wonderful husband ran out to the store to pick up toothpaste and medicine. By the time we got ourselves in order,
showered, dressed for the day, and all packed up it was around 11:30am.
We had read about Essa bagel having the best bagels in all of NYC and so naturally we wanted to go see just how good they are. Lee got a bagel with cream cheese and lox and I got a bagel with hummus and tomato and boy was it good! They have every kind of cream cheese and spread imaginable!
Grand Central Station After breakfast/lunch we headed over to Grand Central Station. They actually just put in an Apple store about a month ago and it is the only completely "open" one in the world. It is really neat. When you walk into the main area in Grand Central and go up the one set of stairs you walk right into the Apple store. Lee was quite excited about the store layout and we joked about having his job transfered there. It's funny because three guys from his store were working in the Grand Central store for the day so we got to chat with them for a bit.
Grand Central Station is just as you would imagine it, busy. It's
a great place to people watch that's for sure. I love watching people rush around and often make up stories of where they are coming from and where they are going as I follow them with my eyes. Lee always nudges me and tells me to stop staring, but I can't help it.
While at Grand Central we agreed that it would be entertaining to attempt to ride the subway. It also is much cheaper than taking a taxi. Of course we got on going the wrong direction and had to jump off and jump back on. Lee's work pays for public transportation so we got a metro card and loaded it with $10. It is only $2.50 per person per ride which isn't bad at all.
The Brooklyn Bridge After leaving the station we headed over towards the Brooklyn Bridge. There were a lot of people walking across it and so we decided to too. It was a nice little stroll. We only went halfway across and then walked back. There were lots of people walking and quite a few people on bikes as well, all of which stopped every couple of feet to
take pictures or take in the view of the water. We stopped for a couple of photos along the way also of course. I thought about heading over to Pier 17 but we were getting more and more sleepy so we decided against it.
We were really hungry after walking the bridge and so we started to look for a good Mexican place to eat since I was craving a burrito. The first three places we went to were, not good looking, too busy, and closed down. We finally found a place and I was so happy because it was so delicious!! I had a huge burrito and then had some fried icecream for dessert!
McSorley's McSorley's is New Yorks oldest continuously operating saloon established in 1894. I heard about this place and thought it would be interesting to stop in. When you order your beer you can only order light or dark, that's it. Naturally I ordered the light and Lee ordered the dark. For the two beers in was $5. Everyone else in the bar seemed to be a regular and ordered their beers by the 4's! I could see Lee and I
coming and spending a lot of time in this bar had we been up for a night of drinking.
After visiting McSorleys we took the subway back to Grand Central and sat of the floor against a wall and watched the people hurry from here to there. I loved listening to the patters of feet some fast some slow. After half an hour of resting on the floor we headed out to find where our bus would be leaving from. Once we found it we ate at a bar nearby. Then we went and waited for our MegaBus. We left the city at 8:45 for Philadelphia and then caught the train from Philly back to Ardmore and then drove home. We fell asleep right when we hit the bed!
Money Matters Total cost of trip about $650!
**Now obviously we could have done this on much less but we splurged a bit on the hotel room and ate out at restaurants...
The hotel was $323 per night and we stayed one night. We spent $10 on Star Bucks. The Top of the Rock cost $25pp plus the $2 map so it
was $52. Mega Bus tickets were $11 per person per trip so we spent $44 on bus tickets. We spent $55 at Carnegie deli and that was with sharing a sandwhich! The Chinese food that we ate cost $65 and the two beers at Heartland Brewery cost $15. We spent $6 on M&M's. At Essa Bagel we spent $14 on our two bagel sandwhiches and drinks and later spent $35 on Mexican food. At McSorleys we spent $5 for the two beers and our last meal before heading home was $30.
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feritz
feritz nang
amazing shot!!