Leslie and I had the pleasure of spending some time with my aunt out in NYC a few weeks ago. So you know what that means... another vacation blog post. Feel free to just look at the pictures if you don't want to read my full account of the trip. No hard feelings.
This was Leslie's first time to the city and only my second. We spent the weekend with my aunt, who was our host, our tour guide, our key to the city for this trip. While we're typically very "Type A" on vacation planning, Leslie and I did little to prepare and instead entrusted our schedule to her insider knowledge. She laid out a perfect weekend for us, taking us to all the best restaurants and shows with a healthy dose of sightseeing for good measure. We seriously can't thank her enough for all that she did to make it a wonderful trip. But thanks again!
We got in around 11:30am. From there it was a cab ride to the hotel where we dropped our bags off and then met up with my aunt for lunch at the Bryant Park
Feast on 40th. It's basically a bunch of little food kiosks where we got some delicious bao and empanadas. Since we were already at the
New York Public Library, we figured we'd go in and have a quick look around. Besides just books and whatnot they have a number of exhibitions and special displays to check out. We didn't stick around long, but it was still pretty cool to be there.
Next up was a walk on the
High Line. It's an old, elevated train line that's been converted into a park/trail type thing. There are a bunch of little art installations, shopping stops, sitting areas, and some cool views of the city. We walked quite a bit of it, then decided to get some ice cream in the Village. We stopped by
Dominique Ansel Kitchen where I got the Burrata - soft serve with balsamic caramel, microbasil, and a whole confit strawberry, and Leslie got (I think) the Cold Brew soft serve with anise biscotti, milk foam, and cocoa powder. Pretty different than our local ice cream shop in Indiana, but quite delicious. After that we did a little more walking around the city, stopped in on a few shops, and eventually ended up at
Yo! Sushi for dinner. We gorged ourselves on appetizers like Asian chicken wings and fried shishito peppers, small plates like shrimp gyoza and charred pork-belly nigiri, plus sushi off the conveyor belt. Sooo much good food.
After all that it was off to our first show:
Come From Away, a musical about the town of
Gander in Newfoundland on 9/11 that was nominated for seven Tony Awards and won for Best Direction of a Musical. The show was excellent and a great intro to Broadway for Leslie (might actually have been her favorite part of the trip). Oh, and as another special surprise - we were joined at the show by the Clintons! The show wasn't starting on time and, just as we began to wonder what was going on, security walked Bill and Hillary down to their seats while the whole theater clapped (this is New York, after all). It was pretty cool.
Then, in case we hadn't done enough for one day, we headed out for some drinks and live music at
Don't Tell Mama. There was a lot of good singing, a group of elderly women constantly taking photos with their iPad, and some weird guy who seemed to be having just a bit too much fun. It was an interesting crowd and a good time. And that's how we ended our night.
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| Bao and empanadas for lunch |
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| High Line Art |
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| Street overview along the High Line |
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| Ice cream! |
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| Yo! Sushi |
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| Come From Away stage |
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| Don't Tell Mama piano bar |
We started off day two at the Met. Art! Culture! Expansive city views! Also, a quick bite to eat at the museum restaurant. After our time at the Metropolitan we took a nice walk through Central Park, visited
St. Patrick's Cathedral, and stopped by Rockefeller Center. Before long it was time for dinner, so we headed over to
New York Kimchi for some Korean BBQ. We ate our way through pork belly, chicken, and two kinds of brisket. It was so good and a great dinner after a day of sightseeing.
After that it was on to our next show: a stage adaptation of Orwell's
1984. It was... intense. If you've read 1984 you can probably guess how it would be difficult to turn that into a play. Also, there are some pretty graphic scenes in the book, and they really didn't pull any punches in the show. It was an interesting experience. Plus, after the show we went around to the cast exit to meet one of the actors,
Reed Birney, that my aunt is friends with. He was kind enough to chat a bit and signed Leslie's Playbill. While we were waiting for him we also got signatures from some of the other actors, including one of my favorites,
Olivia Wilde. Then it was off to
Smalls Jazz Club for some more entertaining live music to finish off the day.
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Irving Penn exhibition at the Met |
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| The current Roof Garden exhibition: The Theater of Disappearance |
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| R/C boats in Central Park |
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
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| Rockefeller Center |
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| BBQ at New York Kimchi |
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| Jazz at Smalls |
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| Times Square |
Saturday, our last full day, started with a walk through a different part of Central Park. We stopped by the Delacorte Theater where the free
Shakespeare in the Park shows are hosted, then walked through
Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial. After a bit more walking we eventually got lunch at
John's Pizza (and just in time as it began to rain pretty hard shortly after arriving). After that we visited the
World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial. Being at that site was so strange. It was somewhat surreal to be at the place where such tragedy occurred and to see the beautiful memorial and how much it's all been rebuilt. From there we headed south through Battery Park and to the
Seaglass Carousel. All that had taken up most of the afternoon, so we then freshened up at the hotel and had dinner at
Sardi's before our last show of the trip.
That night was
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. This show was a ton of fun! It's based off part of Tolstoy's
War and Peace and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won two. The theater is setup so the show spills out into the audience, so there's singing and dancing happening all around. We had great seats too, right in the first row of the balcony, so performers were moving through right in front of us and we really felt like part of the show (plus one of the performers gave me a little shaker maraca thingy too for one of the songs, so we really were part of the show!). The music was also really fun, with different songs having wildly different styles. And the entire cast was so talented!
Josh Groban is the most recognizable name (to me at least), and he was excellent of course. But I was most impressed by the ensemble! They're were all running around, up and down the stairs, all over the theater, and dancing, singing, and playing instruments. I was tired just watching them! Plus, since my aunt apparently knows everyone, we all went backstage and meet with some of her friends in the show -
Grace McLean and
Lucas Steele. It was awesome to see such a great show and to meet a few of the performers.
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| Delacorte Theater |
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| Strawberry Fields |
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| Pizza at John's |
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| The Oculus at the WTC transportation hub |
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| WTC Memorial |
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| White roses are placed with the names for the person's birthday |
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| One World Trade Center |
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| Statue of Liberty |
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| Seaglass Carousel |
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| The Great Comet stage |
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| Grace McLean! |
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| Lucas Steele! |
The next day was nothing but a quick breakfast and our flight home. And so ended our NYC adventure. We had a great time and loved seeing so much of the city in our short time there. A week or so after the trip I caught Leslie with this big, random smile on her face and, when I asked what she was thinking about, she smiled even bigger and said she was thinking about Broadway. So needless to say, I think we'll be back again. We had so much fun and it was so great to spend some time with my aunt. So thanks again to her, and thanks to all of you for reading (or just looking at pictures)!
Teaser: we're in the middle of a major house project (which is partly why I haven't been posting on here very regularly), so be on the lookout for a post on that coming soon! Thanks and see you next time.
