I do believe that the good Lord placed our girl into our family for many many amazing reasons, but I think that high on that list is for the purpose of broadening our sense of adventure. Or, at least, city adventures. She’s a homebody. But she LOVES LOVES LOVES a good city trip, and she longs to travel to places that, truthfully, the rest of us could go our entire lives without seeing. That’s how we ended up in New York City in early June, 2017. A few years ago my grandmother gave Clara Beth the book “From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” for Christmas. Girlfriend devoured it in a day, and has since reread it many times, and because of it one of her main goals became visiting The Met and New York City in general. So that’s what we gave her for Christmas this year. Only we have southern blood and we simply DO NOT travel to places that are cold, so the trip was to take place in late May/early June. I know, I know, the city is magical at Christmas. Save it. I’m not listening. My blood would literally turn to ice and that is quite simply MISERABLE. Originally Makgill was not going to come with us. He is a country boy through and through, and has no use for city lights and swarms of people. He needs wide open spaces with room to run. Or, if he has his preference, room to drive a four wheeler. He told us that taking him would be a giant waste of money. Finally, though, we lured him into taking part with the promise of really good food and a plane ride. Good eats and high speeds are the way to his heart. I’m SO glad he came. My parents also joined us, and again, I’m so glad. My dad has this uncanny sense of direction and he led us through the city streets like he visits all of the time. He did that last year in DC, too. Plus, there were more eyes to watch Makgill and Clara Beth. We saw school groups with one adult and eight kids, and I had panic attacks just watching them. I was thankful for our adult to kid ratio. But it was great having them there for more than just the practical purposes. They got to experience it with Mak and Clara Beth for the first time, and that is priceless! So, here we go: New York City, Day One.
I used Instagram as my travel journal while we were there, so if you follow me then you’ve seen a bunch of these and you basically have already seen the entire trip in a nutshell. But I will be adding a few thoughts and definitely a ton of pictures! =)
Remember how I told you that the flight and the food were the only reasons Mak was there? Well, for the rest of us, the flight was something we had to endure in order to get to the main event. There was absolutely some nervous energy in our row, and when the dude behind me ordered a glass of wine on our EARLY morning (8:00am) flight, I kind of understood his reasoning. Ha!
Soon it was all over and we were in NEW YORK CITY!!!
Merry Christmas, Clara Beth! She was SO Excited!
This was the one and only time that we took a taxi. Collin, CB, and I in the back, Mak up front with the non-English speaking driver. Who asked us to pull up the address on our gps because he didn’t know where he was going. So far, I was not in love with this city. In fact, I think this is when I mouthed to Collin over CB’s head “Sunday can’t get here fast enough!”.
Thankfully, he delivered us safely and quickly to our little row house. We did Air B&B and LOVED it. We stayed in the cutest little neighborhood in Queens with tiny grocery stores on every corner, and plenty of room for us to spread out. There were obviously SO MANY PEOPLE all day long when we were in the city. It was unbelievably nice to have our own space to retreat to at the end of each day when we made it back to the house. I can’t imagine going to a hotel room at the end of the day. I’m quite certain that this little house saved us from several “I am so tired and so over peopling right now so please get out of my face” fights. Thank you for that, little house. =) And if we timed it right with the subway (a three minute walk from the house), we could be in Manhattan in 15 minutes. Seriously, I can’t recommend this enough! Oh, and it was cheaper than most hotels we looked at, which was the original reason that we booked it. But I’d go this route even if it were more expensive just due to the space alone.
We dropped our bags and headed straight for the subway to take us to Grand Central Station.
It was beautiful! I loved the ceilings!
We emerged from Grand Central Station and were in the heart of everything. It was just SO tall. Have I mentioned that I’d never been to NY before either? It was an incredible and overwhelming sight!
Soon we were in Times Square…
This next pic of Mak is basically how we all walked around. Faces up, mouths dropped.
We walked from Times Square to Central Park where we did a ton of people watching.
I was amazed at all of the talent that we saw in the park!
This sign made us laugh! “Speak roughly to your little boy and beat him when he sneezes…”
Finally, onward to The Plaza! We were big Eloise fans when CB was little, so this was a must do!
Bless him.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral was stunning!
Smart cars just always make us laugh. So we always photograph them.
By this point we were EXHAUSTED. We had started the day back in Charlotte super early, and had walked what felt like a thousand miles, and we were ready to eat and sleep. We showed up early for our reservation at Serendipity, and they were able to seat us immediately. Hallelujah!
The meal was great, but the real reason we ate here was obviously the frozen hot chocolate, and it did not disappoint!
The guy in the weenie bikini behind Collin and Mak provided endless conversation opportunities.
And with that, Day 1 was done! We were so happy for our heads to hit our pillows that night!
