36 Hours in New York

This weekend, Kenny and I took a trip to New York City to celebrate our upcoming 10 year wedding anniversary.  It was a whirlwind:  we flew out of Reno at midnight on Friday, had about 36 hours in the city, and then flew back and landed in Reno around midnight on Sunday.  Thanks to Kenny's mom for watching the kids all weekend, and thanks to Jet Blue for providing a travel schedule and rates that made it possible to do this trip in the span of 2 days!

This was our first weekend away together since the kids have been born, so it was really great to get time together as a couple.  And, I love my kids as much as I love anything in this world, but it was ah-MAZ-ing to fly, sightsee, have conversations (and/or enjoy silence) with just the two of us.  Very refreshing and rejuvenating.  (But also lovely to be back with my kiddos come Monday morning.)

The Northeast has a special place in my heart because I went to college in Rhode Island - so while I'm not from there and I don't expect to live there ever again, some of my very favorite years and best memories were spent in the Northeast, including a few weekend trips with college friends riding the Peter Pan bus from downtown Providence into Port Authority.  It was fun to get to make the trip again with my hubs.

Without further ado, here's a mostly-pictures-but-also-a-few-words summary of what we did:

Lots of sightseeing!

We stayed at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, near the Empire State building, and this turned out to be a great place to wander around on foot and see LOTS of iconic New York buildings (many of these pictures are taken from the Internet and not by me):

St. Patrick's Cathedral

New York Public Library (who you gonna call?  Ghostbusters!)

Rockefeller Center, home of NBC studios and the famous huge Christmas tree

Grand Central Station

Empire State building at night (this one taken by me, that's why the picture quality dropped off!)

We also saw the Chrysler Building, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Saks 5th Avenue, and ate pizza in the Village.  It was really cool to see so many famous sights just by wandering around, exploring.

Tasting menu at Grammercy Tavern

We planned one really fancy meal for our time in the city, and that was the tasting menu at Gramercy Tavern.  Here's the menu, for any foodies who are interested (we did the seasonal tasting menu).  The highlight was the dessert, which was a strawberries and cream whipped cheesecake that was unforgettable.

Going to a show on Broadway / Times Square after dark

We saw a play called The Humans on Broadway, and this was both of our favorite part of the whole trip.  The writing, acting, and atmosphere was all excellent.  It was also fun just to walk around the theater district before and after the play and take in that atmosphere.  

Right next to the Broadway shows is Times Square, which is something to see once, but once is enough.  It is crowded and over-stimulating and not as lovely as everything else we saw in Manhattan.  But we did get Josh a framed picture of the Brooklyn Bridge for $5 from a street vendor that has so far made his entire day, so there's that.

Touring the Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Autumn Landscape" by Agnes Northrop

This museum is HUGE.  We probably should have gone in with more of a game plan.  We saw a smattering of European rennaissance art, a bit of the fashion and technology exhibit, and some American sculptures.  There was way, way too much to see and appreciate in one day, but we got a good taste of the exhibits that were most interesting to us.

Strolling through Central Park

We were lucky to have lovely weather on Sunday, so we walked several blocks through Central Park on our way from the Met to the subway that took us to the Village.  By this point on Sunday afternoon, this out of shape and expecting mama's legs were pretty worn out, so we also enjoyed several of Central Park's benches.

It's impossible to see everything that New York has to offer in 2 days, but we had a really fun time and flew home with tired feet and good memories, so I call that a successful weekend.  I'm so grateful to Kenny's mom for watching the kids and so grateful we had the opportunity to make a special trip to celebrate our 10 year milestone!