Dates: July 30-Aug 4, 2015
Whew! We just had a great time in NYC! Aside from our first day of a bit of rain, we had really sunny, hot days while we were there. We felt as though we filled our days and did everything we wanted to do there, and even had time for a few lazy hours of reading in beautiful parks! Because of doing so much work on my computer this past year, I really had not wanted to do any research about things to do before we left for this trip. I was thankful that Will booked our places to stay and our travel tickets, and once we arrived in the city, I was ready to search! The apartment in Brooklyn (near Fort Green) that we booked through AirBnB was great, and our host there was super friendly and helpful. We love having apartments if we can when we are away from home for a while because it lets us have access to a fridge so that we don't have to eat every single meal out. We found the subway really simple to use, and loved how it zipped us everywhere we wanted to go! We did a TON of walking, which paired well with all of the great food we tried!
Favourite food we had: 67 burger (Brooklyn), Halel guys (52nd St/6th Ave), Koyzina Kafe (financial district), Shake Shack (near Central Park), Artichoke Baselli's (Greenwich Village), Rafiqi's (various locations). Least favourite food: $1 pizza (as recommended as a "must, even though it's gross" and it totally lived up to it's expectation).
line up for the Halel Guys was totally worth it!
We went to see four incredible shows in three days (on day 3 we hit the matinee and then scored tickets for a night performance as well!). We tried for "rush/lottery tickets" (putting our names into a lottery that is done 2.5 hrs before a show to get discounted tickets) which was actually a lot of fun, despite not winning either time we did it. We bought 2 sets of tickets at the TKTS booth, 1 set online and 1 set at the box office. A little review of each...
Avenue Q: I doubted the quality of a puppet show, but it truly was hilarious, contained lots of adult only humour, and was filled with great acting and amazing songs. It had a great message about everyone trying to find their purpose in life and not always finding it, and the amazing power of generosity.
Hand To God: Yes, a second puppet show, but again, adult humour! A mix of funny and dark, a good play about a boy dealing with feelings after his dad has died through a dark, sadistic puppet.
Matilda: A wonderful big musical with lots of great songs and dancing by many fairly young actors. A great message that you need to do what is right even if it's hard sometimes. I connected well with Matilda's character and with Ms. Honey's character, and am now wanting to go back and read the story again!
Book of Mormon: A display of amazing talent- such well choreographed dances and singing that was very clever. Story about young missionaries sent to Uganda to spread the word of the Book of Mormon. Elder Cunningham was an absolute favourite with his hilarious dance moves and active imagination!
We also got to see two comedy shows! We went to the Upright Citizen's Brigade in Chelsea and lined up for 2 hours to get tickets. We were #112 and #113 of 130 tickets handed out for the ASSSCAT 3000 show! There were 6 comedians and 1 monologist (Myq Kaplan), and they did a great job of making us laugh with their improv comedy. We also went to the Comedy Cellar for 5 comedians and a host. They were all hilarious, and we are still laughing about some of their jokes now!
line up for Upright Citizen's Brigade comedy tickets
We only got ourselves into a dodgy area once (of course, it was at 1 AM, but luckily nothing crazy happened). We did not love the poor air quality or the various smells we were hit with each day, and the mass of people everywhere was a bit exhausting after awhile. We felt like we were cattle being herded everywhere. Although we definitely felt as though having a Smartphone would make a lot of things easier travelling in a new city, we were shocked by the number of people constantly looking down at their phone or talking on their phone (even while riding a bike!). There's a lot of important people with important phone calls there, and I felt so lucky every day not to be one of them. However, we did join the crowds for a number of ventures- Times Square area a few times, the World Trade Centre memorial tribute area, Madison Square Gardens, Wall St/Financial District, and downtown Brooklyn.
new world trade centre building financial district the Apple store near Central Park
I just don't get how you get your car out if you're parked on top??
We did manage to escape the people a few times and absolutely loved some of the preservation of nature in this large city. Central Park, of course, was an absolute highlight. We spent the majority of a day in there exploring this huge, gorgeous park, and took a couple hours to lay in the grass reading.
We also loved the High Line- this was recommended to us by our friend Jodi, and once we were on it, I started telling Will about a book I read to my students this year called The Curious Garden. This book was all about a boy who decided to beautify an old abandoned railroad, and how his little gestures started a huge movement. I was then so surprised to see the book on a shelf at the Chelsea market, and to find out that the book was based on this very place!
We also sought out a number of waterside walkways that were really beautiful.
We explored the East Village and Greenwich Village (Herald square, McDougall St, Bleeker St, Chinatown, Little Italy), and although they have busy areas (with some great shopping!), they also have little parks tucked in all over the place. We loved Washington Park, with their beautiful big arch and fountain (another shady reading spot for us!).
On our final night, we went up the Empire State Building at 10:30pm. By the time we were standing on the open air deck on floor 86, it was 11:30pm, and the city looked so spectacular!
We spent quite a bit of time up there finding places we had been during our time in NYC. We had a lot of fun exploring this city!
The Burgess Duo
Eating apples in the Big Apple (haha I can feel Will rolling his eyes at me)
Whew! We just had a great time in NYC! Aside from our first day of a bit of rain, we had really sunny, hot days while we were there. We felt as though we filled our days and did everything we wanted to do there, and even had time for a few lazy hours of reading in beautiful parks! Because of doing so much work on my computer this past year, I really had not wanted to do any research about things to do before we left for this trip. I was thankful that Will booked our places to stay and our travel tickets, and once we arrived in the city, I was ready to search! The apartment in Brooklyn (near Fort Green) that we booked through AirBnB was great, and our host there was super friendly and helpful. We love having apartments if we can when we are away from home for a while because it lets us have access to a fridge so that we don't have to eat every single meal out. We found the subway really simple to use, and loved how it zipped us everywhere we wanted to go! We did a TON of walking, which paired well with all of the great food we tried! Favourite food we had: 67 burger (Brooklyn), Halel guys (52nd St/6th Ave), Koyzina Kafe (financial district), Shake Shack (near Central Park), Artichoke Baselli's (Greenwich Village), Rafiqi's (various locations). Least favourite food: $1 pizza (as recommended as a "must, even though it's gross" and it totally lived up to it's expectation).
line up for the Halel Guys was totally worth it!
We went to see four incredible shows in three days (on day 3 we hit the matinee and then scored tickets for a night performance as well!). We tried for "rush/lottery tickets" (putting our names into a lottery that is done 2.5 hrs before a show to get discounted tickets) which was actually a lot of fun, despite not winning either time we did it. We bought 2 sets of tickets at the TKTS booth, 1 set online and 1 set at the box office. A little review of each...
Avenue Q: I doubted the quality of a puppet show, but it truly was hilarious, contained lots of adult only humour, and was filled with great acting and amazing songs. It had a great message about everyone trying to find their purpose in life and not always finding it, and the amazing power of generosity.
Hand To God: Yes, a second puppet show, but again, adult humour! A mix of funny and dark, a good play about a boy dealing with feelings after his dad has died through a dark, sadistic puppet.
Matilda: A wonderful big musical with lots of great songs and dancing by many fairly young actors. A great message that you need to do what is right even if it's hard sometimes. I connected well with Matilda's character and with Ms. Honey's character, and am now wanting to go back and read the story again!
Book of Mormon: A display of amazing talent- such well choreographed dances and singing that was very clever. Story about young missionaries sent to Uganda to spread the word of the Book of Mormon. Elder Cunningham was an absolute favourite with his hilarious dance moves and active imagination!
We also got to see two comedy shows! We went to the Upright Citizen's Brigade in Chelsea and lined up for 2 hours to get tickets. We were #112 and #113 of 130 tickets handed out for the ASSSCAT 3000 show! There were 6 comedians and 1 monologist (Myq Kaplan), and they did a great job of making us laugh with their improv comedy. We also went to the Comedy Cellar for 5 comedians and a host. They were all hilarious, and we are still laughing about some of their jokes now!
line up for Upright Citizen's Brigade comedy tickets
We only got ourselves into a dodgy area once (of course, it was at 1 AM, but luckily nothing crazy happened). We did not love the poor air quality or the various smells we were hit with each day, and the mass of people everywhere was a bit exhausting after awhile. We felt like we were cattle being herded everywhere. Although we definitely felt as though having a Smartphone would make a lot of things easier travelling in a new city, we were shocked by the number of people constantly looking down at their phone or talking on their phone (even while riding a bike!). There's a lot of important people with important phone calls there, and I felt so lucky every day not to be one of them. However, we did join the crowds for a number of ventures- Times Square area a few times, the World Trade Centre memorial tribute area, Madison Square Gardens, Wall St/Financial District, and downtown Brooklyn.
new world trade centre building financial district the Apple store near Central Park
I just don't get how you get your car out if you're parked on top??
We did manage to escape the people a few times and absolutely loved some of the preservation of nature in this large city. Central Park, of course, was an absolute highlight. We spent the majority of a day in there exploring this huge, gorgeous park, and took a couple hours to lay in the grass reading.
We also loved the High Line- this was recommended to us by our friend Jodi, and once we were on it, I started telling Will about a book I read to my students this year called The Curious Garden. This book was all about a boy who decided to beautify an old abandoned railroad, and how his little gestures started a huge movement. I was then so surprised to see the book on a shelf at the Chelsea market, and to find out that the book was based on this very place!
We also sought out a number of waterside walkways that were really beautiful.
We explored the East Village and Greenwich Village (Herald square, McDougall St, Bleeker St, Chinatown, Little Italy), and although they have busy areas (with some great shopping!), they also have little parks tucked in all over the place. We loved Washington Park, with their beautiful big arch and fountain (another shady reading spot for us!).
On our final night, we went up the Empire State Building at 10:30pm. By the time we were standing on the open air deck on floor 86, it was 11:30pm, and the city looked so spectacular!
We spent quite a bit of time up there finding places we had been during our time in NYC. We had a lot of fun exploring this city!
The Burgess Duo
Wow! What a lot of ground you two covered! It looks like an amazing trip! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteGreat pics!! That is so cool about the Curious Garden - I love that book too! Central Park looks gorgeous...really hope I am able to visit NYC someday :)
ReplyDelete