Happy holidays friends! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day! This year we skipped the traditions and took a three day trip to New York City instead. Our flight left Norfolk, VA on Sunday the 22nd and we landed at New York’s JFK airport around 3pm. We took a cab into the city, which was an hour long drive. Our Hilton hotel was in New York’s fashion district, which was a great central location. Outside of the crazy hectic-ness of Times Square, but well within walking distance to all the major tourist sites of NYC. First on our itinerary was a short walk to the iconic Macy’s department store at Herald Square. Unfortunately we were unable to enter their Santaland on the 8th floor as they required a reservation and were sold out. So we scratched that off our list and moved on! Next up was Grand Central Terminal. We arrived around dinner time and decided to eat our meal there. We settled in at the Art Bird + Whiskey Bar downstairs in the dining concourse. The meal there was delicious and we enjoyed people watching from our table.
Next on our list was Bryant Park. During the holidays they have pop-up shops and restaurants as well as an ice rink. We walked through the crowds to view the rink and window shopped all the little stores with their hand made and crafted items. We then made our way to Times Square. Along the way we walked the south end of 5th Avenue and saw Sak’s Fifth Ave.‘s building light display, which was Frozen 2 themed. We also stopped and walked through Rockefeller plaza and saw the famous Christmas tree and ice rink. We grabbed hot chocolates as we continued our walk to Times Square.
Times Square was bustling & bright. Even with the night sky above it felt like we were walking in pure daylight. From the obnoxious sidewalk vendors to the steam rising from the potholes on the street, it was just as portrayed on the TV screen. We did our rounds, stopping for moment to watch a group of street performers, and then made our way to Radio City Music Hall. We had tickets to the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular Show at 10pm. We waited in the long line down the sidewalk to have our tickets scanned and to go through security. We finally made it in & found our seats on the 3rd floor balcony. The show was fantastic and the dancers were perfection! After the hour & half long show, we walked our cold & aching feet 25 blocks back to our hotel.
The next day we set back out for Rockefeller Center to go to Top of the Rock. After purchasing our tickets, we ascended to the 68th floor to view their outdoor observatory. The tour continued to the 69th & 70th floors, offering 360 degrees of panoramic views. It was a great birds eye view of Central Park & the Hudson River. Next, we visited St. Patrick's Cathedral right across the street. We took a brief look around and continued on towards Central Park. We walked along 5th Avenue, saw Trump Tower and the Plaza Hotel, before making it to the park entrance. We entered from the east corner of the park and headed for The Mall & Literary Walk. The streets were filled with horse drawn carriages & bike tours. The Mall had street vendors & musicians lining the walk path.
After our walk through a very small corner of Central Park we headed back to Times Square to go to Madame Tussauds, the iconic wax museum. We had a ton of fun laughing & posing with all the famous figures! From there we took an Uber (because we literally could not take another step) to 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar & Lounge. This outdoor bar offers heated igloo dining areas on their rooftop, with amazing views of the city & Empire State Building. Unfortunately the igloos are reservations only, so we settled in at their indoor dining room. We enjoyed a warm meal there, then called it a night & walked back to our hotel.
We had purchased tickets for the Big Bus tour the next day. This tour allows you to hop on, hop off at different stops along the route. Buses rotate every 15 min. so there’s never a long wait. We chose the red line which takes you to south Manhattan. This beat walking there and paying for multiple Uber or cab rides. We started the tour at the Flat Iron building just a few blocks from our hotel. Our first stop was Little Italy. It was the cutest street, full of Italian vendors selling cannolis, macaroons, and pastries to eclectic jewelry, bags, and clothing. There were many restaurants and cafes as well. We stopped to grab a slice of pizza and some desserts along the way! We continued our walk into Chinatown, where we got bombarded with crowds of people. There were markets and vendors set along the street, selling fresh fruits and veggies. Restaurants and shops galore. We attempted to dine at multiple restaurants only to find that there wasn’t any room or tables left in the establishment. So we gave up on eating in Chinatown and found our way back to the bus stop.
Our next stop on the bus tour was the Brooklyn Bridge. We did a quick walk up to the bridge, snapped a pic, and turned around to go back. The path was flooded with people and bikers, and our whole bodies were aching from all the walking we had done. All we wanted to do was sit down. However, we pushed through to hit one last stop on our bucket list: the 9/11 Memorial Museum. There was a long line to get in & go through security (which was really testing my patience after two full days of non stop walking, little sleep, and lack of a balanced diet... LOL). Once through the line, we began our self guided tour of the museum. It was truly an experience, with LOTS of things to see & read. This place was massive & slightly overwhelming. You could easily spend an entire day there if you wished. But as with everywhere else we'd been it was overly crowded which made it hard to read & enjoy certain aspects of the museum. We spent approximately and hour and half there, mostly just skimming each exhibit, as we were growing hungry & tired. We met back up with our tour bus and continued our ride back to Times Square where the tour would end. We got to see the Statue of Liberty from afar at sunset, as well as the Charging Bull & Wall Street from our second level seats on the bus. We arrived back at Times Square, where we found dinner & called it a night.
Christmas Day, also our departure, we checked out of our hotel & went for brunch. The few restaurants that were open were busy & bustling. After our meal we caught a cab back to JFK Airport. We spent the rest of the day in the Admirals Club lounge (thank you military ID!) until we boarded at 7:30pm. It was a short 40 min. flight back to the Norfolk, VA airport. I don't think I'd ever been so happy to be back in Virginia Beach. Though we had fun & were in awe of the big city, it was EXHAUSTING! Definitely one of those "I need a vacation from vacation" kind of trips. Nich kept up with all our steps we took on his smartwatch, and in the three days we were there we walked over 20 miles! I think we went through an entire bottle of Ibuprofen LOL! I'm glad we got to see everything on our list, as I don't think NY is a place we will be returning to anytime soon. The fast pace city life just isn't for us, we like our peace & quiet a little too much! Haha
Thanks for reading our travel diary! Stay tuned for our next adventure ;) Blessings & best wishes in the NEW YEAR! See you all in 2020!
xoxo