Holy shiz, July was the month of travel! Jake and I traveled to Manhattan for a weekend away and it was so amazing. This was our original “summer” vacation that we booked back in March and I have been looking forward to this trip for months!
If you were following us on IG, you know that our trip turned into a total mess. Friday night we were set to fly out of Detroit at 8pm and land at JFK close to 10pm. We were so excited to go to Times Square Friday night and have drinks together (a lot of bars in NYC are open until 4am). But we got hit with storms and we were stuck in Detroit until 12am and didn’t arrive to our hotel until 4am 🙃 #EXHAUSTED.
We didn’t let this put a burden on our trip, we called Delta on Saturday night and had everything sorted out. We are Delta people for life (I swear). We never have issues with them, their customer service is amazing. They switched our return flight from 5pm on Sunday to 5pm Monday FREE OF CHARGE. This was a huge deal, without the flight change we would have been on vacation for approximately 36 hours.
Saturday morning, we were up by 8am. We stayed at the Washington Square Hotel in Greenwich Village and LOVED IT. Its an AMAZING location and the hotel offers a complimentary continental breakfast (which is such a plus because a free coffee and a croissant really do hold you over on your 20min walk to breakfast). Our room was perfect, the bathroom was newly renovated and the AC worked🙌🏼. We hopped on the subway right away and went to Central Park.
We spent our time in Central Park drinking coffee and enjoying the sun before we checked out all of the shops on Fifth Ave! My favorite thing about NYC, its so easy to navigate. Truly, its a grid so its easy to “zig zag” your way around. Plus the subway is freaking convenient and cheap! We spent the rest of Saturday sight seeing and eating our way through the city. We walked a total of 17 miles 🙃 But initially we were going to fly our at 5pm on Sunday so we tried to see as much as we could!
Saturday night we strolled the streets of SoHo and made our way to Little Italy. Its a must see and its super cute a night. There are plenty of shops, cafes and restaurants to wander through. We ended our night with drinks at an Irish Pub in Times Square. We rode the subway from Canal Street to Times Square so we could see the lights at night. Its tacky, but it still wows me every time! Plus this was Jakes first trip to the city so we were determined to “do it all”
SATURDAY THINGS TO DO:
- Central Park
- The Metropolitan Museum
- Fifth Ave
- St. Patricks Cathedral
- Rockefeller Center (you can ride to the top for $40)
- Radio City Music Hall
- Times Square
- Grand Central Station (Gossip Girl 😍🙌🏼)
- Chrysler Building
- Empire State Building (you can ride to the top for $40)
- Flatiron Building
- Washington Arch
- Little Italy
Waking up refreshed on Sunday morning, we hit up a local bagel shop for breakfast while we wandered Greenwich hand in hand. We hopped on the subway and took it down to Battery Park (now called The Battery) so we could view the Statue of Liberty. You can purchase tickets and ride the ferry to Ellis Island but since our travel was off and we had more time than we originally anticipated, they were sold out. You can still get a good view from the park and there are a lot of statues and art to admire while you’re there.
We worked our way through the financial district and up to the World Trade Center. I hadn’t had a chance to visit the new memorial since it was finished. Its so beautiful and they have a 9/11 museum you can visit if you’re looking for something else to do. We opted out of the museum but we did pay our respects at the memorial and pay a small donation.
For a little pick me up, we stopped for coffee and walked to the Ghost Busters fire station to lighten the mood. 99% sure at this time of day, I was sweating through my clothes, I wore dad shoes so I was walking with bricks on my feet and they were covered in blisters. We were craving AC and rest so we took a cab back to Little Italy for a late lunch and some quiet time. It seems like the city is so loud. The subway is loud, the streets are loud even the coffee shops are loud. So it was nice to tuck away in a dim lit restaurant and eat bread while Frank Sinatra rang through the speakers.
Food coma and all, we went back into the summer heat and walked up to SoHo for some shopping. I had to go check out this vintage shop that I had visited in May when I traveled with my friend Kait. I was dying to purchase a new jacket from So Jara.
Sunday evening after a shower and a nap, we decided we would walk the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. I was really excited but omg….PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. It was so crowded and I had no idea the bridge is wooden. The view is gorgeous but if you have anxiety this might be something you skip 😂. You can feel each step and see the waves below you through the planks. HUGE NO for me. Pretty sure I was doing breathing exercises and terrified I would drop my phone off the edge. Nonetheless, we got a great photo together, then went to the bar and ended the night with pizza in bed lol.
SUNDAY THINGS TO DO:
- Battery Park
- Statue of Liberty
- The Charging Bull
- Wall Street
- New York Stock Exchange
- Federal Hall
- 9/11 Memorial
- Hook & Ladder Company 8 (Ghost Busters)
- Vincents in Little Italy – MUST EAT
- Brooklyn Bridge
- The Malt House – Good drinks
- Joes Pizza – Seen in Spider Man 1
Waking up Monday morning, I was so ready to go back home. This trip was so so so much fun but it was extremely exhausting and way more hectic than we had planned. And just when we thought we were in the clear, we got stuck at the Newark Airport for 12 hours 🙃. Let’s backtrack.
After packing up our bags and checking out of our room, we had 5 hours to kill before we needed to leave for the airport. We visited the Friends apartment and Carries Bradshaws apartment from the Sex and the City which is roped off because its currently occupied (side note, Carrie lied about living on the upper east side). We got a cab and headed toward the airport, and this is where shit gets hectic again.
In the cab, I had this thought ” damn I hope we don’t get delayed” because the sky was looking super dark. As soon as we arrived at the airport, delayed an hour #YAY. We went through security and our terminal was under construction and we were delayed another hour… Basically, while we got to the airport at 2:45 in the afternoon on Monday and we didn’t board a plane until 12:30 at night. We played charades and ate sushi to pass the time but OMG this was the wildest trip ever. We had so many issues with the travel and flight delays, I am so shocked I didn’t have a melt down. I only packed enough anxiety meds for 2 days and then it turned into a 4 day fiasco.
If you have made it this far, bless you. This was a rant and travel guide all in one. We had so much fun in NYC and you can cover all of this in a weekend is you just want to eat, drink and sight see!
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