Up until October 2015 I would have never entertained the idea of traveling to New York City. I had been there once in 1989 or 1990, but it was a really quick trip. It was to drop my sister, Sonni, and her family off at JFK International Airport to head to Madrid, Spain. Her husband, who was in the Air Force, was being stationed there. My impression of New York was that it was crowded and busy. But in October 2015 I put in a proposal to do a presentation for a conference that would be held at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. I was hesitant at first to even apply because the conference was in NYC!
Fast forward to July 2016. My proposal was approved and I was heading to New York. Because I was pretty sure if I went by myself that I wouldn’t visit anywhere, I “made” Bobby, my husband, go with me. It turned out to be a fantastic trip! We saw so many things in such a short time, but knew we had only touched the tippy top of the iceberg. With 8,000,000 people living in New York City, I imagine it would be impossible to do it justice in 5 short days — and two of which were being spent at a conference.
I say all this because we are going back to the Big Apple. This time we are going to be traveling there with my sister, Randi, and her husband, Shaun. We’ve been saving all year for this trip and now it is just a few short weeks away. It has finally hit home that we are going back. In fact, Randi and I spent some time on the phone a few days figuring out which flights to take.
Now begins the planning of what to do! Again, only 5 days there (without a conference), so we need to have some idea of what to do before we get there. Thankfully Bobby has put a call out to his Facebook friends to help us figure out what we “must see” and “must do.” Here are some of the ideas that have been suggested:
- Empire State Building at dusk — Apparently it is quite a sight to see when the lights start coming on around the city. We got that idea from Julie Kastner.
- Black Tap Midtown — They have the “best milkshakes around” from Don Noble’s perspective.
- Chelsea Market — I asked Bobby if it would be like West Side Market. He said, “Probably if West Side Market was on steroids.” (Several people have suggested we go there.)
- Top of the Rock — A good friend, Ron Maxwell, said this is a great place to see the sunset with the Empire State Building in the forefront. The view is “amazing!”
- Peppolino — This is an Italian restaurant suggested by Gregg Simmons (a real New Yorker). He said this Italian restaurant is one that every Italian off the boat agrees on.
- Broadway Show — We are obviously going to go to at least one show while we are there. At this point we aren’t sure which one, but rest assured, we will be going.
In addition to those suggestions, we each have an idea of what we want to do.
- Run in Central Park — This is what Randi and Shaun want to do. I don’t run — unless someone is chasing me and maybe not even then!
- Eat a slice of DiFara’s Pizza — No surprise, I’m sure, but this is on Bobby’s “must do” list.
- Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge — This is what I’d like to do. Randi and Shaun can run it if they want, but I’ll be walking it.
If I can make a confession, I hadn’t been the one to want to go back. Bobby was the guiding force on us returning. But now that I’m looking at the Facebook stream, I’m getting excited!
You can be sure that I’ll be writing about our trip there. But in case you want to relive our last trip, check out some of our NYC posts.
