NYC for me

This football season the team had a bye week. This is unprecedented for us in October! And my loving husband decided to spend his 1st free weekend in October in more than 15 years (yes, since he was in high school) taking me to New York City!

I was beyond thrilled! It's always a logistical struggle to have the kids cared for and we had been super busy with work, so I didn't know if traveling for the weekend was the best idea…but it totally was! We were only gone Friday afternoon through Sunday evening, but it felt like a much needed break!

A freedom selfie after dropping off the kids

We drove Friday afternoon/evening until we reached New Jersey then we navigated the rail system and hopped a train from NJ to NYC. We did this to avoid driving in the crazy traffic and I have to say it was a great move! I even enjoyed reading a book on the train…brought me back to my urban living days!

We got to our hotel in Times Square around 10 pm and decided we needed to take a walk, look at the lights and have a midnight snack!

Totally fan girling in front of The Tonight Show studios! Love me some Jimmy! The only thing that could have made the weekend better would have been being an audience member…next time!

For our midnight snack we chose Serendipty 3 (made famous in the '90's movie Serendipity)

And we were serendipitously seated at the most famous table in the place (the table featured in the movie). We have the famous frozen hot chocolate and it was delightful!

The next morning we were going to get up early and hit up the morning show outdoor audiences, but it was Halloween and their time outside was limited because of the costumes so we missed it :(

So let the day of tourism begin…we packed a lot into 1 day!

First stop was Rockefeller Center, which was close to our hotel. Then we walked to our breakfast destination, Sara Beths. It was delicious!

After breakfast we ventured to Central Park where we rented bikes, so we could enjoy the park at a faster pace

It was a beautiful, albeit chilly, day and the fall foliage in the park was exquisite.

biking selfie

view of the city from Belvedere Castle in Central Park

Coincidentally it was also the day before the NYC Marathon, so the park was a buzz of activity preparing for the race. It was fun to see the finish line and ride our bikes around part of the course.

After our bike ride through Central Park we visited the Lego Store in Rockefeller Center because we knew that would be a hit with the kids. Kyle and I painstakingly made them each a Lego figure that fit them ;) That was the only shopping we did all weekend…yes we're old and parents ;)

Then we hopped on the subway to the legendary Katz's Deli. It's known for its delicious food, but it was also featured in the movie "When Harry Met Sally."

It's certainly a tourist destination and it was incredibly busy, but it lived up to the hype. Kyle devoured his corn beef sandwich.

We also had some fun while waiting for subway trains…subway selflies of course

After lunch we headed to One World Trade Center to see the 9/11 memorial. This was a surreal destination, because the last time I visited NYC I stayed in the World Trade Center. Four months later was 9/11. It was a very well done, moving memorial.

From there we walked down to Battery Park and hopped on the Staten Island Ferry. Kyle wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, but I didn't want to wait in line all day. So we took the free ferry that passes right by Miss Liberty.

A few of the city skyline from the ferry

After viewing the Statue of Liberty it was nice to give our feet a rest on the ferry ride.

From there we got on the subway and headed to the Brooklyn Bridge.

That was my 1 request for the weekend, walk the Brooklyn Bridge. I know it's strange, but I had never seen it in person. Kyle was a little skeptical, but there was NY style pizza awaiting us on the other side so he obliged. The picture above is the NY skyline from the bridge.

The bridge is pretty incredible and just so you know there were lots of people walking the bridge, so I'm not the only crazy one.

Bridge selfless of our faces and our feet…they were getting pretty tired by this point

Once we made it to Brooklyn we stopped for dinner at Grimaldi's for some authentic NY style pizza. It was delicious and we devoured it!

love the random flower  markets throughout the city

After dinner we returned to Times Square and our hotel via the subway. We took a short break and composed ourselves for the big event ;)

This whole trip was somewhat spontaneous. We didn't even decide to go until about a week before. Then the Royals made it to the World Series…I looked the Series schedule because I thought it would be quite the coincidence if Kyle's beloved Royals were playing in the World Series in the NY while we were there…well it just so happened they were scheduled to play the Mets at Citi Field on Saturday night…it seemed like fate…until I looked at ticket prices…the least expensive $1200 each…wamp, wamp

So, we did the next best thing we went to the stadium. They were streaming the audio so we could here the game. They also had TV monitors set up at the ESPN booth so we watched from there for awhile. Then we visited the World Series store, which only had Mets gear :( We tried to get into a sports bar at the stadium, but there cover charge was a bit too high for us to subject ourselves to a bunch of rowdy Mets fans. Finally, we just decided to head to a sports bar closer to our hotel. We watched the game there until the Royals took the lead late in the game. Then Kyle wisely suggested we watch the rest of the game in our hotel room ;)

This is the closest we could get…looking into the stadium

We fell into bed exhausted from a long, fun day of activities. We awoke the next morning and got ready to hit the road…but not before a stop at Magnolia Bakery for a cupcake ;)

Big cities may not be Kyle's favorite places, but we had so much fun just the two of us. We were able to have uninterrupted conversation as well as sit in silence…neither of which happen much around home. While we enjoyed our time away we were also excited to get home and see our kiddos!