Little Monica Goes to the Big Apple

We have returned home! Seth and I spent 5 days in NYC over Christmas this year, and the experience was many things. It was magical! and fun! and amazing! but also exhausting, expensive, and crowded. 

What I LOVED:

1) I LOVED all the parks we went to. We walked down High Line Park Christmas morning, which was amazing. This park is an old elevated subway line that was no longer in use so they turned it into a park. So it's really long and skinny, but it gives such a different perspective of the city and the park itself is beautiful. Everything from the benches to tree placement was very thought out. Then we made our way down to Washington Square Park, which has the really big iconic arch. So beautiful, nice open space amongst the sky scrapers. Lastly, of course Central Park. We didn't spend a lot of time walking around, and the park is HUGE, but the small section we saw was so beautiful. I found myself wanting to go for a nice relaxing jog through it. 

2) LOVED eating. Fav eateries:

       -George's. It's a little hole in the wall family owned diner, and the food is delicious but nothing   too unique, but it's right around the corner from Wall St. by the World Trade Center and Battery Park so it's a good people watching place. All the Wall St. businessmen and big shots of NYC seemed to eat at this little po-dunk diner, so it was fun little experience.

       -Angelo's Pizza. AMAZING pizza and its right above David Letterman's studio on Broadway. So not only was it the best pizza I've eaten, it was in such a cool spot!

       -Maison Kayer had french food. We just happened to meander in here starving, and were very happy with our Christmas brunch here. Really delicious and something unique, but a tad on the expensive side but not too bad.

      -The China Village. We ate Chinese food in Chinatown for Christmas dinner, and how cool is that!? Enough said there.

      -Serendipity. Such a whimsical little place famous for their GIANT sundaes and frozen hot chocolate (also featured in the movie Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale!). It looks tiny on the outside and is easily missed, but you go in and the decorations are just over the top and it goes back forever. They take reservations if you actually eat food, not for dessert though. We waited almost 2 hours to have dessert. Although totally worth it, either make a reservation and just eat dinner there too or put your name on the list, go somewhere else to eat, then go back. 

3) The 9/11 Memorial. There are no words. It was just beautiful and moving. I was in 5th grade, Seth in 6th, in Alaska when it happened. We have always known it was a big deal obviously, but we were so far away and didn't even know anybody who lived in NYC, but to be there and see people's names who died inscribed around the reflection pools of the old World Trade Center foundations was touching. As we were riding the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty, I was just looking at the skyline trying to imagine being there on 9/11/2001. It's just another day and all of a sudden you look up and planes crash into each of the Twin Towers. I just couldn't even imagine the horror. 

4) The Ballet. Oh. my. goodness. Not only the actual ballet itself was amazing, but I think it's beautiful to see people dress up in there best dresses and suits they have to go celebrate somebody else's incredible talent. I was in awe of the beautiful Lincoln Center, the stage, and the experience. It was beautiful. People are beautiful, and I love that we create beautiful things like ballet and plays. 

Things I DID NOT love

1) It was a holiday, and with that comes 1 million extra people in the city, and it was CROWDED. There was a line for everything. To see the 9/11 Memorial, to skate in Central Park,  to go in Serendipidy, etc. 1 Hour Minimum. Note to self: if we go back, go on a random week when there's no holidays, because the city was PACKED and we were always waiting in lines. 

2) THERE ARE NO BATHROOMS. You can be guaranteed a bathroom in Starbucks (and there's one every block it seems like), but the line for the bathroom is at least half hour. If you go, scope out churches (most of them are just open so people can look in them), and TGI Fridays. Those are go to spots for bathrooms, otherwise NOBODY has bathrooms. I spent a large part of the week doing the potty dance, because I had to pee!

3) Consumerism is hard. We went in the big famous Macys, FAO Schwartz (big famous toy store), and many more stores just to see, and all I could think about is all the STUFF. There was just so many THINGS in each of those stores. Macys was kind of neat, because whatever you could ever want was in there, which is convenient, but that's also heartbreaking. I want a coat, but do I really need 500 (literally) different options? Is my life so consumed by having EXACTLY what I WANT? Those stores just screamed "I WANT THINGS. I WANT STUFF. I WANT I WANT I WANT!!!!" We just consume things and don't even think twice about where it comes from, who made it, was it ethically made, do I really need it, why do I want this, etc. 

4) Times Square was meh. Cool to pop in for 5 minutes and just see it, but when you really start looking around it's mostly just typical advertisements with lots of sex, more stuff to get upset about not having, and propaganda. Meh. 

Overall from our visit to New York, I can't decide if I'm in awe of the creativity of human beings and our innovation to make a place like NYC or if I'm in total horror of the fact we have basically laid one solid slab of concrete over such a large surface area. My inner Alaskan who is used to untouched land and big open spaces cried a little inside. Regardless, it's always good to be home. I missed my dog and cat a lot.