Building on the Rock

Before she left for school, and because we knew most of her friends would have already left since Wofford starts later than most, S and I slipped away for a few days in the Big City!

We left bright and early on Tuesday and made the trip uneventfully which is highly unusual for me! LOL! We did not check bags, however, after the Spain luggage nightmare, and then because it was not a full flight, we were upgraded to better seats! Woohoo! When we arrived at LaGuardia I checked the price of an Uber into the city and it was $107(robbery!!), so we sucked it up and figured out the bus to Queens and then the Subway from Queens to Manhattan! Whew! It was a bit stressful since this was our first time with any sort of public transportation but it was a success! Only hiccup was me getting stuck with my suitcase in the turnstile, but nobody yelled any obscenities for which I was thankful! We arrived at our hotel, the same one we stayed at last time, about 9:15am, checked out bags into the luggage check, ate breakfast again since they were still serving it, and took off towards 5th Avenue and some slow paced shopping! After S made a few purchases, we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner as it is always so lively and festive and gets you in the mood for all things New York! We then went to Times Square and the M&M store and got in line to get tickets for a show to see that night. We settled on Two Strangers(Carry a Cake Across New York). We were finally able to get checked into the hotel and freshen up a bit! We went to Los Tacos #1. It was sooo good! The line was a bit hectic and you had to stand and eat, but it was worth it! We had a few extra minutes, so we walked well out of our way to pick up our favorite macaroons from Woops! for the show and after:) We got to the show and it did not disappoint! The set was so creative and two people did the entire show themselves! Very impressive! When we got back to the room, I think we were asleep before our heads hit the pillows!

Wednesday we got up early and ate breakfast and got the Subway so that we got off close to the Brooklyn Bridge! We walked across to DUMBO Brooklyn and first stop was a matcha:) We had earned it, lol! We then walked around Brooklyn and decided after the trip that this was such a unique and green area that it was one of our favorite spots that we saw! After we'd walked miles and miles and taken a million pictures, we ate lunch at the Time Out Market where got Jacob's Pickles chicken(on recommendation of the internet) and Ess-A-Bagel(on recommendation from Robert and Jennifer)! Both were definitely amazing! We then took the subway back to Manhattan and stopped at the Fragrance Shop so that S could use a giftcard from the Mays family that she received at graduation! This ended up being one of her favorite activities on the trip. I get a headache from all those fragrances, so I walked around the block a few times and checked in every now and then! We got back to the hotel and relaxed a bit before dinner at Langan's(it was a neat little place that was right around the corner from hotel and seemed like a lot of the young professionals stopped in after work for a drink!). It was also very close to the theater where we saw Lost Boys! Wow! Talk about a set!! It was like nothing we'd seen before! So good - but, don't go thinking like me, it is NOT about Peter Pan!

Thursday we had early reservations to go to Summit One Vanderbilt! It is one of the tall buildings that you can go to the top and see forever! Instagram/TikTok has made it really poplular! It was a very different set up than the ones we'd gone to before, and other than the mirror floors and me wearing a dress, it was a great experience! My favorite part was standing on the glass and looking all the way down - S did not care for this as much! We spent about an hour here and then stopped in at the infamous Starbucks Reserve at the Empire State Building because I'd read they had cute merch - I was not impressed and we left with nothing! On to West Village where we checked out the cute stores, ate lunch at Petit Boucherie, found frozen Greek yogurt for the first time since Spain(goodness I love that stuff!!!), shopped the thrift stores of Greenwich Village! Whew! We did a lottt of shopping:) S came away with yet a few more purchases! We were beginning to get concerned that she wouldn't be able to fit everything back into her suitcase since we only had carry-ons! We made a last minute decision to see one more show. We went back to TKTS late in the afternoon and chose to go see The Play That Goes Wrong. We ate dinner at a place we'd eaten at the first time we were in the city, John's Pizzeria, the one that is in the old church building! The pizza is soooo good! We knew there was a chance of rain this night so S brought her umbrella and I brought my raincoat! VERY glad that we did because when we got finished with dinner, it was absolutely pouring! Just sheets of rain across the streets and such strong winds! The streets and gutters were flooded out so much that we were walking in shin deep water in the grossest water!!! We made it to the theater for our show and were drenched through and through even with the umbrella and raincoat! I was wringing my dress out in the bathroom and during the show I was just sure I was getting hypothermia because my feet felt like ice cubes! BUT, we enjoyed the show regardless and the rain just kept with the theme of The Play that Goes Wrong! Haha! When we left the theater, the rain had let up to just a sprinkle thank goodness! We were sooo glad to get warm showers when we got back!

Friday we awoke to almost fall-like temperatures! The storm had taken away the heat and humidity some and it felt so amazing! We walked through Central Park with no real direction but just wanted to check it out again! We went to the Upper East Side(we'd been watching Gossip Girls in our hotel for the past few days to get us in the mood - Ha!) and ate lunch and S did some more shopping, and buying, at Brandy Melville(which doesn't open until noon and then we were waiting in line with every other teenage girl for them to open the doors! It was insanity! Then, they don't have a dressing room! SO weird! Anywho, S was successful! We had earned another matcha by this point and then walked back to the hotel to change and regroup! We then jumped on the subway to the Bronx for the Yankees game! I LOVE a good baseball game! It was fun to watch an MLB team other than the Braves play, but I still prefer to attend a Braves game:) We ate dinner at the stadium just to make it easier on ourselves and stayed until the top of the 7th inning and decided to leave to get ahead of a mad dash for the subway after the game - we did not care to experience that!

Today, Saturday, we got up and S chose to sleep in just a bit and I didn't mind an extra cup of coffee to start my morning! We packed up our stuff and left it with the hotel. We walked to do the second experience giftcard that the Mays family had given her at The Lip Lab. She made lip glass and lip stick with flavors and colors of her choice! It was a very creative idea and she loved it all! We started the trek back to the hotel, stopped for brunch at Sarabeth's and then got back to the hotel and changed into travel clothes and collected our luggage! Again, I checked the Uber prices and they were again ridiculous so we figured out how to do the subway to bus transfer backwards this time! We did it!! Whew! The flight home was a very tight layover in Charlotte that had us literally sprinting through the airport and made it just as they were boarding our plane! Got our exercise in for the day!!

We made it home around 10pm! We loved our trip to New York but there is no place like home!!

Tuesday 8/18: