These vagabond shoes...

 

I love to travel. When I was seventeen, I took my first trip to New York. Really, it was my first trip anywhere east of Utah and north of Oregon. Yes, I was extremely cultured in my youth.

I had planned a summer trip with my best friend Danielle to go visit two sets of cousins in New York. Our first stop was Alfred, which is a small town upstate that was as green and lush and charming as anything I had ever seen. I was in love!! We spent a sublime week there with the wonderful Ludlows, and even took a jaunt up to Niagara Falls, Canada -- my first time in a "foreign" country!

From there we headed to New Jersey, where my very cool Clive cousins lived just 20 miles from NYC. They showed us everything you could possibly see in one week at full speed. All the classic touristy spots and more, including a performance by some crazy Mongolian throat singers. It was unbelievable!

That trip broadened my horizons. It helped me to see what was out there in the world, outside of my little hometown. In those two weeks, I decided that I could be happy anywhere I lived, because anything would be a new experience. Whether I ended up in a small town like Alfred, or the heart of the big city, I was excited for the future!

I saw NYC once after that with my family, when they visited Matt and me the summer we lived in DC right after we got married. Still enamored. Still in love with the lights, the big buildings, the hustle and bustle of crowded streets, the sidewalk performers, the skyline, the culture, the food, everything!

Why am I strolling down memory lane, like you care? Because I like to. But this is not a post about my past. That was just a little warm up.

The real news is that NYC Trip #3 came a couple weeks ago when Matt's parents were here. He surprised me with a romantic little overnight getaway!! 

See? Don't we look romantic??

Trip summary:  still love love love that city, but no longer want to live there. 

It's amazing how kids change things like that. One semi-rainy day on those sidewalks and subways was enough to tell me that little people would make this place unbearable. As much as I love them, I was so glad we didn't bring them along!

So here's how the trip went. We flew to Philadelphia for free on Dow's air shuttle and drove a rental car from there, then paid for a hotel right in Times Square with rewards points. If there's one thing I like more than my dear husband planning a surprise getaway for us, it's my dear husband planning a surprise getaway for us on the cheap!

We had about twelve waking hours in the city, so we tried to make the most of our day. Thanks to some very detailed and helpful tips from our amazing friend Natalie, we were able to make a plan and go go go!

5:15 am -- Wake up and get ready to leave. Hope I don't wake up Jude on the way out.

7:30 am -- Flight leaves from tiny local airport.

9ish -- Plane lands in Philadelphia. Get rental car and drive. Stop for some greasy late second breakfast at gas station. (I eat second breakfast almost every day, even when I don't wake up at 5.)

11:30ish -- Arrive at hotel in NYC. Park car in crazy little lot with elevators for cars so they can stack as many as possible on top of each other. I will never figure out how these crazy city lots work or stay so organized or cram so many cars so close together. Wish I had snapped a photo.

11:45 -- Check into hotel. Drop bags in room. Contemplate taking a power nap, but don't want to waste time. Hit the streets!

Here is where I stop writing the approximate time of day because it is all a blur. I'll just try to go in chronological order.

Catch subway train going south to Brooklyn Bridge. Get a little lost finding the pedestrian pathway, with a husband who is too embarrassed to pull out our city map because he doesn't want to look like a tourist.

Find the walkway and follow the crowded crowds up the bridge, after stopping to watch a cool spray paint artist. Never gets old. Hear more languages in one hour than I can count.

Walk halfway across the bridge and have Matt look up what's so cool about it on his phone because I am a history airhead. Take some really unflattering pictures and head back down.

Walk to Canal street for the shopping! Buy two beautiful scarves for way cheap and a couple Christmas presents. Carry around my black shopping back in plain sight so that every shifty salesperson on the sidewalk can identify me as a tourist and taunt me with phrases like "Louis Vuitton" and "Rolex Rolex Rolex". Do not give in!

Catch the subway back up to Times Square to stand in line at TKTS for discount tickets to a Broadway show. Gawk at how long the line is for a slightly rainy Thursday afternoon before the booth is even open! 

Wait for an hour and people-watch. Look up summaries for all the musicals to see which ones we're interested in. Decide I want to see all of them in one day! Try for Jersey Boys. Sold out. Buy tickets for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette.

Yes that's right, I've seen Harry Potter in real life! He's very small.

Walk over to Rockefeller Center to see the 30 Rock building. Get all hyper and giddy, hoping I see the real life Tina Fey or Tracy Morgan or the guy who plays Kevin...or anybody famous. Take more touristy pictures.

Do you hear the 30 Rock theme song in your head right now? Me too.

Find Magnolia's and, per Natalie's suggestion, grab a banana pudding. 

"Suggestion" is the wrong word here...she actually said "Commit now to eating the banana pudding from Magnolia's." She was so confident that we'd love it, I had to search it out. And oh my...they need to find a different name for it because it is NOT just fuddy duddy banana pudding! It is heaven in a paper cup! Like ice cream, but not frozen. Pudding, fresh bananas, crumbly vanilla wafers...so so good! I even looked up the recipe because I need to have it in my life on a regular basis. Go to New York and eat this. Or Chicago...I heard they just opened a Magnolia's there this month!

Walk around looking for dinner somewhere casual enough to accept our blue jeans, but worth our money according to Yelp.com. Settle for a bar/grill close to the theater. Have my ID checked for the first time ever upon entering an eating establishment. Realize that by most people's standards I have been a seriously lame 20-something.

Have some time to kill before the show, so look in a few more tourist shops. Did you know they make super cute ridiculously overpriced Angry Birds pillows??

Meet up with our Chicago buddy Sam for a few minutes before he heads home from work! Send lots of hugs and tushy squeezes home to his beautiful Vanessa and baby girls. Miss them. Stupidly forget to take a picture together.

Head to the theater!!! Wonder why Daniel Radcliffe sounds weird for the first half hour until realizing it's because he's not using a British Harry Potter accent. Duh. 

LOVE every minute of the show. Even the twenty minutes I spend in the insanely long amusement-park-style bathroom line during the intermission. Laugh at the concessions guy for expecting me to pay $5 for a pack of M&Ms. Smile while my cute, talented husband reminisces about performing this musical in high school.

Walk back to the hotel. Take off my boots and collapse. Such a fun day.

Wake up early the next morning to drive the car back to Philadelphia and catch our flight home. 

Enjoy the nice wide business class seats, the free breakfast on the plane, and the crazy leg room of the emergency exit row. These are my legs completely stretched out and still not touching the seat in front of me!

Home again. So happy to see our boys. It took about twenty minutes away for me to miss them. I'm such a weeny. Many thanks to their dear grandparents for taking care of them! This was such a nice, needed getaway!