Friday morning, Eric went into work a little early to knock our something before the normal bustle of his office started. I get a call right before I get in the shower, him telling me to stop by his office on my way in because he had a surprise. All I could think was, "What is he up to?"
I didn't rush through my normal routine and when I stopped by, I was only slightly surprised when he told me he found cheap flights to NYC, using his Delta Skymiles. We had been talking about going so we could do the Brooklyn Makers Tour, though we had talked about NOT traveling over the upcoming weekend. But he was determined, hence, the only slight surprise to me. So I agreed - let's go do this. He booked the flights and I told him I'd look at hotels and a car service when I got into work. Somehow, this last minute trip all came together, quite easily.
So Friday at 6pm, we were on a direct flight to LGA. And we were in the heart of NYC by 9pm. We got to the hotel, checked in, and decided to just grab food there instead of wandering. We stayed just off of Times Square in the Hilton. It was a surprisingly good deal and, quite frankly, you can't beat the location, as one of the larger MTA Subway hubs is right there.
After we ate, we decided the brave Times Square, itself, just so we could say we did do it... we only did a lap, and even in a drizzly rain, it was still packed!Saturday morning, we woke up without an alarm (always awesome, in my mind), grabbed breakfast at the hotel, and decided to check off a few items on our list of places to go before we headed over to Brooklyn. Believe it or not, these were shopping destinations of Eric's choosing. Stuff we don't have in Indy... I think Eric misses his travelling more that he likes to admit. But we also found one of the many small parks throughout Manhattan, Bryant Park. Eric's determined to make the small park on Mass Ave cooler, so he ate up this little find. Granted, we can't do a skating rink, but there were some other cool ideas in the park.
From there, it was back to hotel, briefly, and then on to the subway to head over to Brooklyn. We routed it out, based on what the Made in Brooklyn Tours company website suggested, and had no problem getting to where we need to be, despite the dreary, drizzly rain. It was a little chilly, but not at the freezing level. I still knew we'd be cold and wetter than we'd like to be by the end.
Yet, I was still looking forward to it. We started at a little coffee shop located in a building that, historically, used to roast coffee. And that first tidbit of the tour confirmed this was going to be a good tour, even if we would be walking all over Brooklyn in the rain.The tour guide, Dom, made the tour spectacular. He was born and raised in Brooklyn and knew all sorts of cool tidbits of information. We only went on one of the many offered (Made in Williamsburg), but I would imagine if you did multiple, you'd never get bored. Seriously. We visited an ice cream place that has crazy flavors (there was bacon in one of the flavors... literally), and artists' sketchbook library, a chocolate shop, a cheese shop, jewelry store, and a bagel shop. Not only did he have stories about the places we stopped, but also all sorts of history tidbits as we walked. It was really cool. I highly recommend you check out one of their tours if you're ever in NYC. Their page is linked above, in italics.
After it was done, Eric and I decided to hop a bus to another part of Brooklyn and tour a little more on our own. We essentially ended up in the area under the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. First, we found the Brooklyn Roasting Company, thinking it would be a good place to warm up. And it was. Coffee was excellent and I even bought some to bring back with me. We then decided to do an early dinner at Grimaldi's Pizzeria 'under' the Brooklyn Bridge.
And after that, we decided it was time to head back to Manhattan. As we walked to the nearest subway station, we came across a Brooklyn Industries store. This was right up Eric's alley with his involvement with the Pattern Store. I just loved the stuff they had - kind of wish we had found it earlier. We both ended up finding things we like there to buy. Not that it's hard for me to find something I like...Once we got back to our hotel, we warmed up just enough to take another 'hike', this time down to Tavern on Third. "Why?" you might ask? Well, I found out from a fellow alumni that spotted my Auburn hat at breakfast that this was the official NYC Auburn Alumni watch party location. So of course I had to check it out. Eric was a good sport about it, too... even if when we got there, we found more than we bargained for. It was PACKED! Wall to wall Auburn people, cheering on the game on the 32 TV's throughout. It was standing room only, and with us being on our feet all day, we knew we couldn't make it though the whole game on our feet. So, even though it bummed me out a little, we went back to the hotel for the second half of the game.
Found some alumni and fans there, too. In fact, I was a bit blown away by how much Auburn apparel I saw all weekend. Gotta love Auburn pride.Sunday morning we woke up knowing two things. One, we had until noon to be out of the hotel, and until 5pm before we were actually picked up by our car and two, we had unknowingly came to New York on the weekend of the NYC Marathon, which was Sunday. The later at least explained why our rate went up the second night... but the good news was that it all stayed north of where we were (came no further south than Central Park) and in the other boroughs.
So for what we wanted to do, there was no issue. It just kept one thing off my desired 'to-do' list, and that was to stroll through Central Park for a bit. But it was going to be crazy with the marathon finishing there, so we nixed that idea quickly. Instead, we did some more shopping and wandering. Again, mostly Eric's chosen shops. I got him to go to Macy's to see the wooden escalators... which I still think are just so cool.We ended up by the Flatiron building, and another little park, coincidentally. I don't think I realized how many little parks there really were throughout NYC. Plus, they made much of Broadway a pedestrian plaza. This was a very nice change from last time... a lot more walking room through the busy areas. And it just looked nicer! We took a brief pause in our shopping and touring to go check out of the hotel and store our bags, and then we were off again, this time to the Highline to walk to new north end of it that had just opened.
There were some cold, blustery winds blowing across the Highline since it was so close to the water - the new leg even skirts over right next to the water! It was sunny, at least. And I'm still glad we checked it out. We hit another few shops and then decided to grab a late lunch/early dinner before going back to the hotel and wait for the car to pick us up. We were both feeling (are still feeling) the pains of walking around for two days. But it was worth it. It turned out to be a spectacular weekend trip. I never would've gone to Brooklyn without this tour being a reason for me to cross the East River - I just didn't think there was anything worth seeing over there. But it was really cool... Brooklyn's pretty cool. And just getting to see more of NYC after our very brief visit back in July... will always love that. I think I will just always love New York City and exploring what else it has to offer. No trip has been the same, yet, nor do I think any trip will be the same... unless I want it to be the same, that is. But why would I want that?
No comments:
Post a Comment