I’ve had it on my bucket list for a long time to take the teens to NYC. Believe it or not, they haven’t been to Chicago, which is much closer. That may be on the list for them next!! Brian and I went to NYC WITHOUT the kids in June 2014, which was a long time ago! See my blog posts from our NYC Trip in 2014 HERE (I was in my 30’s AND I dressed SO different!). I loved NYC even more this time! AND, the teens LOVED NYC so much! We really need to get back there in 2-3 years, there was so much we saw and didn’t have time to do this trip… and trust me, we did A LOT this trip! I would say the trip was a success! We had SO much fun. We stayed for 5 nights, which was the perfect amount of time. There is SO much walking (and it was HOT), so by the end of our trip we were tired and ready to recharge back at home. I am really missing NYC, though and our fun family time together. We flew in on Southwest and it was an easy direct flight of 2.5~ hours to La Guardia Airport. It is SO exciting to see the NYC skyline when landing in NYC.
One highlight to this trip was our transportation from the airport to the hotel and back. I was told by a friend at church to follow a popular Facebook group called: What to do in New York? Wow! This Facebook group helped me plan the trip SO, so much!!! I got a lot of great ideas on it. I remember on our last trip to NYC in 2014, we took a cab from the airport to our hotel and it was NOT a good experience. Mainly I did not like the speed that the driver was going!! Too fast! So, I knew this time I wanted to book a reputable driver, especially since we had the teens with us. Granted, there is Uber now and that probably would have been ok, but when I came across Iizzie Gets Bizzie NYC Luxury Service, I KNEW he would make our drive into NYC memorable.
Here is a sneak peak inside his car. Izzie was so kind, knowledgeable and accommodating. We got ice cold waters, snacks, souvenirs for answering trivia questions correctly and more. His Escalade is decked out in memorabilia from past clients from all over the nation and world. We will be booking him again when we return to NYC!!
We arrived at our hotel, the Westhouse. I spent hours looking for the perfect hotel in NYC and I decided our hotel we stayed at back in 2014 was SO perfect, that I wanted to stay there again. It offers two queen beds (a lot of NYC hotels only have double twins!!), great service, clean rooms AND the best part is the hot breakfast buffet and reception hour with soda, wine, champagne, charcuterie, different hot themed foods each night and dessert. The food was VERY good and I am picky! We were on the 23rd floor and the breakfast/reception hour was on the same floor as our room, so it was really convenient. It was 3 or 4 blocks away from Central Park, which was important to me so that I could get over there easily to run in the morning. There is a Starbucks on the same block as the hotel, which was important to the teens. Ha!
Here are photos of the Reception Hour our first night. They did a charcuterie theme, but there were also hot appetizer foods. They had the same desserts every night, I was a big fan of the sprinkled cupcakes! Each night they had a different theme for the food, which made it fun! We went down in-between lunch and dinner most nights for a little snack/drink!
After we checked into the hotel, we had to find somewhere for lunch. I really didn’t make any plans for our first afternoon/evening in NYC except for dinner. We landed up at Premier Cafe near our hotel and had HUGE subs and a small dessert. They had A LOT of great looking desserts! I got a turkey sub and a small chocolate eclair.
After lunch, we split up with the teens, because they both wanted to look at different shops. Brian took Autumn to the Brandy Melville shop, because it was further away… and Nathan and I stayed close to the hotel and checked out the Apple Store… and I came across the gorgeous Louis Vuitton store decked out during its construction! So cool!
We came across this cool mural near our hotel by the French restaurant called Quality Bistro. I checked out the menu for it, but it looked like more of a ‘date night’ type place than a place you’d take two teens. Maybe if Brian and I do a solo trip again and stay at the same hotel, we will book a dinner at Quality Bistro!
Our hotel was close to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and I had to go inside to get a photo of me by Starry Night!! Here I am at 47 years old next to it.
And… here I am at 36 years old next to Starry Night. Wild, right?!! I noticed it has a different frame around it.
I got to spend a lot more time inside MOMA on my previous trip with Brian. A LOT of the same artwork is still there. Lots of Monet… Picasso… Pollock… Warhol, etc. GOOD stuff! We had less than an hour to browse the museum before it closed, but it was worth it.
The skinniest skyscraper in the world… the Steinway Tower in Manhattan on Billionaires Row. This tower is so thin that is actually sways when there is high wind. It costs millions to live inside it and it has a great view of Central Park. I found this article on it, check it out HERE… it is interesting!
I thought it’d be fun to eat at the same restaurant that Brian and I dined at our first night in NYC almost 10 years ago, which is Serafinas on Broadway. It is super close to the hotel and has great homemade Italian food. I was going to get the same dish I got last time, the Farfalle al Limoncello (you can see a photo of it HERE), but I got the lasagna this time. For dessert I had a chocolate cake with ice cream and a cappuccino.
That’s a wrap on the first day, more to come… stay tuned!
