The City That Never Sleeps… our vacation to NYC

One of these days I will upgrade our photo capacity. Until then, here is a recap of last week:

Saturday

• Arrived in the early afternoon to NYC
• Dropped out luggage off at our hotel
• Ate lunch at Capizzi’s 
• Checked into our room
• Toured the Empire State Building

Sunday

• Ate breakfasts at Starbucks
• Visited Ellis Island
• Visited the Statue of Liberty
• Visited the 9/11 memorial

Monday

• Shopped in Times Square
• Made our way down to Brooklyn 
• Ate lunch with my friend Carly at the Shake Shack
• Toured her office, which overlooks Manhattan
• Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge
• Went to a Yankees game!

Tuesday

• Saw Anderson Cooper Live!
• Ate lunch at Dean & DeLuca
• Visited the TKTS counter for Broadway tickets (but decided not to see anything)
• Explored Times Square some more
• Ate dinner at Pomodoro

We did all of the ‘touristy’ things this trip because you have to see them at lease once in your life. If we were to ever go back, we would probably stay in a different part of the city to get a different experience, but we had a lot of fun!

We stayed at the Candlewood Suites in Times Square and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to stay in the TQ area. The hotel was very nice and we had a kitchenette in our room (fridge, stove and microwave).

We did not take a single taxi the entire time we were there… we flew into JFK and took the AirTrain into the city, which connects with the subway system. We purchased subway tickets for $29 that allowed unlimited trips the whole time we were there. Props to K for being the navigator and finding our way around everywhere!

I loooooved New York City but realized how exhausting our trip was once we got back to CLT. There were people everywhere, it was so busy and fast-paced, and we did a ton of walking. It definitely made me more appreciative of living in a place like Charlotte, which IMO has a smaller-town feel in a lot of areas but still offers the benefits of a big city.

If you’re going to NYC for the first time and want to see all of the ‘main’ things, I would recommend staying for at least 4 full days like we did. It was the perfect amount of time to do 2-3 ‘big’ things every day and still allows for some free time for shopping and exploring.

By the way, I made vlogs of everything we did but they are in bits and pieces on my iphone. I hope to figure out a way to put them all together in 1 video soon!