My First Trip to New York City

Early last Wednesday my girlfriend and I left for New York City (first time for both of us), and we returned late Sunday evening. We both had a blast! Below is a summary of what we were able to accomplish in the time we were there, along with my comments.

Wednesday
1. We departed at 5:10am Wednesday morning.
2. We arrived at Carlo's Bakery (aka "Cake Boss") in Hoboken, NJ, at 12:13pm, a 7hr 3min drive. We stopped 1 time for gas. It was nearly impossible finding a parking spot in Hoboken's narrow alleyways, but we were able to find one next to a park by the river. We walked to Carlo's Bakery then got in line across the street. We waited for 1 hour 45 minutes until we got to the front of that waiting line, and received our ticket (when inside the store they call number-by-number to take your order, like the BMV). Then we were moved to the next line right outside the store, where we waited another 20 minutes. Then we were finally allowed into the store and waited another 25 minutes to have our number called. All in all we spent 2hr 30min in line and in the store at Carlo's Bakery. We got a few cookies and a small cake for the 2 of us (which melted into a puddle by the time we got to our hotel). It was a fun experience, and we're glad we did it; but if we went again, we would NOT do this again. We saw most the people from the Cake Boss show except the main character, Buddy (although he was there, and someone else in line saw him in the back alley loading a large cake into a vehicle). Again, cool attraction, but not worth the time. I just now ate my cookie that I bought last Wednesday, and it was still great! (saved 1 for co-worker and 1 for myself, and we ate them together). After Carlo's Bakery, we spent a little time on the Hoboken pier to get our first glance of the NYC skyline. WOW! It was absolutely breathtaking and beautiful.
3. At 3:55pm we left Hoboken for our hotel (Country Inn & Suites) in Long Island City. I got my first taste of driving in downtown New York City (crossed right through Times Square). I kept wanted to say "Driving in New York isn't that bad!" but I didn't because I did not want to jinx myself. We arrived at our hotel by 4:50pm (55min drive, was supposed to be 28min according to GPS). Our hotel was GREAT all week! The area was kind of shady, but just a 2-3 minute walk to the express Queensboro Plaza subway station (Yellow NQR, Purple 7) and a short 5-minute ride to Times Square. Very clean hotel, courteous employees, and everything we needed including free wi-fi, free continental breakfast, and FREE Parking! However, there were only 7 parking spots right in front of the hotel boxed in by parallel-parked taxis. We parked in an alley 1 minute from the hotel for the first day and nabbed one of the open spots on Thursday, and parked there right next to the front door the rest of the week. Worked out perfectly!
4. By 6:00 we were off to visit Times Square for the first time. While there we visited the M&M World, Hershey store, Disney store.
5. For dinner we wanted to get the best pizza in New York City. There were 3-4 we could have chosen from, but we decided to eat at Lombardi's Pizza in Little Italy. It was very good pizza, and we'd definitely go back! It ended up costing us about $32 including tip. After Lombardi's, we went back to the hotel.

Thursday
1. Thursday morning we slept in a little then started our day with the 10:00am reservation at the Federal Reserve Museum. It was not the vault access tour (booked a long time ago), so it was basically a view at the history of coins and money... definitely not worth it. Had some fun trying to get past security guards to the non-employee entrance since they weren't clearly marked, but we finally got inside. Haha!
2. After that, we went to Ground Zero which was totally fenced off for the construction of the new building going up. The new building is going to be amazing! It will be 110 floors (same amount as the original WTC buildings), and there will be a tall spiral at the top making the building 1776 feet tall (signifying our independence). It was about 1/2 constructed when we saw it. We also went into the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site (store) to look at pictures and scaled-down models of the new to-be site. After that we looked at the St. Paul's Chapel & Cemetery which were across the street.
3. Next on our list was the Trinity Church. This place was really cool! The cemetery outside was obviously from the movie National Treasure where Nicholas Cage gets shot at. Inside it was very pretty, but not as pretty as St Patrick's cathedral we saw on Friday.
4. For the next little bit, we hit the NYSE building, a New York City hot dog stand, and the Charging Bull. We could not get into the NYSE building, but we walked around it and saw the heavy security. Just behind it, next to the hot dog stand we ate at, was a statue of George Washington, marking the spot where he first took oath of office. Very cool! The Charging Bull was cool to see, too, but there were lots of young teenagers who didn't understand how to take turns or be polite in groups, so we didn't get many good pictures there.
5. Next after that cluster of attractions was the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Immigration Museum. We boarded the ferry at Battery Park. The first stop let us off at Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. Tickets for Crown access were booked back in January, so we only walked around the statue. It was still pretty cool and bigger than I thought it was going to be. Then we boarded the ferry to Ellis Island to see the Immigration Museum which was also a neat place to see, given its history and relevance to our nation's heritage.
6. All of these were done by 3 or 4pm, so we had plenty of time that evening to do whatever we wanted. First we stopped by Times Square at the TKTS booth to see if we could get a cheap Broadway show, but the line was wayyyy too long, we opted out of a show. Our New York Pass granted free access to Madame Tussious, the wax museum of famous people, so we went in there. It got old after a while, but some of the exhibits were pretty cool and VERY life-like! We took lots of pictures. The girlfriend wanted the pics more than I did... I was very bored. Had we spent money on it, I would have been upset. Haha! After that, we headed back to the hotel for a break for our feet, which were killing us!
7. For dinner we went to a highly-recommended sports bar & grill, Mudville 9 Saloon. We got wings and a burger and watched the NFL Draft's 1st round (well, most of it). The food was absolutely wonderful! The service was very poor. We would definitely go back just for the food!

Friday
1. Our plan for Friday was to be on the Today Show! So, we got up at 4am and were at Rockefeller Center by 5am for the 7am start time. Around 5:15am, someone asked us "You're not here for the Today Show, are you?" We responded "Yes," and he said "There is no show today. There is only the viewing party on Times Square." We had seen the bleachers and projector screen on Times Square but had not heard a word about the actual Today Show being cancelled. So we went over to the Variety Cafe for breakfast - a few muffins/bagels and orange juice/coffee - and walked around the area for a while and saw a few places including St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was very, very nice!!
2. Originally scheduled for after our 9:30am NBC Studio Tour, we were able to pump Top of the Rock up to its opening time of 8am. We absolutely LOVED the view from the top of this building, even more so than the Empire State Building! There were 3 floors you could view from at your own pace - 77, 78, 79 - and all 3 were great. The view South to all the huge buildings was astounding, and to the North to see Central Park was also amazing. Great view!
3. After the Top of the Rock, we arrived downstairs well in time for our 9:30am NBC Studio Tour, which took us through many different floors and sets for shows such as Nightly News, Dr. Oz, and Saturday Night Live. This was a fun, informative, and interactive tour that I would recommend, although it didn't seem to last that long. While we were sitting in the staging area waiting for the tour to start, someone went around offering free stand-by tickets for the Jimmy Fallon show's taping later that evening around 5:30pm. We took two tickets and figured we'd go and see if we got in. I'll cover this in a little bit.
4. Then we hit the Museum of Sex. We thought it'd be more of a historical/anatomy-type museum, but once you got off the first floor, all the walls were filled with monitors displaying pornographic videos of different "types" of sex. Very weird and uncomfortable. It was kinda funny at the same time, though.
5. Next, we took the subway to Times Square and walked the mile to the Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum, which my girlfriend was very excited about. We not only got to tour the ship and all its decks (flight deck with all the helicopters and airplanes was very neat), but we also got a tour of the inside of a submarine. It took longer than I thought it would, but it was fun and we were able to get back to our hotel in time for...
6. .. the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon! We arrived at the specified location at 3:45pm to let them mark down our stand-by ticket numbers, then at 4:15pm they announced that we were, in fact, going to be allowed into the show! On top of that, they pulled my girlfriend and me aside and asked if we would mind being on stage with Aretha Franklin while she sang. We obviously accepted the offer! So if you watched the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon on NBC Friday night, you can see my girlfriend and me up on the back-left stage grooving to the music a little bit. The balcony on the right had lots more face time than us, though. It was still a lot of fun and had some funny segments throughout the show!
7. After the show we went back to Times Square to see what it was like on a Friday night. WOW! It was nearly impossible to move and go anywhere on Times Square, across any intersection or sidewalk... completely packed! I'm glad when I drove through Times Square that it was not like this. Wow.
8. For dinner that night we stayed in our hotel and ordered from Jessi's Deli. Our feet and ankles were killing us, and we did not want to go back into town; so we just ordered in. I would not recommend this place. They said it'd take 45 minutes, and it ended up taking 1 1/2 hours! And the food was not even that good. We ended up finishing dinner around 10:30pm, so it was nice having those 1-2 hours to relax and rest our feet for the next day, which was Central Park and lots of walking!

Saturday
1. We were able to sleep in a bit on Saturday and got to Central Park right around 10:00am. We casually strolled through the park on the beautiful Saturday morning and got to see the finish of some kind of 1-mile/5k race, which had the Southeast corner of the park packed! We arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by 11:00am and were there until 12:25pm. We then continued on our way through Central Park, up to the largest lake in the park, and headed back down. It was neat seeing all the elementary-age baseball teams playing in all the parks, kids playing basketball, others playing Ultimate Frisbee, hundreds of people running or riding bikes, and just everyone in general outside enjoying the sunshine. We then went Southwest to Strawberry Fields, and finished the park by 2:00pm.
2. At that time, we took the subway down to Washington Square Park and Greenwich Village. There we saw 3 men putting on an act in the middle of the park and got some good video of them doing stunts and such. It was funny and cool at the same time. After that, we went to Herald Square to visit the largest store in the world, Macy's! We weren't there long, but just wanted to step inside so we could say we've been in the largest store in the world. And it is absolutely huge! My glasses for some reason had one of the lenses get popped out the day before, and I was unable to get it back in; so we stopped by the Oakley store on Times Square and let them fix it for me.
3. For dinner we ate at Planet Hollywood on Times Square. We both had New York Passes which gave us $10 off per pass, so it was $20 off our bill, or else we probably wouldn't have eaten there. The prices still weren't bad anyway. It was a fun atmosphere, good food, and a place that we knew we wanted to hit all along. After dinner we finally found the shop that my girlfriend had seen our first night there but forgot what/where it was - Grand Slam. It was there that we got our shirts, picture frames, shot glasses, etc.
4. After shopping around a bit, we went off to the Empire State Building to see New York City from up top, but this time at night. There was lots of security and so many hoops to jump through to get to the top, but it is all understandable, and they had the process down pat. Once we got to the top, though, it was SO PACKED! We preferred the Top of the Rock much more than the Empire State Building's observatory deck mostly because of the crowd and awkward fence around the edge of the deck. It was still fun seeing the city from up top at night, though! We went to Times Square one last time that night, and then headed back to the hotel.

Sunday
1. We had to check out of our hotel by noon Sunday, so we didn't want to do anything downtown beforehand and rick not getting back in time. So we checked out and drove over to Pier 83 next to the Intrepid and rode a Circle Line Cruise boat called The Beast, which goes 40+ mph from the pier down the skyline of Manhattan, to the Statue of Liberty, and back! It was lots of fun flying through the bay and a nice way to end the trip, seeing the entire length and width of the city in just over a half hour.
2. We ended up leaving for home at 1:45pm and arrived back at 9:58pm, including a stop for gas and a stop for dinner at Perkins.

All in all, we had a GREAT time! Our feet and ankles were the most sore they've ever been, but the fun and experiences we shared were well worth it! We can't wait to go back again, this time with my parents, who have expressed interest to go again, and want us to go since we did such a good job (with YOUR help) planning and executing the trip with such aggressive and realistic goals/plans. I can't stress enough how much we appreciate the help we received from those on JJHuddle and OhioChatter regarding our trip.

My favorite part of the trip was either our first time in Times Square at night (or Friday night when it was packed!), and being at the Top of the Rock and seeing the city from up above. Everything was great, though. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed the summary!