Trip Report: Memorial Day Firsts – New York City

Introduction
Seattle to New York
New York
New York to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   

Friday 24th May 2013

I had touched down at JFK T5 and with my bag in hand and over an hour later than I had hoped to of been there, I dialed up Dial 7 and let them know where I was.  Dial 7 is the same car company I used last time I was in New York and they were still pretty cheap $39 + tip & tolls into New York.  Worked out around $55 from what I could work out before the trip and considering when I originally booked it and paid for the base cost it was well worth the effort as I was hoping to be in the city quickly.

From Memorial Day Firsts

Sadly had I known we were going to be late and I wouldnt have all that much time till I was due back at the airport I would of pricelined a cheap hotel from the night before and then when I got back from the cheap hotel used left luggage at T4 to store my suitcase while I worked.  Crazy++ really.  But I was stuck.  So into the city I went.  Just as we left I asked how long it was going to take… he told me over an hour and 20 minutes… SAY WHAT!!!

I went into panic mode and thoughts of not even having time to change went through my head.  I was worried entirely about getting back in time for the start of the walk throughs for photos.  Dammit!  We made it in about 45-50 minutes in the end which wasn’t so bad but it meant no time for a shave, and I was still pretty paniced as it was almost 8 and i knew I had to be at least back at Penn Station by no later than 830 to make it in time.

I got to the Eventi hotel and was immediately impressed as the car had barely pulled up and someone was already opening my door and helping me with my bags.  From that moment on, the race was on to get everything done in time.  I didn’t expect a room, all I wanted right then and there was a shower and some coffee.  I checked into the hotel and they immediately greeted me and let me know that I had been upgraded to a suite.  Score.  I didn’t expect a room right away considering it was very very early in the morning and check in was 3pm.  But they told me that if they didn’t put me in the suite now, I may not get it later so they wanted to make sure that it was clean and that it would only take a minute or two to check.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

I was happy with a normal room and to be honest any room with a bathroom, but they were adamant I should have my suite.  So I waited a few minutes and grabbed a coffee from the stand in the lobby (free as usual) and with the service they were going to, I knew it was going to be an awesome stay.  They were totally friendly and amazingly generous to me.  Wanting to make sure I was ok and looked after all the time.  They got their phone call saying the room was good to go and I was handed my key.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

I sped up to the room (704) and as soon as I walked through the door I was blown away by it.  Not large by normal standards but large by New York standards but totally adequate for me.  The bathroom was beautiful and a nice big marble shower/tub set up looked magnificient right then.  My stuff was thrown all about the room as I was literrally in and out of the shower within minutes of getting through the door.  I was dressed cleaned and ready to go and on the street in less than 15 minutes and as I was heading for the door I thanked the staff for the amazing room and she commented “you were serious about being quick” to which i replied “I told you all I needed was a shower and to get back to the Airport for work”.  They wished me a pleasant day and all stress went out of my head as I was ahead of time.  Right outside the door of the hotel was a coffee and bagel cart so for $1 I had a HUGE (albeit not that great) Sesame Bagel and within 2 blocks I was in Penn Station and for another $1 I had a banana in hand.  With coffee from the lobby for $2 I had my go to breakfast.  How can you complain about that!

Couldn’t figure out what ticket I needed to JFK so I lined up and they told me where to go and what to do and within 20 minutes of leaving the hotel I was in my seat on the train, heading back to the airport I had just left.  Perfect right?  Breakfast and some downtime reading my book on the train for the 25 minute ride to Jamaica station to connect on the Airtrain to JFK.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

After spending some time at the new Delta T4 with a heap of other Travel Bloggers and getting the royal tour, spending way to much time snacking on crap in the new Sky Club and enjoying myself immensly I was just happy to be heading back to the city.  One of the fellow blogger (Cynthia from Jaunted) had pointed me in the direction of a nice cheap barber to get my hair cut as I needed one before the Hong Kong trip and wouldn’t have time to get one during the week.  So I took her advice and headed to Astor Place and wow… this place was old school and unlike anything I had ever seen but they were good, cheap and quick! It was approaching 5:30pm by the time I had reached the hotel so had literally spent almost 9 hours in New York so far and done nothing really but spend it all at JFK!

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

When I got back to the hotel, that is when the Kimpton service really showed.  Inside the door of my room was my amenity for being Inner Circle.  This time it was spot on!  2 Apples, 2 bananas, two bottles of diet coke and 2 bottles of sparkling water, along with a nice big bowl of unsalted roasted almonds and cashews and hazlenuts.  They know the way to my heart!  I had a quick snack and a shower to wake me up and set up my dinner plans for the evening with my friend Daniela who was visiting New York from germany.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

Our dinner plans were catering to the both of us.  I was getting my first ever Raw/Vegan experience and Daniela was experiencing the foodie sweet tooth of mine by indulging in what is reputed to be the most addictive dessert ever.  We were heading to East Village into the “trendy hipster” area full of lots of different organic, raw, vegan you name it places.  So if we couldn’t get into one, we could go to another within a 5 minute walk.  I was happy to walk wherever we needed to go, exercise was good!

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

The first place we tried was full for several hours apparently so gave up on that and headed to another one that my friend had been to the day before for lunch.  She showed me what she had eaten for lunch and I instantly HAD to try it.  It sounded so wierd it was awesome.  We made it to Quintessance Cafe and it was small, so tiny!  But it was half full (which was a half decent sign).  I ended up having the “Ravioli Combination” which was a raw turnip based dish stuffed with cashew cream and served with zuchinni pasta on the side.  It may sound wierd, but god damn it was tasty.  I may not ever make the decision to become vegan but if I was offered this, I wouldn’t turn it down.  They also had an amazingly creamy butternut squash soup that I could of sworn had cream or something else in it, but it was just pure pumpkin and spices.  SCORE!! Recipe replication time!

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

Daniela had the “burger” and it was certainly unique.  Served with “Coconut & Squash Bread” it sounded totally far fetched but the sauces that went with it to replicate mustard and tomato ketchup were tasty as hell.  I would not complain about the sauces at least, the burger though wasn’t all to interesting (so really it was kind of like McDonalds hehe).

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

We left dinner, regretting not hitting up Groupon like everyone else it seems that night had done and walked through the east village navigating the cold windy streets to find ourselves at Momofuku Milk bar.  I had one thing on my mind this evening.  Crack Pie.  This wierd sounding dessert is really not all that much when you list the ingrediants but holy crap is it AWESOME!  Amazingly tasty and the slices were not all that big either, a good small size piece is all you need as it was decadant and tasty and sticky and sweet and rich all rolled into one.  Serve it with a little cup of “Cereal Milk” ice cream and your set!  What is Cereal Milk Ice Cream?  Ever drank the leftover milk from your bowl of cereal in the morning?  Get that yummy milky cereal taste?  Take that leftover (although they make it especially by steeping the cereal in the Milk then straining) milk and turn it into the ice cream base.  YUM!!!

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

After that I walked it all off by walking back almost 20 blocks to my hotel, totally content with my day.  Sleep could not come soon enough and I crashed out!

Saturday 25th May 2013

I woke up around 7 hoping to see blue sky or at least no rain and win.  I got neither!  It was crap out, so my plans of running in Central Park were totally scrapped and with dissapointment I hit the gym for a solid hour, something I had not done in a while.  That at least made me feel good.  The rest of my plans to spend the day walking, that I was NOT going to give up so I caught up on the work and got that all done before heading to breakfast with a foodie on twitter who had met a friend of mine in Singapore.  I figured I may as well touch base and we had a good meet up over a bagel and coffee.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

Ess A Bagel is where we met and their “Everything” bagel is what was recommended so one of those with low fat cream cheese (im on holidays remember) and a banana and a coffee and that was my nourishment for the day.  I was intending on keeping myself to a west coast schedule so that I was good for a very late dinner on the flight and then touching down around 1am and heading straight to bed.  The bagel, chat and company were great and I left her to head off to a lunch meeting and I headed off back to Broadway.  At Broadway and 20th I pulled out my ipod.  Turned left looked all the way down manhattan and headed off.  Destination Battery Park.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

I walked, and I walked and I walked some more.  Eventually I ended up at the World Trade Center area and made a quick stop (not that I wasn’t stopping for photos and stuff along the way as it was) to visit St Pauls Chapel, the new World Trade Center buidling and then kept on going. I walked for almost 2 hours down to Battery Park and once I got there I strolled around pretty slowly getting heaps of photos and then trying to stay out of the wind as much as possible.  I contemplated hitting the Statten Island Ferry to get the free trip past the Statue of Liberty but the wind and waves looked a bit to much for me.

So instead I jumped the 6 train over to Brooklyn and then got a bit lost in brooklyn trying to find the bridge but a police officer (always good for local directions… to the nearest donut place,.. kidding) helped me out and I was soon heading to the Brooklyn bridge where I walked through high winds, rain and plenty of crowds doing the same thing enjoying that feeling of being on an icon.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

I was so excited to be doing it, that I didn’t care about all the crap around me.  I just kept on walking, and walking and walking.  By the time I reached city hall on the New York side the crowds I had passed were pretty thick and getting thicker, so I hit the Subway station again and headed uptown this time to Grand Central.  I was going to go and visit the Transit Museum hopefully.  What I got though was a tiny little gift shop.  Bummer.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

Instead I explored the station a little, stood around, relaxed, people watched a little.  Making me slowly happier to just be resting for a little, by this time it was 4pm and I had been walking around 4 hours!  After walking the wrong way out of Grand Central I found Lexington Ave closed for some kind of street market thing so just followed the crowds uptown further, I did turn around at 48th street and started heading back downtown as I would have to go the airport soon enough.

From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts
From Memorial Day Firsts

In the end I walked all over the city.  From 48th Street to Battery park, crossing over many avenues along the way, all through the East Village area back and forth back and forth.  I would have to say that in the two days in New York I probably walked a good half of Manhattan.  Pretty good accomplishment.. at least I think so!

2 comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *