NYC - Day 1

I can't remember when Michael and I finally decided we were going to visit NYC. We've wanted to for years but have always said, "Only when we can do it right." We didn't want to stay in a hotel that had bugs bigger than Thumbs, or eat three meals a day from street vendors, or spend 2.5 days frantically walking so we could see all of the sights. As you already know, we saved and came to the conclusion that we'd go to celebrate our 3rd anniversary.

I love planning trips (please spend four seconds sounding out the word "love" because that is how much I love it). Give me a place and a time and then leave me the hell alone so I can get to work. I knew we were going to be there 5 days. I knew we wanted to see NYC as not only a tourist but also a resident, and I knew we wanted a nice hotel and great food. Michael knew these things too but that was about all he knew when we boarded the plane last Friday.

(Also--I want to throw out a huge thank you to those of you who emailed, posted on facebook, etc., with places/restaurants to visit!)

I had a three-page itinerary that included our daily plans along with every destination's address, phone number, reservation time, etc. During the flight I put each place's information in my phone so it'd be easy to locate when necessary. For anyone traveling, I highly recommend this. It saved so much time.

We stayed at the Eventi Hotel. Simply put--the hotel was amazing. I knew Times Square was touristy and therefore had no interest in staying there. Instead I found a hotel in Chelsea, which is right in the middle of Manhattan. Almost everything was within walking distance and we were next to several subway stops as well (we used the subway more and more as the days wore on). The other great thing (to us) was the age of the hotel--brand new. We love the idea of historical and quaint, but we love new and contemporary more. So with that, I bring you our hotel...

Sorry, I HATE when people post pictures of their hotel bed (conjurs up images I don't want to think about) but when you're in NYC space is minimal so the bed took up a good chunk of the room!

View from one of the windows
THIS is another reason I love new hotels. Gloooorious bathrooms!




We dropped off our stuff and then took off to tour Chelsea. I'd read that it was known for several small art galleries so we walked up and down the streets and saw several. There were also some interesting boutiques that made us realize we were definitely not in Dallas.

I stopped for some chocolate gelato and then we climbed the stairs to High Line park. It was awesome. Read about it HERE.

After we wandered around Chelsea for a few hours, we headed back to the hotel for the wine happy hour (5-6p), which was held on their 5th floor outdoor terrace complete with glass walls. We grabbed some of the good stuff and made our way to a cozy wicker couch. We did this the first and last night of our trip and it was so fun to hear the craziness of the city below us yet be in such a relaxed setting.

Once we finished our vino, we changed clothes and walked to Bryant Park (one of our favorite sites in the entire city--it's beautiful!) before we had dinner at Koi.
Koi was really good. Almost too good--we felt like the servers were spying on us from all directions (which, essentially, they were). The second I took a drink of water my glass was refilled. As soon as Michael finished his food the plate disappeared. But hey, I’ll take great service over poor service any day!

After dinner we walked to Upright Citizens Brigade, which is an improv and sketch comedy “theater” in Chelsea. Tickets were $10 and reservations weren’t required but highly recommended (it’s a very small venue—only 74 seats). I was amazed by the one-hour show. You have to take classes at UCB (or be famous) to perform and the wit/quickness of the group we saw was astounding. Someone from the audience would throw out a topic and they just went with it. I like to consider myself fairly witty but they blew me away. HIGHLY recommend this. It didn’t seem touristy at all—the crowd felt very NYC (if that makes sense). This was also the first time I noticed I was the only blonde in the room, which was a reoccurring theme the entire trip. Sorry—no pictures of UCB.

After the show we walked back to the hotel and crashed.

(End day 1.)

Stay tuned for days 2 and 3 of our 5-day adventure. Figured I'd split it into a few posts so it wouldn't be such a chore to read!