New York City Day One

I heart NYC!

NYC has been on my bucket list forever. I’ve planned countless trips to the city, and for one reason or another, they were always cancelled. A few months ago, while drinking beer at TBC, we started talking about where we wanted to go for our anniversary trip. We made a list of 9 different places and assigned each a number. Huck closed his eyes and pointed to a number on his keypad… number 9. NYC here we come!

Once I booked our flight, I emailed my cousin that lives in the city. Our grandparents are married, and I’ve only met her once, but we’ve talked through Facebook over the years. We have a lot in common, like we both love to travel {even though she does it WAY more than I do}. The first time we met, I told her I was thinking about signing up for a study abroad trip. She studied abroad in college, and after hearing about her experience, I registered to study in Italy first thing that Monday morning. Best decision ever, BTW!

After a few emails back and forth, she invited us to stay with her and her husband at their place in Astoria, and I’m so glad we did. I’m 100% sure we wouldn’t have ventured to that area otherwise. She lives about 10 minutes from the subway, so getting around was super easy, and their view of the city was AMAZING! We could see the Empire State Building from our room.

I guess I should start at the beginning, though…

Our trip started bright and early Saturday morning. We actually left our house a couple minutes after 7AM for our 8AM flight. We were pushing it! But we arrived without a problem. Small airports, close to home, are the best!

The flight to NYC was great. Short and uneventful. We kept reminding each other we’d be in NYC in less time than it takes us to get from our house to Homestead for work. And total trip time door-to-door was less time then it takes for us to get out of Florida. We used our flight to finished up a few last minute work task, and watched College Gameday! Another win, in-flight WIFI!

Once we arrived, we headed straight to Elizabeth’s house.

We hung out there for a few hours talking and waiting for her husband to arrive home. Once introductions were out of the way, and we got to know each other a little better, we headed out to explore.

Saturday was the UGA vs. UF game, so I did a little research before and found a UGA bar downtown to watch the game. American Whiskey was awesome. Black and Red EVERYWHERE! Literally, everyone was dressed in UGA gear.

I haven’t been to a bar with so many Dawg fans outside of Athens. It was amazing… until they started losing. We decided to leave early, before Huck started throwing things to grab some food. We left the bar and walked across the street for our first meal in the city. It was literally a, “I’m starving, pissed, and have a buzz. I need food, oh look pizza”, kind of moment, and we stopped at the first place we came too, New Pizza Town II . We sat at the bar and watched people walk by as we ate our pizza. Huck ordered pepperoni, and I ordered a chicken parmesan with artichokes and spinach slice. It was good, and hit the spot.

We walked around the city for a little while until it was time to meet up with a couple we met over 5 years ago on a cruise. We’ve stayed in contact with them over the years, and when we said we were going to NYC, we planned to meet up. They actually live in New Jersey, and the weather was super cold and rainy Saturday night, so we met them at the train station and head to NJ for a tour of the area in their nice warm car.

Our first stop was Hoboken, NJ. It was such a cute area, I wish we had more time to explore.

They took us to see the NYC skyline from the NJ side. Gorgeous views.

Then, we had dinner at Noches De Colombia. It’s a Columbian restaurant in Montclair.

We started our meal with Columbian Fried Pork Crackling, Chicharron. It’s like fried fatback for all you Southerners. I ordered the Grilled Plate with Shrimp, Steak, and Chicken. Huck got Grilled Chicken with Wine Mushroom Sauce. Both were great.

After dinner, they dropped us off at the train station, and we headed back to the city. We had a great time with Jissely and Roger. Hopefully, it will not take us another 5 years to get together.

At this point we were exhausted but decided to walk around for a little while before heading back. I wanted to check out Time Square at night and it was close to the train station, so we followed the bright lights and mobs of people. It was somewhere I wanted to go, and I can now say I’ve been, but will probably never go back. I still can’t get over all the people eating at TGI Friday and Olive Garden! You’re in NYC!! WHY WOULD YOU GO THERE!?!?!

We arrived back around 1AM, cold and wet, and ready for bed. It was a LONG day!

I’ll be back with day 2: Chelsea Market, High Line, and some Brazilian food!