NYC – Day 1

Well, NYC day 1 is in the books. 😉 

We made it to New York City the day before last. There was a slight hiccup getting there, but hey, Jen and I LOVE detours. Nothing stops us from having a good time together. 

Not even flat tires.

In fact when it comes to flat tires, we’re pros! Remember the flat tire we got in England {and Mr. Tiddly}? HA HA HA.

Luckily since we booked our trip through Costco Travel {which included door to door service from the airport to the hotel} we were able to sit back and relax while our driver Sonny rolled us into Queens and got the tire fixed. 

If you ever get a flat tire in Queens, Tire Express is the place to go! Man they were fast.

Yesterday we got up bright and early and walked to Butterfield Market to check on the place. 😉 And to get something for breakfast before our 6 hour walking tour started.

I LOVE Butterfield Market! Beautiful food, nice employees, great service.

And steel cut oat bowls with fruit!! 

Jen loves yogurt bowls in the morning, I like my oats, so it was the perfect {3 mile?} morning walk.

After breakfast we met up with our tour guide, Luke from Real New York Tours for our private tour around the city. We’re staying right across from Central Park so that’s where we started.

The cherry trees are just beginning to bloom here and it’s beautiful! Central Park is HUGE! I wonder how much we’ll get to see while we’re here? Jen mentioned something about a Botanical garden {or greenhouse?} I’ll have to look that up.

We saw so many things, I can’t remember them all. Gapstow Bridge, Bethesda Fountain, Strawberry Fields, the Literary Walk. Central Park was lovely.

All that walking made us hungry. Luke suggested Gray’s Papaya for chili cheese dogs. At $4.75, they hit the spot!

We did so much walking and talking yesterday, I totally forgot to take pictures of some of the places we went. Jen and I were so busy looking around and soaking it all in. 

New York City was much cleaner than I thought it would be. We even rode the subway! At $3 a ride, I thought it was a pretty good deal.

Joe’s Pizza was also a great deal. 🙂 How can you go to NYC and not get a slice of pizza, right? The HH would have loved it.

We walked through Greenwich Village. I stopped in front of Fire Patrol #2 thinking it was just a beautiful old fire station. 

Turns out Anderson Cooper bought and restored it a while back. 

We visited Little Italy. The area seemed so small. And touristy. It was nothing at all like The North End in Boston.

China Town was interesting though. HUGE. Lot’s of fresh produce.

One market we walked though was full of all sorts of live creatures. Lobsters, eels, FROGS. 🙁

A small take out box of dumplings was only $5.

So much to look at!! 

So many things to try. 

Jen spotted Levain Bakery so we had to stop there to load up on cookies. 

I had never heard of the cookie company but she’s made their cookies before at home and wanted to know if the store bought ones would taste the same. They did. 

We also stopped at a real neighborhood bodega to buy milk. Talk about one stop shopping! They had a little bit of everything in there. 

It was awesome. 🙂

I think we did pretty good for our first full day in NYC.

We got in a little walking, went on a tour, ate some local favorites and made it back to the hotel before dark.

We used our $25 daily dining credit for dinner {2 kids fruit bowls} and then changed our clothes and hit the hotel steam room to soothe our joints.

Next up on the agenda… Museum day. I’ll be going to The Met, and Jen is headed to the Statue of Liberty. We’ll meet up this afternoon at The Plaza for tea. That’s the plan. We are loving NYC! 

I hope you have a great day. 

~Mavis