The NYC Trip 12 Years in the Making

Since I was 12, when my parents would ask where I wanted to go for family vacation and I would always say New York City.  I was always told that sometime just mom and I would go.  In high school, I went to NYC for band trip (with mom as a chaperone) but there was lots that we didn't see since we were with 300 high school students.  After 12 years of asking, the long awaited trip was planned.  We hit the big tourist destinations when we were there on band trip so we decided to focus mainly on museums while we were there (especially since these are things we would never have been able to do on a family vacation with my  dad and brother).

Mom and I drove out on Wednesday and back on Sunday leaving us 3 days in the city.  We stayed in New Jersey and made it to our hotel after about 12 hours on the road (including stops).  It has been a while since I had been on a road trip and I was out of practice.  Even with doing some of the driving, I was getting very antsy by the end of the trip.

You can't tell but this is Met Life Stadium.  I needed a picture from NJ.

Our first day we went to the Met after walking around Times Square and Central Park.  The Met was huge and full of art.  It reminded me of the Louvre with each turn revealing more art.  We were going to skip an area and then glanced in and saw some Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas so naturally we had to take a look around.  The highlight of the Met was a temporary Fashion exhibit, Manus x Machina.  They had many different designer dresses from 100 years ago up until this year.  Some exhibits focused on dresses made of plastic drinking straws or dresses made with parts of a 3D printer.

I told mom it was a good thing I already had my wedding dress picked out or I would want this.

After the Met we went to see Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway.  It was amazing but I also love Broadway and Fiddler so I may not be the best judge.  Times Square at night was brighter than it was during the day and had even more people.  After a slight mix up on the way back to our hotel in Jersey, we got home late and with sore feet.  We walked a total of 8.5 miles on Friday and we weren't used to it to say the least.  (I realized numerous days later I somehow sprained my big toe with all the walking.)

Times Square as we left Fiddler on the Roof.

Friday we went to the Guggenheim museum and then to the 9/11 Memorial Museum.  The Guggenheim was amazing architecture and contemporary art- not my favorite but I recognized a few artists after studying them during my study abroad in Europe.  The 9/11 Memorial Museum was very moving and well done.  That evening we had dinner with my mom's old roommate who lives in NYC and she went with us to make sure we got on the right bus which was very helpful.  Friday we took the subway since mom and I both had sore feet and I found out I am very comfortable navigating the subway system when I have my phone (with google maps) in hand.  Above ground, I am still relatively useless with directions.

Guggenheim Museum

Saturday was our last day in the city and we went to the American Museum of Natural History.  I love natural history museums but after spending a lot of time in the Field Museum when we were in Chicago two months previous and not wanting to send all day at the museum we were able to pick and choose some of what we saw.  

Biggest canoe I've ever seen.

We ended our trip with some shopping at the Macy's flagship store.  Some parts of the store had the original wooden escalators which were quieter than the new ones.  It had been a while since mom and I had been shopping together and we enjoyed looking at dresses I could wear to one of my wedding showers and then looked at some dresses my mom could wear to the wedding.  (I did find one and got the originally $100 dress for $35, which I used a gift card to pay for.)  We had a quick slice of pizza at one of the many restaurants inside Macy's before heading back to the hotel to rest up before our drive back.

Chicago pizza is better.

As we were leaving my mom said she would be fine if she was never back in NYC again.  I think I would enjoy spending a little more time there.  Chicago is my "big city" of preference but New York has it's own things to offer and as always when visiting some place, there is no way to see everything.