In case you missed it, you can you can see all of our NYC recap posts here: part one | part two | part three | part four
Several months ago, Josh asked me what I wanted to do for my fortieth birthday. I reminded him that we hadn’t done anything big to celebrate his birthday in January and he reminded me that he hates to be the center of attention (can you say opposites attract?). I was still thinking he meant a birthday party or dinner with friends, but he surprised me on a random work day by asking if I wanted to head to NYC for the weekend. We quickly threw together some travel plans (in addition to ridiculously expensive Hamilton tickets!!) and prepared to tell the girls we were going without them. The day we were booking flights, I felt the biggest pit in my stomach about leaving them behind. It wasn’t guilt — I think parent getaways are one hundred percent necessary for a healthy marriage — it was knowing how much they would enjoy the trip and how we would be saying “the girls would love this!” at every turn.
We decided that if Ella wouldn’t miss any games and if we could successfully exchange or return the theater tickets, then we would take them with us. I spent a few hours on the phone squaring all of that away (and getting their absences excused, because museums) and picked them up from school. We asked them to help us decide how to celebrate my birthday and Ella suggested a road trip. When we pressed for a destination, they both joked that we should go to NYC (we’ve been talking about this for years). We just looked at each other and said, “How about three weeks from tomorrow?”
They made a list, that afternoon, of all the places they wanted to visit and we did our best to cram it all into three days. When all was said and done, we were exhausted and broke (ha!), but we had the best weekend away with our girls.
Day One Recap
We took the earliest flight out of Atlanta, on a Thursday morning, and were in Manhattan by 8 am. Our hotel room wasn’t ready, but we were able to drop off our bags before heading out to brunch. Josh & I love the atmosphere of Sarabeth’s in Tribeca, but the Park Avenue location was so much closer, so we took our first subway trip of the week and enjoyed so much breakfast. The french toast is some of my favorite ever and we took our time enjoying every single bite.
We headed north on foot and caught our first glimpse of the Empire State Building, before continuing our walk to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Josh and I had seen the MoMa on a previous trip, so we decided to choose the museum for our first day. I’ll go ahead and tell you that this was Ella’s least favorite part of the entire trip, but she was a huge trooper while we soaked up as much as we could.
The Egyptian exhibits were Sophie’s favorite part and we spent so much time here before moving on. She could have spent days reading every placard and posing next to every artifact — she is so much like her daddy in that respect.
Ella did perk up a bit when we moved into the painting galleries. I made a list of things I wanted to see (by gallery number!) and we tried our best to check them off our list. The only this we missed was Van Gogh’s self portrait, but it was days later before I realized it!
Klimt is one of my favorites, so it was super fun to see the piece below in person!
We had plenty of conversations about the simplicity of modern art and I heard Josh tell them, “Your mom once told me that it wasn’t that I couldn’t create it, it’s that I didn’t.” Good job, dad.
I hate that we’re standing in front of the painting below, but I’m glad I got a picture with my girls here. I studied Chuck Close in college and this was the first time I’ve seen one of his pieces in person. His portraits are giant and made up of tiny dots of paint — it is truly incredible to see up close. Even cooler, is that Close became a quadraplegic after more than twenty years of working as an artist, and had to devise a new way to paint his large scale pieces. This documentary is so cool, if you’re interested in seeing how he works!
Our next stop was the Natural History Museum and since it is on the West Side of the park, we detoured through Central Park for some site-seeing on our way there.
We had lunch at the Express Cafe at the Loeb Boathouse, because we were starving and a little ahead of schedule for our meals (Sarabeth’s was actually supposed to be lunch and this spot a snack break, but we arrived in the city over an hour earlier than expected!). This was probably the girls’ least favorite meal of the week, but Josh & I loved it — the burgers and spicy tacos were delicious.
Sophie wanted to climb every rock we passed, so we took a break to explore about halfway through our walk.
We also detoured to Belvedere Castle, because we knew the girls would love climbing up in the towers. Aren’t the views spectacular?
Sophie found this leaf pretty early on in our park adventure and planned to bring it home with her. It survived most of the day, but got cracked on the Subway later that night and she eventually returned it to the street.
Ella definitely preferred the Natural History Museum to the Met — they spent hours in the Mammal and Fossil galleries, while Josh and I found a central spot to rest. Does that make us old or just parents?
After our long museum day, we were finally able to check-in to the hotel and rest for a bit. We had a 9 o’clock reservation at Top of the Rock and knew we needed to find something to eat for dinner. We had chosen a restaurant near our second museum, but given our schedule shift, it was the only planned meal we missed. We decided to keep our eyes open for something between the hotel and Rockefeller Center and Sophie spotted a grilled cheese shop and insisted we give it a try. She’s still talking about how it provided the best fried chicken and milkshakes of our trip! Josh & I had traditional grilled cheeses and split the most amazing order of loaded tater tots.
The Christmas Tree was already up in front of Rockefeller Center, but the scaffolding hadn’t yet been removed — it was still very cool for the girls to see and they loved watching the ice skaters for a bit, before heading up to the observation deck. Sophie is very afraid of heights, so this was the most traumatic part of our trip. She didn’t stay outside very long, so the photos are grainy and blurry, since I didn’t have any time to make adjustments. Josh fumbled his phone and almost watched it sail over the railing, with solidified for Sophie, why we shouldn’t be there!
We popped in Lululemon on our way back to the hotel, because Ella was convinced that I would by her leggings “as a souvenir.” She was wrong, but it was a great way to check the fit before ordering her Christmas!
We fell in bed before ten o’clock and slept so good, despite our very early wake up call on Friday. Day two might deserve two posts — there were so many photos — so stay tuned for the rest of our trip!
