It had been 13 years since I was on a plane. For many years, my only goal was to get away. See the world from a different perspective and remind myself how vast the world is. I wasn’t particularly picky about where I wanted to go. I was up for anything. When Mom suggested going to New York City, I pondered it for a long time—just kidding, I said yes right away.
I had been to New York City once before. Grade 10, with teachers and a specific fashion focus. It was a great trip, but I was definitely looking forward to spending time in the city without any supervision (Mom doesn’t count in this scenario).
Friday, May 18 – We landed in Newark airport just after 12 noon. It was a little grey outside, but our shuttle was quick and got us into the city with lots of time to roam. We checked in, dropped off our bags and headed out for some much-needed food. We headed towards Time Square with a stop at the M&M store (duh!) and Brooklyn Dinner USA for some lunch.
We finished off the day with a stroll to Rockefeller Center, Radio Music City Hall, and Magnolia Bakery. We took a bit of an unexpected detour on the way back, but New York City is very easy to navigate, so we had no problems getting back to our hotel, Park Central Hotel.
Saturday, May 19 – It was a rainy day in the city, and unfortunately for us, the one we had dedicated to spending in Central Park. We decided it wasn’t going to stop us, so we headed out for some brunch at Brooklyn Diner USA (different location than the first day!) and up to the park for some rainy day fun.
After walking around for a bit and getting totally soaked, we headed towards the Central Park Zoo as a way to get out of the rain and see some cool animals. The seals were front and center, loving the rain and showing off to the few visitors strolling around. We stayed and watched for quite a while until the rain picked up and we headed towards the covered ground to dry out for a bit.
We found warmth in the Tropic Zone: The Rainforest. My camera had trouble handling the temperature change, but we loved it. We got to see some cool birds, lemurs, and reptiles. After some time, we adventured back outside to see the snow leopards, monkeys, penguins, and puffins.
With a quick stop at the children’s zoo, we headed back to the hotel to dry off and rest. We were hungry and opted to head around the corner to a cheap and delicious pizza place, 99 Cents Pizza, to take back to our hotel for a night in.
Sunday, May 19 – After a night of rest, we started our journey on the Gray Line hop-on-hop-off sightseeing tour. We spent the entire day taking the Uptown and Downtown tours. We got to see Macy’s, Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, Harlem, Greenwich Village and so much more.
That night we headed to Ellen’s Stardust Diner. It’s a popular place, so we had to wait a while to get in, but it was totally worth it. We had burgers and milkshakes to go with the show the very talented staff put on. It was great and I am now on a mission to convince someone to go there for breakfast because the energy there would get your day off to a great start. After dinner, we headed down to Times Square to see it in all its bright glory.
Monday, May 20 – We headed out early, stopped to pick up some coffee and made our way to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. It was a beautiful day, but a sombre one as we took in all the information and explored the museum. After two hours, we had to head out to catch the ferry to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
That night we had tickets to the Empire State Building’s Observation Deck. We got there early, so we got to the city from above during the day, watch the sunset and see the city lights at night. By the end, we were exhausted, pretty much crawled to Chipotle for some dinner and headed back to the hotel to recoup before leaving the next day.
Stephanie Fraser 