NYC.

Nothing like a day off on my birthday to blog about our New York trip! New York City was insane. The amount of people living and working and breathing all in that little area...wow. The logistics of transporting the food, people, and garbage to where each needs to go is incomprehensible. When we were driving in Thursday night, 18-wheelers outnumbered cars five to one, filled with food, clothes, and everything else a city of 8.5 million needs. When we were leaving Monday morning, mountains of full black trash bags sat in the middle of sidewalks, waiting for the garbage trucks, getting stinkier and stinkier the hotter the day got.

I hadn't been to NYC since I was little, and the only reason I remember that is because I've seen a picture of me and my siblings at Ellis Island. Brian and I had been trying to decide what to do for our anniversary, and when Lindsay emailed out saying Jeffrey was getting baptized on June 15th, we knew what to do! 

Part of me likes to plan things out perfectly, but because we were both new to the city and didn't know what to expect, we decided to make a list of things we wanted to see, group them geographically, and hit them as we could. And I must say, we did fantastic. Here are some tips, pictures, and stories from our first anniversary trip!

We left on a Thursday evening and while we missed traffic, we got caught in a huge rain/mist weather front. Nasty. Also, going from Pittsburgh to NYC: DO NOT TAKE 76. You will pay $19.35 in tolls. We took 80 on the way back and paid $1. It might be more going into the city, but it will definitely be cheaper, and about the same time. Live and learn.

Our apartment we sublet from someone in Lindsay's ward was near Riverside Drive where they have a lot of free parking. A lot of roads (including Riverside) are no parking from 9:30-11 Tuesday and Friday on one side and no parking from 11:30 to 1 Monday and Thursday on the other (or other random times and days), and you better move your car when your time comes. We got hit with a $45 ticket at 9:37 am, just seven minutes after we were supposed to move our car to the other side of the road. If possible, take a bus to the city and you miss all tolls, you don't have to navigate the city, and you don't have to find parking.

The subway system was pretty confusing to us at first, but we kind of learned to maneuver red 1s, 2s, and 3s, orange Ns and Js, and local versus express trains. Get a subway map! We didn't have one for awhile and we were totally lost. Each trip, regardless of distance or destination, is $2.50. We spent about $25 a person for three days, but we also walked a ton. We liked seeing the city like that, even if we were very foot sore by the end.

While NYC is known for being a really expensive place to be, I feel proud of how cheap we did it. We stayed in Manhattan for $70/night. We brought food for breakfast and lunch and for snacks. We hit up a lot of free or really cheap activities. We never splurged on a fancy dinner. And yet we had a fun, busy, exciting weekend where we really felt connected to the city. Granted, I hope for our budget's sake we don't spend that much every anniversary, but it was worth it for this time.

Free stuff we did:
Visiting the World Trade Center memorial was really cool. We ended up going in the museum the next day (not free), but even just walking around the waterfalls that are where the foundations of the towers were was pretty special. 

The museum is in the right of this picture.

new World Trade Center

Canal St and Chinatown are free to walk around, obviously, and you can totally barter for stuff. I saw one of those classic tourist bags that say the name of the city on it in cool font, and I wanted it. So Brian was like, "How much are you willing to pay?" And I was like, "Oh, fifteen." Knowing I'm in New York, I'm thinking to myself that they'll want to charge me way more for it, so I go up to the Asian woman and say, "I'll pay $15 for that bag." Rookie mistake. Obviously I should have said a lower amount than my limit! Anyways, she made me feel better by saying they normally sell it for $20, but she gave it to me without any haggling, so I think they probably sell it for less. Oh well! It's fun to walk around there, though. They have caricature drawings for $5 and lots of booths and stalls. 
Museum of Modern Art was free 5 to 9 on Fridays. We spent about an hour there before we went to sign up for the Wicked lottery. Museum-goers can get an ipod and headphones with audio descriptions of some of the art there. The museum is HUGE and has some pretty neat work, like Van Gogh's Starry Night, and stuff by Jackson Pollack, Henri Rousseau, and Henry Matisse. I don't know much about art, especially modern art, but it was definitely worth a visit. It was even fun with so many people there.

Brian was asked to wear his backpack on his front, haha

Starry Night! Lots of people around this one.

Jackson Pollack. I remember in Contemporary Dance my group was asked to choreograph a dance to this picture.

Times Square was fun to walk around in, especially because we also stopped by the Hershey Store and the M&M Store. We went after Wicked, so like 11 pm, and there were still so many people and construction was happening and all the TV screens were changing ads constantly...a very stimulating place. And we got some sweet M&Ms: huge ones, mint ones, birthday cake ones, and peanut butter ones. Mmmmm.

World Cup!!

Central Park was our go to running place Saturday and Monday. It's huge and beautiful and I wish I could go running there every day! There are tons of trails and so many athletic people; I felt quite slow. Definitely worth a walk around.
The Brooklyn Bridge was not what I expected, but then again, lots of NY was a surprise to me. There were just so many people! Bikers getting angry, people stopping randomly to take pictures, vendors selling water for a dollar.The view was great though, and the parks under the bridge on the Brooklyn side were really nice to walk around (and take a nap in...). At the end of the bridge, the pedestrian walkway splits; stay left to get off the bridge and to the parks faster. We stayed right and we were walking forever to get off the bridge.

WTC is between us

We were supposed to do the Staten Island Ferry Saturday night, but after the 9/11 museum, we were emotionally drained, our feet were sore from 12 hours of walking, and the wind had picked up and we were freezing. So we went with Sam after church on Sunday and it was still great! I think I would have liked it more to see the city skyline from the ferry at night, but it was still a cool step back to see the big picture of the Manhattan skyline. So many skyscrapers! There were a lot of people (we went around 3 pm), but it was still fun to be out on the water and to get pretty close to the Statue of Liberty. 

At the Staten Island terminal waiting for our ride back

Manhattan Temple is obviously free; we wanted to do a session on Monday, but temples are closed on Mondays! Silly me! We did go to church there and got a (dark) picture by it. The stories are true: you can't hear the city at all from inside the building. 

Things that cost money:
We saw Wicked. This was easily the highlight of our trip. Partly because the circumstances in which we got to go were amazingly lucky. We knew going to NY that we wanted to see a show, so I had looked up times for rush tickets and lottery tickets. Not all shows offer such discounted tickets (like Phantom of the Opera and the Lion King). But we decided we'd go at 5:45 pm to the Gershwin Theater and put our names in for the 6 pm Wicked lottery drawing. If we were one of the fifteen or so names called, we would get $30, front row seats. If not, we would wait in line the next morning (starting at probably 8 am) at the Nederlander Theater to get rush tickets for Newsies. Win-win, right? So we each write our name on an index card with the number two on it to show we want two tickets. The guy facilitating everything says that if our name is called, we need our ID and cash to pay for the tickets. I had realized earlier that day that I had left my wallet in the car, including my ID, so I was really hoping Brian's name was called. We run over to the McDonalds on the opposite street corner (all McDonalds have ATMs) to get cash, and Brain finds my credit card in his pocket from when he had gotten gas the night before. I was convinced it wasn't enough of an ID to let us get the tickets if my name was called, but judging by the crowd that was there when we got back, I didn't think we'd win anyway. The group is pulsing with anticipation as the short, bald, bearded man calls out names. One person he called didn't respond. The rest lined up in front of the group, beaming. Brian and I look at each other, resigned that we hadn't won. The man goes inside to pull one more name. "Olivia Swenson. Olivia Swenson?" My hand shot up and I quickly find my own face splitting into a permanent grin. What a fantastic feeling to have luck on your side! Brian hugs me and follows me to the front of the mass of disappointed people. I'm still nervous about my credit card not being an ID; everyone else has their driver's licenses or passports out. But the bald man says it works! We go up to the counter, pay our $60, and we've got front row tickets to Wicked that night at 8 pm. I can't even tell you how happy we were!! We didn't have time to go back and change, so we ate at Cosi, a flatbread place close by (pretty delicious), and then experienced an amazing show right in our faces. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Brian and I aren't too into musicals (as anyone who knows us can tell you), but for once we weren't longing for intermission! Totally enthralled. The songs have been stuck in my head ever since, and I'm not even trying to get them out.

As a side note, my parents took Sam and Jeffrey to see Newsies, and they LOVED it. I guess the main guy was a recent grad from CMU! Woot.
Grimaldi's Pizza! This would not have made it onto the itinerary unless Shaunelle and Matt had been so persuasive. It's on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, just south of it. There's always a line. We got in line around 3 and we waited about thirty minutes in line and thirty minutes at our table for our pizza. DELICIOUS. A small was perfect for us (no leftovers!). A basic pizza with mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes is $12, and then every add on is about $3. We had sausage and pepperoni: so good. Highly recommended.

Jane's Carousel is just north of the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side. It's a vintage carousel that costs $2 to ride. We may or may not have been the only adults there who didn't have kids...but I loved it!!

They had a legit little band back there! Like a real snare drum and cymbals!

9/11 Memorial Museum. I can't describe it. Our second most expensive activity ($18 for students, $24 for adults) and totally worth it. From the outside it looks like a pretty small place. We got tickets for 5:30 and we were there for almost three hours and only left because it was closing. It starts above ground but then circles three or four stories below ground. We didn't realize how big it was and spent a long time on the first couple of levels. They have a room dedicated to those who died; a picture of every person lit up on the walls. There are touch screens where you can search for a person and learn their story before the planes hit. There are minute-by-minute exhibitions of what was going on in each tower as the day progressed. There are boxes of artifacts found of people who died. There are stories and pictures of heroes who saved people in wheelchairs, there are fire trucks and ambulances that were crushed when the towers fell, their emergency personnel in the towers trying to get people out. There are quilts made in honor of the victims. There is a summary of what Al-Qaeda is and why they attacked America. Really powerful and really emotionally draining. I kept having to distance myself from the people I was reading about so that I wouldn't cry. We could have spent much longer there.
Shake Shack was another recommendation by Shaunelle, and again, I loved it. Burger places rock. There are a few locations throughout the city. We went to the one that's right by the World Trade Center. Delish.

And then Sunday was family time and Jeffrey's baptism! Such a nice service, and such a good kid. I got to play piano for it, and a couple of their nonmember friends came up after to say how the music I played set the perfect mood. It was really fun to see Jeffrey so happy and to see how proud his parents were. I love my family.