The train dropped us right at Penn Station in Manhattan and from there we had a 10ish minute walk to our hotel. NYC is as busy a city as ever and with the US Open in town felt just that bit more busy with people. Thankfully the weather was good and the walk wasn't so bad; we probably got to our hotel faster walking than had we attempted to take a taxi. We split our time in NYC between two hotels with the first being Pulse Marriott Vacation Club. In true NYC fashion, our room was cozy (aka tiny) but honestly provided all we needed for our stay. We arrived later in the afternoon and after checking into our hotel, we decided to go exploring on foot a bit before we had dinner. We found ourselves ending up at a quaint wine bar during happy hour... oops! When one finds oneself at a wine bar during happy hour, what does one do? Allows the bartender to make your wine selection after a quick explanation of your tastes and you end up drinking some very enjoyable French wine and are happy you tried something new!
We had a few days in NYC to explore before our sports weekend started. Oh yeah, not only were we going to the US Open, but we decided that while we were there we'd see what other NYC sports events were happening and found out the NY Mets were playing - turns out baseball for me is also a big snooze fest in person as it is on TV, and NYFC were also playing in Yankee Stadium - how cool is that? It so happened that NYFC were playing our hometown team so there was no excuse not to go and cheer on the visiting team decked out in our jerseys. We also saw two other people decked out in the same jerseys which was pretty cool to know we weren't the only ones cheering on the visitors. Our home/visiting team won the match!! Our initial plan had been only to catch the US Open, but when we learned these other games were on, we thought, when else would we ever have this opportunity?
NYC has so much to offer, food, sights, and shows to name a few. We walked the city a lot and explored some of the very distinct neighbourhoods. It seems like each neighbourhood in NYC has a park where people meet up or just go to sit outside. We stopped in one by NY University after grabbing some takeout and found ourselves being entertained by a jazz quartet. What a wonderful lunch! We found the lego store on 5th Avenue which was really cool and we found, but didn't go inside, an ice cream museum. We made our way down to the 9/11 Memorial site; they've done a beautiful job with the grounds and while the line up far too long to go into the museum, we walked the grounds and took a moment to reflect at the two memorial pools. It was a bit of a sobering experience going there. And what is a trip to NYC without a walk through Central Park?
One of the highlights of this amazing trip was meeting up with Z's cousin and her husband who live there. We met up at a fabulous Greek restaurant and had a great evening filled with food, drinks, great conversations and many laughs. After dinner we walked towards the Metropolitan Opera House and Lincoln Centre for Performing Arts all the while getting a local's take on the city, it's history and architecture.
I had never been to the Statue of Liberty, but we didn't want to take a tour because it didn't quite fit our schedule. Instead we took the free ferry to Staten Island which goes by the Statue of Liberty and turned around and came right back. We weren't the only ones with this idea as half the people on our ride over did the same thing as us; got off and immediately ran to catch the return ferry. Not much, if anything is free in NYC.
Of course when in NYC you have to take in a Broadway, or off Broadway show... there are so many to choose from so we took in two!! Neither of us had seen either and when we booked, both were supposed to star some actually known famous people. Our first show was the musical Funny Girl staring Lea Michele (from Glee fame) and the night we choose was her last performance as the show was also closing in a week. We arrived to find out that Lea Michele wasn't performing that night after all but the show was fabulous regardless and the lead was amazing in her performance. Our second show was a comedy, not musical, The Cottage staring Eric McCormick (from Will & Grace fame), and directed by Jason Alexander (from Seinfeld). The show was absolutely hilarious and we were in stitches laughing throughout the entire performance even without Eric McCormick performing that evening. Strike two... but it didn't matter, we enjoyed both shows immensely. And besides we'd at least get to see one or more of the top ranked tennis players play at the US Open, right?
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