NYC 2025!

My oldest nephew, Triston Michael, joined me for a long weekend trip to New York City, my fifth trip and his first NYC experience!! #getexcited

Quick Note:  We both had fun, although you can't tell by some of the pictures.  I resorted to more selfies and solo pics than usual since T didn't quite appreciate my bright-and-fun, excitable tourist vibes and posing for several photos. lol  But in spite of the lack of smiles, he says he had a great time and loved the city and could see himself living there eventually (I could see that for him too), so I'm glad for that!!

After much Cyber Monday searching, I booked our stay at the Tempo Hotel by Hilton in the heart of the Theater District - their staff was helpful, the lounge and breakfast area was fun, our 30th floor room was really nice, and we had a great view of Times Square - highly recommend! ❤

Pics with a story:  (Left) - we flew American Airlines, and they gave us these Biscoff cookies... it immediately reminded me of having the same free snack during my first flight ever (via American Airlines) with Babah, who flew with me to Dallas and back all in one day just so I could get used to being on an airplane before our long Hawaii flight.  I remember her telling me that she'd been on a lot of great trips, but one place she wished she'd gotten to see was New York City... so it made me think of her whilst enjoying the cookies and feel even more blessed and grateful that this was my fifth time visiting the city. ❤
(Right) - Mom was feeling very concerned about our safety and talking about the high crime rates and how we needed to avoid the subway at all costs and be extra cautious in NYC.  I prayed over our trip and intentionally looked for good and kind people, and I found SO MANY OF THEM.  Sincerely, this was the least aggressive NYC has ever felt to me, so my comfort level there has gone up a lot!  I sent Mom this pic on our first night of this guy with a verse on his hoodie, just to jokingly reassure her that there are, in fact, good people around in NYC!  She texted back "He's def a tourist." lol

We arrived around 11:30 on Friday and got to our hotel around 12:30.  We walked a block over to Junior's for lunch then went to Central Park and walked all around there for a couple hours!!  It has long been my favorite place in New York City, so spending some extra time there with no set schedule or agenda was really nice!! ❤

We saw Bow Bridge (above), the Cherry Hill Fountain (claimed to be the fountain from the Friends theme song), the "Arcade" with the cool ceiling where Talhia and Kevin got married, and the lovely Bethesda fountain pictured below, although I didn't have the nerve to step into it this time.

Without planning it, I'm wearing the exact same coat doing the same pose at the same fountain 15 years later!  ...The pictured friendship has changed *just a bit* ...but it makes me happy knowing Chet Lee took the pic on the right.

We grabbed dinner at Chipotle (I know, lame and not unique to NYC, but we were hungry and cold and exhausted from lots of walking, and it was close and sounded good)... then took an Uber to Grand Central Station, which T-man was interested in seeing as the entire second floor is a huge Apple store and Genius Bar.  It was fun being there again, and I quickly realized that the last time I was there was literally 20 years back when JMM and I visited Holly Dei and we took the train from Yale (in New Haven, CT) to NYC to watch Mamma Mia on Broadway!!  NYC really holds a plethora of good and bad memories from very different seasons of my life... the summer 1998 family road trip, 2005 college weekend with Josh and Holly, 2010 Christmas trip with Chet and Malori, summer 2017 with Mom & Dad + Bill & Jill, and now this New Year trip with Triston).

We had an early morning flight and went to bed unusually early on Friday.  We grabbed breakfast at our hotel lounge on Saturday then met our USA Guided Tour group at 9am in Times Square just a couple blocks down from our hotel!  It was a 6-hour tour that hit several of the major NYC highlights.  Our tour guide, Jimmy Hoffman, was entertaining and full of fun facts that brought life and meaning to the things we were driving by in NYC.  "Fuhgeddaboutit!"  We stopped for photos of the Empire State Building and the big tree at Rockefeller Center (so happy that was still up - they took it down yesterday)!!

"That's White Star Line property!!"  ...As we drove by this seemingly random spot on the Hudson River line, Jimmy told us this is the where the Titanic would have docked and where they actually brought the survivors in April of 1912, and that you can see "White Star Line" faintly written on these beams.  AMAZING - I was definitely more excited to hear that factoid than anyone else in our tour group! lol

The group stopped at the Liberty Market food hall where Triston and I split a delicious pizza for lunch, an NYC classic!  We all stopped to see the South Tower Reflecting Pool ❤ then took the Staten Island Ferry to the Statue of Liberty.  Our tour guide was great and led us to a secret spot at the back of the boat where it was less crowded and great for photos.  It was super windy and below freezing outside (felt like 13 degrees), so we came back in after taking a few pictures! 

After the tour, Triston went back to the hotel room to chill and relax for a bit (#letthem) whilst I talked to Mom and Rach about Kyndal's Redland Rendezvous v-ball tournament and FaceTimed Jaceman and galivanted around the nearby souvenir shops, M&M store, Hershey World, etc. (#letme).  This = me keeping our cheesy M&M picture tradition going strong! lol

Jace Michael:  "So did y'all get to see the Home Alone hotel!?"

Me:  "Yeah, it's called The Plaza.  We drove by it and saw it by Central Park, but it's only open to residents and they don't let you just come in to look around the lobby!"

Jace:  "What!?  Go back and tell them you're checking in for McCallister!!" LOL

We had dinner reservations at Serendipity 3 that night, which brought back vivid Vegas memories for me!!  Great atmosphere and fantastic food!  We both got the frozen hot chocolate (something they're known for)... and it was one of many times I wished we'd had a third person there who was willing to eat after people.  T and I both avoid that, and we both had approximately a third or less of our $20 drinks. 

I texted Chettles a pic when I saw the infamous Forbidden Broadway Sundae on their menu!  He mentioned that it has doubled in price since 2010, which is ridiculous but not overly shocking! lol

After Junior's on Day 1, we walked to the Gershwin Theater box office and got what they claimed were the only 2 remaining tickets together for the Saturday night show of Wicked (4th row center).  Crazy expensive, but the musical was great, and I had never seen it on Broadway before.  Also, Mary Kate Morrisey (good friend of Annie F. Downs) played the lead role of Elphaba, so realizing that was fun for me!

Speaking of Junior's, we stopped at the Brooklyn location (equally close to our hotel) and grabbed some of New York's best cheesecake to bring back to our hotel room (#3023).  T-man had literally never tried cheesecake before, so his expectations are now set too high for other restaurants. lol  He got apple crumb and I got the pineapple, and it was delicious!

He was suddenly full of energy around 11pm and talked about staying out till 3am, but alas, NYC is not Vegas, and there's really nothing safe and appropriate that's open for us to do past midnight.  We walked back into Times Square for their Midnight Moment - something he'd learned about on TikTok and I'm happy to know about now - what I'm deeming the NYC version of the midnight fountain show in Vegas.  All the screens of Times Square become a unified digital art exhibition from 11:57 pm to midnight every night.  (A fantastic idea that they could do so many cool things with, but what they actually did was fairly disappointing compared to what I'd expected - hopefully they'll continue to revamp and improve on it!!)  I did love that there was  still colorful confetti on the street from the massive New Year's Eve party four nights before!! ❤

The fun countdown video at the beginning of my slideshow below was from the Midnight Moment in Times Square, then it was 3 minutes of animated birds... lamesauce.

Sunday was our final day there.  Again, we started with breakfast at the Highball Lounge in our hotel, then checked out and stored our luggage with them... then we Uber'd to the 9/11 Memorial Museum.  During our tour on day 2, Jimmy pointed out this globe sculpture that was partially crushed and folded in on top, explaining that it survived in between the two towers on 9/11 - so amazing - I love stuff like that! #resilience  And I was happy to see a photo of it pre-9/11 attack as we entered the museum!!

This whole experience was profound.  I am so grateful we did the guided museum tour and that they were flexible on the schedule as we were later than expected - our tour guide was exceptional and put so much heart into it!  This museum is underground between the foundation of both reflecting pools (wouldn't have known that on my own), so the wall pictured below stretches from one pool to the other, connecting the north and south towers with this display - there is a unique shade of blue on every single sheet of paper, one for each person killed in the 1993 and 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.  The letters in the quote you see are filled in with melted-down metal from the World Trade Center rubble.  And behind this wall is The Repository, where the remains of unidentified victims (40% of all the 9/11 victims were unable to be positively identified) are preserved by the Chief Medical Examiner.  It's a place where their families can come to mourn them, the closest thing many of them will ever have to a tomb... seriously, very sobering and well done.  Probably my favorite thing we saw at the museum, but that is not a short list.

A 9/11 sculpture on the left, and right is "the last column" - still rooted to the original foundation and much bigger than they initially realized when they started trying to dig it out - they put an American flag on top and it was the final thing to be removed from Ground Zero... signed by many of the firemen, rescue workers, and cleanup crew!!! ❤

We watched a short film featuring President GW Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Rudy Giuliani, and more talking about their experience of 9/11.  (Triston obviously didn't live through it as he was born in 2007, but he's watched several documentaries about 9/11 and also appreciated seeing the museum.) 

From there, we took a short walk over to One World Trade Center, aka The Freedom Tower, and went to the observatory at the top... the very best views of NYC!! ❤

We took a short Uber ride to Trinity Church (pictured left)... at long last, it was open and I was able to see the inside and pretend I was in National Treasure!! lol  I had T take a pic of me at the Wall Street and Broadway sign because it immediately brought my mind to that movie:  "Heere at the Wall"  ...I may watch that again this week - truly one of my favorites!!

The beautiful auditorium inside Trinity Church (several stories above the treasure). ;-)

T was excited about Wall Street, so we walked over to the New York Stock Exchange after visiting Alexander Hamilton's grave just outside Trinity Church - the entire epitaph is fantastic: "The Corporation of Trinity Church has erected this monument in testimony of their respect for the Patriot of incorruptible integrity, the Soldier of approved valour, the Statesman of consummate wisdom, whose talents will be admired in grateful posterity long after this marble shall have mouldered into dust. He died July 12th, 1804. Aged 47."  ❤

On Saturday, Jimmy recommended Los Tacos Numero Uno, so we decided to try that for lunch since it was at Chelsea Market near the Starbucks Reserve T was hoping to visit!  Really good food, and reeeeally friendly/aggressive pigeons!  I snapped a pic for JEM and Chet, and I'm so glad it was a live photo. lol  (Reminiscent of the extra-friendly little bird at the Bellagio Pool Cafe).

T looking 100% thrilled to join me for a brisk but lovely outdoor lunch at Chelsea Market and then coffee/hot chocolate across the street at Starbucks Reserve (another new thing I learned about from him, and it was very cool)!

Fun fact:  There are several Starbucks Reserve coffee bars but only six Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in the world... located in Tokyo, Shanghai, Milan, Seattle, Chicago, and NYC!  The atmosphere was fun and vibrant, and the huge building and roasting process was impressive to me - and I would imagine far more so to coffee lovers, for whom they offered samples of various unique blends!

GET IT!  I was so freaking happy when we drove by Peloton Studios NY on our way to the Memorial, and yes, we had just enough time for one final stop there on our way back to the hotel!  Tragically, the actual studio was closed, but the retail store was open, so I got myself a pink Peloton jacket from NYC -- love it!!

So Lord willing, NYC trip #6 will include taking a live Peloton class with one of my fav coaches and seeing Hamilton on Broadway - yes, please.  Driving by the Richard Rodgers Theater on our way to the airport, everything in me wanted to be in there! lol  "History is happening in Manhattan, and we just happen to be in the greatest city in the world - in the GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD!!"  (*Not actually the very greatest in my book, but it's grown on me exponentially, right along with Disney World. lol  And the atmosphere would have to be electric in this theater with the songs about NY - I just know it!)

We had a slightly turbulent but otherwise quiet and timely nonstop flight home, arriving at my house around 10:30.  Triston said he enjoyed it and thanked me for taking him, and I'm grateful it all worked out so smoothly... I spent a stupid amount of money, but Mom and Dad's Christmas gift went a long way there, and I'm full of gratitude for getting to see Trinity Church; the big tree and glittering Christmas decor; the NYE confetti and the Times Square Midnight Moment; the incredible 9/11 Museum; the Freedom Tower view; Peloton Studios NY; 4th row seats to Wicked on Broadway; visiting Grand Central Station again; taking a nice long walk through the heart of Central Park; two fantastic guided tours; and awesomesauce food from Junior's, Starbucks Reserve Roastery, Buon Cibo Pizza, Los Tacos #1, and Serendipity!!

Without further ado, here's my delightful slideshow recap of our 2025 New Year trip to NYC!!  We kept hearing this Alicia Keys song in the background as we walked the streets of NYC, and it made my cheesy-tourist self happy every time!!

That's all for today, friends and fam.  Looking forward to catching up with the fam over pizza tonight!  I love you and believe in you, and I hope you look for beauty and goodness in the world and find it, and that you embrace joy and do something that makes you feel more alive today!!

❤ ❤ ❤