Travel Talk | I Took Mom to NYC!

Hey Friends!

It’s been a while (again) but I didn’t want the year to end without sharing my final trip of 2019–I took my mom to NYC! It’s one of my favorite cities and mom hadn’t been since she was a kid on a road trip with her parents so this was bound to be great! My friend Abbey and I planned this trip for our moms when it was announced that Maurice Benard, General Hospital’s Sonny Corinthos, was doing a weekend of fan events in NY. He doesn’t tour like some of our other favorite actors so our options were see him in NYC or miss out. The event we chose was in Levittown, a 30 minute train ride from Manhattan. Not ideal but for $100 we got tickets and meet and greet so we couldn’t really complain. I’d researched how to get there so we could stay in the city and enjoy all that NYC has to offer. But let’s start at the beginning…

Friday

Mom and I were on the first Southwest (obviously) flight of the morning. We ended up landing early, a normal occurrence when I’m on a Southwest flight to NYC. Abbey and her mom were flying another airline and they were delayed. So mom and I hung out at baggage claim until they got in. We grabbed a Lyft into the city and dropped our bags at our respective hotels. Mom and I stayed at the AC Hotel New York Downtown and as always I was thrilled. AC Hotels have always treated me well and I’m happy to stay there any chance I get. Mom and I grabbed a cup of coffee and then headed to Battery Park to meet Abbey and her mom.

It was about 40º all weekend so it wouldn’t have been terrible to take the ferry over to Liberty and Elis Islands, but since it was almost noon, the lines would have been incredibly long and with needing to be in Levittown for most of the next day, we wanted to stay in Manhattan as much as possible. We took a few photos of the Statue of Liberty from the end of Manhattan and then walked up to the 9/11 memorial and museum.

I’ve seen the memorial before but hadn’t been to the museum yet. I’ve never been to NYC for more than four days at a time so there hadn’t been time to visit. The memorial is tough enough. Nothing could have prepared me for what was waiting inside. But I didn’t know that yet. We grabbed tickets at the kiosk for the next available time, two hours later, and grabbed slices at a New York pizza shop around the corner. When it was time, we went inside and my heart was broken. If you haven’t made it to the museum yet, I highly recommend. Did I cry the whole time? Yes. Yes, I did. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I still remember where I was that morning hundreds of miles away. I can’t imagine living it from a few blocks away. The experience was incredible but I didn’t take many photos. This is the one I did take and I thought it illustrated the experience very well.

After the museum, we headed up to the Village to see the Friends Apartment and the “place on Cornelia Street” Taylor Swift rented when her penthouse was being renovated. Are we surprised? We’d planned to stop by Carrie Bradshaw’s brownstone and Milk Bar, but it’d gotten dark, we were hungry, and we were eager to rest. We walked down Cornelia Street to Bleeker and wandered into Trattoria Pesce Pasta for dinner. It was INCREDIBLE. It was one of those small restaurants that walking past you might think nothing of but everything was so amazing. I had the linguine with clams and I am still dreaming about it.

When dinner was over, we parted ways. Abbey and her mom headed up to Times Square while mom and I headed to our hotel. I changed quickly and grabbed a Lyft to Bar Veloce to meet my friends Nina and Jen for drinks. Jen told me she wasn’t going to be much fun because she’d had her company party the night before and was tired. It was after 8:30 so I, too, wasn’t fun. It was great to catch up and I’m hoping I’ll get to see her when she’s in Chicago next for work. Jen and I said goodbye and Nina and I wandered the streets attempting to find an open coffee shop. For the city that never sleeps, their coffee shops sure do. After a fun walk though the lower west side, Nina and I hugged goodbye. She headed uptown, I headed back east. After a quick shower, it was time to sleep fast before we headed to Long Island.

Saturday

Mom and I met Abbey and her mom Starbucks for a quick breakfast before taking the 3 train to Penn Station to take the Long Island Rail Road out to Levittown. I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the train ride was. Much more enjoyable than my daily commute into the city for work. We got off the train and took a Lyft to the venue. We were about 11 or 12 people back in line and ended up making friends with the woman in front of us in line. Maria was your typical Brooklyn born Italian and it was her birthday. She was the sweetest and made our time in line much more enjoyable.

The show was so much fun! It started with about thirty minutes of standup followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. Abbey and I were the youngest in the room by quite a bit so it was really funny watching these older women throw themselves at Maurice and disguising it as a question. After the show we lined up for quick photos and headed back to the train to go back to the city for some rest before dinner. We ended up eating light bites at the bar at our hotel which were quite delicious. After dinner, Abbey and her mom returned to their hotel as she wasn’t feeling great. Nina met up with us and we ventured up to Times Square so mom could see it at night.

Ever since my first visit, I’ve learned that I, like New Yorkers, do not enjoy Times Square. There are FAR too many people there. Everyone’s pushing or shoving or trying to shove CDs in your hands. No thanks. We ended up grabbing dinner at a delicious Mexican Restaurant, Dos Caminos, and laughed over chips and queso as we all caught up on each others lives. It’d been so long since mom and Nina had seen each other and it was great to eat delicious food and spend time together. Nina told me about her upcoming visit to Kenya for the dowry ceremony for her brother and his fiancé and mom shared about her new job. All too soon it was time for us to part was as we needed to get some sleep and Nina had an appointment in the morning.

Sunday

Our last morning started with me wondering how I’d packed SO MUCH STUFF in my suitcase and how the heck I was going to get it back in. I was going for three days, not three weeks! I swear I’ll always overpack. The one time I didn’t I was at a beach house with some friends and one of my shoes disappeared on the beach. I came back in from the water and had a whopping one shoe left. I had to drive home with one shoe. It was so sad. We grabbed coffees with Abbey and her mom at Starbucks then headed to Central Park for breakfast at the Boathouse.

This is another restaurant I HIGHLY recommend. It has been on my bucket list since the first time I saw 27 Dresses when I was in high school. The icing on the cake? My sweet friend Paola was able to join us! We always seem to be on the move and by some stroke of luck, we were both visiting NYC on the same weekend. We caught up over smoked salmon Benedicts and roasted veggies before she headed back to her hotel and we headed down to Times Square for our bus tour.

We took the Big Bus and I highly recommend doing it on a day where you have the entire day to explore. The loop we were on takes about an hour and a half in normal traffic. We got off at Little Italy for cannoli at Caffé Palermo which were some of the best I’ve ever had. I wish I’d been able to spend more time down in Little Italy but we sadly had flights to catch. I’ve already asked Nina that we head there next time I visit. We boarded the next Big Bus that came, finished the loop, and returned to Times Square. Our last stop before getting our bags was to Carlo’s Bake Shop. A few boxes of brownies and cookies later and we were on our way.

Abbey and her mom got our uber to the airport and we said our goodbyes before we dropped our bags. Security at LGA is not my favorite but it’s hard to say which I dislike more, LGA or MCO. They never know what the procedure is and what you’re told at the podium is never the rule by the time you get up to the metal detector. When flying out of LGA, make sure you have plenty of time. After security, I introduced mom to the deliciousness that is Shake Shack and yes, I know we have them in Chicago but it tastes so much better in NYC.

We boarded our last flight of 2019 talking about our favorite parts of the trip. Mom is ready to go back but wants to “do less walking.” She says she did 50,000 steps in three days. Normally I end up with almost 30,000 steps per day in NYC. I would have preferred to take more subways than Lyfts but I was trying to be cognizant of my mom’s arthritis. But we will be back! Hopefully when it’s a tad warmer. As always, New York, I love you.

This year of travel was a crazy one and next year is already in the planner. I take my first trip of 2020 in a week and a half. Now that I have a computer, I’m looking forward to much more travel content here. I hope the last few days of this weird year bring you health, happiness, and laughter. I’d like to be back with a little end of year post but we’re hosting New Years Eve and this is my mom when company is coming so I’m not sure there will be time. If not, I will happily see you next year!