Walking in a New York Wonderland

Well this past weekend was certainly a fun one, and absolutely FULL of New York City Christmas magic! Just a little FYI, this post is lengthy. Feel free to skim and look at the pictures, I won't blame you! J

As I mentioned in my last post, one of my best friends from college, Rachel, came to visit for the weekend. I was so happy to have a familiar face around and couldn’t wait to experience New York with her. I didn’t do much planning, because I wanted to be able to do all the things she wanted to. Fortunately, there were lots of things Rach had on her handy dandy flow chart that I had never done before either. (And yes, it was an actual, handwritten flow chart you’d have to see to believe!) So, there were lots of new things I did this weekend that I’m so excited to share.

Rachel arrived late Thursday night and it was quite surreal to have one of my best friends standing in my apartment in New York City. I mean, she was always over at my place in College Station, but we both agreed that something about this was different. This was MY home…the one I pay for every month and decorated just to my liking. And she was there, in MY home! It was one of those moments where we were both just like, holy crap we’re real adults!

The next day I had to work, but Rachel’s younger sister goes to NYU and didn’t have class. So, they got to spend the day together exploring. I met up with them for dinner before they headed off to see School of Rock, one of Broadway’s newest musicals. The report back was that it was a very fun musical, and fans of the movie would love it. I’m sure Rachel will be posting all about it over at her blog, Curly Girl Thoughts, so you should definitely check it out.

On Saturday morning, we woke up, got dressed, and headed straight for the Brooklyn Bridge. If you remember, last summer when my parents visited was the first time I’d ever been to the Brooklyn Bridge. My mom and I only walked to the first arch before we called it good. Dad on the other hand, was determined to go to the second arch, so he sojourned on…alone. This time around, I made it to the second arch! If you’ve never been to the Brooklyn Bridge, I would definitely recommend it. It’s so old and has so much history, but it also offers amazing views of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty. Besides the fact that it’s a free activity, which is always a plus.

Brooklyn Bridge selfie

Once we walked back down, we headed to the TKTS Booth at South Street Seaport to purchase tickets for a Sunday matinee. If you’ve never heard of the TKTS Booth, it’s a place where you can purchase Broadway show tickets at a discount. Each day they put up a list of shows they have tickets for and how much of a discount the tickets are being sold at. There is a booth in Times Square, at South Street Seaport, down in the financial district, and over in Brooklyn. While the South Street Seaport location isn’t as convenient for those staying in the Times Square area, it’s worth it to go down there because they begin selling next day matinee tickets right when they open at 11:00 AM, whereas the Times Square booth doesn’t start selling them until 3:00 PM. So, you’re more than likely going to end up with a better seat. J

Rachel and I were hoping to get tickets to The King and I, but it turns out, even at the TKTS Booth, they’re still quite pricey. So, we went with Rachel’s second choice, Finding Neverland. Yes, I’ve seen it before. You’ll remember me gushing about it a few posts ago. I was MORE than willing to see it a second time around, so we purchased our tickets and went on our way.

We popped into a little restaurant right next to the TKTS Booth called the Trading Post. The outside was decked out in Christmas décor and it had a very old school feel. The interior was very nice, and looked newly renovated. I assumed, given how close it is to the water, that it was flooded during Hurricane Sandy and had to be fixed up after the storm. Nevertheless, it’s quite charming and the food was delicious. Rach and I got two small plates to split between us, pork belly sliders and lobster mac and cheese. Both were absolutely yummy!!

Next, we took a walk down Wall St, where I showed Rachel the New York Stock Exchange, the site where George Washington took his oath of office, and the Trinity Church, which is seen in the National Treasure movie. We then made our way towards the 9/11 memorial and museum. When we arrived, we looked at the reflecting pools, before heading to the ticket lines. We realized they were selling tickets for entry two hours later, so we decided to purchase tickets for the following morning. Note to those who may be traveling here and are interested in going: purchase your tickets in advance. J

Then, I decided to expose Rachel, who is a major lover of bargain shopping, to the amazing department store, Century 21. I think I’ve talked about it before, but just think TJ Maxx, but with better and more designers and WAYYYY more stuff! It can be kind of overwhelming, but you can find so many great things for some really fantastic prices. There’s one in the Financial District and one on the Upper West Side, for those who may be interested. (The FiDi one is MUCH larger!)

Once we were done perusing the store, we hopped on the subway and emerged on 34^th Street so Rachel could go to Macy’s! Now, I’ve come to learn that while Macy’s is normally always crowded, it is even MORE so at this time of the year. However, you have to see it! Outside the store, there is the giant ‘Believe’ sign hanging in lights. The store windows are decked out with animatronic characters from Yes, Virginia and The Peanuts movies. The inside is also completely decorated, and if you head up to the 9^th floor, you can completely immerse yourself in Christmas! Anything you may need to decorate your tree for Christmas, you can find up there! Once finished there, we headed back to my place so we could get spruced up for the evening.

Rachel and I headed back out, took the subway one stop and then took a stroll down Fifth Avenue to see all of the amazing Christmas window displays. This is definitely a must for anyone in the city at Christmas time. The big designer stores go all out with their lights and displays. Tiffany’s, Harry Winston, Bvlgari, Bergdorf Goodmans, you name it! They’ve got something for you to look at. This year however, the real winner of Fifth Avenue is, of course, Saks Fifth Avenue. Their theme is Winter Palace, and while the window displays are truly works of art, the lights on the side of the building are the real crowd pleasers.

Bloomingdale's has a very fancy photo machine where you can
take a festive photo, then download it online!

Oh, Harry Winston...

We noticed the closer we got to Saks, the more congested the sidewalks were getting. Then I noticed, they actually put barricades up along the sidewalks to prevent people from standing in the street to watch the light display. So there were a ton of people all crammed onto the sidewalk, trying to get closer and closer to Saks. It was an absolutely MADHOUSE like nothing I have ever experienced. Of course, it was kind of worth it…because the lights on the side of the building perform a light show, synchronized to Carol of the Bells. And it isn’t just your basic lights, they are in the shape of a giant castle! It doesn’t sound like much, but it really is quite fantastic to see! Even if you’re crammed between, like, ten people you don’t know and feeling like your personal space is being extremely violated! (Going to try and post a video of this to my Facebook account soon!)

Once we finally squeezed our way out of the crowd, we found ourselves right in Rockefeller Center, where we got a perfect glimpse of the giant Christmas tree. A few days before, I watched the tree lighting from the 30^th floor of 30 Rock, but this was my first time seeing it all lit up at ground level. And IT. WAS. MAGICAL. Even if there are a disgusting amount of people all around and they have to shut the roads down on either side to have enough room for all of the foot traffic. It’s spectacular! It just really feels like Christmastime when you’re looking at it!

Rockefeller Center

Selfie with the tree!

I obviously had to bring Rachel to my favorite pizza place, John’s Pizzeria, where we had a delicious margarita pizza and a carafe of red sangria. Then, we headed back towards the madness en route to Radio City Music Hall, because we had tickets for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, starring the Radio City Rockettes!!!! (I hope the exclamation points tell you how excited I was!) I’ve always wanted to see the Christmas Spectacular and now I was actually getting to! In New York! In Radio City Music Hall! The same place where the Tony Awards take place every year, and so many music legends have performed to sold out audiences!

Magical!

Can we talk about that chandelier...

After going through security, we made our way to our seats and were absolutely ecstatic to find out they were REALLY GOOD seats! Having browsed the Christmas Spectacular website, neither of us really liked the prices, so we decided to try and figure out an alternative. We wanted good seats, but we didn’t want to pay a whole lot of money. I decided to try SeatGeek, because I’d recently used that site to get tickets to a Houston Texans game. I stumbled upon some really good tickets for $60/piece in the orchestra. After doing a little more research to try and figure out exactly where those seats would be located in relation to the stage, I realized they would be really good and we probably wouldn’t find anything that good for less anywhere else so I purchased them. Let me tell you, they ended up being phenomenal! A full view of the enormous stage and close enough that you could see faces and details.

Our view of the stage

Selfie in Radio City

The show as a whole was quite…well…spectacular! It’s very glitzy, and as Rachel put it, it really epitomizes that old Hollywood feel. Not only does the venue contribute to that, but the songs that are sung throughout the show just have a very showgirl feel. It’s a bit cheesy at times, but you don’t really mind because it’s just so magical. The Rockettes were just as amazing as I knew they would be and the live nativity scene at the end of the show, with live animals, was incredible. If you’re in the city at Christmastime, I would, again, say that this is a must!

The funniest part of the weekend perhaps, happened at the show and will forever be known to Rachel and me as #RogueSnowflakeOf2k15. Let me explain. There was one number where these five orbs came out of the pit and floated over the audience. Inside the, what looked like clear beach balls, were snowflakes. They hung over the audience for a bit and then flew back into the pit. Now, I’m not 100% sure, but I think maybe they were remote control operated. Anyway, the snowflake on the far left, and the one closest to us, decided…it didn’t want to fly back into the pit like the other four snowflakes. The curtain dropped so that the stage could be set for the next bit, and Santa came out to narrate…but all Rachel and I could stare at was this snowflake. Since it wouldn’t go back in the pit, it looked like they tried to fly it into one of the wings…but alas, that didn’t work either. Then the snowflake started drifting back into the audience and sort of over to the side on top of these little bannisters where some of the performers would occasionally stand. At this point, the live nativity had begun…but ALL we could stare at was what we now affectionately call Rogue Snowflake. And we were CRACKING UP. We were trying to be quiet, but it was hilarious. And became even funnier when we saw several Radio City staffers head over to Rogue Snowflake to try and coax it off the bannister. This lasted for about 10 minutes and I swear, it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. So, there you have it…the story of #RogueSnowflakeOf2k15.

The next morning, we woke up and went straight to the 9/11 Museum. I won’t go into too much detail because I want to do a separate post about this museum. It was an incredibly raw and emotional experience, but it was extremely moving at the same time. I definitely recommend this to those traveling to the city. Honestly, I would say it’s something that shouldn’t be missed.

We planned to go to the New York High Line next, BUT…I made a little mistake in my navigation and soon realized I’d put us on a subway to Brooklyn…and by soon I mean like 3 or 4 stops into Brooklyn. Ooops. We hopped off as soon as I realized it and walked around to the other side. Of course, we ended up in a little bit of a sketchy area…but we made it back to Manhattan just fine! Unfortunately, our little Brooklyn detour caused us to miss seeing the High Line and instead we headed straight to the theater for our 3:00 PM matinee performance.

I am happy to report that Rachel loved Finding Neverland just as much as I hoped she would. And I, once again, sobbed like a baby for the last 10 minutes of the show. As we were walking out, we saw this family and the mom was still crying and her family was laughing at her. She looked at us and said, “Did you guys cry?” Rachel and I were both just like, OMG yes we sobbed like babies. The lady turned to her family and said “See! They cried too! I’m not the only one!”

To lift our spirits, we popped into the Disney Store, and then headed to Central Park to check out the ice skating rink. We’d thought about skating, but after seeing the large number of people on the rink, and the price, we decided to just observe for a bit. Once we’d had enough, we headed off to one of my favorite little places, Serendipity. Rachel had never been before, and I just feel that everyone should experience Serendipity at least once! We had quite a bit of a wait, but we walked down to Bloomingdale’s and browsed, before returning and just chit chatting until we got seated. We split a classic Frozen Hot Chocolate, which is what they’re famous for, and it was as delicious as ever. This lady outside had asked me if the long wait times were really worth it, and I felt silly for saying yes…but…it really is worth it! Once you’ve tasted it, you’ll understand.

Wollman Rink in Central Park

Serendipity at Christmas

YUMMMM Frozen Hot Chocolate!

Monday morning, unfortunately, I had to head to work, but Rachel got to meet up with her sister again for breakfast before heading to the airport for her flight. We said our see you soons, before I headed off to the subway.

I’m so, so glad she got to come this weekend and we got to experience New York at Christmastime together! It was definitely a fun weekend and much needed girl time with one of my best friends!

Disclaimer: No selfie sticks were used in the taking of these selfies. We're so good, we don't need those contraptions.

Hope you’re all having a wonderful week!

XOXO,

Alex