For his birthday we surprised Christopher with a trip to New York City! He and I made a long weekend out of flying up and it was really a great trip! I’ve been wanting to go back to NYC for a few years now and finally felt like he was old enough to enjoy the trip without getting lost in Times Square.
I asked him to help me plan most of the trip but also surprised him with a few things. I love how he is interested in planning a trip and he really took to YouTube to find videos ranging from things to do all the way to subway safety. He was well prepared and even got on to me a few times for my “unsafe” behavior – aka talking to strangers lol
Day One
We flew up EARLY on a Friday morning and got to the JFK airport around 10:30. I’m used to riding the E train into the city and I’d booked a hotel downtown near City Hall so I budgeted for at least 90 minutes on getting bags and getting into the city BUT Christopher and his YouTubing found a “hack” for using public transportation to get into the city so we ended up taking the AirTrain to the Jamaica Station and instead of taking the E we went down a platform and took the LIRR to Penn Station then transferred to the subway. Jon Barr is the best NYC travel guide YouTuber we found – click here! to see his channel.
This cost maybe $3 more than riding the subway into Manhattan but it was only about 20 minutes AND there were luggage racks for our bags so we didn’t have to hope for a subway seat then hold our bags between our legs the entire ride. We used the same method to get from Manhattan back to JFK on the return.
I knew we would be in the city several hours before our hotel check in so I found a place nearby to do a cheap bag storage and that was Christopher and my first stop. After we dropped our bags we took the subway to lunch and after lunch went to a place called The Color Factory.
He found The Color Factory in his searching and I agreed to go – he was REALLY pumped about it. I honestly thought it would be something I just walked through while he looked at things and did the stuff but I really enjoyed the whole experience also. The BIG hit – a room with a huge ball pit and special made gelato that was the exact color of everything in the room. Christopher played in the ball pit for almost 2 hours!!
After The Color Factory we grabbed our bags from the baggage storage place, checked in at our hotel (Moxy NYC Downtown), and walked over to the 9/11 Memorial. We walked around for a little while then headed further downtown to Battery Park.
In Battery Park we rode the SeaGlass Carousel – I had to talk Christopher into riding this but after our first ride he wanted to go two more times. Online it looks way cooler in the dark because of the lights but it closed before it got dark when we were visiting so we didn’t get to ride it on full glow. Christopher would like to insert a tip here – “the bigger fish don’t go as high as the smaller ones so pick a smaller fish to ride”.
From the SeaGlass Carousel we walked over to the Staten Island Ferry. The ferry is free and takes you right by the Statue of Liberty. Full transparency – I would have done one of the boat tours to the Statue IF I could have gotten tickets to go up into the crown but they were all sold out while we were in town so the ferry was the better option in my opinion for a viewing boat ride. Round trip the ferry takes about an hour and you get the experience of taking the ferry, seeing the Statue, and seeing the downtown skyline. I also tried to time this for sunset but Christopher told me he didn’t want to wait around for the later ferry so we went ahead and made the journey.
After the ferry we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. Christopher about fell asleep at the table and barely touched his dinner so we called it a night and went to bed.
Day Two
Our first stop on day two was the American Museum of National History. We got there right when it opened and the line was crazy BUT I’d purchased tickets online beforehand and we got to go through a much shorter line that took us right up to the security checkpoint. Christopher museums at my level so we found a map, he decided what he wanted to check out, and we visited those areas, stopping for some photos, then moving along.
It was mostly dinosaurs but we also spent some time in the natural stones area – in total we were probably at the museum for 2-3 hours.
One of the things I wanted to find while in NYC was good cheap pizza by the slice so after the museum I found us a place right off Central Park to go eat lunch. We went to La Traviata Pizza which is on West 68th Street, a short walk from the museum.
When we finished our pizza we walked over to Central Park and took a pedi-cab ride through the park – another thing Christopher chastised me about from his YouTube viewing lol. He missed the part in his video where it said to negotiate the rate before you get in and only heard “don’t take the pedi-cabs”.
For record – I paid $60 for both of us to do an hour long ride around the park. DO NOT book this in advance – I looked online before we left home to see what the rates were and the websites I found were booking online for $100 a person!!! I’m all for pre-booking and making things easier but NOT when it comes to the pedi-cab.
Our pedi-cab guide was friendly, showed us the highlights, and took our photos along the way. I’m not sure Central Park was as exciting for Christopher as I thought it would be but also, the trees were still pretty bare and the fountains didn’t have any water in them so you know…it could have been better.
Once we were finished “touring” the park we walked down 5th Avenue toward Rockefeller Center. We popped into a few stores – with the Lego Store being the highlight.
The main event for Rockefeller Center was ice skating! Who knew in late March ice skating was still a thing – not this freezing cold in NYC southerner haha! We skated for over an hour and Christopher is pretty good considering this was probably the 2nd or 3rd time he’s ever been. I booked a time online before we got there and they had free storage lockers for our stuff.
The next stop in our day was Times Square. I could honestly go the rest of my life without visiting Times Square again but every time I go to NYC I go with someone who has never been before and Times Square is kind of a “must do” when visiting NYC so here we are – in Times Square.
Christopher enjoyed the m&m store – where his $50 rainbow bag of m&ms almost made me stroke out – we will be eating these for the rest of the year. He also enjoyed watching the street performers. We sat through the same show twice. And he liked all the giant TVs on the buildings.
Once we were finished in Times Square we headed back downtown, grabbed a bite to eat, and hit the hotel. I was tired and knew we had another long day ahead of us but Christopher was salty with me when I made him go to be in the city that never sleeps.
Day Three
Our first stop on day three was One World Observatory. I”m not sure if we lucked out or if it’s generally not busy on Sunday morning’s but we got there around 9:30 am and there was no line. We got an elevator to ourselves going up and coming down and there were very few people there when we were up on the 100-102 floors.
Christopher has been telling people this was the best part of the trip – specifically the elevator ride down, which makes you feel like you’ve been pushed out of the building and you get to see the city in a 360 rotation while you go down to the main floor.
It’s been a minute since I’ve been to the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock and they both have their perks as far as the views but if I only had to pick one (which I did for this trip) I’m choosing One World.
We left One World and headed to the Museum of Mathematics – another one of Christopher’s YouTube finds. This was another spot that I thought I’d just be visiting going through the motions but I actually enjoyed it, probably not as much as Christopher did but enough that I wasn’t looking at my phone or watch the whole time.
We stayed for a little over 2 hours and Christopher played with all the things they had to offer. It was a very good stop for something to do inside (have I mentioned it was cold outside) that wasn’t boring or just killing time.
When we were all mathed out we walked down 5th Avenue to a store called CAMP where Christopher got to make some slime. This is another one of Christopher’s YouTube finds BUT we didn’t realize the video he was watching was a little older and the “rules” at CAMP have changed since it was made.
CAMP has a “secret” (not so secret) playground room that you can access with a “hidden” (not so hidden) door. Christopher was really excited about this but the internet being the internet means secret and hidden are a thing of the past and now you need reservations to play in the secret hidden playground.
He settled for the slime then a walk further downtown to Washington Square Park where we sat for at least an hour watching the skateboarders.
The last stop of our day was at Fish Cheeks – another spot Christopher found on YouTube. We had the wings and fried fish – a perfect end to a good trip!
After dinner we headed back to our hotel, packed our bags, took the subway to Penn Station, the LIRR to Jamaica Station, THEN a bus (the air train wasn’t working) to the airport, THEN a hotel shuttle to our digs for the night. I had decided that doing this Monday morning for a 7:30 am flight probably wasn’t the best idea so I’d booked us a room at an airport hotel for Sunday night.
I’m so glad I did this because what should have taken us maybe an hour took over 2 and had it taken that long Monday morning we would have missed our flight. Also I didn’t think hitting the streets and subway to go to the airport at 4 am was the smartest decision I could make.
Summary
In conclusion…ok sometimes ending these posts is hard.
I guess I should end by saying I had such a good time with Christopher. This trip being just me and him was fun and special and having him help plan our activities gave him input that I didn’t think he would care about but that he took a lot of pride in doing. He is a very good traveller and I can’t wait for the next trip we can take together.
Also – Ada has informed me that when she’s 9 we will be going to NYC for her birthday as well. LOL
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