Hello New York!

We celebrated our anniversary and Sean’s early birthday by going to New York this year. Sean had never been and I was super excited to show him all my old stomping grounds. The last time I was there was in 2008, so I was more than ready to visit one of my favourite cities in the world.

We took the Cathay Pacific red-eye because it was a non-stop flight. In the past, red-eyes to Europe killed me, what with the time change and my inability to not partake in the in-flight entertainment.

So going into this flight were my very good intentions of sleeping and being refreshed when we land. But darn it to hell, there was dinner (!) service, as well as, This is 40 as one of the movie choices, which had us guffawing out loud. So by the time that was over, there was only about an hour before we landed at JFK. So much for sleep.

We hailed a cab and headed to our loft accommodations in Chinatown, which I booked via AirBnB. The first order of business after unpacking, was getting a nap in. The 4 hours proved to be helpful, although we still felt (and I’m sure looked like) zombies.

We decided to take it easy and stay below 14th street. We grabbed lunch in Little Italy at Buona Notte on Mulberry. I had been there before with friends and remembered it being quite tasty. Yes, I know the entire street is tourist trappy, but we were too hungry to care. We ordered the very delicious ravioli di ricotta al pomodoro or ricotta cheese ravioli sautee’d with fresh tomato and basil.

Energized from lunch, we began exploring. Everywhere. Started up broadway, hit NYU area and up to Union Square. It was fun for me to see Sean taking it all in. How very different New York was from Vancouver and anywhere he’s ever been to.

After Union Square, we headed back down to Greenwich Village and stopped at Washington Square Park. And by the time we circled back to Broadway, we were famished again.

We had a second lunch at Pret a Manger. The first time I ate at Pret a Manger was during my London trip in 2008. The food was tasty, convenient and not too expensive. I was pleasantly surprised that they had expanded to New York. We tucked into a gargantuan tuna sandwich and seafood chowder, which I totally recommend — purr-fect comfort food for this sunny but chilly day.

After re-energizing back at the loft for a couple hours, we hopped on the subway to take us to Herald Square. Macy’s, the world’s largest store, was holding their annual flower show and I wanted to check out their sumptuous south Asian themed windows.

From there, it was just a hop, skip and a jump up to the insanity that is Times Square, also known as the “crossroads of the world.” When I had lived in New York, I avoided that circus sideshow like the plague. That is, unless I had a friend visiting and they of course, would indubitably want to see the it.

It was still as I remember: all lights, neon and flashy ooh-la-las and tourists everywhere you turn. And the buskers and costumed characters intent on shaking people down for money with their antics. Still, as a first-timer, you have to experience the explosion of neon that is Times Square.

Sensory overload was the word for the evening, as Sean was taking in the Times Square news ticker, Nasdaq headquarters screen, the TKTS area in Duffy Square with its set of stairs going nowhere and the Vrill building flashing coca-cola messaging.

After our trip through “the zoo”, we made Rockefeller Center our last stop. We checked out the Easter bunny display in the channel gardens, the Atlas statue and the Prometheus gold leafed bronze statue over the sunken garden. But the thing that floored Sean the most was the Art Deco skyscraper that is the 70 story limestone GE building, The centrepiece of Rockefeller Centre. He was completely awestruck by how majestic and strong it looked.

Did I mention that it was freezing that night? New York was still in the clutches of winter and they just had a snowstorm the week before we arrived. So although it was forecasted to be sunny and bright the entire time we were there, it would also be cold one, with highs of 8C-12C and lows of -1C-5C.

By the time midnight rolled around, we were half frozen, so we called it a night and headed back to Chinatown, whereby, we promptly passed out. But with a smile on our faces.

Hello again, New York.

View more photos of my trip on my Flickr album.