The bookends to our Europe trip: The Big Apple!
We were able to spend a night in New York with my friend Grace at the beginning of our trip and at the end. It was wonderful to get to see a good friend who I don’t get to see often, and have time to explore one of our favorite cities at the same time.
We left Dallas on a Monday afternoon and arrived at La Guardia Monday evening. La Guardia is maybe the grossest airport I’ve ever been in. They’ve changed their ride share pick up location since the last time I was there, so it was a little confusing to figure out where we could get a Lyft, but once we figured it out it was much easier than it was previously. We went straight to Grace’s apartment, and got to spend some time with her and then have dinner at Anella in Brooklyn with her and her boyfriend. It was delicious and a wonderful start to our trip.
Tuesday morning, Grace went to work and we went out on our own in the City. We walked to Bagel Smith in Brooklyn for breakfast and had some bacon, egg, and cheese bagels. I took David to True North, a coffee shop I visited last time I was in New York visiting Grace.
After we were fueled with bagels and coffee, we embarked on the Day of Walking. We walked to the Williamsburg Bridge and across to Manhattan, then all the way up to Levain Bakery on 74th. Along the way, we made stops in Washington Square Park, Central Park, and several other places. Once we were finished eating delicious chocolate chip cookies at Levain, we were pretty exhausted and took a Lyft back to Grace’s apartment. Our flight to Dublin left Tuesday evening, and we got stuck in some traffic on the way to airport and were a little worried about missing our flight. Spoiler alert: we made it, and we were on our way to Europe!
At the end of our trip, we arrived at Grace’s apartment at 2:30 am (see the Paris post for details). We crashed as soon as we arrived, but then woke up early thanks to jet lag. We went to a bagel place down the street, Baker’s Dozen, that was delicious – I’m still thinking about that sesame bagel with lox spread. They even had my favorite Chameleon cold brew.
We went back and once we finished showering, we were off on a food tour of Manhattan. We took the train there and started on the High Line. We had some fabulous empanadas from La Sonrisa, and then headed to Chelsea Market. I had never been there before and it was such a fun experience. I wanted to try something from every vendor in there, but we ended up at Los Tacos No. 1 and had some incredible quesadillas, and some iced tea from the place next to them. We walked to Milk Bar in Chelsea to try some of the things we saw on their episode of Chef’s Table, and it did not disappoint.
After that, we were really tired and ready to head home. We got confused on the train, but some very nice people helped us, contrary to the stereotype of New Yorkers being rude and unfriendly. Honestly, I think the New York subway system is significantly more confusing than the one in London or Paris, even with the language difference. We eventually got back, and spent the rest of our afternoon just relaxing at Grace’s apartment. Our flight back to Dallas got delayed a few times, so we grabbed some pizza from the place down the street and just waited there until it was time to head back to the airport. Because we got in so late and then she was at work, we never actually got to see Grace on our second night there. Luckily I got to see her very soon after that anyway (see Travel Series: Michigan). After that, it was back to Home Sweet Texas.
Great is Thy Faithfulness 