Twelve Hours in NYC

I am so excited to start writing about our Europe trip! I had been writing mini-posts in my head on flights, trains and cab rides all around the continent imagining what I would want to tell my blog readers about the things I had seen and experienced. I plan on sharing details from every stop we visit, so here's day one! 

Our European adventure began with a twelve hour layover at the JFK Airport. Layovers are usually nothing but a gigantic waste of travel time, but this particular layover provided me with the opportunity to explore New York City, a place I've only dreamed about visiting before this trip!

We deplaned shortly after 6 AM feeling a bit sluggish because our flight wasn't quite long enough to provide us with a full night's sleep. This wasn't a huge problem for us, though, because we were excited to explore the city. I was expecting the terminal to be fairly quiet and the trains to be empty because we had arrived early in the morning, but this was not the case at all. The terminal looked as though it were already noon and the trains gradually filled to capacity the closer we got to Manhattan. Clearly I wasn't used to the city life, so getting a taste of it in NYC was the perfect preparation for bustling European Cities.

Our first stop on our day trip to New York City was the 9/11 Memorial, but first, we needed breakfast. We were STARVING after the flight so we stopped at a little café a few blocks away from the memorial to get some french toast. Note: One thing we learned early on in this trip is never to go hungry! Hunger leads to people becoming hangry (hungry + angry = hangry, hangry = disaster) which isn't the proper condition for having a good time, so we packed lots of snacks and stopped for meals frequently to ensure that everyone was happy and well-fed. I've never eaten so well in my life!

After we had been sufficiently stuffed, we made our way to the memorial. I've been to Washington D.C. before and was able to experience the feelings of reverence and respect felt at Arlington National Cemetery and each war memorial. Despite being in the heart of one of the loudest and busiest cities in the world, the feelings of peace and honor at the memorial were almost overwhelming. I highly recommend visiting the 9/11 Memorial if you ever find yourself in lower Manhattan.

The Memorial has the names of each of the victims of the 9/11 attacks engraved on the outside. There are thousands of names; it would take hours to go through and read them all. It was truly a solemn experience.

I loved the sound of the water falling through the memorial. It helped drown out the sounds of the busy city and the construction on the new World Trade Center towers.

In this picture you can see the 9/11 museum which is supposed to be phenomenal. Tickets are a bit pricey at $24 for adults so we decided not to go in, but according to TripAdvisor it's well worth the cost. Perhaps we will go through on our next visit to Manhattan.

Our next destination was Canal Street for some shopping, but we took a round-about way and ended up lost in Chinatown for an hour or so. I'm still not exactly sure how we got lost, but fortunately we had time to kill so getting lost wasn't too big of a deal.

We also saw some interesting things on our way through Chinatown. This store made me laugh the hardest...Seems legit! I hope my doctor doesn't get his surgical supplies here (no offense, Chinatown)!

Our next stop was Times Square. It wasn't what I thought it would be, just because I usually see pictures of Times Square at night rather than during the day, so we will definitely be coming back and enjoying the view when it's dark outside and the signs shine a little bit brighter.

After the sensory overload that comes with being at Times Square, we all agreed that Central Park would provide us with a moment to catch our breath. But, of course we had to stop by the Museum of Natural History before we visited the park. We only visited the inside foyer on this trip, but Nate and I both look forward to coming back and exploring the entire museum someday!

One of my favorite memories of New York City is Central Park. By this time in the day trip we were all so exhausted from the night before that we decided to find a comfy patch of grass somewhere and take a much-needed nap. I'm fairly notorious for my nap taking (I nap a lot) and in all of the places I've taken a nap before, this will go down as one of my favorites!

After nap time, we all took a lovely and very scenic stroll through the park. It was strange thinking that this beautiful park was located right in the middle of a huge city. Whoever designed the park did an excellent job of hiding any signs of the city as you walk through. It was fun, however, to find parts of the city that would peek out above the trees. Another thing that both Nate and I loved about Central Park was the how many dogs we saw there! We're huge dog people (in case you haven't already noticed) and we were already missing our two fuzz balls at home so we tried to pet as many dogs as we could, and were relieved to find that everyone was willing to share their dogs with us!

After a few hours spent enjoying ice cream and exploring Central Park, it was time to make our way back to JFK. It wasn't too hard to say goodbye because it started storming just as we made our way back, but we definitely left New York City wanting more!

Special thanks to myself for bringing: My fedora! I had gnarly bed head after the red-eye and my fedora was able to hide it the whole day in New York!

Biggest regret: Not running into Brandon from Humans of New York! I know that it was a long-shot hoping that I would run into him and I'm not even a New Yorker, but I was secretly hoping that we'd run into him at some point! To this day I still pretend in my head that Brandon is asking me what my piece of advice to a large group of people would be. I can never decide on what I would say!

To see next time: There are so many things we didn't have time to see on our day trip, but Broadway is definitely the top of my list for next time! And I don't mean the street, I mean a show, preferably Lion King!

New York is definitely a place that you'll want to visit at least once in your life! If you've been before, what was your favorite thing to see? If you haven't been yet, what do you look forward to seeing the most?