Note: For some more pictures and notes see my NY Photo set.
The flight to NY went pretty smoothly. We flew Midwest Airlines at suggestion of my mom on the sole basis that they bake cookies on board each flight.
Yeah. The cookies were good. Plus, the seats are nice and big and cushy.
We arrived around 4:30 or so at LaGuardia, picked up our bags, and headed out toward the taxi area.
I wasn't really sure about finding a taxi at the airport - do we flag one down? Find one sitting around? As we were heading out the doors, a guy asked us where we were going. I said Manhattan. He said he was a limo driver and he'd give us a ride. "It's okay, another guy is coming" (how does that make it okay?) At first I sort of agreed, then asked if he was yellow cab. He said no. I told him we were looking for a yellow cab (thank you, NYC Guidebook). He just sort of walked off.
Then we spotted a short line for the yellow taxis. We told a guy holding a clipboard we were headed toward Manhattan and he told us what cab to get into. Very painless. Later, Aimee said she saw Caroline "Biggest Loser" Rhea in the line ahead of us, but I didn't notice.
While waiting for the taxi we heard over the loudspeaker, "Don't accept unsolicited rides." Good advice.
The ride to our hotel was short and relatively inexpensive. There's just a fixed rate from either airport, plus tip.
We hung out in our hotel room for a little bit while we recovered from the flights.
Before the trip I did some searching online for a hotel. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but most reviews said Hotel 31 was pretty decent, so that's what we chose. We were pleasantly surprised. It wasn't anything special, but it was clean and quiet. I was expecting our nights in the city to be full of honking horns and sirens as I remembered my previous stays there, but it was as quiet as a night in Iowa. I guess that's saying something.
At the hotel, we opted for the "shared bath" because it's a bit cheaper and we didn't plan on spending a lot of time in our room, anyway. We did have a sink in our dorm-sized room, which was nice.
The location was great. East 31st street between Park and Lexington. Easy access to everything -- walk up to Midtown, jump on the subway to Downtown and the Brooklyn Bridge, some good restaurants nearby. Close to the Empire State Building (East 34th) , too, which is what we'd stare at as we were walking up or down Fifth Ave back to our place.
I'd been to NY two other times. Both were pretty short stays, and I just sort of followed my parents around so I didn't really get a good feel for the layout of the city. This time I had a better understanding both of the history and layout of the city.
Ready to head out for the first time, we headed north, not really having a plan in mind. We soon found ourselves by the Public Library, Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's. We kept going north to the 5th Avenue Apple Store. We cut through the park to Columbus Circle, down Broadway, ate at the Seattle Cafe near Times Square (despite its name, it was Mediterranean food -- I had the lamb with rice, lettuce, tomato, pita -- Aimee had the same but with falafel). We walked through the Broadway/Times Square area and started to make our way back to the hotel.
It was around 10:30 and we decided to first check out the lines for the Empire State Building. We were considering going near dusk to get the Daylight -- sunset -- night experience all in one, but decided it would be a fun thing to do since it was a nice night and we weren't sure if we'd have many nice evenings (rain was on its way from tropical storm Barry).
We each got a Citypass, which ended up saving us a lot of money (Citypass gets you into the Empire State Building observation deck, the Guggenheim, MOMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum, and a Circle Line Harbor Cruise - we did all but the Guggenheim). It's also supposed to save you time not having to wait in line, but we only found this true at MOMA (which was nice to avoid the long line outside on a rainy morning).
It turned out to be about a 30 minute wait in line to get to the 86th floor observation deck. We bypassed a lot of empty line (you know they kind they rope off, and when nobody is in line you have to jump over). I can see how the wait could get extremely long. It's made a little more frustrating by the fact that there are about 5 different lines. One to get tickets, one to get through security, one to get on the elevators, one to get your picture taken (they try to sell you a photo afterward), one to get the audio guide, another to get on the stairs or take another elevator up the last six floors).
The top of the ESB was a lot of fun. Tried to take some pictures sans tripod, and a couple turned out okay. It was a bit crowded up there, so you had to fight a little bit for a good spot.
We did a lot of walking the first day, and saw a lot for just starting out at 6 p.m. Next... day 2... more walking, a little rain, the Brooklyn Bridge, and some expensive Italian food.
Posted by alangage at June 13, 2007 12:31 PM
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