Our Time in the City

New York this past weekend. Eep! What an experience. Ballets, a little emergency room hospital visit, and topped with a little bike ride over the Brooklyn Bridge... Read on for part 1 of the full saga.

We arrived at the airport in Newark, NJ at around 5:30pm- so it was just starting to get dark. From the airport, we took the New Jersey Transit train to Manhattan (the ticket was just under $10) and took about 25 min or so. Right away, there's all sorts on the train. We have a few teenage divas being very vocal about not finding a place to sit and a gentleman sitting across the way from us chatting away to himself... one of our friends who used to live in the city said he used to play a game called 'Crazy or Bluetooth?' where he would guess if the people talking out loud- seemingly to no one- were on a bluetooth headset or indeed out of sorts. Ha. We started playing right then.

So we arrived in the city with our luggage and planned to catch a taxi outside the train station. But... long story short we could not hail a taxi! (Severe tourist alert). So, its nighttime and we walk basically through the Friday night crowds in Time Square for what seems like ages (um, its 1.6 freaking miles!) with our luggage rolling behind us. Brent is walking at an Olympic pace because he's nervous about getting mugged... and naturally I struggled to keep up...anyhow. It wasn't the best start.

Though it was helped along by a doorman shouting at Brent where he's from because he's wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt in 50-degree weather. (Brent rarely wears a coat... one of his little quirks. He hates carrying it around when he gets too warm)

We got to our hotel, and were pleasantly surprised. It was a wonderful and sophisticated place. It's a Marriott hotel, called The Lexington. Located right by the Chrysler building in Midtown and just a few blocks from Rockefeller Center (which, as you can see below just had the Christmas tree put up! though it wasn't lighted just yet).

I was excited to see a few things in the city that I'd never seen before, including The Highline. Which is an old railway track that used to carry meat and goods into the Meatpacking district, and then fell into disrepair after trucks replaced the trains as the main form of transportation. Instead of tearing down the tracks (which are elevated from the road), the city made a kind of wild garden out of it. I was diggin the 'wild' vibe, with the shrubbery coming up out of the track and the park benches that blended in with the surroundings.

A great view from the elevated tracks.

Photo by Iwan Baan, on the High Line website

We just moseyed along until we got tired of it. Easy peasy and so nice. 

More coming up...