I Heart NY

I think I said this on our last girl's trip to New York City, and I know I said it this past weekend while there for this year's Christmas trip.  I wish I had worn my Garmin to track miles walked as well as ground covered (including all our back-tracking).  From Harlem in the North to Coney Island in the South, we covered a lot of the City! 

Greta, Katie, Marie and I left Minneapolis early Friday morning arriving in time to have three full days in New York.  We make a special attempt to do and see a lot of the Holiday attractions; including markets, displays, caroling and more.  

Unfortunately I have less than mediocre photos from this trip.  We literally would leave our hotel room bright and early in the morning and return home way, way, waaaayyy past my bedtime each night.  My phone (& only camera I brought with) petered out long before I did each day, usually by 3pm, leaving me with spotty photo coverage of our adventures.  

The following photos give you a glimpse into the first few hours following our arrival into NYC.  Usually this "huddle" would take place in our hotel room, but since ours wasn't ready yet, we made ourselves at home at the hotel's business center.  Which is quite fitting, because this portion (& only this portion) of the trip is when we get down to serious business.  We're reviewing our boards on Pinterest to refresh our memories of everything we pinned that we want to do and see.  We're plotting coordinates on our Manhattan maps.  Identifying "must do" activities and "if we stumble upon it" sights.  Discussing the best way to cover all the ground we want to cover in order to limit back-tracking and ensure leisurely enjoyment once we've got a general framework in place for all we want to do. 

Phones are out.  Computers started up.  Color coding pens and Sharpies at the ready. 

Pretty sure we were scaring some guests away.  And still the hotel couldn't make our room available to us.  So we wrapped up the "Planning" portion of our weekend, checked our luggage with the bellman and headed out into one of the greatest cities in the USA.

Soho & The Village

We spent our first afternoon of the trip in Soho, tooling around and going in and out of cute shops and cafes. There’s an overabundance of neighborhood haute spots. All warm and cozy. To borrow from a Gotham magazine review, many of these spots are the intersection of socializing and sanctuary. We enjoyed a long, late lunch. And shopping at the Land of Nod and Etsy pop-up shops. Then a latte at the Antique Garage. Due to a minor snafu (pregnancy brain related - Greta, not me), we wound up navigating ourselves to the Land of Nod a couple times instead of a different store. No harm or foul…everything’s in walking distance so we rerouted ourselves and Katie made sure we were following the blue dot (the one on the Maps app) for the rest of our trip.

Brooklyn

We’ve been to NYC several times for our Christmas vacation, but have never made it to Brooklyn. This year we decided it was a new part of the city we wanted to explore, particularly because we had each found a handful of Christmas attractions in that neck of the skyscrapers.

First up were the Christmas light displays in the Dyker Heights neighborhood; a community situated pretty darn close to Coney Island. In advance of our trip, Marie had watched a TV show highlighting the extravagance of the lights and the competition different houses and streets go to in order to outdo one another.

After an hour or so of walking around Dyker Heights, we navigated our way back to the Subway, managed a few public transportation transfers and found ourselves in the too cool for yule neighborhood of Williamsburg. Another mile-long walk and we were entering the Brooklyn Night Bazaar.

The Bazarre was lauded as a Holiday artisan and craft fair; hipster style. As Greta read the description to us she asked us to imagine Seth, playing the trend reporter from SNL, reading it in his uber trendy mockery style. It lived up to its billing.

The entrance to the event was through a loading dock. Immediately after ducking our way through the heavy plastic walk-in cooler doors, we cased out the joint. A huge industrial warehouse that was part rave, part quilting bee, part Puma after hours athlete event. Miles of glow in the dark rope was draped from the ceiling. House beats blared throughout the concrete showroom. Hands held countless cans of PRB 24oz alongside locally sourced and braised short rib tacos. Doe eyed 20-somethings with messy buns high atop their heads sat knitting too trendy tops not far from a dozen ping pong tables and indoor soccer competitions taking place. Next to all of that sport, and precariously too close to the locally sourced food, were two dozen port-o-potties. Right there inside Hipster Holiday Bazzare. No wonder there was a stench that turned all of our apetites off from the food vendors.

After a half hour of meandering through the stalls (both bathroom stalls and craft stalls:), we decided to get some much needed fresh air and head back toward some cafes we saw near the Subway.

Two Door Tavern. If I took the time to retroactively research, I’m sure I’d find plenty of good press about this place. I’m so happy Marie boldly declared this was where we should have dinner, because I would have led the group astray to a smaller café with a whole lot of on-trend grains but a lot less charm. At Two Door Tavern, every fixture had a beautiful patina and heft infrequently found in today’s reproductions. The food was savory. The fire a bit too smoky at one point (smoke rises and we found ourselves in the loft, next to the wood fireplace that burned to smoking embers and nearly asphyxiated us all).  Despite the minor smoke-out incident, Two Door Tavern was perfect.  A warm and cozy bar with delicious food to relax and hang out at after a very busy and long day of travel and touristing.


Our second day was spent enjoying Midtown.  We were up early and in line at TKTS getting a good deal on theatre tickets for that night.  We strolled the window displays on 5th/Madison/Park Avenues.  We stopped for good food and drinks.  We made our way to ABC Carpet & Home, Union Square Market, the High Line and Chelsea Market.  Enjoyed some dinner.  Then we trekked back North to the Time Warner Building for a musical light display.  Grabbed snacks at Whole Foods and headed to our off-Broadway show.  Of course stopping by Rockefeller Center before making our way back to our hotel.

Gorgeous holiday greenery at Union Square Market 

Festive Carolers at Union Square 

 Rockfeller Center Christmas Tree

Mid-day latte

All our walking and sight-seeing meant we needed to STRETCH at the theatre before seeing Avenue Q.  Ave Q did not disappoint. I'd been wanting to see it for years and it was such a fun show.  Talented puppeteers and actors, those ones!

The City & Central Park

Our last full day in the City we walked some more, including most of Midtown again and all of Central Park.  We made it to two different Christmas "lighting" ceremonies that night.  

Holiday lighting ceremony at Charles Dana Discovery Center on the north side of Central Park

Central Park at Harlem

Empire State Building

Morning bagels as we headed out

The Brick Church Caroling & Park Ave Tree Lighting is what started it all. Or at least keeps it going. Years ago, maybe even before I had my 1st baby, Greta, Katie and myself took a trip to New York City with the intent to see and do all things Holiday in the city. Our last night during that trip we “pretended” we were residents of the Upper East Side and attended the Brick Church congregation’s caroling and tree lighting ceremony. The setting so magical and dreamy. The furs and Chanel No. 5 so prevalent. This event has become a cornerstone of our Holiday get-a-way.

This year we met a totally stereotypical bi-coastal local. Or as Greta dubbed her, Grandma Barbie. Long blonde hair down her back, she flies in from LA to attend the Upper East Side event every year – she wouldn’t miss it! She was full of Christmas cheer, as well as knowledge about the history of the event. She saw a news reporter and promptly inquired if the reporter thought enough people knew the full story of why the Brick Church caroling began so many years ago. The reporter replied she did believe she knew the history…but asked Grandma Barbie if she wouldn’t mind being interviewed to share more. 

Would she mind?! Grandma Barbie was hoping she’d ask!  Here she is smiling for the cameras...

Aside from the few rain drops (55 degrees in NYC in December!), the Brick Church delivered Holiday cheer in abundance. As I sit typing this post on the flight home to Minneapolis, I am filled with the spirit of Christmas and can’t wait to put the finishing touches on my decorations at home, crank the carols and start the countdown to Christmas vacation!



Home Sweet Holiday Home

Throughout our time away, each of us commented how great technology is. While we were totally disconnected from the stresses and responsibilities of our lives back home, our husbands and kids had the opportunity to feel included in our adventures in the City (I fully acknowledge that us ladies def got the better deal on this one). Greta introduced us all to the Photo Circle app and it’s awesome. Basically it’s a real-time digital photo album. We were all added to the “NYC Christmas 2012” circle, including our hubbies, and we could all add images, view them and comment on them. Nate, Greta’s husband, said “It kind of feels like I’m on the trip with you.”

Joe was continually texting photos and videos of what he and the kids were making back in Minneapolis. And Nate had his own Photo Circle going with Greta to share the MANY adventures he and Tillie were experiencing during their Dad & Daughter weekend!

I'm home, and it's the Holidays!