New York City wears me out.
I like to fancy myself a “city girl”, but since I hail from a town of 2,000 residents, I’m really just kidding myself.
I learned this after my maiden voyage to the Big Apple last year, and re-learned it this past weekend.
DC is about as city as I want to get. I like the small town feel with the availability of many bigger city benefits like public transportation, good shopping, museums, etc.
However, my mom decided to take my brother, SIL, Tom and me to NYC as our Christmas and birthday presents this year and I’ll never turn down a free trip.
Mom took care of the transportation and the SIL got us reservations as the Eventi Hotel in Chelsea, which was a million times nicer than any place I could ever afford to stay at in NYC on my own.
Above all, I was really excited to spend time with family for a few days. I’d go to Antarctica if it meant a little quality family time.
Tom and I had a much easier travel experience than our Oklahoma counterparts, sadly. It rained all day Friday and several of their flights got cancelled.
Our train arrived right on time, and after checking in and checking out the neighborhood, we decided to make the most of our fancy digs and relax in the room for a bit while waiting for them to arrive.
I hate sitting in hotel rooms when I’m on vacation, but I knew I would need to gather my strength if I was going to remain pleasant to be around for the rest of the trip. It was probably one of the best decisions made all weekend.
Lots of New York beers were consumed. This one was good, although creepy looking.
There was a free happy hour at the hotel, which we of course took advantage of thoroughly, while watching the Olympics on a giant big screen TV seemingly put there just for that purpose.
Kidding, I didn’t watch the Olympics. But I could have if I’d wanted to.
Friday night, we dined at Top of the Tower at the Beekman Hotel, which had stunning views and great food.
Saturday, we brunched at a random pub, walked around 5th Avenue for about four hours while I bemoaned my financial situation and didn’t buy a single item and then split up for awhile so we could all do our own thing.
Our thing, of course, involved beer.
We walked around Greenwich Village for awhile until we saw a place that had local beer and wine. I have no idea what it was called. I was too busy watching the couple next to us break up. Oh, people watching. The beers we ordered were good though, I had the Sweet Action (smooth amber, not much hop) and Tom had the Brooklyn Summer Ale. Solid.
After that, we showered and gave my brother his birthday gifts and then ate 500 bread baskets and ten pounds of pasta and cheese collectively at some Italian restaurant. Weight Watchers got the finger for a few days, but I managed not to balloon out of control due to all the walking.
After dinner we wandered through Times Square and ended the night at a burlesque show.
The show was not at all what I expected. There were only three breasts shown the entire time, and there were far more male performers than female ones (not that I’m complaining). But the acts were very unique, and provided some of the biggest laughs I’ve had in the past few weeks. I’ve been in need of a deep, belly laugh.
The next day we brunched at Smith, walked around Central Park and then all proceeded to shut down a little bit. No one really wanted to do anything except go home and sleep for a week.
Except for maybe the SIL. She’s a real city girl.
I’m not. It will probably take me the rest of the week to recuperate. But it was definitely worth it.
How city are you?
(Grandparent update: We haven’t really learned anything new. Both grandparents have scheduled biopsies in the next week or so, so I’ll let you know if I learn anything new. All or your prayers, thoughts and support have meant everything to me this past week. Thanks again!)