Traveling with Laura

Where to go for a long weekend in June? Since I hadn’t thought this one out too far in advance, and given that summer vacation starts in less than a week, I settled for a quick trip to New York City this weekend. I’ve been to NYC several times in the last few years, each time seeing a different part of the city and doing different things (for the most part). I can handle the city in small doses and having just a few places to visit each time has made for some great trips. This one was no exception.

I set out a little after 5:30AM on Saturday in order to catch the 8:18AM train from New Haven’s Union Station to Grand Central Terminal in New York. All I wanted to do this weekend was eat and walk. And walk I did, covering about 12 miles during my two days in the city.

When I arrived at Grand Central, I dropped off my suitcase at my hotel and then started walking. First stop: the obligatory picture of Times Square before picking out a small assortment of M&M’s at M&M World. For some reason, this has become a tradition when I visit New York City. I just walk around with them in my bag and randomly stop to eat a few. They also make for a great evening snack while editing pictures. I never know which one is which, so it’s always a surprise when I pop one in my mouth!

Then it was off to my favorite place for a treat: Bibble and Sip. Saturday’s indulgence was a Mango Sago cream puff (with a mango passionfruit cream inside) and a London Float (salted vanilla foam, Earl Grey iced tea, and brown sugar). Definitely not my usual choice for a snack, but both were delicious!

Clearly, I needed to walk off my “lunch” and that came in the form of walking 21 blocks south to the 30th St. entrance to the High Line. The High Line was opened in 2009 on the repurposed elevated rail tracks of the New York Central Railroad. It is like a 1.5 mile long outdoor garden running from 34th Street on the north end to Gansevoort Street on the south. There are staircases to enter and exit the walkway at several cross streets along with some areas to sit and enjoy the views. On the way downtown, I stopped at the Tenth Avenue overpass and made detours to visit Chelsea Market and Little Island.

While I was walking, the clouds set in and the wind picked up. By the time I hit Gansevoort Street, I was tired and my feet were sore. But no rest for the weary! I then walked 2 more miles to my dinner destination: Rubirosa. I followed Bleeker Street most of the way, stopping to take pictures of the quaint tree-lined streets, decorated storefront windows, and a street festival that went on for several blocks.

Rubirosa is my favorite pizza place in New York City. I first ate there several years ago and have been back a handful of times since. I had no trouble getting a seat at the bar a little before 4 o’clock. Of course, I had my favorite tie-dye pizza (vodka sauce, tomato sauce, and a pesto swirl) and an Austin Eastciders hard cider. 

Was I done walking for the day? Not a chance. I took the subway over to the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, walked through Brooklyn Bridge Park, and then up and over the Brooklyn Bridge. I have done the walk once before in the opposite direction, but it was much better to be walking towards the Manhattan skyline than away from it.

Clearly, another indulgence was in order to reward myself for all the walking. This came in the form of a scoop of Van Leeuwen Honeycomb ice cream. It was good, but probably not good enough to warrant the $6 price tag.

I opted to take the subway back to my hotel, The Bernic, on 47th Street. I have stayed in several hotels when visiting New York City and have yet to find my “go to” hotel. (I did love the huge rooms at the Hilton Times Square; alas, the hotel is now closed.) The Bernic is part of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection and is a boutique hotel spanning 21 floors with just 4 or 5 rooms per floor. Many of the rooms have balconies, a rare treat in New York City. While I wouldn’t describe my room as overly spacious, it wasn’t small by any means and I had plenty of room to spread out for the night. I would definitely stay there again.

I slept in until 4:45AM on Sunday and spent a leisurely couple of hours lying in bed watching YouTube videos. Heading out for the day, I grabbed two donuts from the Doughnut Plant in Grand Central (tres leches and vanilla bean filled with blackberry jam) and a Starbucks iced vanilla latte for breakfast. Thanks to all the walking I did this weekend, I could rationalize the two donut breakfast. I know there are plenty of great places to have breakfast/brunch in New York City, but I can’t think of a better spot than the small table I picked out in Bryant Park for an al fresco Sunday morning breakfast.

After breakfast, I walked all the way across town to Pier 83, where I had a seat reserved on the 10AM Best of NYC Circle Line boat tour. I love being out on the water, and the tour circumnavigated the entire island of Manhattan in about 2.5 hours. Along the way, we saw the Statue of Liberty, many of the landmarks of Manhattan, and 20 different bridges.

I hightailed it back to my hotel and grabbed my things just in time to make the 1:34PM train back to New Haven. As I was heading back to Grand Central, I wished I had opted to spend a second night in the city since the weather was picture perfect with a few puffy clouds and a temperature around 70 degrees. With 9 weeks of summer vacation on the horizon, I might just be back for another visit soon!