In keeping with the tradition of birthday trips for 10th birthdays, Evan picked NYC two years ago and stuck with it! Evan and I flew out on Tuesday, August 9th and landed in LaGuardia around 4pm. We grabbed an Uber to our hotel and checked in to our room around 5pm. We quickly freshened up (it was real feel of 105 degrees outside), put a few things away, and hit the streets to start our adventure with an ambitious plan of seeing Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building, and Times Square all in one evening!
Evan enjoyed the FAO Schwarz and the Lego Stores in Rockefeller Center. We decided to grab a hot dog from one of the street stands. There was a chance of storms and you could hear the thunder rolling in the distance, but thankfully it never rained on us! We walked by St. Patrick's Cathedral and the New York Public Library going down 5th Ave on the way to the Empire State Building. It was a long walk and we bought tickets last minute for the Empire State Building during peak time figuring we wouldn't see a great sunset with the clouds that were out, but that the time was most convenient for us. Man...did we get an amazing sunset! What a surprise!
We made our way back to Times Square since our hotel was in that area. We mustered up the energy to go to the Hershey World Store and the M&M Store where we made our own bag of all different kinds of M&M's. We capped off the night with an authentic slice of New York pizza! It was delicious! We were so tired, our feet were killing us, and it was incredibly hot and muggy out, but we had a great start to exploring NYC!
Wednesday had us sleeping in a bit and going out to breakfast in Times Square at Juniors. I really liked their breakfast and had even bought a slice of cheesecake to take back to the hotel the night before. We had to figure out the Subway system to be able to get to the Mets game out in Queens. Evan wanted to be there when the park opened so he could see batting practice, so we made it around 11am (2 hours early...). He watched infield practice and was bummed he didn't get a ball from either the Mets or the Reds, but some peanuts and cotton candy cheered him up. We found our seats and decided to also get ice cream in a plastic baseball hat and a pop for me. The game was really good! The Mets kicked butt and there were a lot of hits and even a few home runs.
We left before the game ended so the Subway wouldn't be crazy. We made our way back to Times Square and decided to immediately get in line for dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner, only a block from our hotel. It's an incredibly popular spot and the servers sing and perform in the hopes of making it to Broadway. Evan and I decided we didn't want to see a Broadway show so this was the next closest thing. After he ate a bit, he perked up and enjoyed the performances. The food was just mediocre, but you definitely pay for the experience. After that we did some shopping in Times Square at the Disney Store and Evan enjoyed watching some street performers. Then it was back to the hotel to relax. He opted to stay in the room and watch baseball on TV. I chose to cash in on my free drink each day in the hotel bar and sat out on the terrace overlooking Times Square.
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