NYC Day 1

It’s been a year since we last got got on airplane. It’s been 8 months since we’ve spent a single night away from the kids. Time to go on vacation. This will be a babymoon(kid 3…) and also 4 year wedding anniversary rolled into one.

Let’s see, what else…kid 1 came down with a bad cold 2 weeks ago. Kid 2 and the rest of us came down with a bad cold 1 week ago. Grandparents, who will be babysitting while we are out of town also came down with said cold. Then came allergy season, so it exacerbated everyone’s illness. Thankfully, the kids recovered, and the grandparents have mostly recovered as well. RL and I are both on antibiotics though for our sinus infections. The show must go on, so here we go.

Packing light, that’s luggage for the both of us. Packing so light I hope we are not forgetting something.

We originally booked the trip thinking that we’ll be able to get away from the heat in Austin.

It was snowing in NYC a few weeks back, and today it’s hotter than Austin. 92F in NYC!!! We had to rethink what clothes to pack over the course of the past couple of weeks.

My mother in law DH was nice and offered to transport us to the airport. Airport parking is expensive, even when parking offsite.

Nice leisure stroll into the airport.

We’ve got carry on only, so no need to deal with any of this. Security lines were short, so we were past the checkpoint in no time.

Lots of construction here at airport.

Odd, the Salt Lick wasn’t at it’s usual location. Did they close it? We had to walk to the small taco bar. Here, they told us that they not only did not close the Salt Lick, they had expanded it.

Found…it was right opposite side of where the original one used to be…how did RL and I both miss it…

Happy.

As always, breakfast of champions at the Austin airport.

Nice 9am flight time.

The girl sitting across from us was wearing this Strand Brookstore T shirt. It’s on our list of potential places to visit in NYC, we shall see if we end up making a visit.

Let’s do this.

I love my wife, so I sit next to the window.(The SouthWest Airline broken fan blade causing a broken window incident had just happened a few weeks ago)

Turkey, Havarti & 10 Arugula Leaf Sandwich.

Surprised to find that AA provides an entire inflight magazine in Spanish.

Airport expansion.

COTA right below us. See you back in a few days Austin.

Appropriate song.

I wonder what mineral causes that teal color.

Look at all those crazy water passageways.

Jersey Shore.

NYC, here we come.

Something amusing to me whenever an airplane crosses a bridge.

So many superhero movies. I stopped watching most of them years ago.

So much walking already. First AirTrain, then we connect to the subway to get into Manhattan.

Waiting for AirTrain.

It may be warm, but at least it’s not raining. It was raining here in NYC just earlier this week, so we dodged that bullet.

Queens and their narrow houses.

Now we transfer to the subway. Kind of a stressful trip, since NYC has a pretty complicated subway system.

In fact It’s so complicated, Google gave me incorrect routing. The E train does not stop at 42St-Bryant Pk. The E train stops at 42St – Port Authority Bus Terminal. The two stations do connect, but if I just went by Google directions, I would have been stressfully looking for The Bryant Pk stop that does not exist on the E Train.

Time to purchase MTA card to use on the subway. Only one card is needed as the same card can be shared by 4 riders.

Pregnant lady is thirsty.

Finally at the subway station. Felt like quite a bit of walking just to get here.

Damn NYC and their complicated subway. There are too many exceptions to their normal routes. Sometimes it stops at certain stations. Sometimes it goes express. Sometimes it goes to this route, sometimes it goes to other tracks, etc. It may be obvious for a local who has lived here all their life, but for a tourist it’s confusing as hell. It’s a secret language with no easy way to translate.

After a long and uneventful ride, we were here in Midtown. NYC is grittier than I had remembered.

Time Square. It’s hectic and sensory overload. Not gonna lie, neither of us are feeling the NYC vibe right now.

None of the locals follow the cross walk signs here. If there’s a gap in traffic, they would cross. If there’s no gap in traffic, they’ll sometimes cross anyway and make the car yield to them. There is plenty of NYPD presence around here, but none of them are concerned about the jaywalking.

Found our hotel, Hotel Mela.

This is what you get for $251 a night a block away from Time Square. We picked the location not because we want to be by Time Square, we picked the location because so many subway stations converged here. For the first time in my life, I bought cancellation insurance for my hotel room. With two young kids, we are always falling randomly ill, so it seemed prudent to hedge just in case.

King size bed! We are excited because we only have a Queen at home.

Our window looks out onto the street. It’s quiet outside right now, I hope it stays that way during the night.

We dropped off our bags, then it’s time to hit the pavement in search of a late lunch.

There seems to be one of these on every corner around Time Square. It smells so good, I want some.

What we are seeking is just a few blocks away, you can get a peek of it at where the street dead ends.

Here we go. Grand Central Station with Chrysler Building in the background.

For this trip, I made the decision to bring a 20mm(30mm) prime lens with a figheye attachment. This is the first photo of the trip taken with the fisheye attachment…pretty cool. They don’t make buildings like they used to.

Late lunch spot. I wanted to eat here last time I was in NYC, but it was closed. Not this time.

Again, they don’t build buildings like they used to.

Bloody mary oyster shooter.

Monkfish. I really like the texture of monkfish.

Can’t come to the NE without eating lobster rolls. Yum.

Now we head back to our hotel to chill for a while before heading out again later tonight. We are both still under the weather, so it’s been a tiring traveling day. We are both on antibiotics, and RL has fluid is both of her ears and can’t hear very well.

The business end of the main public library.

We do see these get ridden around town. Seems kind of dangerous to ride these around NYC with the hectic traffic.

Three tiny elevators serve our hotel. Fortunately, we are only one floor 5, so we can always elect to take the stairs.

A very short nap later, it’s time to head out again. We are going to see Book of Mormon tonight. RL is still having a lot of trouble hearing due to congestion in her ears. She’s worried that the musical will be wasted on her since she won’t be able to hear.

So many tourists in Time Square. So many foreign tourists from Europe here right now. I think there are more foreigners here than Americans.