Le blog de Meaghan: New York City: Day 1

*warning, this is a wee bit long :)*

On Saturday, April 20th Mason and I left Max with his parents and got on a red eye flight with Jack to JFK.

The flight was a dream(other then not being able to sleep well myself) Jack fell asleep right before take-off and stayed asleep the entire flight! Mason fell asleep shortly after Jack and was able to sleep pretty soundly. We packed light so we only had one big carry-on bag, two backpacks, my purse, and a small umbrella stroller. once we arrived in New York at 6:50am(4:50am Utah time) Jack was pretty cranky on such little sleep but we got him settled and nice and cozy in the stroller. He quickly fell asleep which was so nice so Mason and I had our hands free on the Subway.

We caught the air train then headed towards the subway. When we got down to the subway we went to purchase our Metro cards but of course true to New York one machine was out of order and the other two were only taking coins. We got cash from a ATM and got a one way fare and the true New Yorker metro lady let us through the emergency exit in her "nice" blunt New Yorker way. After going down an elevator smelling of urine to get to the platform I turned to Mason and said "welcome back to New York City". But even with all that craziness we were so happy to be back in our city we fell in love with almost 5 years ago. We surprisingly fell back easily into the groove of the subway and navigating the city, it felt so good.

We took the subway to our old stop in Long Island city and got off to reminisce. Vernon Jackson Blvd. on the 7 train, in case you were curious :). When we stepped out of the subway we were greeted by a sunny day, but silly me forgot to pack jackets and so we were pretty freezing despite the sunshine. We walked along past that red church I used to love and into the corner deli for a two eggs and cheese on a roll. We took our brown bag with breakfast in it and walked to our old apartment, City Lights. We sat in the lobby to warm up and eat our sandwiches. Oh how I missed those generic breakfast sandwiches, only in New York.

We dove back into the Subway and got our 7 day metro card, then took the 7 to Grand Central. When we got to our hotel on 37th street between 5th and 6th ave we dropped off our bags but since we couldn't check in until 3pm I freshened up a bit and we decided to get some jackets to keep us warm(luckily I did think to bring a coat for Jack, so he was nice and warm). Then we headed down to 18th street for lunch at one of our old favorites, Telegraph Cafe. When we lived in New York I would get their vanilla chai all the time, so when we got there I got the iced vanilla chai and it was just how I remembered. We got lunch there and Jack enjoyed sitting on the counter looking out the window. We walked into Mason's old work, The Container Store. Lots of memories there walking around waiting for him to get off work, or for him helping Parker Posey find a toolbox. We then walked across to Union Square where they were having a street fair and concert for Earth Day, that is one of many things I miss about New York, there is always something going on. Jack made friends with a kind chocolate lab and sat on my shoulders as we walked through the park. We then made our way down to my old work Strand. It felt so weird yet so natural walking back in, nobody that I worked with was still working on registers, but it made me miss it as I heard one of the cashiers call "Next!" Oh the many times I yelled that to the line of people waiting to buy their books. We went up to the second floor to show Jack the children's books, he was pretty impressed.

By this time Mason and I were hitting a wall with our tiredness and decided to head back to our hotel for some rest. We all took a nice nap, and felt good to head out for dinner.

We decided on another old favorite of ours up on 71st and Broadway, Tasty Cafe. It looks like just a regular old cafe on the outside but oh they have the best pasta they make in front of you, you pick the fixings. After we enjoyed our hearty dinner we walked towards Central Park West. This part of the city is one of my favorites, brownstones on the upper west side and apartment buildings are the best tin my opinion, and Central Park West? how can you not just fall in love with that street, with the huge trees and stone wall. Anyway back to our trip...

We walked into the park past Strawberry fields and then to the pond. It was such a nice walk and Jack thought it was cool he could finally run free for a bit. We ended our first day walking back through the park at sunset.

now enjoy some pictures from our first day: