A Quick Trip to New York City

This past weekend I took my fiancé to New York City for her birthday weekend - a place to stay, a nice dinner out in the city and some fun-filled stops in between. She had always wanted to experience the SoHo neighborhood in Manhattan so I grabbed us a room in the Sheraton Tribeca New York hotel, right in SoHo, and made a reservation for dinner at Raoul's (a French restaurant that looked delicious and got great reviews on Tripadvisor).

We took off for NYC shortly after 4:00pm on Friday, January 12. Leaving from Connecticut I thought it would be easiest to drive to New Haven, leave the car, and grab Metro North into the city. We got to Union Station in New Haven around 5:30 and ran to catch the next train leaving at 5:45 - perfect timing! Before we knew it we were sitting down and en route to Grand Central Station.

The train took a little over two hours and we got to Grand Central Station around 8:00. We ran to the top of the split staircase for a touristy photo, I mean why not?

We decided to hit the subway to get to our hotel. We squeezed into the first train on the green train and luckily got off that one for a completely empty yellow train aside from one guy who was fast asleep and lying down. We got to our hotel around 8:45-9:00, quickly dropped our stuff off in the room and hit the city for dinner. My fiancé had found a Korean BBQ for us to go for dinner so we grabbed a Lyft. Once we were dropped off in the pouring rain we rain over to the restaurant only to find there was a 45 minute wait. We were starving, so we left and quickly found Ramen Misoya. This change of plans was a great change, the ramen hit the spot and was delicious.

This is actually a photo of my fiancé’s ramen, we switched before we began eating. Mine had two pieces of friend tofu, bamboo shoots, pulled pork, an egg, pork, and ramen without the corn like my fiance’s ramen had. Both were absolutely delicious. The best part about being a party of two is getting to try twice the amount of food!

After dinner we went back to the hotel and hit the bed for the night - a long day of eating was ahead of us tomorrow! The photo above is the view from our hotel room looking southeast down Canal Street at approximately 12:30am on January 13.

The next morning we went back to the subway to head towards Chelsea Market, where we decided to spend our late morning. We ended up going to the Canal Street subway stop and waited about 20 minutes, only to find that a train would never come after the first passed. Turns out there were mechanical problems - we opted to leave and grab a Lyft and this was the last time we went into the subway during this trip. I love taking the subway, but it is rather hard with the amount of issues the NYC subway system has on a daily basis nowadays and with Lyft being around the same price, why not? (This is not an endorsement, but I prefer Lyft over Uber after speaking with a Lyft driver who explained how he worked for both Uber and Lyft, but was treated much better by Lyft and received more of the money he actually earned)

We got to Chelsea Market and walked around for a while, checking out various shops and trying food here and there. We got a "Berry Boozy Shake" at Creamline which was absolutely delicious. We tried to save the cup but that was a loss in the end. While at Chelsea Market I grabbed a Higher Burnin' IPA by LIc Beer Project. I had not heard of the beer as it is brewed in Long Island City. It was alright but nothing spectacular. It was a tasty IPA with Belma, El Dorado, and Mosaic hops. The cool thing about Belma hops is they are grown by Puterbaugh Farms in Mabton, WA and this is the only farm where these hops are grown.

As soon as we entered Chelsea Market my fiancé noticed there was a place called the Lobster Place. I knew of this spot but chose not to say anything, letting her see it for herself instead when we got there. We had to try something so we got a variety of oysters, not knowing there is currently an issue with some oysters killing people (apparently there were two cases in Louisiana recently). We had three different kinds of oysters: Wellfleet oysters from Wellfleet, MA (they were more salty in taste and by far the best of this sampling), Widow's Hole oysters from Peconic Bay, NY (they were also salty in taste), Kumamoto oysters from Humboldt Bay, CA (they were more sweet in taste) and two snow crab claws from Canada (I wish I knew where).

After our delicious seafood stop we walked towards the Artists & Fleas area of Chelsea Market. While there I got some new beard balm from Real Bearded Men. They had a little stall and when they heard I have been using Honest Amish, they couldn’t help themselves but to sell me their product. In all honesty, their product was superior to what I have been using after only one quick application and as I write this days later, I can honestly say I will be sticking with this and buying more when I need it - from them. I am all about supporting the little guy so I happily bought some Hemp beard balm which smelled incredible (not like marijuana). The other cool part was they knew a guy who frequents a brewery in Connecticut I used to work at, it’s a small world in the beard world!

After Chelsea Market we walked a short portion of the High Line in the freezing 33 degree NYC temperatures. We only lasted about 15 minutes until it was time to grab a Lyft back to our hotel to thaw. As you can see in the photo the High Line has train tracks on it. The High Line is a really cool spot - back in 1934 it was opened to trains as a part of the West Side Improvement Project and was designed to go through the center of blocks, as opposed to over the avenue, carrying goods to and from Manahattan's largest industrial district. The last train ran on the High Line in 1980, pulling three carloads of frozen turkeys and a group of property owners subsequently lobbied for the demolition of the Highline while Peter Obletz, a Chelsea resident, challenged the demolition efforts in court. Peter Obletz won, the High Line stayed, and in 1999 Friends of the High Line was founded by Joshua David and Robert Hammond to advocate for the High Line's preservation and reuse as public open space. In 2002-2003 the planning framework for the preservation and reuse began and in 2005-2006 the city accepted the ownership of the High Line, which was donated by CSX Transportation, and in April 2006 Groundbreaking was celebrated. The High Line was completed in stages from 2009 - 2014. Today, the High Line is a 1.45 mile long greenway rail trail for pedestrian use and is visited by an estimated 5 million people every year.
(Historical information found at Friends of the High Line: https://www.thehighline.org/about)

After the High Line when we got a Lyft, Lyft sent me the text above which was cool to see as someone who wears hearing aids. I have been very impressed with Lyft, having opted to use it while in NYC with a $5.00 discount on my first 20 rides... who would pass that up? I was given the option to opt to round up each ride total to the nearest dollar and donate it to the charity of my choice - I chose the ACLU. As far as the driver goes, he was not hard of hearing and called me, but it was a cool feature regardless.

This is the view from our hotel, again looking southeast down Canal Street. It is the same shot I previously took but is now during dusk, easier to see the view.

We ate dinner at Raoul’s, a phenomenal French restaurant on Prince Street between Sullivan Street and Thompson Street. We got a nice bottle of pinot noir, but it is escaping me what it was because, I mean, we had the wine in the lounge at the hotel and now this entire bottle in addition to carrying my flask. You try to remember the name of the wine you drank under those excruciating circumstances. While at the table I brought up to my fiancé the fact that I can, ever since becoming an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fan, never order another bottle of pinot noir without wanting to burst out singing the song: Peeno Noir by Titus Andromedon.
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I had the best organic chicken roast I have ever had. The sauce was absolutely phenomenal and if I had the room I would have ordered a second. My fiancé ordered a steak with duck fat fries - she admitted she ordered it primarily because it had duck fat fries. They were delicious, and so was the steak. My chicken, although, was a significantly better dish.

After dinner we caught a Lyft to Cupcake Market, roughly a 10 minute ride away. The cupcakes were delicious. I got a banana bread flavored cupcake with peanut butter frosting and my fiancé got a vanilla with cookies & cream frosting. The banana and peanut butter was better, yes I am bias. I was only able to snap a photo of the vanilla with cookies & cream cupcake just before the last bites were consumed as my cupcake was inhaled faster than my iPhone’s camera shutter speed.

The next morning we grabbed breakfast, ordered a Lyft to Grand Central and hit the road home after grabbing some Shake Shack in Grand Central Station. The train home was another two hours. We both agreed that next time, despite my enjoyment in taking trains and public transportation, we will drive into the city if we are staying at a hotel or will find cheap parking somewhere as it is not that much more than what I paid for the train round trip and the convenience is worth it.

Overall, we had a phenomenal time in New York City and we can not wait to go back. We had hoped to stop the Gnoccheria by Luzzo's on Sunday before leaving but wanted to get home before it was dark - I guess we will have to go next time!!

Until next time New York, until next time.