Not a month later from my first weekend trip to New York City, I decided it was time to go back. The city had too much to see and too much to do, and it simply cannot be done in one weekend.
However this time I would not be traveling alone, but would be joined by my college roommate. Although she had traveled to NYC many times with her family, she had not seen most of the big tourist sites, so we made it our mission to cross a lot of spots off her New York City Bucket List, while also still crossing a lot off my own list as well.
Day 1 - The Oculus, 9/11 Museum & Memorial, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Top of the Rock at Sunset, Ellen's Stardust Diner
The first item we wanted to cross off Leia's New York City Bucket List was to visit the 9/11 Museum and Memorial. Although I had seen the new One World Trade Center building a few years back when visiting my family, the museum was still under construction. Thus we both would be seeing something new, which is always exciting.
After our train arrived in Pennsylvania Station that morning, we grabbed breakfast at Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company, which was ironically in Manhattan. Leia got a breakfast sandwich while I treated myself to a rainbow bagel with blueberry cream cheese. When in New York, right?
We then hopped on the closest subway station and headed downtown. If you have not taken the subway to the World Trade Center recently you might feel as though you were dropped off at heaven's gates instead. No seriously.
The Oculus is the brand new transportation hub under the World Trade Center and is a piece of art within itself. A pure white structure with pristine spires create a sort of underground pyramid, while a lengthy skylight illuminates the people below. The spires propel from the underground hub into the sky above creating a spectacle from both within the structure and on the outside looking in. The artist, Santiago Calatrava, began constructing the structure one year after the 9/11 attacks. He explained in an interview that he wanted to make it like a modern day Grand Central Terminal, a place both practical and awe-inspiring. The Oculus also serves as a shopping mall and has access to the World Trade Center Observatory.
Leia and I emerged from the Oculus right into the heart of the 9/11 Memorial, with visitors flooding the reflecting pools to pay their respects to the victims of the terrorist attacks of 2001. Each pool is built where the original towers once stood, and are each about one acre in size and 30 feet deep.
After paying our respects, we headed to the museum entrance. We decided to order our tickets online in advance, and if you are planning a visit to the museum this is a MUST. The line to order same-day tickets for the museum can be massive depending on the time you decide to visit. By ordering online you automatically skip this line and head right into the museum. Backpacks are allowed inside the museum, but be prepared to go through airport style security once you first arrive.
The museum is located underground, where you can see the original slurry wall of one of the towers. The museum is much larger than it appears so be prepared to spend at least two or three hours inside. Group and individual audio tours are available but Leia and I decided to see the museum for ourselves.
As you enter the museum you are engulfed in a dark room full of quotes and images from the tragic day. The short walk that leads you through this experience is only a warm-up for what is to come in the rest of the museum. At the end of this ramp are the remnants of the Survivors' Stairs, a set of stairs recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center North Tower. Survivor Kayla Bergeron called these stairs "the path to freedom."
At the bottom of the stairs is a beautiful tribute to the 9/11 tragedy, a massive blue wall with the quote from Virgil: "No day shall erase you from the memory of time." The wall is made up of almost 3,000 squares, one for each victim, and are all a unique shade of blue. The art installation, created by Spencer Finch, is titled "Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky That September Morning," and is the focal point between the two main exhibitions of the lower part of the museum.
I suggest taking a right from this wall and exploring the South Tower museum first. Each section of the museum features outer exhibits, as well as an interactive inner exhibit. These inner exhibits are both extremely powerful and moving, so bring tissues.
The South Tower section of the museum features exhibits including a history of the building, a salute to the first responders, as well as the dogs of 9/11. There are various artifacts gathered from the rubble along with the tributes created in the aftermath of the attacks. the inner exhibit features a dedication to all the victims of the 9/11 attacks. The walls are plastered with the pictures of each person killed on that September day. You can look up the biography of a victim by their name or hometown on computers in the room as well. These short biographies can then be projected on the walls in a dark room within the exhibit. The room is pitch black with the only light coming from an illuminated glass floor so it seems you are in the rubble of the South Tower. It is an extremely moving experience.
As you head to the North Tower Exhibit you pass by more remnants pulled from the rubble of the towers, including a fire truck, elevator engine, and broadcast tower from the top of the building. You emerge into an open room with more exhibits including the slurry wall, the last column, and the information about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
The inner exhibit of the North side is easily the most powerful exhibit in the entire museum. No photographs are allowed inside, and they are very strict about this policy so don't even try.
The exhibit features thousands of artifacts collected from the tragic day. Scraps of paper, seatbelt from the airplanes, personal belongings of victims and survivors alike, newspaper articles from around the world, video clips from passersby, fragments of the building, patches and helmets from first responders, the original cross placed at Ground Zero, and much, much more. We spent more time in this one exhibit than we did in the rest of the museum, and prepare yourself to be overwhelmed with emotion. This exhibit is both heartbreaking and beautiful, with mini-exhbitis discussing topics from how the world reacted, the history of Al-Qaeda, and how victims were identified. Don't worry if you have run out of tissues at this point, there are Kleenex stations throughout this exhibit.
Overall this was one of the highlights of our trip. The museum was excruciatingly detailed and littered with thousands of items from that day that you won't be able to see anywhere else. It was empowering to learn even more about the events of that day and its impact on the rest of our world's history.
After a heavy morning, the rest of our day was very fun and lighthearted. We headed up to our hotel to drop our luggage, and change for our next big event: Late Night with Seth Meyers! We had secured our tickets a month in advance (to learn how to get tickets click here) and headed to 30 Rockefeller Center to get in line for the show!
The entire experience took about three hours: the check-in line opened at 4:45 PM and we were released at 7:45 PM. Again, there is no photography allowed when you are on the set, but we were able to take pictures in the lobby and the waiting room.
There were a few group activities and warm-up exercises to get us excited to see the show. When you are an audience member for a show like this you are expected to be an active participant so be prepared to clap and cheer on cue. The guests on the show tend to react to the audience, so the more interactive the you are throughout the show the more fun it will be!
Once everyone is seated inside the set, a comedian performs a short set to get the audience loose and laughing. Seth comes out to before the taping to give a quick introduction and then it is showtime! Our guests for the evening were MSNBC host Rachel Maddow as well as former SNL cast member and current Late Night band member, Fred Armisen. Each segment is taped in the order it appears on the show with short breaks between each segment. In the final break, Seth comes into the audience for a question and answer session, which was really fun and informative. Everyone at the taping, including Seth, was so nice and down to earth, thus the experience was wonderful from start to finish.
You get out of the show at 7:45 on the dot, so if you have eight o'clock plans don't worry about missing them! As for Leia and I, we had booked a ticket to the Top of the Rock, and luckily for us, the sun had just begun to set. If you are hoping to go to the Top of the Rock at sunset my advice is to book your ticket about 15-20 minutes beforehand. The three observatory decks are packed with people trying to snap the perfect picture of the sky changing colors over the city. If you are there earlier you can scope out the perfect spot, and maybe even grab a seat!
Once sunset is in full swing, the observation decks get so crowded you can barely move, let alone get close to the front. The people with selfie sticks had the best idea as they just stuck them up into the air to snap their photos.
We stayed up on the decks for about 90 minutes, watching the sky turn from pastels to complete darkness, the lights of the buildings illuminating the city. There really is no better view of the city than from one of these observation decks, especially at night. Once you are at the Top of the Rock, you can stay at the top for as long as you like, or at least until the last elevator goes down at midnight.
For some reason the winds at the Top of the Rock are not as strong as the ones at the top of the Empire State Building, and on a hot day they are more refreshing than anything. Another key thing to note is that during sunset, almost everyone is trying to get the perfect picture of the Empire State Building, leaving the Central Park side of the Top of the Rock almost completely empty. Leia and I were shocked to get some pictures with almost no other tourists in the picture.
Once we had gotten our skyline fill, we realized the next step on our agenda was to fill our stomachs! We took the short walk over to Ellen's Stardust Diner to grab bite to eat. We had seen a few of our friends post about this restaurant and were very intrigued to check it out. The diner is known for it's singing waitstaff, and I heard they were incredible.
Located in Times Square, the diner not only features some of the best diner food in New York City but it is also home to the future stars of Broadway. All the waiters and waitresses are aspiring actors and singers, and they perform for their guests constantly. One after the other, they fill the two-story diner with their own renditions of pop songs and Broadway ballads. The emcee of the night explained that every year they had to hire dozens of new staff members because their current staff gets booked!
They even passed around a bucket for tips for the performers, but this tip bucket was like no other. The money placed in this bucket wouldn't go towards rent or utilities, but instead would help pay for dance and acting classes for the waitstaff. If you are a Broadway fan then this unique New York City diner is a must!
We spent almost two hours in the diner enjoying our food and the performances of the staff before we returned to our hotel. We watched the beginning of Late Night with Seth Meyers to see if we could see ourselves in the audience but sadly we didn't make the cut.
Day 2 - DUMBO, Brooklyn Bridge, New York Public Library, Broadway, The Vessel, Shake Shack, Magnolia Bakery
In the morning we hopped on the subway and headed across, or technically under, the East River and into Brooklyn. I took Leia to the famous spot on Washington and Front Street where the Manhattan Bridge is perfectly framed between two brownstone buildings. And similarly to my last trip, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and back into Manhattan. You really cannot beat the view of the city from the Bridge, and don't forget to look for the Statue of Liberty as well!
Another spot on our New York City Bucket List was the New York Public Library. Although it does not seem like the ideal tourist attraction, the architecture of the building is absolutely stunning. From the paintings on the ceilings that resemble the clouds at sunset, to the rows of research tables that spread across the Rose Reading Room on the third floor. The library also has various rotating exhibits, so make sure to check and see what is on display during your visit!
If you are just looking to stop in for a quick visit, head right on up to the third floor. The lobby will blow you away with it's gorgeous paintings, while the Rose Reading Room will make you feel as though you have been transported to Hogwarts. The reading room is at the length of a football field, however only half of the room is open to the public. Although visitors are limited to a small section of the room, I still feel bad for the people who are trying to get their research done without being distracted by the tourists snapping pictures.
We walked back to Times Square, grabbing food at a local sandwich shop by the theater for the Broadway matinee we would be seeing: Aladdin. Aladdin had always been my favorite Disney prince, if you can even call him that, and I had recently seen the live-action film adaptation with Will Smith. However, don't expect the musical to be like either of the films.
The musical has new characters and new songs, but the Genie still steals the show. Don't worry there is still a magic carpet that soars through the air in "A Whole New World," and yes it is completely breathtaking to see how they pull this off live. The entire audience gasped as soon as the carpet took off into a starry night on stage.
One thing I will mention, is that if you are visiting the theater for the first time, please, please, PLEASE, respect the no photos policy. The actors are real people trying to put on their best performance for their audience and they cannot do that if people are taking flash photos! I had never seen more people taking photos of a Broadway performance, and since the magic carpet scene took place on an almost pitch black stage, the flashes were extremely distracting.
Despite this fact, the show was absolutely incredible and we had great seats in the orchestra. If you are going to splurge on Broadway tickets I highly suggest spending the extra money to get orchestra seats. Even if you are in the last few rows, the performance is always heightened when you are on the same level as the actors.
After the show ended, we headed to the last stop on our weekend adventure: a new attraction in Hudson Yards called The Vessel. I really don't know how else to describe this attraction other than by stating it looks like a giant honeycomb! The attraction is free to visit, but I recommend getting tickets in advance because only so many people are allowed in the building at once.
The metallic structure has 16 walk-up levels, all with a unique view of the city and the harbor. There is also an elevator that will take you directly to the top for those who may not be able to climb all the flights. The construction of the Vessel makes it a spectacle to be seen, not just from the outside looking in, but also from the inside of the Vessel looking down. It really is quite extraordinary and unlike any other attraction in New York City right now.
Since we walked from Times Square to the Vessel and back, we decided to treat ourselves to a Shake Shack milkshake on our walk back to the hotel. I had never been to a Shake Shack and expected the milkshakes to not live up to the hype, but boy was I wrong. My cookies and cream shake was the most delicious treat I had on my entire trip, and it was perfect on a hot day in the city.
We gathered up our belongings from the hotel and headed back to Penn Station to catch our train home. While we waited for our track number to be posted, we grabbed a few New York pizza slices to eat on the train, as well as a half-dozen cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery.
As I snacked on all my New York goodies on the train ride home, I knew another successful trip was in the books. There is still more to see in New York City but I have a lifetime to see it.
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