Wednesday, December 16, 2015

My weekend trip to New York

This past weekend, I went to New York to visit my grandma. She lives in Queens, but my dad and I did make it into Manhattan to take in more of the city. For as many times as we have both been in New York City, we have NEVER seen the holiday mayhem like this before! The streets were packed, and there were some times that you weren't even walking: we just let the crowd push us! Here are some highlights from the (very quick) trip:

1. Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree: Not to be missed! I see it every morning on the Today Show, but I got to see it in person!
It's so big! Photo by E. Mitchell Arion.
2. Ice Skating in Bryant Park: We first went to Bryant Park on Saturday night. The place was INSANE! The rink was packed, the lines were incredibly long, AND there are all these little pop-up shops in the park, so there were tons of people there who weren't planning to skate! My dad and I blew it off and decided to go on Sunday morning. WHAT a better choice! The rink opens at 8 AM, and when we got there around 7:45, there were only a few other people around. We brought our own skates and lock (for the locker), so it was absolutely free! (Keep in mind that everyone has to pay $18 to skate in Central Park, whether you need to rent skates or not.). We did have to wait until about 8:15 for these little kids to finish up their hockey lesson, but then we skated for almost an hour, which was lovely! There weren't too many people, and everyone was pretty well-behaved, so it was a lot of fun. I definitely recommend it!

The "Winter Village" is sponsored by Bank of America. I guess there's a sponsor for everything! Image found here.
Each house is a "holiday shop" full of souvenirs! They sold everything from food (chocolate, mac 'n' cheese) to jewelry to ornaments to scarves and hats...Great for gifts! Image found here.

3. Saks Fifth Avenue Light Show: We had never seen this before, and we just happened upon it! I think the show happens about every 10 minutes, and because of the crazy crowds, you were probably going to be standing on the sidewalk for 10 minutes anyway because you couldn't move! The light show was really incredible. Check out this video:


4. The NHL Store: Since my dad is a huge hockey fan, of course we had to stop by the NHL store! I think my favorite item were the hockey Legos: I didn't know such a thing existed!

If you want ice hockey merchandise (including $400 jerseys!), this is the place to go! Image found here.
How cute! Even the mascots are included! Screen shot from here.

We were only in New York for less than two days, so unfortunately we didn't get to see too much. But despite ALL the tourists, I still recommend seeing NYC in the Christmas spirit!

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