New York City

I can’t believe I got to go back to my favorite city for the first time as a tourist since I moved away in 2021! I was a little nervous going back because I didn’t know what feelings would flood back when I got there. When I lived there it was honestly the best of times and the worst of times of my life so far. That being said, I was excited for all the Broadway shows we were going to see. I also knew that having my mom by my side would help keep me grounded and not thinking off all the bad times in the city.

I wanted to start off this blog post series with a mix of the few things we did Sunday night after landing at LaGuardia and during our first full day in the city. Now, since I lived in the city for 3 years and had visited numerous times before I lived there, I didn’t do most of the typical “tourist” stops that most people do when in New York this time (I had done most of those things in the past, so if you have any questions about that, please feel free to ask). There are a few “tourist-y” things that we always do when we come visit – like The Met Museum and, of course, Broadway shows.

Unfortunately, we did stay on Manhattan Island for the majority of the trip, which is normal since most things we wanted to do are on the island. I would have loved to have spent more time in Brooklyn, since that’s where I lived the last two years I was in NYC, or go into Queens for a little bit.

Where did we stay? I feel like this is a great place to start this trip series on because this was home base for us every night and it was also (obviously) our first stop on our trip after landing. We stayed at the Wyndham Garden in Chinatown. The room was obviously small – because it is New York City – but it was the perfect spot for us to crash at after our packed days. The bathrooms were also very spacious, which surprised me. My only complaint was that the shower only had a half glass wall/door and so we accidentally flooded the bathroom a few times trying to figure out where to angle the shower head.

Sunday Night:

After checking in and getting semi-settled in to the room, we decided to check out the dining in the hotel. There was a Beer Garden attached to our hotel that was pretty popular every night we stayed there. They looked like they were full every night when we were walking back to the hotel from our shows, but they were especially busy the night we arrived. They also had a ramen bar and a rooftop bar. We decided to stop at the rooftop bar, which had a fantastic view of the Empire State Building. While we were nursing a beer each, I made reservations at NoMo Kitchen for us to have dinner to celebrate Mother’s Day.

NoMo Kitchen was such an excellent choice. It was within walking distance to the hotel, and they were celebrating Mother’s Day by giving every mom that dined in a rose and glass of champagne. It made my mom feel so special. The interior of this restaurant is so chic and cool. We couldn’t stop looking around and finding cool decor the entire time we were there. I got the Rigatoni and ended up eating almost the entire plate because it was so good!

After dinner, we made the walk back to the hotel and decided to stay in the room to unpack and relax after a full day of traveling. We also wanted to make sure we were rested up for our first full day in the city.

Monday:

This day was kinda our DFW (down for whatever) day. We didn’t have anything planned besides tickets to see a workshop of a musical late that night and a loose idea of what we wanted to do. For the most part, we tried to stay in the same area of Manhattan as possible, but we also knew we wouldn’t have any problems traveling around the island on the subway.

We originally planned to start our day at the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum, but didn’t realize when making our plans that they are actually closed on Mondays. We decided to make the walk over to Little Island. Little Island is a public park that was opened over near Pier 57 in May 2021. It’s a little river park with a great 360 view of the Hudson River, New Jersey and NYC. It was a lot of fun to explore the entirety of the park, which only took about 30 minutes, maybe about an hour because we were talking our time exploring. There are also a lot of fun musical activities and instruments set up for self-expression, such as pedal like squares in the ground that released a musical note when stepping on it.

Little Island also had tons of seating spots for people to relax and hang out there or to take their lunch breaks at, including a stage seating area that entertains live music on specific days. There were also some food trucks set up at the entrance, including Mr. Softee Ice Cream and a children’s playground for kids to enjoy.

After our time at Little Island, we decided to go over to the Titanic Immersive Experience Museum. On the walk over, we admired all the cool outdoor seating arrangements that restaurants had made since the pandemic. We found out that the museum is also closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. For some reason, I did not connect the dots when it came to seeing operating hours for the places we wanted to go to. After realizing that loss, we decided to take the train up a few stops to Bryant Park and have lunch there. Bryant Park is one of our favorite parks in the city. We stopped into Whole Foods to grab some lunches to go. I grabbed a box of California Sushi Rolls and a drink.

After lunch we decided to head over to the Museum of Broadway. This was the museum I was most excited about because it goes through the entire history of Broadway and has props and costumes from throughout the years. In theme with the day, I accidentally walked us all the way over to 9th Ave and 42nd street from Bryant Park thinking the museum was there. It definitely wasn’t there. What was there was the lounge we were going to that night for the workshop concert. After our little detour, we made our way back to where the museum actually was, which is 45th between 6th and 7th ave.

On the walk back, we walked past the Music Box Theatre, which just had a show close the night before. They were actually starting the load out process that day, so we got to see everyone hard at work and the process of moving a Broadway show out of the theater once the show has closed. We also had to make the trek across what I consider to be the busiest part of Times Square. I definitely wasn’t a fan of it, but it was honestly punishment to myself.

Once we made it to the Museum of Broadway, we were immediately excited. There are already a few photo opportunities in the “lobby” area with a photo booth area with a fun gold mirror background and an extra large tony award. You can also hang out there without a ticket and buy some merchandise from every show that is currently on Broadway, along with some museum specific or just broadway specific merchandise. I ended up with a Museum of Broadway shirt that was actually a map of where all the Broadway Theaters are located in NYC. My ticket to get into the Museum was $39.

We had so much fun walking through the museum. I could probably write an entire blog post on the museum itself, but I will probably just stick to created a reel/TikTok highlighting the exhibits that we saw. It is a self guided tour that starts with a short video about the beginnings of Broadway and a room that lists which shows are currently occupying theatres on Broadway. It then moves on to what Broadway started as, which was mainly the Ziegfeld dancers. From there it moves through all the different ages and decades of Broadway and highlights of the popular shows through the years. There are exhibits of shows like A Chorus Line, Cabaret, Hair, Rent, Phantom of the Opera, and The Wiz showcasing their props and costumes.

The second half of the museum focused on the process of creating and running a Broadway production. There was a lot of focus on the writing process to create a show, but there were also exhibits about stage management, lighting, set design, props, and more. Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves at the museum and would highly recommend it for anyone who loves Broadway.

We decided to keep our musical theme going by walking over to the Drama Book Store after the museum. This is our favorite local bookstore in NYC, not only because is it co-owned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, but also because they have tons of theatrical resources for all ages. My mom loves to pick up learning materials for the kids at the after school program she works at. The Drama Book Store is located on 39th Street between 7th and 8th Ave. Since the last time we were in NYC, they moved to a bigger location, and this was our first time visiting the new store. It’s super organized and easy to get around to find what you’re looking for. The store also had a few seating options for people to come in and work or read.

From there we went to Magic Hour Rooftop bar to partake in a Happy Hour drink. I’ve been hearing about this place for years and was excited to finally jump on the chance to visit. I have to say, I was a little let down from all the hype because there isn’t a lot seating on the rooftop. We managed to find two spots in the bar for us to sit, but only because a kind stranger moved so that we could sit together. While we were enjoying our drinks, we started talking about our first trip to NYC and how much our trips have changed since then. That trip down memory lane is how we ended up eating dinner on our first full day in NYC at the same restaurant in Times Square where we ate during our first trip in 2008 – Bubba Gump Shrimp, Co.

I’m not going to lie, the food at Bubba Gump was actually pretty decent. I had not been to a Bubba Gump restaurant since that one time we ate there in NYC, but my expectations were low. The vegetables were really refreshing and the meal was great.

We kept with the chaotic energy of our impromptu Bubba Gump dinner and decided do something crazy with the two hours to kill before the concert we were going to. I mentioned that Six the Musical happened to actually perform on Monday nights and the show is only an hour and a half long. We ran over to the theater at 6:30 to see if they had any tickets left for their 7 PM show. The show wasn’t sold out in order for us to purchase standing room tickets, but we snagged box seats for $79. I love Six so much and love that even though I’ve seen it 3 times, it’s been a different cast each time, which creates a different experience. I didn’t write a full review on this show, but the stand outs for me with this cast were Hailee Kaleem Wright as Catherine of Aragon and Taylor Iman Jones as Catherine Parr. If you want to read my reviews of the show itself you can find one of the Original Cast here and the Boleyn Tour here.

From there we made our way over to Green Room 42 at Yotel to attend a workshop concert of Beethoven: The Musical. This was basically a chance for the cast and creative to preview what they had created so far to potential investors and friends and family, but it is also open to the public. We had a blast and are hopeful that the musical has a long life ahead of it. The music was rock based and the cast was incredible. I was actually able to learn a lot about Beethoven’s life from this musical (while also having lots of fun!).

We ended our night a little late because the concert was at 9:30, so we went straight back to the hotel to get as much rest as possible for our next day in the city. Be sure to check back to keep following along on our trip!