New York City is like a giant storage unit that the world keeps stuffing awesome shit into. It’s filled to the top and all the way to the back with food, sports, architecture, shopping, art, and entertainment. Anytime you slide up the storage unit door, a pile of awesome spills out on your feet and you’re like “do we have too much awesome in here? Nah, I think there’s still some room in the back.” We were lucky enough to make our 3rd trip to this amazing city recently and agree that it was our best New York City experience…so far.
First of all, I’d like to thank Matthew McConaughy and Kate Hudson for making this trip possible. Seriously. If it weren’t for the 2003 rom-com “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”, we never would have taken this trip. Thanks to the scene below, going to a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden had landed itself on Lacey’s bucket list. We take bucket list declarations very seriously in our household, so I knew we needed to make this happen asap. We scored amazing seats (11th row) as the Knicks caught a beatin’ from the 1st place Celtics. Lacey was dressed up in her custom Knicks jersey and seemed to be constantly in awe of her surroundings. In addition to the game, there were a ton of celebrities on hand that were often hanging out directly next to where we were sitting. The Knicks even honored the team from 1999 during the game which included every player Kate Hudson and Matty Mc-C cheered for during the movie. What are the odds?!! To top it off, Lacey caught a Knicks shirt from the t-shirt gun people. It couldn’t have gone any better. Bucket list item checked off in style.
We only had 1 other pre-planned event for this trip; a live taping of Late Night with Seth Meyers. This ended up being way more fun than I think either of us thought it would be. While being led to the Late Night Studio within the Rockefeller Center, we walked by the main Saturday Night Live stage which was really cool to see in person. As our tickets were free and didn’t have assigned seats, we were thrilled when the NBC ushers placed us in the 3rd row from the studio floor. The guests that night were Chelsea Handler and Jake Johnson (Nick from New Girl). We like those two a bunch so it made for an even more exciting experience. They didn’t allow anyone to take pics in the studio so I grabbed a couple of screenshots from the episode to show where we sat. Shown at the bottom.
The rest of the trip was accidentally action packed, but in a great way. We ate tons of delicious food at places like PJ Clarke’s, Toscana 49, dessert at Serendipity, and Juliana’s Pizza in Brooklyn. We visited Central Park for some morning hot chocolate, we stopped by the “Fearless Girl” statue near Wall St., and quickly passed through Time Square on our way to catch a metro. Lacey visited “blo“, a blow dry bar near our hotel in midtown. Her hair is always awesome but I think she appreciated having someone else wash, dry, and style it for the day.
Last but not least, we visited the jewelry boutique where I purchased Lacey’s engagement ring 3 years ago. Neither of us had ever been there before since I ordered her ring online. The boutique was hidden in a nondescript office building in midtown on the 9th floor. You had to pass through 2 security doors before waiting to be buzzed in through the main door. It felt good knowing that it wasn’t an easily accessible, run-of-the-mill jewelry shop with “80% OFF SALE” signs everywhere. The shop was filled with beautiful antique jewelry and had an amazing view of Manhattan. We had Lacey’s ring cleaned and maintenanced while we were there. I don’t think she has stopped looking at her ring since.
One thing that stood out to Lacey and I the most during this trip was finally being able to experience New York City the way we always wanted to. Since our flights were free (thanks to the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass) we felt comfortable dropping a few extra bucks on tickets, dinner, wine, coffees, and desserts. The more we thought about and appreciated that simple fact, the more we realized that it really did change our entire experience. If we had to swap out our intimate dining experiences for fast food or if we had balcony seats at the game instead of our floor seats, it would have been a completely different experience for us. Still fun, but just very different. We couldn’t be more thankful for the credit card award options that let us get to places like this for free!
This was our best New York City experience…so far. We’re hoping to catch a live taping of Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live on our next visit!
Let us know if you have any questions!
2nd time visiting the Brooklyn Bridge
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