New York City Day 1: Wednesday, December 20th, 2023
At 10:00 a.m. we left home and headed for the Louisville International Airport. Me and my mom were leaving for New York City soon! It would be my first time in the city and I could not wait. We got Starbucks for breakfast and headed to our gate. As I saw the plane pull in, I got even more excited. A little bit later, we boarded the plane. We found our seats and I sat by the window. I had not been on a plane in a long time because of the pandemic. We took off around 11:45 a.m. It was a non-stop flight and took about an hour. I mostly read and looked out the window the whole time. I also got a tiny bag of sun chips! As we got closer to the city we could see the skyline from the plane which was insane. We landed at about 1:35 p.m. at LaGuardia Airport.
When we got off the plane, we walked through the airport and waited for our car to drive us into the city. A black Cadillac pulled up and my mom and I hopped inside. It was about an hour-long drive from the airport to our hotel on 48th Street. There was so much traffic but I knew we were getting close! It was very different than other cities I have been to. As we got closer to the city, we passed a Fred Astaire Dance Studio. which was super cool. There were a ton of stores, restaurants, and a lot of art and murals. After our drive, we exited the car and went into our hotel. We were on the 18th floor so we got a good view of the buildings from our window. We couldn’t even see the street! I changed my clothes because we are about to go out to eat and see a show. I wore black pants with a black and white patterned sweater and a fuzzy green coat. It was very cold so we dressed as warmly as we could.
We soon left the hotel and headed to Morton’s Steakhouse on 45th Street. The food was amazing!!! Me and my mom had a huge piece of bread (which we didn’t even finish lol) and crab cakes for our appetizer. For our meal, we had steak, fries, and Brussels sprouts. The steak melted in my mouth. It was the best I have ever eaten! I recommend Morton’s Steakhouse if you ever are in New York City! After dinner, we headed to Minskoff Theater. On our way there we got a small glimpse of Times Square. It was crazy. Anyway, we waited in line to go inside; it was very cold. The theater was so pretty. It had lots of gold and yellow lighting which matched perfectly since we were seeing The Lion King. Something I did not know was that every show has its very own theater. There are 41 Broadway Theaters in NYC which I did not know about. After we waited out in the cold, we eventually began to walk inside and find our seats. We sat very close to the front so we had a great view.
The show was phenomenal! My mom loved it so much that she cried twice. Everything about it was amazing! After we left, we went to a gift shop that had very cute stuff like keychains, shirts, ornaments, etc. I looked out the window into Times Square and it looked very bright outside like it was daytime but it was like 10:00 at night. When we left the theater, my mom took me down to Times Square and we watched some street dancers. We took some pictures in Times Square and we saw the New Year’s ball. We then went back to the hotel and went to bed.
New York City Day 2: Thursday, December 21st, 2023
The next morning, we woke up around 7:30 and headed out for the day. We walked past the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center. I also got to see Radio City Music Hall for the first time. We took some pictures and then headed to Tiny Dancer Cafe for breakfast. I got a cold brew and a chocolate croissant. After we ate, we headed to the subway because our 1st big stop of the day would be at the One World Trade Center. The subway ride took only about 15 minutes. Once we got there, we arrived in a unique-shaped building called the Oculus. We then walked around the city and went to the 9/11 memorial.
The 9/11 memorial was very cool but very sad to see. Where the towers were, there were big square-shaped holes with waterfalls on all sides. walls wrapped around the memorial and had the names of the people engraved on them. It had it organized with the people who were in the towers, the people in the planes, the first responders, etc. Something I didn’t know was that the first few floors of the One World Trade Center don’t have windows and it is built very similarly to the old towers.
There was a ton of art throughout the city. There were many sculptures, murals, painted flower beds, and many other things. At 10:00 we got to go inside the World Trade Center. We went up an elevator to the 102nd floor. We looked out of the windows in all directions. We got to see all the boroughs from up high. We could also see The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, and the other World Trade Centers. There was also a very cool gift shop where we got lots of gifts for my sisters.
After we explored the One World Trade Center, we went to Chinatown and Little Italy. We went to Chinatown first and we did some shopping and got a snack. We went to this little boba tea place called Yaya Tea and the food was so good. I got Pineapple Boba Lemonade and I had a Spring Roll rice ball. After we ate, we went to Little Italy and went to a cheesecake store. We got chocolate and regular cheesecake.
We then returned to the subway and headed back to 48th Street. We went to the Barnes & Noble bookstore and then went back to our hotel. It was about 3:00 p.m. when we got back to the hotel. Me and my mom decided to take a power nap before we finished our day. At about 5:00, we got up and got ready to head out to Nobu for dinner. On our way to the restaurant, we walked past St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Tiffany & Co. store. Eventually, we made it to the restaurant. We had many different kinds of fish and I had ice cream for dessert.
After dinner, we headed to Radio City to watch the Christmas Spectacular. I was so tired by this time of the day but the show was absolutely amazing! We went to a little gift shop after. I got a shirt, a little Rockette ornament as well as some other things. We then did some more walking around the city and visited some stores to look for Christmas presents. We walked past the Christmas Tree again at night then went back to the hotel and went to sleep.
New York City Day 3: Friday, December 22nd, 2023
The next morning, we went to a little cafe called Cafe Un Deux Trois on 44th Street. It was very pretty inside. The food was delicious. I had nutella crepes, bacon, and fruit. After we ate breakfast, we headed to our last stop of the trip, The Museum of Modern Art a.k.a MoMa. We spent about 2-3 hours there. We saw SO MUCH amazing art! My favorite part was that I got to see the real Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. It was very very cool to see. I also got to dial a poem on an old rotary phone which my mom had to show me how to use.
After a while, we went to another gist shop which I loved because there was so much artsy stuff like shirts, tote bags, magnets, bookmarks, journals, and a LOT more stuff. The last place we ate at was a little cafe next to the gift shop where we got coffee and doughnuts. Once we left MoMa, before going back to our hotel to head out we stopped by the Saks Department Store. It was very cool because there were so many levels. There were different clothing items on each level like shoes, bags, makeup, women’s and men’s clothes, etc. We didn’t stay there long before we went back to our hotel to grab our things and head back to the airport.
Our car waited for us outside the hotel and we headed back to the airport. It was sad to leave but I loved driving through the city one last time. We got to the airport about 3:00 pm. Our flight wasn’t until 5:30 pm. We went through security and got some dinner while we waited for our flight. We eventually boarded the plane at 5:30. it was already so dark outside but we could see the city lights from up high which was incredible.
All in all, I thought my first trip to New York City was pretty amazing and I think everyone should go at least once. I would love to live and dance professionally here in the future so being able to experience the city and see shows was very inspiring!!
