If I told you I would ever be interested in visiting New York, well, it would be a lie. It has just never held a fascination for me. Until 2018 that is. While in New Jersey in a very packed weeklong convention, I made the decision upon arrival from the airport, to jot over to the city for a few hours. As I stepped of the train from Seacaucus NJ, I became mesmerized. I knew then that this short time I had would not be enough for me to explore the town, and after spending the next 6 hours walking all over town, from the Empire State Building, to Time Square, and a brief brush with the edge of world famous Central Park, I knew without a doubt I must return.
Fast forward to 2021. We had been living in Kentucky a little over a year at this point, recently transplanting back from California for a second time. I needed the perfect gift for my wife for Christmas. She works so hard for our family, she
deserves more than I could ever give her. And it dawned on me. The perfect gift was a weekend in New York and tickets to see the brand new Broadway musical just in from London, Six The Musical. Needless to say when she opened my home printed gift that showed the tickets she was beyond excited, only now the wait til April began.
Fast forward yet again! We arrived in New York, flying in to La Guardia. We had only two full days and the morning that we returned to spend in this massive city that never sleeps. unfortunately for us, we did. So we had to pack in as much as we could.
In a whirlwind tour, we did our best to east and walk most of Manhattan. And while we covered quite a bit of ground, we barely scratched the surface. Our first stop was to Katz Deli, where I tasted the end all of Pastrami. The most tender and flavorful meat of any kind I have ever had the pleasure to taste, melted in my mouth. It was not long after finishing, being the foodie I am, that I knew I was going to need to find more great restaurants to sample while here.
Our first non-food stop was to the Battery to begin our tour of the Statue of Liberty. Now, it is about at this point I should mention that I am a huge movie buff. This is particularly true when it comes to the movies I grew up watching in the 80’s and 90’s. One of those movies that I love and takes me back to childhood is The Ghostbusters.While the first is obviously the superior movie, I am also a huge fan of the second. So when I walked around New York, I was looking for any thing that could relate to movies from my childhood and beyond. Enter Lady Liberty. Having seen photos and imagining what it must be like to see her up close, as a proud American, it was so thrilling to get to finally stand there before her in person. We spent nearly 2 hours walking around, photographing and talking about it. Then we got into the argument of which was best. Kim contested that it wasn’t a great movie. I disagreed. As we left, I pulled out my phone and played Jackie Wilson at the highest volume I could. The song is from Ghostbusters 2. It is at the point when The Ghostbusters have positively charged the slime and were spraying it on the inside of the Statue, in order to bring her to life, walk across the harbor, and help them to smash into the museum to take down Vigo the Carpathian. As we passed an employee,I asked what movie is this from. He cheerfully and quickly responded with “Ghostbusters 2!”. I rest my case Kim.
Once back in Manhattan, we headed over to the 9/11 memorial and spent some time reflecting over the lives that were lost, and how our world has changed since that tragic day. It was solemn and sobering. Not having enough time, we had to skip visiting One World Trade Center. We had a show to make this evening.We began our stroll back with a couple of stops in mind to hit. The first was another Ghostbusters favorite, Hook and Ladder 8 Firehouse. This is the famous building front used as the Headquarters in both the original Ghostbusters movie. We snapped a few shots and headed on. Stooping by Bleeker Street and Washington Square in an homage to Avengers, Dr Strange, and When Harry Met Sally (to name a few) we proceeded back to the hotel to change for dinner, before we headed to our show on Broadway.
After changing we found a restaurant en route to Broadway.The name is Kung Fu Kitchen. The game was amazing Japanese and Chinese fare. I had a beef ramen, Kim a veggie Ramen. Both were superb. Flavorful and balanced, this ramen surpassed my
favorite ramen from my go to
noodle shop in Huntington Beach, Ca called Shin Sen Gumi. That is no small feat. We also ordered a couple of dumplings to split and they were also quite superior to most all I have ever had the pleasure to devour. We will most certainly be back to Kung Fu Kitchen on our next trip.
. We ended up at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre with a cool 20 minutes or so to spare. This was y first ever musical on Broadway, though I have been to numerous since meeting my beautiful wife, sometimes willingly, ad a handful of times dragged by the seat of my pants! Just the idea that I was seeing a show ON Broadway itself lent an almost euphoric sensation, knowing how famous it is for its musicals and plays. I could not recommend seeing at the very minimum 1 in your lifetime, although I know I probably have several dozen more to look forward too. I don’t think I will ever need to be metaphorically dragged to see another. My wife and I both loved the show. It was outstanding in casting, story, music and visuals. I will be doing a review of the show here shortly, so I don’t want to spoil too much here just yet. Stay tuned for that coming soon.
There were so many sights and sounds that must purely be native to New York around every corner. Yellow cabs gliding through the narrow streets with sky scrapers towering high above. The bright vivid lights of Times Square and the bustling of thousands of tourists and those brave New Yorkers attempting to coax them into parting with as much hard earned money as possible for a trinket or souvenir. The smells of food pouring our of doors along every avenue. Foods from every country on the planet no doubt. Mouth-watering aromas that make you promise yourself to drop a pin in your map app and return promptly to sample some bit of fare, just as soon as your stomach can process thaose last delicious morsels you purveyed some point earlier in the day. It truly is a fortunate thing that some much walking is available in NYC. It must certainly help keep the waistline down. 
We ended up at the hotel not too late in the evening, in order to get up early, which we did. We opted for that ever famous New York food, the bagel, and for the first time, I truly knew it was a food that I loved.
We walked for what seemed like hours (and in fact it was), strolling from Columbus Circle on the South west corner of Central Park, and attempted to make it to the far north east corner, where I had hoped to see a spot from a movie I loved, Big Daddy. It was the scene where Sonny was teaching Frankenstein how to throw sticks out and watch the rollerbladers fall into the lake. A hilarious scene for sure, however with so much walking the day before, my legs were wearing down and tiring out. We began to head to the hotel for a quick rest before we made it out again to walk around the East side to visit site like Rockefeller Center, St Patricks Cathedral, Grand Central Station, and see the outside of the New York Public Library (it was closed at the time we got there, otherwise to the basement to see the place where the first ghost from Ghostbusters was filmed. Yes I know I am obsessed. Just deal with it.) Kim met up with a friend she had once taught theatre to whom had come to New York seeking to make it on Broadway. She they caught up as we walked to all the aforementioned places, allowing me to be a photo nerd and just geek out on this great city. 
The next morning we got up early to check out, and lazily meandered in the direction of the subway, disappointed that we must leave shortly. We hit another amazing bagel shop, filled up on coffee and headed on our way back to Queens, to prepare for our flight home. This first trip to New York inspired me so much to check my preconceived notions about everywhere I have ever thought I didn’t want to go. Granted, New York City is famous for being, well, New York City. People around the world are mesmerized by the city that never sleeps. But it truly has caused me to be much more careful about making an opinion about places I want to visit and places I think I don’t. I think that is one of the greatest things about travel. You discover things you didn’t know about yourself. You open you eyes and your mind to things you thought were settled and closed. In the end, shouldn’t that be what we do always? Remain open minded about the world, and experience it for ourselves, rather than leave it to our imaginations, which when left unchecked, can prevent us from appreciating the beauty the human race has to offer.
