New York City

New York City

By: Emma Murphy, Age 12

I am a typical almost teenage girl. Therefore, when deciding where my thirteenth birthday vacation would be, the obvious choice was, of course, New York City. I couldn't be happier with this choice. Sure, we did all of the touristy attractions (which you will hear all about later in this blog), but honestly, the overall experience made this vacation so special. I mean really, Girls Trip to NYC for your 13th birthday with all the shopping and craziness: BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!!! Below you will find my amazing experience in the Big Apple.

We arrived in NYC with no problem and a driver from Six Star Car Service was waiting for us (We also used this car service when leaving; I would recommend it.) We drove to the Renaissance Hotel on Times Square, and that was when it hit me. I AM IN NEW YORK CITY! With all the bright lights, crowds of people, street venders, and taxi cabs, I felt like I was in a movie. The Renaissance Hotel was wonderful! The service was perfect, the hotel itself was gorgeous, there was a modern lounge/ restaurant/ bar that over looked Times Square, and I felt like a princess! We unpacked, and started our search for lunch. Our stomachs lead us to John's Pizzeria, where we stuffed ourselves with delicious pizza and garlic rolls. It was delicious and the inside of the restaurant had a very cool mural on the wall. After eating, we decided to go find discounted tickets for a Broadway show. The concierge at the hotel was most helpful! My mom asked about getting tickets and she handed us her business card and a piece of paper with two names written on it. She told us to take it to the discount tickets place on Times Square and ask for the two people on the slip of paper. So we did! We walked are way over to a massive line for the Broadway tickets. It was huge! My aunt asked for the names, just like we had been told, and the man took us to guy, who took us to another guy, who took us to the front of the line, where we got our tickets in less than ten minutes. Crazy right? We never did find out if guys with the names on the paper actually existed or if it was some sort of code name, but I felt like a princess for the second time in the first hour of being in New York. After buying tickets in a super-spy fashion, we found our way to Magnolia Bakery, were there were delicious cupcakes, brownies, pies, cakes, and ice cream. I enjoyed some yummy peanut butter brownie. All were satisfied with our little treat. We also went to NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center to buy tour tickets for later in our trip.  We went back to the hotel, got all dolled up and headed to enjoy Mama Mia!  It did not disappoint!  There was lots of dancing, singing, and humor. It was hilarious and fun-filled; the whole audience was singing and dancing by the end of the show! I definitely recommend it, but the story line is a little mature, so make sure you know what you're getting into before taking younger kids to it.

To start off our second day in the Big Apple, we headed to the Evergreen Cafe, on recommendation from the concierge. I would not go back this cafe. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. Maybe we ordered the wrong meals, but I was not impressed with the Evergreen Cafe. After eating breakfast, we went back to Times Square to buy double decker bus tour tickets. We bought the two-day tickets, so we were able to tour the city on both our second and third day in New York. I felt that the hop on/ hop off bus tour was a great way to see the city. It was not my absolute favorite part of the whole trip, but I think it would be a great fit for anyone who wants to be able to see a lot of places in a short amount of time. On the first day of the bus tour, we took the downtown loop. We ended up hopping off at the 9/11 Memorial. It was the quietest part of the city, and the memorial was very touching. We didn't do the whole shebang; we just saw Freedom Tower and walked around the area. After hanging around the Memorial, we took a cab to the Staten Island Ferry. It was really neat to see the Statue of Liberty! I thought it would be so much bigger, but it looked tiny compared to all of the ginormous skyscrapers! From the Ferry, we took a cab into Chinatown. Chinatown was probably my least favorite part of the whole trip. If you want knockoff name brands for low prices though, I would recommend visiting. I say it was my least favorite part because it was kinda gross in my opinion. Everything just seemed dirty, and there were way too many people packed in a small area (and this is coming from me: I LOVE HUGE CROWDS!) So if I think there are too many people, you know that there are a massive amount of bodies around! We ate an authentic Chinese meal at Big Wong King. It was decent. Nothing to get super excited about.  After a very late lunch, we got back on the bus tour and went to Times Square, did a little bit of shopping at the M&Ms World (a must do), and went to see if there were any more discounted Broadway Shows. All of the ones we wanted to see were sold out or not discounted, except for Cinderella. So we were like, "Sure, let’s go to it. Why not?" And it completely blew our socks off! Cinderella was amazing! The sets and costumes were phenomenal, it was funny, and the acting and singing was great! Best. Musical. Ever. I highly encourage you to see Cinderella if you go to NYC. I was shocked at how wonderful it was! And the night just got better from there. After Cinderella, we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner. All of the waiters and waitresses want to eventually make it to Broadway, and while they are serving you, they sing! All of the waiting staff take turns serenading you... can it get any better than that? Ellen's was a princess moment! It was so fun and entertaining, and the people had really good voices. And also, to add to the amazingness of this restaurant, the food is delicious too! Double bonus! You have got to go to Ellen's Stardust Diner when visiting New York.

On our third day, we just went to Starbuck's for breakfast. After eating, we got back on the bus and took a tour of the Uptown loop. It was a lot nicer than Downtown (except for Harlem). We did the whole loop on the bus, and then we hopped off at Central Park, which is very close to Dylan's Candy Bar. So naturally, we stopped there. It was three stories of sugar heaven! There were chocolate bars, lollipops, fudge, cupcakes, and basically any other sweet you could think of. It was so fun! After Dylan's, we walked around and found a little outdoor cafe called Burger Heaven. I'm sure the burgers were delicious, but we all just got salads and loved it. I would go here if you are looking for a cute, casual place to eat. There were a lot of choices to choose from, and it was good, healthy food (at least the salads were). Following lunch, we walked back to Central Park. On our way there, we passed by the Puerto Rico Parade, which is one of NYC's largest parades. It was crazy how many Puerto Rican people there were in one place! I'm very glad that I had a chance to witness this different culture. Once in Central Park, we took a carriage ride through the park. It was yet another princess moment for me! Right across from Central Park is the famous F.A.O. Schwarz. That place was nuts! We saw everything from puzzles to tic-tac-toe toss to $2000 stuffed animal hippopotamuses. My mom bought a cool puzzle of Times Square.  We then went to NBC Studios for our tour. It was such a neat experience to see where shows like Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and SNL were taking place. The tour guides were wonderful and I would definitely do it again! When walking back to our hotel from NBC, we walked right by Radio City Music Hall. We were lucky enough to be passing it the night of the Tony Awards! The red carpet and all the TV anchors were so cool to see, and I had another princess moment! (I mean really, a red carpet! So awesome!) Once we got back to the hotel, we were struggling finding a good place to eat. My mom was using the app Yelp (very helpful when traveling, check it out if you don't already have it) and she saw that the small little lounge at our hotel had four and a half stars. This was the restaurant/bar/ lounge that overlooked Times Square that I spoke of earlier in the blog. We decided to try it out and I'm so glad we did! The view was beautiful and the Tony's were playing on the big screen, so we could watch it all from the lounge. We just split a few appetizers and the food was delicious! When we finished eating, we saw a man right outside our hotel, doing Caricatures. My cousin and I got one done of ourselves, it was adorable! After getting our faces drawn, we took a taxi to the Empire State Building. I was in heaven! We went up to the observation deck, which is on the 86th floor. The view was just like the pictures that are on the internet and in movies. Princess moment! I took a ton of pictures and it was just really gorgeous seeing the city all lit up at night. We then went back to the hotel with plans of getting up early to go to the Today Show.

Remember, I said PLANS of going to the Today Show. That didn't actually happen. The alarm went off at 6:00am and everyone was too tired and thought it was too early. So we rolled over and went back to sleep. My point in telling you this is so you know: if you plan on going to the Today Show, you need to A) be a morning person or B) really, really want to go so the thought of not going is completely out of your mind. It is a VERY early morning if you want to get in the front and actually have a chance of getting on TV. Once we slept in a little, we were hungry and needed breakfast. I really wanted to go back to Ellen's Stardust Diner, because I enjoyed it so much the 1st time we went. The others agreed. I had a totally unhealthy, delicious breakfast of some marshmallow fluff and banana stuffed French toast. It was heaven on a plate I tell you! Sadly, our last day the big city was pouring rain. We finished up buying souvenirs and went to the Museum of Natural History. I personally just wanted to go so I could see all of the stuff from the movie Night at the Museum, but there were so much more cool things to see! Sure we saw the Easter Island Statue (more well known as "Dum Dum"), yet the old Indian artifacts were really interesting and exotic too. And yeah, we saw "Rexy" but all of the animal skeletons were neat also. I highly recommend the Museum of Natural History to all ages, adult or kid, especially if it's gross out and you want to be inside. After the museum, we sadly had to go back to the Renaissance Hotel and pack up. We left New York City with happy hearts and we had a great time. NYC is a wonderful vacation spot, even if it isn't a beach, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to travel there for my 13th birthday!