Yesterday, I wrote at length about the fact that we saw The Long Winters perform in New York City over the weekend. But I have to explain a little more about this trip to the Big Apple. The SOLE purpose of this trip was to attend that concert. The goals were, in this order: 1. See concert, 2. Not spend a ton of money, 3. Make it home alive. So, the easiest way for us to achieve all three goals was to plan a whirlwind, NO SLEEP trip. We left home Thursday night at 10 pm, drove to Harrisburg, and caught the train at 5 am Friday morning to Manhattan. We got into the city at 7:30, and proceeded to spend the next 12 hours wandering the city.
Since we had both been there before, and done a lot of the traditional touristy things (Central Park, NYSE, Empire State Building, etc) we were more interested in sticking to the lower part of Manhattan near the concert venue and finding interesting things slightly off the beaten path. We so totally achieve that goal. Among the things we did: Walked the High Line, roamed the Village, found a geocache, saw the Stonewall Inn, watched an after school youth program play basketball, saw a rainbow in the Washington Square fountain, ate amazing and affordable gluten free food, spotted a Free Little Library, watched strangers get married, saw amazing examples of art in the wild, found several cool little shops to visit, saw tons of cute dogs, and sat in a branch of the New York Public Library. All that (and in reality so much more) was just 12 hours of our 23 hour trip.
Another 7 hours or so were devoted to
the concert itself, then the rest of the time was spent at Penn Station, exhausted and waiting for the train. We wanted to do more exploring after the concert, but we were just too tired, I was ready to pass out. I had been awake since 8 am Thursday, and stayed awake until about 7 am Saturday, when we boarded the train back to Harrisburg.
Was it crazy to undertake this trip? Yep. Did we accomplish all 3 goals? Yep. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
New York is called the city that never sleeps. While we were there this past weekend, we also never slept. When I finally did drift off on the return train ride, I slept with a smile on my face, remembering the adventures we had in that gorgeous city. I am still smiling as I remember, so of course this experience is inspiring my playlist for today.
I love you New York, and promise to see you again real soon.
To see the rest of the photos from our amazing NYC trip, click here.
