Written January 2019
Day 5
The plan for today was to walk around midtown…mainly 5th Avenue…to see the Winter and Christmas type things in the city. We had until about mid-afternoon, and then my parents were picking us up to go up to Queens for a wake. Since we didn’t have too much time, we decided to get up at a relatively early time to start our day with breakfast in the hotel.
After we got on the subway, our first stop was at Macy’s to see their Christmas window displays. These wound up easily being the best window displays that we saw for the day, although we didn’t go to all of the department stores. We walked by Lord & Taylor’s after this, but unfortunately they didn’t have much going on, since their store was getting ready do close down.
Macy’s Winter Wonderland
From here, we made our way out to the Public Library and Bryant Park. We checked out a couple of displays in the Library, before making our way back outside to check out the ice skating rink behind it in Bryant Park. It was really cute seeing the kids trying to skate with little plastic penguins to hold onto in front of them. We considered skating out there, until we realized the wait times for signing up and then actually getting on the ice.
Bryant Park
We continued to make our way up 5th Ave, and made a couple unplanned stops at the NBA Store and Philippines consulate. It’d been awhile since I’d been to the NBA store…they changed it quite a bit, and unfortunately, it’s less of an experience as it was in the past, and is for the most part, just jam-packed with product – no more basketball court. At the consulate, we just peaked in for a few minutes to check out what they had.
NBA Store
Philippines consulate
We eventually made it to our main attraction of the day, the Rockefeller Tree! It was nice, and super huge, but I was hoping it would be shaped a little nicer…but I guess if it’s that big, it’d be too hard too do. Even though it was pretty crowded there, we were surprisingly able to get some good pictures with the tree!
Rockefeller Tree
After we had our fill of pictures, we didn’t need to go too far to check out the next few places. Sak’s was right across the street, and we checked out their window displays – which were pretty lame for the most part, expect for the reflection of Rockefeller Center behind it. Then next door was St. Patrick’s Cathedral – where we stopped in for the end of mass, and wound up receiving communion while we were there. And then less than a block away, was the brand new Nike Experience store – which was in fact, quite the experience, with beautiful displays of both product and sport moments.
Sak’s Fifth Avenue
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Nike NYC
One last stop for our day tour of the city – Central Park to check out Wollman Rink. We saw a nice picture online, with a view of the city behind the rink, so wanted to try and get the same. Along the way, we of course stopped by the LOVE sculpture to get some nice pictures there.
LOVE and Wollman Rink
It was time to start making our way back now…so we hopped on the Subway back downtown. As we got closer to the hotel, it looked like we still had some time to spare until my parents got into town, so we decided to take it across the river into Brookyn, and walk back on the Manhattan Bridge. Turned out my parents were early, and we didn’t have as much time as I thought…so we had to make the walk across pretty quick – and unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as I thought to get to the hotel from the bridge because of where the walkway ended up.
The bridge itself wasn’t nearly as nice as the Brooklyn Bridge, and the views more obstructed by a fence, but you could still get a really nice view of the Brooklyn Bridge across the East River a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as well. I think it was worth it!
On the Manhattan Bridge
Well, we eventually made it back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and hopped into my parents’ car, and made our way up to Queens. Sadly, my dad’s oldest friend here in the US, Bill, passed away the week prior from cancer. It had been many years since I’d seen him or his family, so I felt like I should go to pay my respects. It was good to see his family, talk with them and chat about our past vacations. They all seemed to be in a good place, and I think were ready for it…so that was good.
Afterwards, we found a Thai place nearby to have dinner at before the long drive home. The reviews online were pretty good…but there weren’t a lot of people there, so I wasn’t sure what to think. It wound up being super good and tasty though!! But wow…were our dishes spicy! I was sweating A LOT! Even Norina’s dish, which she got mild was still fairly hot. I loved it though!
Ginger and Lemongrass
Now that our bellies were full, it was time to make the long drive home (well…for my mom to drive us all home while the rest of us fell asleep)… and then called it a night once we were back home.
Jump to:
Xmas > Brooklyn > Manhattan > Jersey
The Dating Life of Norina and Jonathan 