Not To Be Trusted With Knives

I <3 NYC

December 26, 2016 by Beth

Hey, remember that time I said that my sister and I were going to take our mom to New York City for her birthday? Well, that trip was Dec 20-23 and we had a pretty amazing time! Of course, 4 days is really only enough time to scratch the surface of the Big Apple, so while we had an amazing time, we clearly have to go back because there were so many things we didn’t get to do!

We stayed at the Hudson Hotel, which was lovely and had a decor that I would characterize as lots of textures but barely any light.

On our first night, we had a bite to eat at the Hudson Common (their beer bar) and then went for a walk, whereupon we stumbled upon a Christmas market! Given the recent attack at the Berlin Christmas market, there was high security at the one we stumbled upon, include police vehicles lining the road in front of it and cops with assault rifles guarding the place.

Drinks at the Hudson Commons:

Fish tacos ((We also had truffle and parmesan popcorn, which was amazing!)):

Duck fat fries:

On day 2 we set out to see a show. We’d been told when we got our tickets to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular that we had to arrive an hour in advance of our 11 am show to get through security so we grabbed coffee and a bite to eat on our way and headed to RCMH. We went through the security, which included one person who searched your purse and then another person who searched you with a metal detection wand, and then we got to the guy who scanned your tickets… and it turned out we were there on the wrong day! We actually had our Christmas Spectacular tickets for Dec 22 and for Dec 21 we had tickets to see Wicked at 2 pm ((Thankfully we didn’t have it mixed up the other way around and show up for a 2 pm show to find out we’d missed an 11 am one!))! So we went off for a walk and stumbled upon the Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree. I was less than impressed with the tree itself (though perhaps it looks better at night).

But I was impressed with the people soliciting donations for the Salvation Army ((I was conflicted about liking this, given that the Salvation Army is an anti-LGBT organization and I also hate that song (which I refer to as the “I love you because you have low self-esteem” song), but it was very entertaining how much they were into it.)), especially these two guys who were really giving ‘er:

I had wanted to go skating at Rockefeller, but the lineup was too long, so I just took this picture instead:

I also saw this:

I felt like I should take a photo of that before it gets taken away, given recent events in US politics.

We stopped in at a pub for lunch:

Then went to see Wicked!

Wicked was fantastic! They had the understudy playing Elphaba (a.k.a., The Wicked Witch) and she was incredible! I didn’t know anything about the play other than that it was a re-telling of the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch, who maybe isn’t so wicked after all. It had a cool story, fantastic performances, and the costumes and sets were amazing. Here’s what the stage looked liked before the show started (no photos allowed during the show):

And here we are waiting for the show to start:

That night we went for a pre-dinner drink at Ascent:

and then the most amazing dinner at Porterhouse, where we started with the burrata (we may have dug right into that so fast we forgot to take a photo:

My mom had the Porterhouse Porkchop with a glass of Sancerre:

My sister had the filet mignon with a Malbec:

and I went for the chili rubbed rib eye, also with a Malbec:

On Day 3, we went to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular! We moved expertly through the security line, having done it all the day before, and got inside with plenty of time to spare ((In addition to all the security that we’d seen the previous day, on this day we also saw the bomb sniffing dogs walking through the venue.))

The show was pretty spectacular. The precision with which those dancers dance is amazing! The music was fun and there were a variety of different acts, including, among other things, a very cool instrumental version of the 12 Days of Christmas where the number of Rockettes dancing represented the number of days of Christmas and We Three Kings with actual camels.

After the show, we walked to the MOMA, but the lineup was so long that we weren’t able to actually go in and had to make do with just checking out the gift shops. I bought myself this lovely necklace:

On our way, we passed by Trump Tower:

We were on the opposite side of the street, but anyone who wanted to go right in front of the building had to go through a security screening. And apparently Trump wasn’t even in town – I can’t imagine what it’s like when he’s there.

Next up was dinner at Bar Boulud, including delicious cocktails:

Salmon for my sister:

And my mom and I both had scallops:

After dinner my sister had an Elixir au Chocolate, which she declared the best drink she had ever had:

And we all shared profiteroles for dessert:

On our fourth and final day, we decided to walk to the High Line Park, and along the way we saw Times Square:

and my mom met her favourite snowman, Olaf:

and the New York Times:

and Madison Square Garden:

and the big post office:

and we may have stopped for a treat at Doughnut Plant:

The High Line Park is a park built on an old elevated train track:

And with that it was time to head back to the hotel to grab our bags and head out to the airport!

As you can see, while we saw quite a few things, there is a tonne of stuff that we didn’t see! Clearly, we need to go back!

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