Kay:
New York, New York! Welcome to our destinations week New York City day episode.
Shi:
New York City. Kay and I visited for the first time together in October of 2021 and it was a 72-hour adventure that I will literally never forget.
Kay:
It was 100% packed full of activity. Every moment of our itinerary was completely filled but we had a wonderful time. Now in July of 2021, Shila surprised me, Kay, here with tickets to see Hamilton on Broadway. Hamilton is our shared absolute favorite musical and with that came a magical 72-hour adventure into New York City and magical it was indeed. We had the privilege of staying at the historic St. Regis Hotel right off of Madison Avenue, right close to Central Park. From there, we got to explore the city from foot, from train, and by all of our hearts.
Shi:
By subway, by a black Cadillac car to the Richard Rodgers Theater, and of course by foot, as Kay mentioned. We saw the city in so many different ways, just a couple of the highlights. One, we went to the top of the Rockefeller and when we traveled was just two weeks after Broadway had reopened. So, even New York locals were like, “Oh, Broadway’s open again?” as we were telling them that we were there. So, we got to experience New York City in a way that I think most, the vast majority of people do not get to see, which is not very crowded, not a huge ton of people, and with the way that they were doing vaccines during that time, you were still allowed to be unmasked in a lot of spaces, which was of course also nice. But when we got to the top of Rockefeller Center, we were like one of 12 people up there. It was like a private deck viewing of the entire city for our delight and our leisure, which was amazing.
So, that was a major highlight. Obviously going to Hamilton was the biggest highlight of all and we’ll have to dedicate a whole week to that at some point because we got out of the theater and stood in the back alleyway and sobbed our little brains out and then made a video of us sobbing our brains out about how amazing it was and you can catch that video on our Instagram page if you ever want to go check that out. So, obviously, that was great and then that evening we did a little bit of Hamilton tribute exploring. Going to Washington Square Park, eating at Aaron Burr’s Carriage House, a former carriage house now a beautiful restaurant, and doing a little bit of Hamilton tour. Then we spent the next day in a really amazing way visiting museums and adventuring through Central Park which I think was almost equally as magical.
Kay:
Well hitting the museums, I think was probably one of my favorite things to do in New York City. We started out at the Met and had a wonderful experience there getting to wander the halls of history. We learned about Queen Hatshepsut who is one of the only queen pharaohs who actually said she was king, but we’re going to call her queen because she was a woman. She was just a BA who ruled in Egypt. We got the opportunity to see the head of Marcus Aurelius, the bust in the Hall of Busts. We walked through history and then went to the historic Central Park Boathouse where we got to enjoy a beautiful lunch before heading off to the American Museum of Natural History which was its own experience. Many of you may recognize that particular museum from the movie “Night at the Museum” which is where our family really fell in love with it. So, we had a great time getting to see one of our very favorite movies come to life, making all the jokes and saying all of the lines as we wandered the halls and magically soaked in the natural history around us.
Shi:
A few honorable mentions. Of course, we did Times Square. We did some incredible shopping. I never wear my Nikes without saying these are my New York Nikes. I have my leggings that are my New York leggings. Everything we’ve had in New York is our New York thing. We got some special mementos for the kids which were fun. We had some honorable mentions of some meals that were fantastic and then a quick honorable mention as well. If you’re a runner, like I am, sister Shi here, running in Central Park was a peak experience. It was absolutely beautiful. We adventured in the park almost all day on day two walking, obviously to the museums and throughout the park and having lunch there. What an asset that natural beauty is to the city of New York and the feeling inside of the park is not even one that I can describe. But getting to run within Central Park, it’s humongous, way, way bigger than you think it is and totally unforgettable. So, would absolutely 100% recommend you at least one time do New York City the way we got to do it, which is in the totally touristy, totally super-fun a lot of money way and totally unforgettable. But it was a trip truly that will live in our hearts forever. We probably watch the Instagram highlights at least once a month because it was that good.
Kay:
You know, one of the things that we really took away from New York is the value and the power around (a) looking forward to something but then (b) treating the time that you have if it’s something big that you know that you’re going to lean into with the utmost respect and importance. The amount of times that we went over our itinerary. The amount of times that we spent putting together what our week would look like, visualizing ourselves, getting there, and then like Shila said, enjoying the highlights and the reels on the back end of it. We’ve extended that 72 hours into many more hours of joy and now the trip forever lives in our grab bag of things that we get to pull from when we need a pick me up. So, your trips don’t have to be isolated to just the time that you spend on the vacation or on the travel itself but can be extended with just a little bit of intentional effort on both the front and the back end.
Shi:
Well, we hope you enjoyed traveling with us this week as we visited the world of Disney, the island of Kauai, the state of Florida, and the magical city of New York City. Next week, we’re not traveling anywhere except the depths of your soul. So, get ready for that because we’re talking all things tough. Tough conversations, tough situations, challenging moments. So, make sure you tune in next week for the Kay & Shi Show if you need a little help in any of those tough spots. And wherever you’ve traveled, and you’ve loved, hit us up on social media, let us know your favorite places, if we shared any of those favorite places and we hope you have an excellent weekend.
