When the Ball Dropped

This is where it all started. Back in 2009 when all of my friends were having their last babies, the inevitable mother nature leading us to believe that we would soon be too old. I was 33 so whatever….clearly a distorted sense of reality. Anyways, we made the decision that one child was the perfect number for us. The next weekend my husband whisked me away to New York City for a New Year’s quick getaway, as if to say, “see what we can do when we don’t have little babies?”.

We quickly learned that no one, I mean NO ONE wants to be in those pens in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Growing up it all looked grand on TV with Dick Clark (or Ryan Seacrest if you’re a youngster). First of all, you can’t drink - at all - in those pens. That just took most people off the list, including me. Secondly, I have to use the restroom a lot. It’s nearly impossible to do this. People actually wear adult diapers to avoid the entire situation.

In our desire to see the ball drop, we found the infamous Ruby Tuesday. Now, I had never been to a Ruby Tuesday but sure the heck knew it wasn’t worth the $250+ ticket to be there for New Year’s Eve. It was 10 degrees in New York that day. I live in Texas where we usually have another 0 at the end. So Ruby Tuesday started to look real good.

The night of meeting new friends and being as close as we could get to the ball drop ended as a complete success. Highlights to include selfies with Elmo and the NYC Fire Department, a NY hot dog from a street vendor (sounds like a great idea at 2am!) and a taxi ride up to East Village to find the only remaining bar open to continue our celebration with our new found friends. Our last minute, unplanned get-away sparked a tradition that would inspire many future New Year’s celebrations. The one caveat my hubby requested is that it not be over-planned or over-scheduled and allow for last minute whims. If you know me, committing to a spontaneous itinerary was like swallowing castor oil. Now ten years later, it was the best idea I never had.

Note to those that want to brave Time Square on New Years - being close to the ball drop is not the ideal location. We ended up being so close that it basically dropped on top of us. For tips on finding the best view spots go here.

Where we stayed - The Dylan Hotel. We love boutique hotels. We chose this one, honestly, because it was one of the only nice hotels available that weekend in a prime location. Manhattan hotels are about the size of my shoe closet…..well, the one I use to have but more on that later. The room was cozy but perfect for our 4 day trip. The Dylan Hotel is a unique property on Library Way and currently being proposed as an individual landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. For us, it was the perfect home base to launch our daily excursions around town.

What we did - All the Main Things. Since we only had a few days we had to narrow the list to can-not-miss activities. Here’s the highlight reel:

Statue of Liberty - the best and least expensive way to see the Statue of Liberty and avoid crowds is to take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. AND ITS FREE! It also allows for gorgeous skyline views coming and going. The commuter ferry shuttles back and forth from the Whithall Terminal at the tip of Manhattan to the St. George Terminal on Staten Island. You can even ride the ferry at night since it runs 24 hours a day. Each way is approximately 25 minutes and requires you to get off at the Staten Island side. You can either get back on or spend an hour or two wandering Staten Island. Depending on time of day, you may not be able to get immediately back on the same ferry for the return trip to Manhattan so plan for at least 60-90 minutes for your round trip journey.

Central Park - the most dreamy place during the holidays. Central Park is huge and impossible to see in one day. Our goal was to be on foot as much as possible therefore we stayed on the south end and did the token FAO Schwartz and Tavern. On a return trip several years later I forced my family of men to take a romantic, picturesque horse-drawn carriage around the park. It was again winter time, and cold but it was a bucket list item (a never ending list of mine). We sang the Friend’s theme song when we reached the fountain - ok, I sang it and the boys rolled their eyes. I later found out that the Cherry Hill fountain in Central Park is not the one from the opening credits of Friends. Sorry to ruin it for the rest of you. There’s also something unseemly about horses pulling tourists so although I enjoyed the moment, I now feel quite guilty about it. But I digress..

A walk about town. You’ll learn to walk like a New Yorker if you don’t want to stand out. Part of the fun is the dodge, drift, dart methodology. You’ll find there is an art to speed walking and what a New York block really means. You’ll learn that taxis take longer than walking. But mostly you’ll find that this is a very walkable city. And when you need to rest your feet, the subways are easy to navigate. We saw all the major highlights in one day, The Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Time Square, Grand Central Station, The Met, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, Theater District, Bryant Park, and Madison Square Garden. It was definitely a site-seeing speed round. To map out the best walking tour of New York City read this.

9/11 Tribute Museum - at the time of this trip the 9/11 Memorial was still being built. During our visit we saved this tour for our last day - knowing that it would be a very somber experience. In subsequent years we have also visited the 9/11 Memorial and recommend you do both. The historical exhibition has three parts, exploring the day of 9/11, before 9/11 and after 9/11. Allow for several hours depending on your level of ability to get through this tragic walk of history.