New York City!!!

Our first night in New York City, the city that never sleeps! I was SO excited!!! We got a really early morning flight out of Seattle, at 6:30 am, so that we would actually be able to check out the city that first night and have some time to do stuff. First on my list. . . I wanted to see Times Square! And it was just as exciting and bright and overwhelming as I thought it would be!

NYC Traveler's Tip #1: Get a shuttle to take you from the airport to your hotel, rather than a taxi. It's definitely cheaper! And it's really easy to reserve it ahead of time too.

NYC Traveler's Tip #2: If you're going to be in the city for more than a couple days, buy a week-long unlimited Metro Card and ride the Subway lots! It was easy, pretty fast, and by far the cheapest way to get around.

NYC Traveler's Tip #3: If you're going there in the winter, by all means, bring the warmest clothes you've got! And lots of layers, so you can take them off when you go into the warm buildings. That first night we were there, it was 15 degrees!!! And there was a really cold, biting wind that just chilled us to the bone. I was glad I had my warmest coat, hat, gloves, and scarf! Stephen had originally packed only his zip-up sweatshirt, but I made him bring his coat. I laughed at him for that the entire trip, because even with his coat he was always colder than me. It warmed up for us after the first couple days and was even in the 40's one night, but the first night there was the coldest!!!
NYC Traveler's Tip #4: You can avoid most of the shops in Times Square, because they're way over-priced, but it's fun to go into the Hershey's World and M&M World stores, just to look around.

NYC Traveler's Tip #5: I figured out the main reason why the locals avoid Times Square. It's not even because of the crowds. It's because when you walk along the streets, there will be someone bugging you literally every 5 seconds to buy tickets to a comedy show. It was annoying! And if you try to refuse politely they'll just become more persistent. So just ignore them and don't look at them at all.

NYC Traveler's Tip #6: DO go see a Broadway show while you're in New York! You can do what we did and go to the half-price ticket booth in Times Square, as long as you're really flexible and not too set on seeing a certain show. I really wanted to see Wicked and Stephen really wanted to see Lion King, but those are both too popular to sell at the half-price booth and tickets for those were going for $170 apiece. Yes, this is even in the off-season! We couldn't afford them, but luckily both those shows are coming to Seattle this year so we'll be able to see them here for much less money.

We chose to get half-price tickets to see Shrek the Musical that night in the Broadway Theater. It was a really fun show, very funny and well-done, and we had a great time!

I love this night shot I got of the Chrysler Building. It's such an amazing building!

And here is the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station. After our show, we took the subway back to our hotel and crashed for some much-needed sleep. We stayed in the Marriott East Side, and it was a great hotel!

Our adventures in New York had only begun!
To be continued. . .