Spotted in the NYC Metro! A ‘Life Underground’ bronze sculpture of a sewer alligator.

This Thanksgiving I was back home in New England (my first time in two years! it felt magical!), and as part of the trip we decided to pop over to NYC for 3 days and two nights of adventures and fun time away from my family. (Not that I don’t love them, but we did want some time for ourselves!)

Here’s what we got up to on day 1… 

We arrived on a coach from Boston (oh hey Mega Bus with your $1 journeys!) around 4 pm, and by the time we found our hotel by the Empire State Building the sun had set and we realised how hungry we were. In order to not spoil dinner (we had reservations at The Gramercy Tavern to look forward to) we opted for a couple of small pastries from nearby La Delice Pastry Shop. So yummy!

We also had a bit of time to kill before we had to get ready for dinner, so we walked over to Times Square via Grand Central and the New York Public Library. (The library alone makes me want to live in NYC one day – all those books!) Then back to the hotel to freshen up!

We stayed at Hotel 31, a short walk from the Empire State Building.* The hotel was old fashioned (all the rooms had sinks and all the floors had a shared bathroom – which made me think of the olden days when people would go to a boarding house and rent a room while looking to earn their riches!) and I loved it. Pictured above is Jeff and me, all ready for dinner, in the old school elevator complete with an accordion door.

*And even though I was keen to go to the top and view NYC in its cityscape glory, after the first night a fog settled in on the city and rendered the viewing point useless. But that’s ok! It’s the perfect excuse to plan another trip in warmer weather.

Dinner at the Gramercy Tavern was excellent, a 3-course meal with a bottle of wine, cocktails, and a few little treats between courses, too! Our server was super friendly, and he explained to us the different types of wine on the ‘Unconventional Wine List’ before recommending Envelope by the Channing Daughters, a wine local to New York. It’s kind of like a cross between Chardonnay and Sherry, and I thought it was great. So great, in fact, that I took that cork back with me! At the end of the meal they brought over bagged muffins with the bill, which we enjoyed the next day for breakfast.

After dinner we were off to Bathtub Gin for cocktails with a speakeasy experience. (And by that I mean a bar behind a false door in a shop that’s just posing as a front – we completely walked by it at first.) While I can’t for the life of me remember what I ordered (though it definitely had gin in!), I do remember there was a bathtub in the middle of the room that I, sadly, wasn’t able to get a good picture of. I guess you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself.

A few drinks later and the jet lag kicked in – time to flag a taxi and make our way back to the hotel…

Stay tuned for the Day 2 in NYC travel diary, which will be posted tomorrow!