Scott and I have never been big on giving gifts for birthdays or Christmas. But I have wanted to do something for him to surprise him for the last year or two. I finally decided I would pull it off and take him to NYC for his birthday.
I am going to do a few recaps on our trip but the last recap I do - I will tell all about how I pulled off the surprise and how I planned the trip. I was asked that a ton in DM's on Instagram.
Scott's parents came last Thursday. He knew they were coming for his birthday and Hollis' birthday. He had taken Friday off so we could all go to Silver Dollar City. ha ha ha
When he came home from work Thursday - we said we had gifts for him. I gave him this t-shirt and his mom gave him a travel bag and cash with a note that said "NYC money". He didn't believe me when I said we were leaving the next morning on a trip. He was in TOTAL shock. I just knew I couldn't keep the surprise but it was so fun to pull off.
We had to pack that night to go. But we made it.
We left early the next morning for the city!
A car service took us to our hotel.
We stayed at the Westin at Grand Central Station. It was really nice. It was a decent sized room and very clean. It was reasonably priced and I liked the location. I didn't want to stay near Times Square but it was within walking distance to most things. We got there around 1 and checked in.
We walked around the corner to Shake Shack for lunch. I had so many people tell me to try it out.
We got burgers. They were so good but we decided we were too full to try shakes.
We then took the subway because we had tickets at 3 to the 9/11 museum. Getting around the city was our biggest challenge. Trying to figure out where to go and how to get there was a little stressful but we got the hang of it and I felt so proud when we navigated successfully!
The reason I chose to take Scott to NYC is I knew if I ever tried to get him to plan a trip there - he would never pick to go. But I think everyone should experience NYC at least once and I really wanted him to see it. I also knew he would LOVE seeing the 9/11 museum which is why I planned it for the first day.
Will Holden is obsessed with fire trucks right now so I had to take a picture of this FDNY one!
The Oculus is so pretty.
Seeing the memorial for 9/11 took my breath away. I immediately felt a wave of sadness and relived what that day felt like. I know every American can tell you immediately where they were when it happened. I was at work at Walmart and we turned on the TV in our office right after the first plane and saw the second plane hit live. I will never forget the fear I felt that day or the shock.
They did a beautiful job with the memorial.
The one world tower
The museum is incredible.
It's so much bigger than we imagined. We ended up spending almost three hours there.
The flag outside stays at half staff.
One of the fire trucks that was there that day
The museum was jam packed with people. It was so crowded you could barely move. What was so incredible was as many people as were there - it was almost silent inside. You could feel the respect and reverence.
There were also so many teenagers there and I kept thinking how they weren't even alive when 9/11 happened. They don't know a world before that day.
We decided to walk around for a while after before taking the subway back to our hotel.
We hit Grand Central Station right around 5:30 on a Friday. It was WALL TO WALL people. It was just insane.
After that we decided we would take a taxi to dinner. I had made reservations at Quality Meat. It was a beautiful restaurant and SO good. We both had steaks and they were delicious. It was pricey but worth it to splurge!
When I made the reservation, I must have put it was Scott's birthday because they brought him out a special chocolate cake and ice cream.
We did some walking in the city after dinner.
Scott loves cheesecake so we had to try out Juniors.
Scott had strawberry and I had chocolate. I didn't love mine but I'm also not a big cheesecake fan. But it was fun to visit there.
We had gotten up at 4 to leave for the airport and walked 6 miles in the half day we were there so we were tired and ready to head back to the hotel after all that.
