I grew up 20 minutes outside of Manhattan, or as my father liked to say “11 miles as the crow flies from Central Park”. Our tiny one square mile suburban town is called Bronxville. Some confuse it with the Bronx, yet the two communities are entirely different places. Like many other families in Bronxville, our father commuted into Manhattan. In my case, my father commuted all the way downtown to One Water Street. Also like many people from my community, my family spent a lot of time in the city or as some call it “town”. Our school took us on field trips into the NYC museums and occasionally to Broadway shows. When my classmates and I were twelve our school took us to see Yule Brenner in the King and I. I went home and raved about it so much that my parents brought me back the next week so they could see it too. My parents loved the performance as much as I did!
My family went into NYC often to eat, go to the theater, visit Central Park, shop, and visit my sister when she lived there. We never did any tourist things. We would often go in and meet my father after work or go to lunch and the theater with my grandmother. Christmas holidays always brought us to the city for some very special restaurant visits, to see the holiday windows, and a trip to see a show or a holiday musical performance. In the days before cell phones, plans needed to be made in advance. My father knew exactly how long it would take him to get from his office downtown to anywhere in NYC. Having lived in Manhattan before marrying my father, my mother knows more about NYC than anyone I know. She knows where all the parking garages are and would tell my father where we would meet him for each event. I have a vivid memory of waiting with her for my father outside of the Algonquin hotel. I can still picture my father arriving with a big smile on his face. As per usual he was in his work uniform, a Brooks Brother suit, wingtip shoes, a trench coat and a fedora.
As a teenager I would go into the city often with friends for concerts and underage bar visits in the village. Our shenanigans were endless.
What my family never did was sleep in NYC. Unless I was sleeping in my sister’s or a friend’s apartment, we always headed back to Bronxville at night…sometimes running for the last train. I never stayed in a hotel in New York growing up. I don’t even recall it ever being a discussion. It wasn’t part of our suburban life. Our beds were eleven miles away…on the back of a crow.
I didn’t start sleeping in the city until I began dating my now husband and we were living in Vermont. We would come down on Amtrak and stay in a friend’s studio or a hotel and enjoy a few romantic days alone together in the city. I still marvel at sleeping in the city to this day and find it funny to go to bed in Manhattan. Imagine sleeping in a hotel in your hometown.
Over the years Don and I have found some favorite hotels and we also continue to try new ones. This week we are here to find an apartment for one of our kids. And boy were we lucky to find a great one the first day, leaving us three free days of fun!
Our view of St. Patrick’s from our hotel room
WHERE WE STAYED
For this trip I booked with American Express Platinum. This has become one of my go to ways to book a hotel. You can use points, get x5 the points on certain bookings, get upgrades, and get cash credits at the hotels for food. This time I booked the Lotte New York Palace which is the old Helmsley Building or as my children well recognize, Serena’s home from Gossip Girl. The 455 Madison Avenue at 50th Street location was perfect for getting around the city and proximity to fabulous restaurants.
We enjoyed the hotel very much and I would 100% stay here again. Our eldest son arrived Friday so we are now in two rooms next door to each other.
WHERE WE ATE:
We are a family that loves all types of restaurants. We love a fabulous upscale place, a mom and pop diner, and wonderful meals from around the world. On this trip we covered all of those things.
My two favorite restaurants we went to on this trip were a new to us sushi restaurant called Hatsuhana and an old favorite, the Austrian treasure, Wallse.
MOMA
WHAT WE DID
Our primary goal in coming into the city this week was to find an apartment. We thought it was going to be a much bigger and worse job than it turned out to be. We have a fabulous agent who knocked it out of the park for us. That left us lots of time for fun. The majority of our travels were on foot so we could proudly brag to each other about our step counts. We also traveled by bus, subway, and taxi. We explored the neighborhood where our daughter will be living several times and we spent Saturday in the West Village with our eldest and youngest. One of our all time favorite things to do in New York will always be visiting the art museums. This is something I try to do with my children wherever we are. On this special visit we returned to the Guggenheim and MoMA.
I took Courteney to the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice in April. It was fun to return to the NYC Guggenheim on Thursday.
Our family always splits up on museums. I was delighted to find this guy in front of the Pollack. He was actually the one who planned the museum visit which made it even more special!