This previous December, myself, my husband and two of our friends drove from Tennessee to New York.
Since you don’t really need a car in New York, we could have just flown. We like road trips though, and since we had the time, we decided to drive.
We left that morning and decided that we would stop somewhere in Pennsylvania for the night since our Airbnb was not going to be ready until the next day.
We ended up staying in Allentown, PA which was a nice stop! We definitely noticed a temperature change as we drove north. We actually really enjoyed the cold. It started snowing pretty hard as we drove around. In Tennessee, we don’t always have that great of a winter.
The next morning, we headed into the city, but first, Tim Hortons since it was there and all.
Our Airbnb wouldn’t be ready for check in until 2pm, so we went to the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY.
This was a really interesting place. They house the United State’s largest and most comprehensive collection of artifacts relating to the art, history and technology of the moving image.
After we spent some time there, we headed to the city.
Traffic was surprisingly not horrible. We easily made our way to the parking garage where we were going to leave our car. It was only around the block from where we were staying, so that was super convenient.
The apartment we rented was just what we needed for 4 people. It was a four story walk up, which wasn’t fun with luggage and narrow stairways. The place was super cute and our host was very nice.
Our Airbnb was very close to the Manhattan Bridge, so we walked to Brooklyn to grab a bite to eat before going to a hockey game there later.
In total, from our Airbnb to the Barclay’s Center was a 3 mile walk, which wasn’t too bad. Walking over that bridge in December though, that was literally the coldest that I have ever been in my life. Admittedly it was my own fault, I was definitely not dressed for it.
One of our friends knew someone who worked at a restaurant in Brooklyn, so we decided to check it out.
After we ate, we headed to the game. We walked through an area that looked like the Huxtables should live there. It was the New York Islanders vs. the Chicago Blackhawks that night. Chicago won 5-4. It was really a great time! The seats we had were around $35, so this is definitely something fun to do that isn’t crazy expensive.
Some guys from Australia were behind us and had the same idea that we did, to come to a hockey game for something cool to do. They weren’t totally sure how hockey worked, so they talked to us about it.
We were originally going to walk back, but the temperature had dropped even more and the cold was literally taking our breath away. We hadn’t taken the subway yet so we weren’t sure how that worked. We decided on an Uber ride instead.
He arrived a little while later. I think it was around a $25 ride, but it was most definitely worth it. He was also the nicest Uber driver we had the entire time. He was the only one that actually spoke to us beyond saying “hello.” We joked around and had a pleasant ride back.
When we got back to the apartment, we were starving. It was late and we had no clue what would be open. Literally 400 feet from the door of our Airbnb apartment was a Chinese restaurant that appeared to be open.
Food King was the perfect way to end our first day in New York.
-Haley
