New York, New York

This afternoon I caught a flight to LaGuardia at 3:10 p.m. while Jackson caught one at 5:00 p.m. due to the price difference when booking. Jackson had been coming out to New York for work, but at the last minute that trip was canceled. We decided to go ahead and keep our tickets and just spend all of our time in NYC instead of up in the suburbs where he was scheduled to work. My flight ended up being slightly delayed so I only waited for Jackson for about an hour. 

He has this silly thing about wanting to be greeted by a person holding a sign whenever we land at airport so I made him a little sign and held it up as he deplaned. :) It is the little things, people! 

The "sign" I held up for Jackson on my iPhone at the airport

We took our first uber ride from the airport to the hotel. We had a $30 coupon from our bank so the ride was only $1! Score!! It was such an easy process that we totally understand why people swear by the service. Basically you open the app, tell them where you'd like to go and then they dispatch a car for you. That is it! The fare is automatically charged to the card on your account so you don't have to worry about having cash or haggling with the taxi driver. Amazing. I cannot say enough about it!

We cashed in some more free nights with IHG here at the Intercontinental Barclays on 48th & Park Avenue. This is a pretty fancy place that reopened after an 18 month remodel. The rooms are now supposed to look like Park Avenue residences do and, based on the movies, I think they succeeded!

The entryway

The bedroom complete with a real fireplace

The shower

Bathroom

We are quite pleased with the size of the room and how clean it is. We settled in quickly and then headed out to grab a late dinner. We have an Italian place that we have always really enjoyed so we strolled about 1.5 miles and tucked in for a meal.

Pazza Notte for dinner- Jackson's
dish was delivered just after I snapped this photo

The menu had changed a bit since our last visit, but our dinners were still really great. It was a busy place and the noise was really something. The City sure has a different buzz to it than any other place I've ever been. I like it! After our dinner we did a little sightseeing before returning to the hotel for the evening.

The MetLife (Grand Central) all lit up

One of my very favorite things is being able to walk to dinner and then stroll home afterwards. It was a lovely, chilly evening and we look forward to exploring tomorrow!