We drove our rental car into the city, unloaded while double-parked like real New Yorkers and then Jackson drove it a couple of blocks over to the return center. It worked out so well to pick up the car at the airport, drive it to Maine and then return it a few blocks from our Airbnb. Driving in NYC was not as bad as I expected it would be. We got a little turned around on exits, but made it with really no issue.
Our new building! (We faced the back)
When Jackson took the first load up to our new home he was shocked to find there was no elevator. Whoops! That was not in the listing. So we got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but ended up just accepting that life in the city is different and rolled with it.
We got unloaded and settled pretty quickly and then walked MacKenzie over to Central Park. It had been a dream of mine each time we visited the city for MacK to be able to walk in Central Park and she got to...finally! YAY! Our place was close to the park which made it more expensive, of course, but very worth it to be able to pop over whenever we wanted.
We made it!!
"Seems nice."
VIEWS!
One of the things that I was the most excited for was endless options of Chinese restaurants. Naples just does not have a strong Chinese cuisine scene. We found a place not too far from our studio and headed there for dinner. The pandemic obviously hit NYC very hard, but people are resilient. They have new outdoor seating areas that feel very European and make dining much more enjoyable than it used to be!
Jackson got the spicy dumpling starter and almost died of heat! HA!
Praise the Lord for amazing food!
It was an adjustment being seated IN THE ROAD as the outdoor dining locations are now, but we made it. The place was a little pricey but we anticipated that and just had to adjust our expectations.
We decided that since NY is known for bagels we'd give as many authentic bagel joints a shot as possible. I was back to work on Tuesday morning, but we woke up early and walked to a well-reviewed nearby joint for breakfast. It was so fun to eat out in the middle of everything and people watch before heading back to get logged in for the day.
Our first traditional bagel breakfast sandwich of the trip--delicious!
City dog, coming through!
LEVAIN!!!
We have rooftop access! Who knew?!
Jazzed for our new hangout spot!
Taylor Swift has a song about "Cornelia Street" on one of her albums
Well, I'm only about two years behind on blogging so there's that. I've missed it. I love journaling my life for both the memories and to practice composing more than just a quick email or text message.
My plan is to work on updating our month living in New York City and then slowly work through to backlog that spans to September, 2019. LIFE BEFORE COVID. Can you imagine?! We were all so young and innocent back then.
Anyway, I've wanted to live in New York City since the day I was born. I think I came out of the womb signing Sinatra's New York, New York. (I checked and the song was released in 1977 so this is feasible given that I didn't debut until 1984. I've not conferred with my mom to see if she recalls hearing this upon giving birth to me, but it was a long time ago so she may have forgotten by now.)
Given that I work remotely and have exclusively since 2016, the pandemic did not change much for me as far as that goes. It did, however, mean that Jackson transitioned from traveling to present to folks to doing it via the web. This means he can also work from anywhere right now. Since vaccines have rolled out we were not sure how much longer all of this freedom to work anywhere was going to last. Basically, the stars had aligned and we spent a large sum of money to rent a furnished studio apartment in Manhattan for a month! We were there from August 16, 2021 until September 15, 2021. It was an AMAZING experience that I cannot wait to relive via writing these blog entries.
For now, though, here is a tour of our small place.
We spent roughly $4,500 to rent this place for the month on Airbnb. That felt like a ton of money to a girl from small town Indiana, but the New Yorkers we met found it to be a fair price. Who knows?! We just needed a place that allowed dogs and had laundry which sounds simple and is not. It was a 4th floor walk-up which was undisclosed until we arrived. Whoops! We got a lot of exercise carrying MacKenzie up and down those stairs. MacKenzie is 14 now and will do some stairs, but just cannot take them all like she used to. She was a trooper and certainly adjusted just fine to life in the city, though.
As I said, it was an incredible trip and I'm excited to write all about it. Stay tuned!
