The Big Apple With Baylie

The Hawaii trip was a wake up call for me that we need to travel more. We fly for free and time is passing and we need to take advantage of these opportunities. Baylie had a 3-day weekend the weekend before her birthday so I decided we should go somewhere. Originally I wanted to take her to Europe, but realized her passport would expire a few days before the trip. I decided we wanted to just take a non-stop somewhere so we wouldn't get bumped in a connection city.

After looking at a few options, we decided to go to New York City. Originally we wanted to see Hamilton, but the tickets were way to expensive. We could get two tickets to Phantom of the Opera for the price of one Hamilton ticket. Plus, we learned that the lead was the first black woman to play Christine on Broadway. 

We had to wait until after the recital so we left early Friday morning to drive to the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport. They have a non-stop flight to Newark. We had fun singing in the car. I love being with Baylie.

We put Baylie's  hair in extensions for the trip. It was a lot of hair!

Baylie is such a fun travel partner. 

The weather in NYC was going to be freezing so I bought Baylie boots and a coat since she didn't have either. 

We got First Class!

Once we got to Newark, we caught the Airport Express to the Port Authority in New York. It was really close to our hotel and we even walked by the theater on the way!

Our hotel was only two blocks from Times Square. Perfect! It was freezing!

We got a great deal at the Hotel St. James. It was an older hotel, but it was clean, the reception guy was fantastic and the location couldn't have been better.

Our room was heated by a radiator!

The elevator was old, but it worked!

Check out that phone and bell! 

Baylie had a list of things she wanted to do - mainly see the Hershey and M&M stores. We bought Jalen the largest Reese's peanut butter cup made. We even got stopped by airport security so they could see what that weird thing was in our suitcase.

A fellow Optavia coach, Julia, recommended that we get pizza at BSide. It was incredibly good. 

We ordered the roasted cauliflower and a Marge pizza. Delicious! 

We hit the M&M store on the way back to our hotel. It was huge.

Hugh Jackman is on Broadway. I would have loved to see him live, but those tickets were even more than Hamilton.

Baylie LOVED Phantom. It brought back memories of when I first saw it. It's such an emotional experience. And I loved that she got to see someone that looked like her on stage in the lead role. It was a beautiful evening.

We walked back through Times Square to get back to our hotel. It had been a perfect day.

The next day, we met my fellow coach, Julia, for breakfast at the Star Lite Deli. She said they had the best New York bagels.

Baylie agreed that the bagels were amazing. I had an omelet that was less amazing...

Then we went to Junior's for New York pizza.

I got a little raspberry one that was delicious. Apparently they also sell them at Costco, but I'm sure it's not the same as getting it fresh in NYC.

Baylie doesn't like cheesecake, but she loved her red velvet cheesecake from Junior's.

We went through Times Square one last time on our way back to the Port Authority to catch our bus.

We got First Class on the way home too!

It was a perfect trip. We were only gone one night, but had such an adventure. I look forward to more experiences like this. I hope Baylie will always remember this special time we shared together.