Hello, NYC!

As a surprise Christmas gift this year we (Jenn!) came up with the idea to fly out on boxing day to New York city for a little getaway! We set up a scavenger hunt to set up the trip: first some new traveling backpacks, then the trip itself, then a some tickets to a few shows, the some Oilers merch so we could go to a few Oilers games!

So as mentioned, after the usual busy-ness of Christmas day, plus the addition of getting our Covid departure tests and packing as well, we were off to the airport on Boxing day. We stayed downtown at the Sheraton Times Square, kind of our go-to hotel in NYC. Centrally located, within walking distance to Times Square, the theatre district, and Rockefeller Center among other places – it’s a good spot.

The first day we were in a James Bond kind of mood as we went to Spyscape, a cool spy museum / experience with interactive puzzles, tests to see how good a spy you might be, and some fun behind-the-scenes James Bond movie stuff. We hit Dave n’ Busters for lunch and spent the rest of the day walking around, enjoying the lights and the NYC-at-Christmas vibe. It wasn’t too cold either!

We kept busy over the next few days, doing some more wandering to places like the Museum of Mathematics (nerd alert!), Rockefeller Center, and an escape room (which we beat to keep our perfect solve streak alive). We had a fun brunch at the Stardust Diner (some real broadway-calibre singers serving you food!) and a fancy dinner at Tao uptown, too.

Whoa… pretty lights

Our first ‘big ticket’ event was the play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – SO good! The sets, special effects, of course the play itself – awesome. Something about seeing a show in NYC just makes it better somehow, too. (Thanks to Jenn’s folks for the tickets!)

Next stop was a quick Uber ride up the island for a full day at the Bronx Zoo to see some animals! We put a few miles on our shoes that day, it’s a pretty big place to wander around. Some of our favorites were the penguins, the tiger, some lazy grizzly bears, and of course the giraffes! Ryley convinced us to go for a ride on an old-timey carousel, and there was a cool Christmas light show on after dusk. We happily retired to our hotel that night with sore feet and our Shake Shack takeout!

We wandered to Bryant Park on New Year’s eve day for some ice skating, which was very cool (pun intended!). Only complaint is the skates are the worst, but that is always the case with rentals! It was cool skating in the park surrounded by skyscrapers, I think Josh did about 700 laps! Ryley later got her wish and convinced us to take her to Sloomoo for a slime extravaganza! (Yuck.) A little shopping before dinner at Benihana, then back to the hotel to listen to the throngs of people in Times Square down the street for the big New Years eve celebrations (which we happily watched on TV instead)!

Ice to See You

Before the trip, we had booked a Cirque de Soleil performance and the Rockettes Christmas Spectactular, but they fell victim to Covid and were cancelled before we got there! Fortunately, the two Edmonton Oilers hockey games we booked were NOT cancelled (yay)! First one was on New Years day on Long Island against the Islanders, followed by another a few days later at the famous Madison Square Garden against the Rangers. Two games, two losses unfortunately – but we happily cheered them on, decked out in our Oilers gear.

In between the Oilers games and before we went back to Bermuda, we of course filled the time with more stuff! Some indoor skydiving, a visit to the Oculus at One World Trade Center (very cool), and the girls went to Wicked while Josh and I went to a movie a few blocks away. We also had one more great meal at Tony’s the night before we left.

A fantastic week or so away from the island! The only unfortunate part was after we all tested negative for Covid upon our arrival in Bermuda, the kids and I tested positive on day 4 (Jenn somehow tested negative) and thus had a week of quarantine to serve before testing out negative. We all felt fine throughout so it was more of an inconvenience than anything…!

All in all a great Christmas and wonderful visit to New York City! Enjoy the photos…!