We just got back from vacation and it was great, and I want to tell you about it in case you are considering a trip to DC or to NYC. First of all, we booked our hotels and our train travel (Amtrak) through Amtrak which gave us a pretty good price on our hotels, which are expensive in both cities. We also consulted friends who had lived or spent time in both cities. I also did a lot of research online. Before we left, we planned each day and made reservations for dinner (where necessary) and for things we wanted to see/do and put all the information together in a spreadsheet. It was super nerdy, but it allowed us to maximize our time in both cities and we saw a LOT!
We left at 11:30 p.m. on September 11th from Atlanta on the Amtrak Crescent Line on our way to Washington, DC. However, before we left, the future me was insisting that I clean our house and take care of all kinds of things and it was a busy day, but not as busy as my days were about to get.
We booked a Roomette which made us first class passengers on the train. When we arrived on board, our beds (narrow, but reasonably comfortable) were already made up and our porter came by to take our breakfast order. This roomette was different than the one we had on the train from Chicago to Glacier National Park in that it had a sink and a toilet in the roomette and there was a shower down the hall. On our train to Glacier, everything was located in common bathrooms. This train, also did not have a dining car and all our meals were served in our roomette. One thing to note is that there is virtually no room for luggage in a roomette (and they will caution you about this when you check in). We had Mike’s backpacking pack with us on the train and we could have fit one more really small bag–like a small tote.
If we take the train again (and we probably will), we will get a bedroom which has twice as much space and doesn’t have this toilet situation. We arrived at Union Station in DC around 1:30 p.m. on September 12th and collected our bag, and they actually checked the bag versus our ticket to ensure that it was ours. That was the first time I have ever experienced that.
Then we got a couple of metro cards and took the metro to North Farragut station which was literally across the street from the Mayflower Hotel. Our room wasn’t ready, so we dropped our bags with the bell station and went exploring to get our bearings. We went down the street and found the church where JFK’s funeral was held–St. Matthew’s Cathedral on Rhode Island Avenue. The mosaics were spectacular.
Then we saw signs for the Brewmaster’s Castle–Heurich House Museum. We could only walk around the Biergarten because tours are only offered Thursday through Saturday. It is a Gilded Age Mansion in the Dupont Circle neighborhood–according to Google.
We went back to the hotel and found that our room still wasn’t ready, so we grabbed a beer. We finally got to our room (very comfortable bed and pillow) and took a shower and rested for a while because neither of us slept well on the train. (My fitbit was really confused because of all the movement and didn’t register and sleep at all.) Then we got ready and went to dinner at Old Ebbit Grill. It was absolutely jammed with people and we were SO glad that we had made a reservation. The food was great. (It ended up being one of our favorite meals.) Then we made our way back to the hotel. Our route took us by LaFayette Square and we saw the back of the White House from there. It was a full day.
We got up on the 13th and went to Toastique for breakfast. It is expensive (but everything in DC is expensive) but REALLY good. My husband had the avocado toast and added a poached egg and I had the smoked salmon and added a poached egg. So beautiful and delicious.
Then it was time to start our day and we walked to the Smithsonian. We had time, so when we walked by LaFayette square, we read plaques and listened to recordings about it. (We read a LOT of plaques.) Our first stop was the American History Museum and it was great. They have an exhibition about entertainment right now and it is worth a look.
We spent a few hours there and then we went to Jaleo (Jose Andres restaurant) and had tapas. We sat outside on a gorgeous (couldn’t have been more perfect) September day and ate and had half a pitcher of cava sangria. We would HIGHLY recommend this restaurant. Our waitress was super helpful and made some great recommendations and the service was outstanding and the food and drink was great.
We left there and made our way to Ford’s Theatre where we had a reservation at 4. (You need at LEAST and hour to see it.) It was so informative and we recommend getting the audio tour. We learned a bunch of things that we didn’t know about the politics of the time, Lincoln’s cabinet and military leaders and, of course, John Wilkes Booth and all his co-conspirators. Our brains were full, so we went to the Willard Hotel’s bar, the Round Robin, and had a drink on our way back to the hotel.
We showered and got ready for dinner at Le Des Sales which we found was on the side street right next to the hotel. We had high hopes for this restaurant based on the reviews, but we were disappointed because it was SO LOUD with no curtains, tablecloths, or anything to help dampen the noise from the bar area. The food was fine and service was good, but not worth the price. Another really busy day had come to an end.
September 14th was our last full day in DC. We ended up making a bad decision and not eating at our hotel like we had on the spreadsheet and found a Dunkin Donuts on our way. We WALKED to the Lincoln Memorial, which we do NOT recommend. It is really far and we went through some less great areas of town. I never felt like I was in danger, but I could have done without that experience. Friends of ours recommended the Lincoln Memorial over all the others. They were 100% correct. It is IMPRESSIVE.
From there, we took our lives in our hands and WALKED to Arlington National Cemetery. (It doesn’t look that far on the map, but it IS.) We went through the small museum at the Welcome Center and took the metro back into town and waited for the National Museum of African American History and Culture to open. It was unbelievable, and, of course, we learned so much that we didn’t know. This is the one museum that we went to in DC that was really crowded. Normally, we don’t eat at the restaurants in museums, but I had heard good things about Sweet Home Cafe. We had the fried chicken, greens, and macaroni and cheese and it was great. The servings were HUGE, so we split one between us. We saw some more of the exhibit and our brains got full, so we went on to the next thing on our list which was the National Art Gallery.
The National Art Gallery is just down the street and we started on the first floor which is mostly sculpture and European art and furniture and decorative arts. They had Rodin, Degas (the largest collection anywhere in the world), Giotto, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Duncan Phyfe, Seymour, etc. We wanted to see the National Portrait Gallery, so we headed there next.
The portrait gallery was one of the surprises on the trip. Mike liked it way more than I expected he would. We only made it through the presidential gallery and we loved how much history they included with the notes for each portrait. We didn’t remember how many presidents had died in office. Nixon’s portrait was interesting because it was so flattering and made him look more warm and friendly than I think he actually was (painted by Norman Rockwell). Here are some other interesting ones:
The Clinton portrait must be viewed from a distance because the closer you get, the less it makes sense. A really neat technique was used by the artist.
On our way back to the hotel, we came across this really cool building that used to be a department store.
We made it back to the hotel and went to dinner at the rooftop restaurant at the Hotel Washington, Vue. The food and drinks were good and we had a great view of the White House and Washington Monument, but the service was incredibly slow. If you make a reservation, they will charge you a $50/person deposit. I can’t really recommend this one because it felt overpriced. It was another LONG day of walking.
On the 15th, we went to breakfast again at Toastique and took the metro back to Union Station. This time, we walked out into the Great Hall and WOW! It is amazing. The train to NYC was running a little behind (30 minutes or so), but that was fine. We arrived in NYC at the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station (8th and 31st). NYC is super crowded everywhere, and walking on the street with luggage is challenging, but it was a short walk to our hotel, Holiday Inn Express–Chelsea, on 29th between 7th and 8th. Marijuana is legal in NYC and there is a dispensary on every block, so pot smoke is in the air virtually everywhere you go. We found that 8th avenue was one of the worst streets for this, so if it bothers you, take 9th avenue.
Our hotel was an average Holiday Inn Express, but it felt pretty dumpy after staying at The Mayflower. The rooms are small, but the beds are comfortable and the bathroom is efficient. It felt like we were the only ones staying there because we didn’t see many people until a couple of days after we arrived.
We hadn’t eaten lunch, so my husband found a little Irish pub across the street from Penn Station:
We knew we wanted to see more shows than we had already booked, so we asked our waitress about the best way to get tickets. She recommended avoiding Times Square (fine with us, it’s disgusting) and going directly to the box office where the show was playing. So after our really late lunch, we walked back to the hotel and then headed to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre where the Book of Mormon was playing. We were able to get FANTASTIC tickets–almost dead center of the orchestra. It was still too early to get in, so we went across the street and had a beer.
If you haven’t been to a Broadway show:
–Most of the theaters are not on Broadway, but on side streets along Broadway. Broadway, off-Broadway, and off off Broadway, refer to the seating capacity of the theatre, not the location.
–The theaters often look unremarkable from the outside.
–You have to go through security to get in.
–Follow the rules, or face the consequences.
–They only allow for 30 minutes to get everyone in and seated, so step lively.
–The ushers are great and will help you find your seats.
–The bathroom lines are LONG (especially for women), so plan accordingly, and we wouldn’t recommend getting a drink.
–All the shows that we attended had an intermission, but it’s only 15 minutes, so, again, step lively.
–When the show is over, they want you OUT, so don’t expect an opportunity to take any photos.
We walked back to our hotel and collapsed. Another long day.
On the 16th, we started our day at a cute little French Cafe on 9th Avenue that Mike found.
Located in Chelsea, La Bergamote is a purveyor of quality French cuisine.
La Bergamote’s was opened in May 1998 in the heart of Chelsea, NYC. Owners Romain Lamaze and Stephane Willemin serve fresh quality interpretations of classic french dishes as well daily baked fresh pastries. The success of La Bergamote is its consistent product quality and fresh ingredients.
After Croque Madame and quiche and some delicious coffee, we headed uptown to the High Line. The High Line is a public walking path/park that was built on an out of service elevated train line. It’s beautiful and peaceful, and you can almost imagine that you’re not in the middle of a huge city because it’s much quieter because of the elevation and all the vegetation. There are loads of public art installations along the way.
You can also see some really cool architecture.
From the High Line, we walked to Central Park. It is really just like in the movies. There were a couple of specific spots that we wanted to see.
Then we headed back towards Midtown to the Gershwin theatre to see Wicked–we booked these tickets in advance. On our way, we decided that we should eat some lunch and found Patsy’s Italian restaurant. It’s a super famous restaurant founded in 1944 and owned by the same family–loads of photos of celebrities all over the walls. Apparently, Frank Sinatra was a big fan.
I had the gnocchi with meat sauce and Mike had the ravioli. What we didn’t remember, is that we had planned to eat there for dinner than night. After lunch, we continued our walk to the Gershwin Theatre to see Wicked. One the way, we saw where Stephen Colbert films his show–gorgeous building.
This is a newer theatre, but still not enough bathrooms. We had marvelous seats.
Wicked was AMAZING. The set design and production were wonderful and the music was great.
We left the Gershwin and walked down to the Ambassador Theatre (across from the Eugene O’Neill Theatre to see if we could get tickets to Chicago.
And we DID! We went back to the hotel for a while to rest and then went back for the show.
The production of Chicago was really minimalist compared to everything else we saw. It was really good, but was blown out of the water by the other shows we saw. We walked back to the hotel and picked up a couple of slices of pizza along the way. It was surprisingly good. We walked more this day than any other so far. We were beat!
We slept well and got up and went to Chelsea Market for breakfast. We went to Amy’s bakery and it was really good. We spent a little time looking around, but a lot of the stores weren’t yet open. We found a cute bookstore and found some gifts for people.
Then we walked to the Richard Rodgers Theatre and got tickets to see Hamilton at 1 p.m. We killed some time until the theatre opened.
Again, we had fabulous seats. The tickets were expensive, but we both agreed that they were worth it. If you have the opportunity to see this show, we can’t recommend it highly enough. It was the favorite thing we did during our trip.
After we left the theatre, we walked over to the NYC Public Library at 5th and 42nd. This was a recommendation from a friend, and also from some of the research that I did. Absolutely worth fighting through the crowds to see.
It was a Sunday, so we could only see the big public spaces. We had intended to go back the following day, but the UN General Assembly started that day and the library is just inside the area that they were telling people to avoid.
People had told us that we needed to go to Katz’s Deli and so we headed out to find it. We went down 5th Avenue for most of the trip and wended our way through The East Village and the Bowery and finally made it Katz’s. We were dismayed to find a HUGE line (although Google said that it was less busy than other times). We were pleased to find the the line outside moves quickly and we found our way to window 8 (there are 8 windows/stations where you order your sandwich(es), and it was right beside the window where you order your drinks and side dishes. Things we learned:
–It’s EXPENSIVE–about $30 for a sandwich (but it was HUGE and we split it)
–Hold on to your ticket–that’s how they keep track of what you ordered. And if you lose it, they are still going to charge you.
–Look at the menu board in front of you and decide what you want before you get to the front and have to order.
–They are most famous for their pastrami and their corned beef, so get that.
–They recommend everything on rye bread.
–If they put mustard on your sandwich, it will be a LOT. There is mustard on the tables, so we got ours without mustard.
–They put pickles on every plate. If you don’t like pickles, you can ask them to leave them off.
–Their fries are really good.
–You should NOT go there stoned. We saw a couple of guys who ordered so much food and couldn’t finish it, but they looked cool in their sunglasses.
We were stuffed, so we headed back to the hotel. We passed Bryant Park, and the Flat Iron Building on the way. Great day, but a little too much walking.
When we were gathering information on the trip to NYC, we learned that if you want to go to the Statue of Liberty, you should book your tickets as soon as you know what day you want to see it. Broadway shows are closed on Mondays, so we booked that for the 18th. We had great luck with the weather during the trip and it ran out the last full day of our vacation. It was raining pretty steadily, but fortunately, the ferry to the islands is at the southern tip of Manhattan, so we took the metro–even Mike didn’t want to walk that far.
We arrived early and killed some time at Battery Park. We got our tickets and wristbands (for the crown) and went through airport type security before boarding the ferry to Liberty Island. We went through the museum in the pedestal of the statue before climbing the zillion stairs to the base of the statue. We stepped outside to cool off for a second before beginning our ascent to the crown. What we learned:
–The steps up into the crown are a double helix spiral stair case and are more like a ladder than stairs.
–If you are tall, not pretty fit, or claustrophobic, you should NOT attempt it.
–You should not bring really small children up these stairs. The poor kid whose parents didn’t know this was having a MELTDOWN.
–You get to see the inside of the statue and how it’s put together which is really cool.
–The windows in the crown are small, so it’s hard to see much.
–The southwestern section of Liberty Island is man made. There was a fort on the island before the Statue of Liberty was erected.
–The walls around the pedestal were part of the fort.
We got back on the ferry and went to Ellis Island to see the museum there. We got the free audio tour (highly recommend) and did the Immigrant Experience tour. There are a bunch of buildings on Ellis Island–mostly hospitals and dormitories for immigrants who were detained. The museum is in the building that they used to process immigrants as they arrived. The building is beautiful and massive.
We got back on the ferry to Battery Park and headed back uptown. We got off the metro at 23rd street and had Dim Sum at a highly rated restaurant. Then back to the hotel to change out of our wet clothes and rest.
Mike mentioned that we really needed to get some NY Cheesecake while we were there, so we headed out to New York Bakery and Desserts–only 10 minutes away and we got a couple slices. It was really good. Then it was back to the hotel where we went to bed EARLY.
The next morning we packed up, and headed to the NJ Transit portion of Penn Station and took the train to the Newark International Airport. We didn’t really have any issues between Penn station and the airport, but by the time we got through security it was 2 hours since we left our hotel.
Things we learned:
–Scope out the return trip early and get your tickets on a weekend, especially if you’re leaving in the morning on a weekday.
–Allow PLENTY of time to get to your gate at the airport.
–Newark is the nicest airport that we have been to.
The rest of the trip home was completely uneventful. We had a great time and both agree that we would like to go back to both places.
Cathy At Home on the River 