A bit of a disclaimer: I'm writing in 2025 about a trip I took in the summer of 2012. My perspective on this trip has changed a lot in the last thirteen years.
For one, I wish I had taken more pictures. To be fair, my little Samsung Intercept wasn't exactly a photography powerhouse, and it had – and this is true, I looked it up – 512 megabytes of stores. MEGA bytes.
New York has a smell. It's not offensive, but its a big city with lots of people. The rash blowing down the streets felt like the sort of culture shock a person is embarrassed to admit to. The entire first day was spent recovering from our red-eye flight. What started as a short napped snowballed into us waking up late in the evening.
My wife did so much work to make this trip happen, planning out every possible activity, researching every subway route, and booking all of our accommodations. I was, to put it mildly, underappreciative.
The catalyst for the trip was to see my wife's cousin perform in These Seven Sicknesses at the Flea Theater in Tribeca. According to reviews, the performance lasted five hours, and I think we ended up seeing it twice. The cast comes out and feeds you during one of the intermissions, which is an experience, to say the least.
This was a trip of a lot of firsts – dim sum (I think), walking tours, and riding the subway. We even ate pizza where Spiderman had a car thrown at him.
Some of the best meals of my life were on this trip. Meatballs in Tribeca, Pizza in the Village, curry at The Flea. New York is also home of the most underwhelming guac I've ever had, but I guess nowhere is perfect.
The rest of the trip was museums and parks and so much walking in 90+ degree heat. It was lovely.