NYC – Day 0-0.5! (Ess-A-Bagel, Helicopter Ride!)

Hubs and I have never been to NYC so given that it’s only a short flight away, we planned a quick trip out there for Memorial Day. Apologies to those who have already seen the photos on Facebook but those albums are not exactly conducive in letting me spout off my various thoughts.

The flight was reasonably comfortable; definitely <3 flying on Virgin America. I got the W Hotel New York on Priceline for a whopping 137 a night!

The flight into JFK was pretty smooth and I got to point out the A380 out to Sam since he’s never seen one yet. We meandered our way through the airport, found the signs for AirTrain and hopped on board and headed off to the Jamaica Transit Center… to hope on the E train into Manhattan.

I’ve been in Asia in the summer, dissected cadavers, thrown out garbage that had a week old rotting meat in it but nothing prepped me for the smell of the NY subway station on a humid day. It was horrendous.

I couldn’t wait until the subway finally came so I could escape into the train. Fortunately the insides were clean and A/C-ed.

First stop was the W Hotel to check in and we went off to Ess A Bagel to grab breakfast… and to fill my happy foodie stomach with my first taste of a NY bagel.

It didn’t disappoint. Although my “lox cream cheese bagel” turned into a “lox and cream cheese bagel” and tripled in price. EEK! The lox was super salty and I ended up picking most of it out.

After breakfast, we went back to the W and crashed. Hard. Something about redeyes made me feel like a walking zombie.

We woke up around 1PM and headed down to hail a cab to go off to the helipad and catch a helicopter tour of Manhattan. It was our first sight of the Brooklyn Bridge, and venturing down the expressway next to the East River. The wait outside was unbearably hot but once in the helibopper, it was awesome!