Every year we spend the first weekend in November in New York City. It just so happens that our anniversary is November 3, Bill's Birthday is November 6, and the NYC Marathon is always the first Sunday in November. We use this an an excuse and opportunity to spend a few days in the city.
2016
The first year we didn't realize we would go back to New York, so we crammed as much in as we could in a 6-day trip to the city. The marathon fell on Bill's birthday.
Lower East Side
We picked the Lower East Side as our home base for the first 4 nights. The neighborhood is packed with bars and restaurants and still very accessible to the rest of the city. We stayed at the Hotel Indigo Lower East Side. It's a hip hotel nestled in the neighborhood with a rooftop bar. The rooms aren't huge, but the views are great!
Anniversary Night
We treated ourselves to a drink at 30 Rock at the Rainbow Room. The trick to visiting any observation deck is to see if there's a restaurant or bar in the building. If you're going to spend $25 to go to the top, might as well get a cocktail out of it!
World Trade Center
We did the observatory deck and the museum. It’s definitely a sobering experience — but one we needed to do. The elevator to the top is incredible. The whole elevator is made up of video screens that illustrate the building of NYC.
LES Drinks
MOMA
Hamilton on Broadway
We planned ahead enough to be able to buy Hamilton tickets when they were released. We had perfect seats to see Javier Muñoz portray Alexander Hamilton.
2016 NYC Marathon
The NYC Marathon will forever be our favorite marathon. Nothing compares to the crowds and the spirit of the race. It begins in Staten Island, works its way through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, then back into Manhattan to finish in Central Park.
This was the year Clare decided to step off a curb without looking and busted a cankle two days before the race. Not the ideal way to set off on a Marathon, but a sturdy brace and a slow and steady warm up kept us on pace for the race. Bill's goal was 5 Beers in 5 Burroughs. He succeeded. We even happened to run into two friends from Illinois during the race!
Central Park
Carol and Spencer met us the day after the marathon to hang out for the next few days.
The Met
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Katz’s Deli
Katz's is the ever famous deli featured in When Harry Met Sally. It's straight up old-school. And delicious. It was around the corner from our hotel.
Brooklyn
We did a tour of Brooklyn Brewery, which wasn't anything too unexpected, but it was great hearing the story of how Milton Glaser designed their logo.
2017
Year two ended up being a fluke. We snagged entries into the marathon and decided to make a go of it! It was our five-year anniversary as well. We took advantage of this and found a photographer to take pictures for us. We hadn't had pictures taken since our wedding and as it turned out, we didn't have many pictures of the two of us from our wedding at all.
Attaboy
Top 10 bar for us is Attaboy in LES. They don't have a menu, just have a chat with the bartender and he'll make you something that doesn't disappoint.
Broadway and the Mandarin Oriental
We saw Meteor Shower on Broadway with Amy Schumer and Keegan-Michael Key. Followed by drinks and dessert at The Office inside of The Aviary in the Mandarin Oriental.
Dumbo
Cheyanna De Nicola was our photographer in New York for our Anniversary Photos. She was INCREDIBLE! We did two sessions — a morning session in Dumbo, Brooklyn, and an evening session through Lower Manhattan.
Bâtard
We celebrated 5 years with a Michelin Star rated dinner at Bâtard. It was perfection from beginning to end.
After dinner we had an interesting bar experience at Threesome Tollboth it's a bar inside of a janitor's closet that holds exactly three people — the bartender and two guests. We had a selection of interesting cocktails in this very intimate setting. The photo is of the inside of the door we entered through off the street.
2017 NYC Marathon
The 2017 marathon went swimmingly. We didn't race together this time. The weather wasn't great for views. But the drizzle was great for running. We stayed cool and both performed well.
2018
Year three we tacked on a trip to Boston before heading down to the city.
Red Sox World Series Parade
We somehow have a knack for traveling into cities on the day of a World Series Parade. First, it was San Francisco in 2014, this time it was Boston. Our hotel was on the parade route, we could see it from our room. They use the duck boats to transport everyone!
JFK Presidential Museum
Our somewhat favorite nerdy travel activity is to travel to Presidential Museums. They are fascinating and always designed beautifully. This trip we were able to knock two off our list!
Food & Drinks
Our most successful endeavor in Boston was eating and drinking our way through the city. Easily the most fun we've had on a trip.
FDR Presidential Museum
We drove from Boston to NYC. It was a beautiful drive that was unfortunately filled with lots of rain and a *bit of a hangover. We hit up the FDR museum in Hyde Park shortly before hitting the city. The museum sits on the family's property and is quite impressive. The tour includes a walk through his home.
2018 NYC Marathon
Sadly, 2018 was the year Clare got sick before the marathon. And rather than trying to suffer through it we decided it would be best to simply beer-sherpa that day.
With a trusty backpack and a 12-Pack of Michelob Ultra (the Gatorade of Beer) Bill and Spencer successfully had 12-13 beers each throughout the race. If you're wondering how easy it is to spectate the NYC Marathon, it's a lot of work, but super easy to navigate. They have spectator guides that tell you which stops are at certain mile markers. Having Find My Friends on the phone helped to keep track of their progress. Not surprisingly, their pace slowed significantly after beer 10 making it much easier to keep up with them.
No Broadway show this year. But we did get to see Lake Street Dive with Carol and Spencer!
2019
In 2019 we decided to shake things up a bit and stayed in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan. What a difference it made! We stayed at a brand new Hotel Indigo in Williamsburg just steps away from great bars and restaurants. We got an upgrade to a loft suite. Which was a great idea until we realized we'd have to climb the spiral staircase after running a marathon.
NYC Public Library
Wallsé
Our anniversary dinner this year was at a Michelin rated Austrian Restaurant Wallsé. It was incredible. Foie Gras, Rösti, Halibut, Strudel ... so ... good.
William Vale Hotel
2019 NYC Marathon
This year Bill decided to go for a "BR" during the marathon. It was on our 7th anniversary and neither of us were trained very well for the run. So we took it easy and enjoyed the day. Bill enjoyed it more than most by having over 20 drinks during the race that took us 7 hours and 15 minutes.
