Friday, July 17
After sitting at the gate for nearly an hour, our journey to our weekend in New York City officially began around a quarter ’til six. The extended weekend trip marks our longest time away from the kids and perhaps a baby moon of sorts before our family expands again in January.
On the plane itself, we took a couple of selfies to send to the kids, flipped through the the American Airlines magazine, managing to solve half of the MENSA questions, and looked through the map of North America destinations to create our bucket list. Cuba tops my list, while a quasi-travel-weary Amanda stuck to less exotic destinations of the Grand Canyon and Maine. We agreed a trip to Disney World should be on the docket before Noah is too old.
We sent this selfie to the kids before taking off from Des Moines International.
Every few minutes, Amanda is slightly startled by tiny pieces of ice, which somehow fall from the airplane’s ceiling onto various parts of her clothing. There are two empty seats in the plane’s final row but Amanda insists the occasional mini-ice pellets are more amusing than annoying.
I’ve been to New York roughly a dozen times on business trips, but this marks my first leisurely visit and the first visit period for Amanda. The highlight of the trip (for me) is at the end our our first full day in the city, when we see U2 perform at Madison Square Garden. We also plan to visit Ellis Island, Central Park, and Ground Zero, while spending time in a handful of New York’s many unique neighborhoods and eating copious amounts of Shake Shack hamburgers and mini cupcakes from Baked by Melissa.
The U2 concert sign outside Madison Square Garden (photo taken Saturday.)
We landed at Ronald Reagan Airport not long after 9:00 p.m. and were treated to some cool views of the Washington Monument, National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial and other landmarks on our descent. The layover was short, giving us just enough time to pickup our order from Five Guys before boarding the plane.
Amanda takes bites of the Five Guys cheeseburger we shared.
We were treated to exit row seating on our flight to New York LaGuardia, one of the best perks of any flight, especially when we snagged the seats without an upgrade cost. We split our Five Guys cheeseburger and excessive quantity of fries all while enjoying the extra legroom. In contrast to our first flight of the day, we were on the runway before the scheduled time of departure.
Nothing better than extra leg room in airplane exit rows.
While I’m a big fan of public transportation, the prospect of an hour-plus bus and subway ride from LaGuardia wasn’t overly appealing especially given our late arrival. We opted for the efficient taxi ride, taking in pieces of the New York City, taking the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge from Queens to Manhattan. The ride marked Amanda’s first in a traditional yellow taxi.
Saturday, July 18
As Amanda relaxed in the hotel room Saturday morning, I took a few minutes to scope out the concert venue and pick up a variety of mini cupcakes from Baked by Melissa. The cupcakes were one of Amanda’s most anticipated aspects of the trip, as they had become a requirement for me to take back after each business trip to the city. On the way back, I encountered a brief period of heavy rain, ultimately the only rain we encountered during our weekend trip.
The cupcake selection at Baked by Melissa.
Amanda and I walked down Fifth Avenue to 23rd Street, site of the iconic Flatiron Building. Before lunch, we stopped by the LEGO store, where Emmie was the benefactor of our first gift purchase, getting a handpicked box of primarily pink, orange, and white “pick-a-brick” LEGOs along with a purple LEGO-style cup to match the blue one Noah received for his 5th birthday.
Amanda poses in front of the Flatiron Building in NYC.
Amanda’s cup for Emmie in front of the “pick-a-brick” wall.
Our lunch spot was Eataly, a massive Italian grocery store and eatery home to seven unique restaurants. We ate at La Pasta and La Pizza, which featured seats on the mezzanine level overlooking other diners and, appropriately, the pasta section of the groceries. I ordered ravioli with spring pea and ricotta while Amanda chose the pappardelle with sautéed mushrooms, thyme, butter, and parmesan. Both entrees made for an excellent start to our NYC eating.
We jumped on the subway, taking it a few stops south to the Soho neighborhood before returning in the opposite direction to Grand Central Station. We took in the impressive terminal before heading to the dining concourse, where Amanda opted for a cold Mountain Dew and I grabbed a Black and White shake at Shake Shack.
We then rode the subway to Bank Street Book Store, an excellent children’s bookstore located on the Upper West Side. I made a point to go there on nearly every business trip, looking for books to take back to the kids; we perused the store for a while before deciding to buy two new chapter books for Noah, including Charlotte’s Web. (Lately, Amanda has been reading pieces of longer books to Noah each night before he goes to bed.)
On our way back to the hotel, we happened upon a large crowd along 42nd Street; as it turns out, President Obama was in New York City, and the road was closed for the motorcade. I thought I had decent video of the numerous police and secret service cars driving down the street but clumsily neglected to start recording.
After a to-go dinner from Pret A Manager, a favorite during our time in London, Amanda and I were ready for a nap before the evening festivities commenced. We slept until 7, when it was time to get up and head toward Madison Square Garden, site of the much-anticipated U2 Innocence + Experience tour concert.
As a long-time member of the U2 fan club, I was able to purchase pre-sale tickets to the show; while many fans are looking for the general admission floor tickets, I was successful in acquiring tickets in the front row of the second level, which offered a fantastic view of the stage and the added benefit of no tall, talkative, or otherwise obnoxious fans to block the view.
I was blown away by the quality of the music and visuals at the concert. The setup included the band’s primary stage and an “e” stage where the band performed a number of songs during the show. The two stages were connected by a long walkway below an impressive video cage with 2,000+ square foot screens facing each side of the arena.
The e-stage was the closest to our seats.
The concert started with the first single from the band’s newest album Songs of Innocence followed by The Electric Co., a track from their first album released 35 years ago. The first set featured several songs related to band’s formative years in Dublin, where visuals added another dimension to the lyrics of the songs. This 55-second clip from Cedarwood Road provides a good look at the versatility of the stages, walkway, and screens:
After a one-song intermission, the band performed Invisble and Even Better than the Real Thing from within the video cage before proceeding to the e-stage for Mysterious Ways and Elevation. For the latter, a fan was invited to the stage to film the performance on Meerkat, which was broadcast live to a global audience.
The biggest surprise performance of the night was October, the title track to the band’s 1981 CD, a song which had note been performed in over 25 years. Performed by The Edge on piano and Bono on vocals, it was followed by Every Breaking Wave, one of Emmie’s favorites. We dialed her up on FaceTime to provide a piece of the concert performance.
Emmie intently watched a part of the performance of “Every Breaking Wave.”
With or Without You was next, and we were treated to a snippet of the fan favorite “shine like stars” coda at the end of the song; a near-chaotic version of Bullet the Blue Sky concluded the main set. Beautiful Day began the encore, followed by my all-time-favorite Where the Streets Have No Name, and concluding with a singalong of One from the Achtung Baby album. While there were Twitter rumors of President Obama and/or Bruce Springsteen being in the audience, the most famous known attendees were Bon Jovi and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Red is always the color for “Where the Streets Have No Name.”
No opening act meant the concert concluded just after 11:00, giving us time to visit Times Square at night, when the lights were in full effect. Unfortunately, many, many other tourists had the same thought, and Times Square was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it; we bought a few surprisingly-reasonably-priced gifts for Emmie at the Disney Store before a stop at H&M and past-midnight walk back to the hotel room.