Free Week in NYC? Yes, please! Thanks, Dannon!

About a month ago Dannon sent me to White Plains, NY for Intern Orientation – awesome job perk, yes? If you’re wondering (as I was) where exactly White Plains is, it’s about thirty miles from Manhattan.

Now, this was awfully convenient seeing as my best friend lives in the city. I hadn’t seen her in about a year and had been trying to invent an excuse to make it up there and ta-da! Intern Training! It’s apparently pretty common for the interns to schedule their flights so that they get to NYC the weekend BEFORE training starts so that they can spend time in the city (and since Dannon was going to pay for me to go up there anyway, there was no additional cost to fly up early). I got to stay with Whitney for free, so it was probably the cheapest weekend I’ve ever spent in New York.

I actually got to stay for about four days, which felt a lot longer considering Whitney had all the fabulous things planned for us to do. She’s lived there for about a year now, so she’s been able to find all of the neat “local” hang outs (which translates to tourist free and cheaper – who wouldn’t like that?)

I got there late Friday night, and the first thing we did on Saturday morning was have tea (as an early birthday celebration – thanks Whit!) at Alice’s Tea Cup. Oh, it was precious. If you’ve been to Serendipity III, it’s very similar but cuter and less crowded. We had tea, roasted asparagus and pears, granola, yogurt and fresh fruit, and two perfect Nutella and raspberry crepes. A lovely way to start a Saturday.

The rest of the day was spent checking out a couple of neat, less traveled, New York City sites. First stop: the Cloisters – an old cathedral filled with a collection of medival Spanish and Italian treasures. Who would have thought an area like that was hidden in the middle of New York City?

After that: the High Line – once an above ground subway line, now a really long city park. Then, drinks at the Frying Pan – a ship that used to reside on the bottom of the Hudson that has since been converted into a restaurant and bar – and dinner at the Trailer Park – classy, huh? We did have a show to get to that night, but we made one last stop here: the Strand – miles and miles of new and used books. We could have wandered for days.

Whitney and I are both Broadway fans, so no trip to NYC would have been complete without a show or two. The first one we picked was Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. It’s an Off Broadway musical (at the Public) that tells the story of Andrew Jackson’s life…set to emo-rock (imagine Green Day meets the Patriot). It was hilarious! We had the best time. Not to mention, the tickets were only $25 each.

That wrapped up our Saturday. Given that we had exhausted ourselves the day before, Sunday was pretty relaxed. I went with Whitney to the class she teaches every week and we caught another show afterwards – Everyday Rapture with Sherrie Rene Scott. The musical is basically a one woman show that features Scott describing her journey from a Mennonite childhood to Broadway. Oh, and we scored those tickets for $10 each! It’s nice to have a BFF with connections. After the show, we had dinner in Central Park, made the evening service at Redeemer Pres, and headed home.

Monday was fairly laid back, too. We got up, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, had pizza at Grimaldi’s, and headed out to Coney Island…this was a bad plan. It was Memorial Day…oops. I have NEVER seen that many people on a boardwalk. After fighting our way through the crowd at the train station, then on the street, then down the boardwalk, we finally found a less crowded spot of beach. THEN, just as we put our towels down and got comfortable…the sun went behind a cloud. Not a little cloud, the kind that stretches on forever. It didn’t take long for us to start shivering and give up on beach time. We headed back to the station, fought through the crowd again, road the most packed subway car I’ve been on since my trip to Japan, ordered Indian take out and Pink Berry and watched BBC shows on Netflix – a much better plan.

Tuesday was my last day with Whit before heading to White Plains, so we kept it simple. Breakfast at the apartment, some packing, and lunch at one of our favorites – Ruby Foo’s (in Times Square). Then, she had to go to work, so I headed off to Grand Central to catch my train to White Plains (not the easiest of feats by myself seeing as my luggage was to heavy to carry comfortably up and down the subway stairs). I made it, though, and in one piece. More info on Orientation to come in the next post.