24 Hours in NYC with Scarlett
"One belongs to New York instantly, and one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years." - Tom Wolfe
Throwing it back to December 2024 when Scarlett and I made the most of 24 hours together in New York City! This was a bit of a redemption trip for Scarlett - the last time we went to NYC during the holidays she came down with the flu on the train ride there. Despite being really sick, she powered thru as best she could but I knew she couldn't enjoy it like she wanted to. So this time around she got to pick our itinerary and I pretty much said "yes" to anything she wanted :)
At the top of her list was seeing Wicked on Broadway. She also wanted to shop, go ice skating, and get a frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity. So that's exactly what we did!
I originally tried to get us a room at the Plaza because it's iconic (and fancy!) but I waited too late and all rooms were spoken for. And when I actually thought about it, I decided to book us at a hotel near Bryant Park because I knew we'd ice skate during the evening and would want a short walk back to our room to cozy up for girl time and sleep. So I decided on the Bryant Park Hotel directly across from Bryant Park and it worked great for us. We had a nice view from our room and everything she wanted to get to was within easy walking distance.
The day we left we took the first train out in the morning and arrived at Penn Station by 11am. We quickly dropped our bags at the hotel and noticed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building next door (New York Public Library's flagship location). It's free to the public so we wandered thru and were so impressed. It's hard not to feel inspired by its grand spaces, research rooms, and exhibitions. After, we grabbed a quick lunch from Heritage Grand Bakery and then made our way to the Gershwin Theater for our matinee showing of Wicked the musical.
This was Scarlett's first time seeing a musical on Broadway and it did not disappoint. She was mesmerized and didn't bat an eye at the three hour duration. It was so fun to see her enjoy it so much! She said it was the highlight of our getaway.
She requested a "fancy" dinner somewhere that served cheeseburgers :) so I booked us a table at Parker & Quinn where we ate before our ice skating reservations later that evening. Not my ideal dinner spot while in NYC but this whole trip was about her and she loved it. Afterward, we headed to the skating rink at Bryant Park. I reserved tickets ahead of time and for 45 minutes we skated(ish) until our toes were numb. We grabbed hot chocolate at the rink's Winter Village afterward and recapped our full day together. Side note - we skated at Wohlford rink in Central Park a few years back and it was magical. I'd go back there for a more iconic NYC experience but with 9-year old legs (and stamina) I chose one target area for the 24 hours we were there and stayed within that. Thankfully our hotel was a few steps away so once we made it back to our room we changed into our PJs and snuggled in for the night.
We had until 1pm the next day to get our last dose of NYC before heading home so we hit the ground running after breakfast and headed to Rockefeller Center to take in the holiday magic and then explored all the kid-approved flagship stores we could - American Girl, M&M, Lego, and Sephora. Before heading back to the train station we grabbed lunch and frozen hot chocolate (gigantic) and an ice cream sundae (also gigantic) at Serendipity because it was a "yes" weekend and why not. It's got a super fun, sweets-themed vibe that definitely appeals to kids and she thought it was amazing. After ending our whirlwind 24 hours with a sugar coma, we made our way to the train station and snuggled up for the train ride back to DC.
The amount of love and sincere appreciation she showed for this time together blew me away. We held hands everywhere we went, talked, laughed, connected, and enjoyed every second of our quality time together and it was so special. My heart just bursts with love for this little girl.
