Overnight in Manhattan

Maybe I was looking forward to it more than I should have, but I hadn't stayed overnight in Manhattan since our honeymoon.

But Thursday, for one night only, I had the chance. Paul had a full day of work meetings and meals in the city, and his company was putting him up in midtown's Intercontinental Barclay Hotel for the night. I couldn't let that go to waste.

Paul was planning to be with his out-of-town work friends until the wee hours (a prediction that turned out to be true) so I was on my own for the night. My goal: do as many things as possible in one night that he would've hated.

First stop: Bloomingdale's. I wasn't in the market for anything, but it is a New York landmark (that I also hadn't visited since our honeymoon). Then the big H&M store on Fifth Avenue. Then a shortcut through Rockefeller Center to Times Square, where I climbed the big, red neon steps above the TKTS booth.


As I made my way back to the hotel's neighborhood, I inadvertently walked through the dark-and-dreary diamond district and finally found the cupcake shop I had picked out for dessert. A quick stop for a pumpernickel bagel with strawberry cream cheese and I was off to the hotel.

The room exceeded my expectation. New York hotel rooms have a well-deserved reputations for being expensive and tiny. This room was actually normal sized! And the bed was as big and comfortable as any I'd every slept on-- just as wide as it was long.

The best part? The next morning my commute to work was cut in half to about 25 minutes, and I walked through Grand Central for only the second time in my life. That I could get used to.