2025 – NYC TRIP – GAL PAL 60^TH BIRTHDAY TRIP

OCT 1^ST – 6^TH, 2025

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It was a trip to celebrate 60^th birthdays with friends who I’ve known mostly since the 1^st grade.   We celebrated our 50^th birthdays in NYC, so it seems we have established a tradition to kick off each decade!  

When you have 7 ladies traveling together in a big city, there is no way that everyone is going to agree to do the same things every day, so there were a lot of smaller group outings and then meeting up for lunch or dinner.   Also, many of us have family and friends who live in the NYC/Eastern Coast area and wanted to see these people.  

I arrived in Newark in the evening of October 1^st and had pre-scheduled a driver to pick me up and drive me into Manhattan to the Westin Grand Central (the same place where we stayed 10 years ago and they even gave us the 2015 price!!- thank you, friends!)  Other than typical 5pm traffic, the ride was smooth, and my driver was patient, kind and the vehicle was clean and comfortable.   Some friends took taxis or Ubers and there were some colorful stories, that is not my vibe!   My arrival at the hotel was uneventful, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had been upgraded to a 1-bedroom suite!   Once I arrived at my suite, they had champagne and a cake waiting for our group’s collective birthday celebrations.   Four other friends had arrived before me with 2 friends scheduled to arrive the next day.  We met up for drinks in the hotel bar and then walked to dinner about 15 minutes from our hotel.  We had a lovely Italian dinner and walked back to our hotel and decided to pop the champagne and have dessert.    Later that evening, my cousin arrived on the train from Connecticut to spend the night with me, we stayed up until 2am talking- which is no surprise.

The next day, my cousin and I took the subway to meet her brother and his wife by Chelsea Pier where we took a 3-hour Architectural Boat tour around Manhattan.  I highly recommend this tour, it was filled with so much information, we had a great historian on board narrating the tour, we had a clear day, and it was not even cold on the water, which I was half expecting.   After the tour, we walked along the High Line, which was something I had always wanted to do and then sat by the Vessel on park benches to chit chat some more.  We had thought we could talk more on the boat tour but because of the narration, we needed to keep quiet.    Ray & Greta left to go home to Queens and then Jeanne and I made our way back towards my hotel.  We stopped in Times Square for some lunch and then she took the train back to CT and I got ready for the Gal Pal dinner/night out on the town.  This was our “festive” night!   

Our big night out in the town included a limo that took us from place to place, starting with Baccarat for pre-dinner cocktails, then we went to Balthazar for dinner and finished the night at Nomad Ritz Carlton Rooftop Bar where we enjoyed some beautiful views.  Overall, we had a successful night, and we were back at our hotel around midnight. 

I’m going to call the next day, “Freaky Friday”.  More on that later, but a few of the ladies had 10am entrance tickets to the MET.   If you’ve read my review from Portugal & Spain, you know that I am not a museum person and I decided I was going to sit this one out.   I had some work to do and wanted to sleep in a bit, one of my friends had done the same, so she & I met up and had a quick Starbucks breakfast & then met up with the others where they were having lunch at Grand Central Station.   We then split up again and 4 of us did some walking down Fifth Avenue and 2 others went to visit The Summit Attraction. 

Here is where it becomes Freaky Friday for me.  While walking back to our hotel to get ready for dinner, I tripped on uneven sidewalk and went flying.  It’s a miracle that I managed to ONLY gash up one knee.  My hands and my other knee were almost untouched, but I did a number on the left knee and at the time thought I would just clean it up, bandage and rest in my hotel room for the night.   After sending my husband and friend a photo, they both agreed that I needed to go to Urgent Care.    Even though I’m almost 60 years old, this was slightly terrifying for me.   I’ve never had to go to an Urgent Care or ER in my life.   My friends had already gone to dinner, so I was left to my own self to drum up the courage to get myself to Urgent Care.  I have to say that City MD in NYC was wonderful.  I went to the location on 57^th St, I did not wait at all, the only wait time that I had was the time it took me to complete the paperwork.   I was there for close to 3 hours as they cleaned my wound, took x-rays and then stitched me up with 17 stitches!  I finally got back to the hotel about 1030pm and sadly discovered that the kitchen was closed.  My friends had already left dinner and were at the Speakeasy but offered to bring me back a Hot Dog from a street vendor, which was not very good once it got to me. 

Saturday, I knew I was not going to be going anywhere- except down the hall for ice and I did make one trip to the lobby because the Westin does not offer room service on Fridays and Saturdays.  I ordered my dinner and picked it up to bring it back to the room and yes, I went down in my pj’s with a big sweatshirt over them.  At that point, I didn’t care who saw me like that, I had my cane for sympathy.   Meanwhile, my friends brought Starbuck’s breakfast for me and some bandages at CVS, before they enjoyed walking around SoHo and Greenwich Village.  They had hoped I would join them for dinner, but I just didn’t feel like sitting in a car to get to Brooklyn and in hindsight, they agreed there was a decent amount of walking at the rooftop bar.   They had a gorgeous night with a beautiful view of Manhattan and great sunset; I was majorly bummed as that is all my vibe!!  

Sunday, we had theatre tickets, and they were in My Google Wallet, so I was determined to make this outing on our last day.   I took a taxi with one girlfriend to our restaurant for brunch, traffic was horrible with street closures, and it took us 45 minutes to get to what was really a 10-minute drive or a 20-minute walk.  We had a great brunch, and it felt fantastic to be out of the hotel room.  We then walked to the theatre which was 2 blocks around the corner from the restaurant, and I was able to change my seat to an accessible seat which was great; otherwise, I was going to have to navigate a lot of stairs.  We saw, “Death Becomes Her” and we loved it. I think it was probably the best Broadway Show that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot.    After the show, we walked a few blocks to get out of the busy Times Square area so that we could get a taxi back to the hotel.  Of course, the friends who walked back beat us by 45 minutes.   I wish I could have walked back!   We finished the evening with cocktails at our hotel bar and two of us ordered dinner there while the others walked to Grand Central Station to get their dinner.   We said our good-byes as some were leaving early the next day and then several of us were able to meet up around 10am for a final good-bye.

I had my driver pick me up at the hotel and take me to Newark airport, of course I had pre-ordered wheelchair service just in case I needed it.   I ended up arriving Newark with plenty of time to spare and when I asked the ticket agent how close Gate 5 was, she said that it was literally the 5^th gate after security, so I decided that I could walk that slowly and that the walking would probably be good for me knowing that I’d be sitting on planes all day.   It was a nice walk, and the terminal was quiet and then I discovered that they had some lounge like chairs, which was great for elevating my leg while I waited.   I did get to board first and settled without getting in anyone’s way.   I connected in Atlanta and did use the wheelchair service here because I had to change terminals and I knew it would be busy.  I had a great, friendly guy who “drove” me to the next gate and then again, I boarded this flight first.  Having my favorite Row One worked well for me as I could stretch my leg out periodically.  When I arrived at Reno airport, I knew that I would not need the wheelchair even though my gate was the farthest gate, again it felt good to move.  I ended up getting close to eight thousand steps that day, not bad for having a handicap and being on planes all day.

I’d have to say that this was not my favorite trip to NYC, and it was not my favorite trip with this group of friends.   It had some highlights like spending time with my cousins and having the day at the Broadway show, but I don’t recommend falling on the sidewalk.  I will say that a very nice young man who worked at Starbucks came running out when I fell and offered help.  He assisted my friend Janine with getting me up and offered band-aids, etc.  I’m not sure I could have gotten up without both of their help. 

To view photos from this trip- CLICK HERE