June came and went, and so did our visit to New York along with it. Never have I booked a flight so spontaneously and never have I gotten less sleep over a 96-hour period. Yet it was truly one of the most fun trips I’ve ever been on.
What began as a joke over dinner one day that “We should go to the LES comp in a few weeks” turned into us buying the tickets less than 8 hours later. Within the few weeks leading up to the trip, there were so many times I felt like everything was going wrong. Between someone in our group getting a knee injury that left him on crutches just a week after we had booked our non-refundable flights, and the Canada fires that filled the city of Brooklyn with a haze of smoke leading up to the very day that we were supposed to leave… it seemed like all of our plans were falling apart. But with a borrowed airport wheelchair and the smoke density dropping just 2 hours before we were supposed to board the plane- everything felt so right, and it ended up being the most perfect trip it could’ve possibly been.
We all met at MCO at 3am to board our red-eye flight. Our tired laughs filled the terminal and carried through the plane. We landed at LGA shortly after the sun came up with no plans of what to do next. Other than booking the flights and finding a place to stay, we hadn’t really done any real preparation. We stopped at the only place open for breakfast- an acai shop on a colorful corner hidden away in Jackson Heights.
With 7 of us plus a bulky wheelchair, we found out early on that transportation wasn’t going to be the most convenient. The subway became our best friend. There’s something about people-watching on public transportation that is so oddly inspiring. Looking around to see everyone on the train doing something different- reading books, looking through the newspaper, solving crosswords, drawing… is so interesting. The details in the outfits, and the overheard conversations, and the mundane on full display is so beautiful to me. We filled our travel time with games of “would you rather” and storytelling. If we were lucky, we’d get a subway car all to ourselves so we could spread out and take turns queuing songs to play over the ever-dying speaker.
I was the only person who hadn’t been to the city before, but by the first day, I’d already fallen in love.
If we weren’t on the subway, we were skating and pushing Jake’s wheelchair through the crowded streets on our way to some crappy restaurant or another skate spot. On the first night, after spending the day watching the city from rooftops and stopping at a few parks, we decided to go to Times Square. The boys wanted to see the new Spiderman in the place where it was set. 6 out of 7 of us fell asleep before the halfway mark, if that tells you anything about how deprived we were at that point. After the movie finished, we got home with only 3 hours left to rest before we had to wake up for the competition the next day. Every second of the trip was go - go – go.
Day 2 was one of my favorites- we got fresh bagels that morning and made our way to LES to watch Gigi skate. After the girl’s division, we hopped on the train to a lower part of town where Supreme was hosting a pop-up event. I haven’t ever been to a place where there’s such an abundance of events happening at all times, for any sort of interest you could possibly have. I’m not trying to explain New York like it’s a novel concept, or as if no one has any idea what I’m talking about. I’m certain a good amount of people reading this have been to New York or are familiar with what it’s like, but I had never seen anything like it. It’s like a feeling in the air that you can’t quite grasp until you’ve experienced it, and even then- it’s hard to put into words. We spent a lot of time on the second day roaming -the boys turning every place we went into a skate spot and eating the last of the groceries we’d bought on day 1 (mostly bread and peanut butter only at this point). Our Airbnb was well lived in and we’d somehow managed to run through most of what was packed in our suitcases. That night, we sat in the living room playing cards and laughing until tears filled our eyes. It’s so special how the most seemingly miniscule parts of a trip always seem to be what everybody collectively remembers as their favorite.
On day 3, we woke up early and hopped onto a 45-minute subway ride to a waffle place we had picked out the night before. It was our last day, so we were making sure we got the best of the best of everything. We pulled up to a sign on the door displaying a “C grade” rating. We were so tired and hungry at that point that it didn’t even matter- we had just travelled almost an hour for chicken and waffles, and nothing was going to stop us from getting them… Not even roaches in the kitchen.
We forced our eyes open as we travelled across the city and filled the moments of waiting with 5-minute naps to make sure we were able to fill the final day with the last few remaining things on our New York bucket list:
Street Pizza ✔
Brooklyn Banks ✔
Ledge Spot ✔
One last Ice cream shop visit✔
Towards the end of the 3rd day, it felt like were all seconds away from falling asleep… But in typical fashion- we had to make one final stop at a rail spot for the boys and Gig to get some final clips before heading out. We ended up getting about 30 minutes of sleep before our alarms went off reminding us to start heading over to the subway station, to catch our flight.
I never imagined I could fall in love with a city the way I did on this trip. I’m such an outdoors person and New York is so the opposite of that, but every bit of the city inspired me. So much creativity and expression fills the streets. No matter what you’re doing, there’s a place for it there. I left with a suitcase full of dirty clothes, a deeper appreciation for the people I came with, and a desire for more of all of it. We spent our last few minutes in the airport lobby talking about where we planned to go next and when was the soonest that we could make it happen. I think the novelty T-shirts all said it best- I DO <3 NY.
I want to go!