This was a work trip, as I was here for Chime’s IPO, but I decided to stay through the weekend so I could have Friday and Saturday free to be a tourist. Two full days obviously isn’t enough time for a visit to a huge city like NYC, but I was able to hit some highlights. I hadn’t been to NYC since I was a kid.

I stayed in midtown, right off Times Square. My hotel had a great view.

Times Square was crazy overwhelming. The digital billboards looked much more real than I expected.

On Wednesday, I worked out of Chime’s NYC office downtown, and took a walk at lunchtime to see the “Charging Bull” statue and the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park.

The rest of Wednesday and Thursday were taken up by IPO stuff, although I did become a pro at using the subway (once I found out that every train/direction had a separate station entrance, even if they go through the same station!).

Then Friday and Saturday I was free. Friday I walked up 5th Ave. to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and spent most of the day there. Along the way, I stopped to get a famous NYC toasted bagel with cream cheese. It was tasty, but not really different from other toasted bagels with cream cheese that I’ve gotten in SF?

The Met was great to see, but very overwhelming, largely due to the layout. The rooms are basically laid out as boxes on a grid, but many connecting openings between rooms were arbitrarily closed or cordoned-off, so it was tough to chart a predictable course by which you would see all the rooms. I think I hit most of them, though. I kept getting lost and having to consult my map. I definitely saw their 5 Vermeers!

In the evening, I splurged on very good seats to see “Gypsy” at the gorgeous Majestic Theater. My co-worker, who is a theater aficionado, had seen it our first night in town and said it was one of her top 3 theater experiences ever. It was fantastic! I had no idea who Audra McDonald is, so I got to be surprised by how amazing her performance was.

For my second day, I spent a LOT of time walking, so it’s unfortunate that it rained most of the day. On the positive side, one piece of IPO swag I got was a CHYM-branded rain shell with hood, so I put it right to work. First thing in the morning, I took the subway to Brooklyn and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge.

After that I wandered through Chinatown and the Lower East Side, checking out some great street art, before taking the tour of the Tenement Museum. I chose the “After the Famine” tour, which focused on an Irish family that fled the potato famine and lived in the building starting in 1869. It was really interesting! There are a number of different tours you can take, focusing on different eras and circumstances.

After that, I headed back to Bryant Park to [redacted] with 25,000 of my closest friends. Apparently they had expected a turnout of 75,000, but the rain kept a lot of people home.

Then I did a lot more wandering around, including checking out Grand Central Station, which was spectacular.

I eventually walked out towards Chelsea to experience the Chelsea Market and walk out onto Little Island, which was surprisingly cool.

I didn’t go up to the High Line because it was still raining, and I was getting really hungry. I went to the charming and delicious Willow Vegan Bistro for an extravagant last dinner in NYC. It was delicious, but not as good as my dinner earlier in the week at all-vegan Beyond Sushi. Now it’s time for me to pack for my flight home tomorrow. I’ll be sad to leave, but I miss the dogs (and Adam too!).