Live from New York

The Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan 

I've walked through the streets of New York City a thousand times. I've traveled on its subways and hailed taxis from the curb. I've caught a summer breeze on the fire escape of my Brooklyn walk up and sat on the steps of my Brownstone watching kids skip rope. I've spent weeks strolling down  the avenue gazing in store windows at a divine pair of Jimmy Choo shoes and meeting my gal friends for brunch. I've lined up for meals and desserts at all kinds of restaurants from the posh to dives.

Snow White in the Saks Fifth Avenue store window

I've spent the night at the American Museum of Natural History and watched everything come alive when the visitors are gone for the day. I've taken a spin in Gatsby's yellow car. I've romped in Central Park on a snowy December night and sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with all my might until Santa's sleigh flew off into the sky.

Skating rink at Rockefeller Center

The thing is... until last week, I've only  physically spent a handful of days in New York City — not even enough to need more than one hand's worth of fingers to count. I've certainly never actually lived in the Big Apple.

But my oh my, I've been transporting myself there in my imagination for years. I went from being a kid who wondered if someone could tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street to eavesdropping on Seinfeld from the next booth over at the coffee shop. I've lounged around Central Perk with all my Friends, and enviously counted the vast number of times the ladies from Sex and the City managed to get together for brunch. (Seriously, my own friends and I don't get together nearly as often.) Law and Order had me looking over my shoulder, and "Live from New York. It's Saturday Night!"

Yellow taxis at night with a horse and carriage off to the left side

Long before Night at the Museum, I wanted to sneak in an overnight stay at the Metropolitan Museum of Art like the brother-sister duo in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Growing up in a suburban neighborhood in Texas, I was fascinated by the freedom of the kids in Harriet the Spy and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Their world seemed so much bigger than mine.

The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center on a rainy evening

I traveled back through time to the Roaring Twenties reading The Great Gatsby and wondered at the excess and decadence of Long Island's West Egg. I briefly pondered the merits of Objectivism as well as New York's modern architecture movement reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Let the Great World Spin took me all over 1974's New York from the Park Avenue apartment of a grieving mother to the seedy sidewalks where hookers turn tricks just to put food on the table and heroin in their veins. I sighed with relief that I'm not in a city with the ultra-competitive parents  of The Nanny Diaries or the ridiculous workplace demands of The Devil Wears Prada. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney, Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow... the list goes on and on. Reading the words on those pages, my imagination was caught up in what it is like to be a resident of New York.

Father-daughter duet on the The Big Piano at FAO Schwarz

New York in the movies? Where to start? I've danced on the piano at FAO Schwarz with man-boy Tom Hanks in Big and dance battled with the Sharks and the Jets in West Side Story. I've wept watching the boy reconciling with his loss on 9/11 in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and laughed at Will Ferrell in Elf. I've had Breakfast at Tiffany's (except that you can't). I've discovered the city with the sailors on shore leave in On the Town and thanked my lucky stars that my Malaysian monkey problems weren't the size of King Kong. 

Snoopy balloon at the 2014 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

New York is even a city that I've experienced via food. As a person who loves cooking and baking, I keep trying out recipes like Crack Pie from Momofuku's Milk Bar and the Oprah-recommended Frrrozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity 3. I've watched famous chefs create signature dishes on TV shows and wished that I could reach through the screen for a spoonful.

The Empire State Building (left) and Manhattan at sunset as seen from the top of Rockefeller Center

Now that we are back to living in America, I excitedly turned my sights to New York City for our first big trip. Since we've returned, our pace of travel has greatly slowed. It's been 4 months since we've gone somewhere, much longer than the 6-8 weeks that used to pass between trips in cheap-to-explore SE Asia. It's allowed me to savor the buildup towards our vacation and actually take time to plan and research what to do.

Last week, we arrived in the Big Apple and actually, in reality, in person got to walk through the streets of New York City... just as I've done a thousand times before.

This post is part of the following link-ups. Check them out for more around-the-world travel inspiration.

• Travel Photo Thursday on Budget Travelers Sandbox
• Weekend Wanderlust on Carmen's Luxury Travel
• Weekend Travel Inspiration on Reflections En Route
• Sunday Traveler on Pack Me To... and Ice Cream & Permafrost
• Travel Tuesday on Slightly Astray and Bonnie Rose