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It has officially been nearly one month since my little family unit returned from New York City, more specifically Manhattan, & I am already longing to go back there. We only visited Manhattan for a long weekend (approximately 3 & a half days), so it all felt very rushed & went by faster than a flash of lightning. Leading up to our little family vacation, I was a complete bundle of nerves. We had a majority of the important logistics planned & set in place, but all of the uncertainties that comes with being a new parent were creeping into my thoughts almost daily.
Aside from worrying about how my little bean would handle her first airport/airplane experience, I was very anxious about keeping her safe, not only from human dangers, but she has a tendency to pick up everything she sees on the ground…a trait she learned from her grandma always picking up crumbs & lint off the floor in our house & teaching her to do that too. Now, it has become a habit of my little bean, where whenever she sees something on the ground, she immediately wants to pick it up and put it in the trash. Every time we go out, we can’t walk more than 20 steps without telling our little one not to pick up things left on the street. I am somewhat of a germaphobe, so you could probably already tell I wanted to wipe my little bean’s hands every 10 seconds. However, I am happy to report that I was able to curb my germaphobia & not whip out my anti-bacterial hand wipes every time she touched something. I was too hot to pay attention to my germaphobia anyway.
The weather over the weekend was pretty awesome. Jian used to live in Manhattan (in the mid-to-late 90s), so he knows all too well about how hot the city summers could be there. In the weeks leading up to our trip, Jian was obsessively checking the weather forecast to see how insanely hot it was going to be when we got there. He always complained about how unbearably hot New York City summers could get, & he was hoping it wouldn’t be that intense while we were there. Luckily for us, the weather cooled down a somewhat (it was only in the low 80s Fahrenheit, compared to the forecasted 90 degrees), but the 60+% daily humidity really kicked our asses. It even rained on the day we were leaving. We got lucky & our flight barely made it out before the red alert warning was issued by the weather center for the impending thunderstorm.
Before heading to New York, we researched the hell out of all the food we wanted to eat while we were there (a.k.a. bookmarking tons of Instagram reels). Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs, & we were naïvely trying to cram 10 days worth of meals into, technically, 3 days of being in New York. Even still, we were able to tick a couple of our must-eat spots off of our list. We started our food journey with a New York City staple: the bacon egg & cheese breakfast sandwich at Gregory’s Coffee (not planned). We ate the most delicious desserts at the very first American location of our favorite Japanese cakery, HARBS. We had our first Korean gastropub experience at OSAMIL & celebrated Jian’s milestone birthday. We couldn’t go to New York without eating its iconic Italian food. That’s when we met up with Jian’s second cousin for dinner at L’Amico, & yes, we had iconic New York style pizza there. Meeting with very important family friends who helped Jian & his family get settled in New York City after immigrating was held over a special brunch at Mark’s Off Madison. Brunch in New York would not really be brunch if we didn’t have the smoked salmon, scrambled eggs & bagels platter (which we did). We pretty much ate all of the signature New York City foods minus cheesecake & the chopped cheese sandwich.
While we were in New York we ended up not visiting much of any landmarks or famous places. The only major landmarks, for lack of a better description, we actually spent time visiting was The Metropolitan Museum of Art & Strand Book Store. Sure, we walked through various popular neighborhoods & districts like, the Flatiron district, Union Square park, Bryant Park, East Village, etcetera, but we didn’t go to the actual “touristy” places like Central Park, Times Square, The Empire State Building (even though our hotel was 4 blocks away), or all the other famous places seen or depicted in movies & TV shows. One place I wish we had visited was the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. We were staying in Koreatown, & the memorial was on the opposite side of town in the financial district. So with our little one in mind, we decided not to make the trek across town & spend most of our time exploring the areas closer to our hotel.
Speaking of hotels, we stayed at the Le Meridien Hotel on 5th Avenue. (Just saying the name 5th Avenue reminds me of Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, & the book Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. by Sam Wasson.) True to typical New York City fashion, the hotel was very compact. We have stayed at the Le Meridien hotel chain quite a few times. In fact, we’ve stayed at the Le Meridien Hotel Pasadena in the past, & as we expected, the Fifth Avenue version of Le Meridien was very New York city apartment-esque, compact yet very efficiently designed.
For our stay, we had originally booked a corner suite with a city view for our trio, however since we were arriving before the hotel’s check-in hours, the original room we had booked wasn’t yet available. Our little one had vomited on the plane from the bumpy landing at JFK airport (who knew she gets motion sickness like her mom?). She got a little bit of it on her clothes, which meant we were kind of desperate to get any available room so we could quickly drop off our luggage & change her clothes. Ultimately we ended up staying in a Gran King room with a terrace (a.k.a. outdoor patio), which was more than adequate for us. Here are some room photos for your reference. Please excuse the messiness. I didn’t get a chance to take any first impression pictures, & had to hastily take photos after we had already settled in.
Planning our little bean’s first ever airplane ride to New York City was a piece of cake; Jian & I are pretty seasoned travelers. However, traveling with Jian’s parents was chaotic. The two of them were like kids in a candy store with an unlimited spending limit. They wanted to do so many things & see various friends scattered throughout the boroughs, yet Jian didn’t want them to explore the city by themselves in case they were to get lost. It was difficult at times to coordinate our daily plans as everyone had their own individual agendas. Pile on the heat & humidity on top of all that, you know people are bound to get easily tired & cranky sometimes. However, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip & are making plans to go back to New York again next year in the spring. On the next trip, we are absolutely not traveling with any grandparents, just our own little trio.
Next up, we are going on our ginormous adventure back to Japan, but with our little bean this time. This one’s also going to be a chaotic trip, but at least it will be organized chaos because it’ll just be the three of us, which is a whole helluva lot easier to manage. I really, really hope I can write another detailed blog post again like I did back in 2016 when I went on a group tour with my relatives. I don’t think my little bean will let me have much computer time after this trip, but we’ll see. Until the next one, cheers!
What are your future travel plans?
Next week, Jian, his parents, our little bean & I are celebrating Jian’s birthday in Manhattan a.k.a. New York City. This was the place Jian & his parents first lived when they immigrated to the United States. So this city holds a special place in their hearts. Jian& his parents haven’t been back there for over 15 years. I haven’t been back there since 2009. I got violently sick on my last visit, so I never got to fully experience New York, but at least I fully utilized our hotel room. (Silver linings!)
Yes, the main reason we are all traveling to New York City is to celebrate Jian’s birthday. However, our second most important reason is to test our little bean on her first airplane ride. We as a trio are ultimately planning on going to Japan later this year, & we don’t want our little bean’s first plane ride to be a 12 hour flight across the International Date Line without any practice.
That brings me to our second major travel plans for the year. WE ARE GOING BACK TO JAPAN! WOO-HOO!! I don’t know if we will visit my family burial plot at the cemetery in Kamakura. It’s a tradition we do every time we go back to visit family, but according to our culture’s superstitions & beliefs, young children should not visit the dead. They are more susceptible to attracting spirits.
This upcoming trip to Japan is going to be a huge undertaking, one that Jian & I have never done before, even when we were childless. We are planning on city hopping this time on our 2 week vacation. We will first stay in Osaka, then migrate over to Tokyo for the second leg of our trip. Somewhere in between, we will have contact with my cousins who are based in Yokohama & Tokyo. We won’t be able to meet everyone, as my family is too big to see everybody, but we will at least get to introduce our little bean to a couple of close relatives.
I am really excited but also incredibly nervous to be traveling to such far away places with my little bean. Yes, these once-in-a-lifetime memories far outweigh the worries, but as a parent, I am a worrier by nature. I am praying like crazy that my kid will at least be moderately civilized on all her airplane rides. That is a ginormous hope, but I am crossing my fingers every time the thought crosses my mind.
I have been reading & seeing more news lately about more & more weather anomalies & extremely violent turbulence causing huge problems with airplanes & flights. As a professional overthinker, this terrifies me to no end. I know I cannot control any of these things, but still, these thoughts are sitting in the back of my mind. I can only hope for the best. That’s all I can do for now. At the very least, I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity & means to travel at all. For that, I shall focus all of my thoughts on gratitude & appreciation for my advantages. Until the next one, Bon Voyage & cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Describe your most memorable vacation.
I have two absolute most memorable vacations in the books. The first most memorable vacation I want to mention is the family reunion trip my dad planned back in 2006 to Japan. I believe this was the last group vacation I ever went on with my dad before his passing. It had always been his lifelong dream to host one giant family reunion with our entire family in Yokohama, Japan, including my eldest brother, who hadn’t been back to Japan since his early teenage years. I, myself, hadn’t been back there since I was 3 years old. This was something my dad was adamant about doing, regardless of cost, before he became the last surviving sibling of his generation, which was quickly becoming more of a reality than we would know.
Initially that year, my brother had already planned a group vacation with another set of his friends (another couple) & all of their children (all girls). My dad urged my brother to cancel his vacation plans & go with us to Japan. He even invited my brother’s friends to come along, all expenses paid. That was one of my most fondest memories about that trip. It wasn’t just the fact that we’d be having a full-on family reunion with my dad’s entire family, including myself & my brother for the first time ever. It was the fact that my dad paid for a whole other family (2 parents, 2 children) to tag along with us to our family event. Of course, we all became lifelong family friends after that.
Another core memory I treasure from that trip was going back to visit my dad’s family home one more time before it got torn down to become a 9-floor multi-use building complex. I have been to my dad’s family home once before, but I was so young I could hardly remember any of that time. It was such a memorable experience visiting my grandfather’s tailor shop (which is now run by my cousin & his wife) & having a home-cooked family meal at the family house. It was hotter than hell that day, especially in an old building with no central air conditioning, but we all had the time of our lives catching up & eating together. My dad’s family home is now a 9-floor mixed-use building, but I can proudly say that my cousin’s tailoring business is still operating there, & the eldest aunt from my dad’s generation still lives there on the top floor.
All of us had such a great time catching up with family, & it was especially meaningful for my brother’s two daughters to get to know cousins & other relatives they have only heard about but had never met before. My dad was living his best life, drinking all the beer, & chatting non-stop with his two last surviving brothers. My brother’s close friends fit seamlessly into our family reunion. They were included in all of our family activities, & we had a fun time bonding with them over the course of our vacation. I even got to meet up with my childhood best friend after many years apart, & we had such a fun time catching up with each other.
Seeing my entire family from my dad’s side all coming together (despite some family members not getting along) really made my heart soar. It was a truly magical moment that I will never forget for as long as I live. It is one memory I share with my dad that I cherish so deeply within my heart. Even to this day, I will reference back to this amazing experience.
For a detailed account of this memorable vacation please refer to this post.
The next memory I want to talk about is my birthday vacation in London, England. This is another memorable trip, for one, because it was my very first time traveling to the U.K. (or even the European side of the globe). For as long as I could remember, I have always wanted to visit London. My dream came true back in 2017 when I finally convinced Jian to travel to the U.K. instead of Asia. I am still trying to convince him to visit London again, or any other part of Europe for that matter, but he is extremely adamant about traveling overseas to Asia again.
From the moment we started talking about this trip, I was absolutely certain that this was going to be an extraordinary experience. I was not wrong. The incredibleness began before we even boarded the airplane. Somehow, we were able to book a stay at my now all-time favorite hotel at a jaw-dropping discounted rate. This hotel (Edition Hotel London) is supposed to be the crème de la crème of the luxury boutique hotels within the Marriott Hotels group. We somehow were able to book a room around my birthday, & as soon as we checked in to the hotel, the amazingness continued. Each day, everyone greeted us by name & sent me birthday greetings. I even got a personal handwritten birthday note (which I kept) by the hotel manager, along with a special dessert sent to our room. Then, on the last day of our stay, we were sent 2 complimentary custom cocktails to our room. Let me just say that I could not have been more impressed with this hotel & its entire staff.
Our little tour of London was also extremely memorable. Some of our highlights include: going to an Anderson.Paak concert, doing a proper pub AND bar crawl nearly every day (not just at night), randomly spotting 2 celebrity actors (who were very popular at the time), taking a tour of Westminster Abbey & Big Ben (while it was closed for repairs), riding a proper red double-decker public bus, riding the Underground subway for the first time, & getting McNugget grease on our hotel bed from eating McDonald’s at midnight after the Anderson.Paak concert.
There are two interesting stories that really stand out from this trip. The first story is about that time when Jian & I were sitting at the counter of a bar we had looked up on TripAdvisor. We were just sitting by ourselves as the bar was slowly starting to fill up for the evening, & were casually watching the bartender restock all of her pre-batched cocktails. Eventually a group of already drunk, rowdy guys saddle up to the bar to greet the bartender who was a friend of theirs. Jian somehow got a spam call on his phone, & one of the drunk guys asks if he could answer the phone for him (in a very thick accent, probably because he was drunk & already slurring his words). Jian of course said yes, & let the guy talk bullshit with the spam caller. We built up a friendly rapport with this drunk guy after that little incident, & had a great time drinking & talking. On our way back to our hotel, Jian complained that I was constantly trying to get him drunk every night. I said, “Who cares? Just have fun!”
The second story is about that time when we effectively shut down the lobby bar at our hotel. The hotel policy states that the lobby bar is supposed to stop serving drinks at 11pm & close for the evening at 12 midnight. We met an older couple at the bar, who were visiting their daughter at university in London. The wife was already three sheets to the wind as she had been mixing vodka drinks, tequila drinks, & champagne all night. Then she proceeded to argue with Jian about how to say certain words & phrases in Cantonese, proclaiming that she was an Italian-born woman who went to school in Hong Kong. She tried to assert that she was more Cantonese than Jian, who was actually born in Canton, China. It was hilarious how the two of them were going back & forth with each other in Cantonese & English.
The husband, however, was interested in talking to us about the drinks we were ordering, & grilling us (happily) about how the two of us knew so much about alcohol & their brands. It turns out that this man worked in the field of alcohol distribution or some sort, or import-export of alcohol for international restaurants & hotels. We talked to him about his job, & he was very eager to chat with us to gain our perspective from a younger generation. Meanwhile, the wife kept chatting with us on the side, exclaiming that we seemed like the kind of couple who have amazing intimate relations (to put it very lightly).
We kept having a very lively & spirited conversation with this couple all the way past the bar’s closing time, & didn’t end up back in our room until 3am. It was incredible. We tried getting this couple’s contact information, but they explained to us that they were leaving the next day, & they wanted to meet us at the hotel lobby before they left. We never got a chance to meet up with this very interesting couple, but we have a cool story to tell everyone. I believe that was only the second time in Jian’s life where he had a true hangover. The first time was when he turned 21. We ate mediocre Vietnamese pho the next day, & as Jian was staring at his bowl, he was contemplating the meaning of life.
I truly hope we are able to visit London again, sometime in the near future perhaps. I would like to have more adventures like the two I described above, maybe with my little bean in tow, maybe not (she can’t get into bars yet). All in all, I have been on quite a few fun vacations in my lifetime, but these two were the ones that stood out the most in my mind. I hope I can have more fun vacation adventures, & document them here to share with everyone. Until the next trip, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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