The Saturday after we found out we were going to extend our vacation by a couple days due to Shelley's work trip, she woke me up and asked me if I'd like to spend that Thursday of in-between time in New York (something I'd thought about as well) so we could go to the Harry Potter NY store that just opened. If you know me, like at all, you know how much I love the Harry Potter series. I've read and reread it so much since I was 11 that my copies are basically in tatters now, so this was a quick yes from me.
We woke up early that morning and took a Lyft from our hotel to 30th Street Station and caught a 7:00am train up to NYC. We spent most of the hour and a half ride playing games on the Switch, with me periodically sharing my excitement and noting how fitting it was to be taking a train up there (even if there wasn't a trolley going by selling cauldron cakes and pumpkin juice).
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| Bleary eyed from lack of sleep |
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Our first glance of the city
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Pretty much as soon as we got off the train at Penn Station and walked up the steps and into the city, my heart was beating so fast with excitement-- not just about the HP store, but just to be in NYC in general. There is something about it, in spite of its messiness and crowds and high prices, that just draws you in and enchants you.
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| The very first thing we saw when we came out of the station |
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| A promise of normalcy (soon-- but EVERYONE here still wore masks) |
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Kind of funny moment-- I got excited they still had a video store, but Shelley was like "I don't think it's THAT kind of movie store."
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One of the things I learned from our couple days in Philly is that my itinerary was overzealous-- let's just carry that theme into New York. I had a lot of plans that didn't quite work out, primarily because I was still applying bandaids like it was my job, but also because I kind of forgot how long it takes to walk from Point A to Point B. It may look close on a map, but in real life that distance could take like 45 minutes of walking briskly to cross.
Our first mission after walking over to Broadway to scan the QR code at the Harry Potter store to get in the virtual queue was to grab some food close by in case our turn came up quickly. We wandered around a couple streets looking at promising venues-- including a French cafe that sold hot chocolate and chocolate croissants (my ideal combination, although it was WAY too hot for that) or a place called Eataly that basically has any Italian food you can think of. We settled on a place called Hole in the Wall and toasted with a couple mimosas and shared the pulled pork Benedict, which was so good-- and definitely big enough to share.
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| This is what drew me in-- plants and fun lighting, always |
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My half of breakfast
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After we finished breakfast, we checked the queue and still had about 200-some people in front of us (aka a couple hours) so we decided to walk over to Times Square. We stopped into the subway station, enjoyed the lights, FaceTimed our family, looked at some baseball caps and in the Disney store, and before we had a chance to do much else we got the notification that it was our turn to enter the Harry Potter store, so we had to quickly flag down a Lyft to get back. In retrospect, it probably would've been cool to take a taxi but alas.
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| I love how many cute & lush spaces there were in the midst of a city |
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| Times Square |
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| I was so amused by this. |
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| Best hat |
Let me just preface this next section by saying that if you know, you know. Shelley has never read the Harry Potter books. We just started the movies this past weekend. I don't think she was necessarily prepared for the level of excitement and obsession that people have-- maybe she thought it was just a me thing, or a me and some of my friends thing (y'all know who you are). I've not been to Wizarding World in Florida, so this was a complete immersive experience for me, even if it was just a store. It was so cool to see some of these things brought to life after reading about it for so long, and we spent a good two hours going through the store because there was just so much to see and such an attention to detail.
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| As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by Fawkes |
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| The Ollivander's section |
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| movie props |
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| This is from the actual movie set |
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| Shells's snake wand |
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| Cool Ravenclaw wand-- you got to "try" them |
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| Honeyduke's section-- so many chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's beans, Drooble's |
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| Felix Felicis |
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broomsticks
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The pictures don't really do it justice, but there was so much to see & a lot of interactive elements. Even the ceilings were detailed. One of my favorite parts was the elevator doors being painted to look like a fireplace, and when the doors opened the inside of the elevators were painted with green flames to make it seem as though you were traveling by Floo Powder.
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| Phone booth to the Ministry of Magic |
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| Floo Powder elevator |
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| Loved this part-- so did Shelley |
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| movie prop of Harry's Snitch |
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| Firebolt & Gryffindor sword props |
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| cup and diadem props |
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| MinaLima art room |
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| I wanted all of this stationary-- time for a pen pal. |
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| Standing in Hagrid's shoes definitely added a good seven inches to my height |
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| Shells sent this to my family when we first arrived and pointed out the sheer joy in my eyes. |
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| Quidditch ceiling |
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| Diagon Alley |
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| Cornish pixies |
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The little scarves cracked us up
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After we checked out, we headed in to the Butterbeer Bar. This is one of those things I've dreamed about trying since I was a kid-- it always sounded so delicious in the books, and I can confirm it is divine. Shells & I loved it and were torn between downing it immediately and slowly savoring-- savoring won, and we spent some time talking and sipping on the butterbeer and trying to figure out how we could replicate both it and the frothy whipped goodness on top (it's a work in progress, but I think we're close-- I'll share if we get it!).
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| Entrance to the Butterbeer Bar |
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| Super cute souvenir cups |
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| first sip |
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| surprised that it wasn't cloyingly sweet like we expected |
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| best drink with the best person <3 |
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Successful trip
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So a couple hours later, we reemerged into the city and it was like coming into a different world. We walked around and checked out a couple touristy shops (you know the kind, with the Statue of Liberty candles and little shotglasses and t-shirts that say "I <3 NY" and all that jawn). We walked over to this place near Hole in the Wall that was called Tappo because we couldn't leave NYC without a slice of cheese pizza, so we sat outside at a little table to people watch, enjoy some pizza, and drink a flute of Prosecco before we had to hurry over to the train station to catch our 5:00 train home.
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| "Take a bite of your pizza so I can take a picture of the thin crust." |
All in all, we crammed a lot in to our seven hours in the Big Apple, and I'm at peace with the things we didn't do because I'm sure we'll be back some day-- if for no other reason, to replenish my stock of butterbeer.
