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| Photo credit: Ed Yourdon via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-SA |
Shortly after Justin and I got married, our lives became filled to the brim with activity. Justin's parents had plans to visit his elderly uncle in Boston and an aunt I had never met in New Jersey. Considering that quality time with family is something I highly value, I jumped on board despite the knowledge that we would be spending all of our money attending a wedding in Europe less than a year later. (As it turns out, spending time with friends is also something I strongly value. Go figure!)
When it came time to start planning, I began my research as I always do: online. Lots of google searching. Maybe even some pinterest searching as well. My goal: find the hidden gems that a big city like New York City had to offer and combine them with other touristy must-dos. Central Park? Check! see the MOMA? check! visit Times Square? check! I needed to find cheap things to do to fill time and keep us moving from activity to activity, but I really wanted and hoped to find charming activities as well. This was my chance to prove to the in-laws that I knew something about trip planning and could be trusted to do a good job at it; I could stay within budget and plan an exciting vacation.
One thing led to another and despite plans beginning as early as July of 2012, it took almost the whole year for the plans to really shape up into what they became. Justin's parents went back and forth confusing me: were we staying with his aunt in New Jersey? … or were we on our own? Were we sleeping at his uncle's house in Boston? … or not? How much time would we be spending in the actual city and how much in homes?
To make matters worse, just as we began planning, Hurricane Sandy hit New York City pretty hard that October. Would New York City recover in time for our summer vacation? How badly would attractions be harmed?
As terrible as Hurricane Sandy was, I found that I learned a lot about New York City through the clean up effort. In fact, one image from New York mesmerized me…
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| Photo credit: DeShaun Craddock via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC |
Jane's Carousel all lit up at night and immersed in the high water caused by the hurricane.
From that moment forward, I knew whether or not we went in July 2013 … or at some other time, visiting this carousel and the DUMBO park area was definitely going to be included in my NYC bucket list.
How could it not?
I won't go into all of the intricacies that involved NYC trip planning or what it took to find DUMBO park and Jane's Carousel, but I did want to just put it out there that the media was very inspirational in my decision to find Jane's Carousel and DUMBO Park. As it turns out, you can find inspiration for travel almost anywhere and it doesn't necessarily need to come from a book of 36 Hours of must-see things in X city. You don't need to consult Condé Nast Travel or Rick Steves for all of your travel planning; sometimes you can just surf pinterest or pay attention to the news. Maybe a great idea for a place to explore could be found in your facebook feed…
I've discovered that sometimes some of the best locations come from the most unlikely places!
Have you ever discovered a bucket-list destination in an unlikely place? Where do you go when you are searching for things to do – either in your own city or one you are planning to visit in the future?
