Leaving the Frigid South to Vacation in Even Colder NYC

Lately, I’ve realized that my own temperate South has the ability to mimic the Arctic Tundra. In reality, it started last winter with the pattern of winter weather that seemed to make its weekly appearance, generally each Monday. Our school system missed 20 days of instruction because of those weather patterns. I hadn’t recalled quite so much snow since I was a child, when it seemed that we got more snow, although this last year the accumulation was not as great as the regularity.

Already this approaching winter season has offered to “live out the true meaning of its creed,” as temperatures hovered near the single digits last week and wind chills dipped into negative numbers at times.

Begin thrust into this bout of cold weather before we’ve officially entered the winter season makes me wonder whether I’ve planned my vacation venue appropriately.

It began last fall when I went to New York City for the first time to view the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I had never experienced a city so alive with cultural venues and great cuisine—a city that teemed and pulsed with excitement. It was a never-ending cornucopia of theater, jazz, museums, or almost any sort of art for which one could desire exposure. The gargantuan pizza slices and meaty delicatessen sandwiches weren’t too bad, either.

I didn’t want to leave, and when I did, I missed it and yearned to go back. I dreamed of going back before I had unpacked my suitcase. This city, it felt, was made just for me.

I got my chance in March after I opted out of an overbooked flight and took another flight home from a trip to L.A., obtaining a $300 credit voucher from the airline. I knew immediately where I wanted to use my voucher to go within the next year. Already, visions of tall buildings and bustling streets danced in my head like those sugar plums in the classic Christmas tale.

A few weeks ago, I booked my return trip to NYC for New Year’s Eve, another spectacle I’ve always wanted to witness. The airfare credit was almost enough to cover the flight, and I paid the remainder. I found a great hotel deal in Long Island City, just across the Queensboro Bridge in Queens, a short 15 minute subway ride to Manhattan. It was a new extended stay hotel with kitchenettes and a balcony view of the city for a meager $100 a night, not a great sum to spend on a night in the Big Apple.

The excitement built, and all was well until this week, when I received a message from the hotel notifying me that the water pipes had frozen. They weren’t sure if they would be able to repair them in time for visitors within a week and a half. So it would be best, the representative informed me, if I would kindly seek habitation elsewhere and settle for a prompt refund.

I was crushed. I knew that some hotels in close proximity to Times Square were going for $499 a night. I was hoping not to spend much more than that for the entire week.

However, I love searching for travel deals and didn’t give up hope. Later that evening, I found another hotel deal for $99 a night at a quirky hotel in a fashionable, hip section of Chelsea. It was almost too good to be true, and I booked it.

Now I’m looking for good deals on cold weather accoutrements, including a down-filled jacket to help me in my quest of braving the elements in watching a new year arrive in the optimal place to do so. I’m also thinking I’ll need ski socks and thermal underwear, considering those frozen pipes and the latest temperatures I’ve been seeing forecasted for New York City. The highs are slated to be in the 30s.

I’m still looking forward to the trip, even though I’m a bit like Parrothead Jimmy Buffett in his song “Boat Drinks,” where he proclaims “I gotta go where it's warm.” I do prefer warm weather, but for a few days, I’ll have to make do while I’m having fun in the “city that never sleeps.” This time, though, no one will be sleeping because their feet will be frostbitten.