New York

Traveling to NYC had been on the top of my bucket list since I was a kid. Both my parents had gone and told me amazing things about it! Being from South FL, I had a lot of friends who were from NY and would visit often. So I couldn't of asked for a better birthday present from the hubs, he's always up for all my crazy adventures and ideas, and I love him for it!

T H U R S D A Y

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Our flight arrived to La Guardia around 10 am and we hit the floor running! We shared a lyft ride to our hotel with another passenger and turns out he was going to the Grammys! His name was Mo Sabri, up and coming Hip-Hop artist who's been on best dressed lists and was even invited to the white house to attend breakfast with President Obama! He was a super cool guy and our first contact in NYC. I'd alway heard that people in NYC were rude, but everywhere we went people were friendly and would even approach us and try to help us when we looked lost or were trying to find our way on the subway.

We stayed at this super cute hotel called The Paul. The rooms had a modern city vibe and was the perfect size for two with an incredible view of the empire state building from our window. Once we left out bags at the hotel we took the subway to Battery Park where we took a ferry tour of the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island. It was frigid cold on the water, the wind was blowing so hard, and amidst taking selfies with lady liberty I lost all sensation in my hands.

As soon as we got to the statue of liberty we went inside the cafe to get some hot chocolates and warm up before we went exploring. While drinking our hot cocoa a man dressed up in old fashioned clothing approached us and I asked who he was. Turns out he was an actor playing the part of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, french sculptor and designer of the outer part of the statue of liberty (the inner structure was designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel). He was super into character and gave us a brief history lesson on the design of the statue of liberty which was insane! They actually had to build the whole thing in France, put it together, and then take it apart to reassemble it here in the states. Also did you know that the Statue of Liberty's outer shell is only 2 pennies thick?!

After our brief history lesson we walked around and took pictures and then went inside the statue itself since we had access to the crown. It was about 5 stories up in an elevator, and then 146 steps up to the crown where there are little windows that give you a view of the water and New Jersey on the other side. The most surprising thing to me about seeing the Statue of Liberty is how small it actually is in real life! The crown was so small only about 6 people at a time can fit in her head.

Afterwards we took a stop on Ellis Island where we got to walk around the very building where over twelve million immigrants came through and were granted citizenship in the Unites States. It was so cool to learn about the entire process these immigrants had to go through like medical inspections, psychological & mental health exams, courtroom hearings, etc. They also had artifacts that people left behind like luggages and clothing items. People from Poland, Italy, China, Russia, Germany, and more all passed through here and it was incredible to see their faces and read their stories of sacrifice and hope in a new world.

Once back on the mainland we went to Ground Zero to visit the 9/11 Memorial. Two giant square pits in the ground with water flowing down into them. Around them are the flight numbers and names of all those who passed away on that fateful day. What touched me the most was that in the midst of a bustling city, you could feel the reverence and respect of all who walked through this space. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I got emotional, something I totally wasn't expecting. We all knew where we were on that tragic day and that single event brought us together as a nation like no other even ever had.

Nearby they had this really cool building that connected to the subway, full of shops, called the Oculus. And Next to that they had a building full of more shops and restaurants, so we went to eat at this place called Eataly, it was like an italian supermarket that sold everything from pasta, to pomodoro, and more! It had little food booths, one that served fresh pasta, another that served italian sub sandwiches, and another that made crepes. We sat down in the back where there was a restaurant that had a gorgeous view of the city and ordered some pasta and then grabbed some dessert to go from Lady M a couple floors down. We were so tired, but got a lot done our first day in the Big Apple!

F R I D A Y

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The next day we took the subway to Central Park where we had brunch at a place called Sarabeth's, of course I got the eggs benedict with salmon, my brunch favorite, and Travis got the lobster roll which was delish! Then we decided to take in the scenes on fifth avenue and walk to the Guggenheim museum, designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. On the way we cut through Central Park for pictures and ran into the Balto statue! I hadn't seen that movie in ages, but it was cute.

Once at the Guggenheim they were installing new artwork into the spiral atrium, so it was cool to see the whole behind the scenes process. Below are some of my favorite art pieces we saw:

Femme aux cheveux jaunes, Picasso

L’Oiseau, Picasso

Dancers in Green and Yellow, Degas

After the Guggenheim we walked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) which was HUUUUGE! What was cool about the museum is that it's all donation only so you give what you can to enter. Once inside, the museum is divided by Egypt, Greece, the Americas, Renaissance, Asia, and more. The artifacts in there were incredible! Below is just a taste of what we saw:

Who's seen Gossip Girls?!

The Last Judgment, Michelangelo

King Louis the VIII's armour

La Mort de Socrate by Jacques-Louis David

Original sketch by Michelangelo

Original sketch by Michelangelo

We spent hours in the MET, and around sundown headed to Time Square. We walked around, took pictures, and would occasionally pop into the random stores like the M&M factory to warm up and kill time cause we had plans to meet up with friends in Brooklyn later.

Our original plans were to get Ramen at my friends old job, but he left in bad terms and the owner actually kicked us out of the restaurant LOL so with a last minute change of plans we ate at Roberta's Pizza and it was DELICIOUS! My two favorites were the White Guy: a brick oven pizza with mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, and olive oil & the Bee Sting: tomato, basil, mozzarella, sopressata, chile, and honey. They were to DIEEEE for!

On the way home we stopped by a cupcake shop called Empire cupcakes for a sweet treat back at the hotel. This is a nightly routine on a lot of our trips haha ;) We got home around midnight my feet throbbing from all the walking; NYC truly is the city that never sleeps!

S A T U R D A Y

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We slept in until 9 am cause we had a late night the day before. After getting ready and eating some leftover desserts for breakfast, we headed straight to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Even though modern art can be so weird and look like a child's painting, we still enjoy a lot of the unconventional pieces you'll find, especially the art installations.

I had two favorite sections in the MOMA. One was the contemporary section which had rooms and rooms of Picasso, Cezanne, Kandinsky, Pollock, and Warhol paintings.

The Starry Night, Van Gogh

The Last Supper, Warhol

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Picasso

Interior with Mobile, Lichtenstein

Water Lilies, Monet

My second favorite was a fashion section full of iconic garments by the worlds most famous designers, and some even custom made and worn by celebrities!

Armani

Christian Dior

Versace

Coco Chanel

Paco Rabanne

Louis Vuitton

Alexander McQueen

Then we were off to the Amsterdam Theater in Time Square to go see Aladdin on broadway!!! This was my mom's birthday present to us and we were soooo excited to see our first broadway! The actors were incredible singers, the set was magical and had over 80 special effects throughout the show! The songs were some of the classics from the movie along with new ones I hadn't heard before. One of the coolest parts of the show was that the man who played Jafar was none other than Jonathan Freeman, who was the voice of Jafar in the Disney Animated film! It was spectacular to hear his voice and see him perform the role live. This was probably my favorite part of our entire trip.

After the show we hit up the Brooklyn bridge to walk around and take pictures. It has an incredible view of the water and a gorgeous city backdrop as you get further out on the bridge. The cool part was that you are actually walking on the top of the bridge and you can see the cars whizzing by below your feet.

We then walked over to Chinatown for some awesome foods. For us, New York was all about the street food, we had some awesome sesame chicken and pork hot buns at Canton Lounge where Bernie Mack once ate, we had the most amazing ramen I've ever had at Bassanova Ramen, mochi and a snow white fruit bowl that had frozen milk, lychee, bananas, mango, chia seeds, and a weird gummy thing I couldn't quite figure out what it was, but it was all delicious!

We then stumbled into Little Italy where I had my first ever cannoli! The flavor wasn't at all what I expected, but it was good. We got a little souvenir to end our trip and with that we took the subway back to out hotel to pack and get ready for the flight home.

It was a short trip, but as usual, there was never a dull moment! We absolutely loved New York and would love to go back, if just for the food, but also to relive the busy city vibe!