New York in a Minute or Two..

Back in September we went on an amazing once in a lifetime trip to New York. It was our first time leaving Scarlet over night and it gave me the harsh realization that traveling after kids is hard in a way I never expected! I always assumed it was convenience wise or financially, and though those things were more of an issue then trips in the past, it's harder because it was so unbelievably sad and hard leaving her!! Who knew!? ;)

After the trauma subsided and the plane took off the vacation and it's excitement was finally able to begin.

Here's a quick run down of the awesomeness that was New York City

Day 1: Sunday, September 23rd
-Arrived at JFK Airport
-Rode the Subway for the first time successfully to our hotel
-Checked out the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market right next door
-Had breakfast at a random cafe
-MET SHAQ!
-Checked into our amazing hotel - The Distrikt (Right off 42nd Street!!)
-Slept a bit
-Stopped for a quick bite at what became our favorite restaurant Carve (most amazing BBQ chicken pizza)
-Hit up a matinee of The Fantasticks
-Aaron Carter kissed me on the cheek
-Checked out Time Square!! (A-MAZING!)
-Posed for a fun character drawing that turned out lovely but is totally of a different couple... haha!
-Ate a delicious steak and lobster dinner at beautiful little restaurant called Ceci's (Thank you Groupon!) 
-Saw Snoop Dogg!
-Checked out Ripley's Believe It or Not Emporium.. ssoo strange..
-Walked crazy New York streets at night
-SLEPT!

Day 2: Monday, September 24th
-Slept in a little
-Jumped on the subway to head to the south end of Manhattan
-Ate at another delicious cafe (pancakes and french toast.. MMM!)
-Bought tickets to Statue of Liberty, but decided to wait in the line for the ferry and go back another day
-Jumped on the subway to ChinaTown
-Bartered, ogled, reminisced, and ate (incredibly delicious dumplings and at the coolest McDonald's EVER!) (Okay I know I know, McDonald in CHINATOWN?!? We were both craving it, RANDOMLY, and we needed a Coke preferably at a normal price.. :))
-Took the Subway to the World Trade Center stop and experienced Ground Zero
-Took Subway  to Serendipity 3 by Central Park (had Frozen Hot Chocolate and Broadway Sundea! Delish!)
-Rode a cool sky subway thing. It was so cool! We just rode it back and forth. Haha! So beautiful!
-Checked out FAO Schwarz and saw the Apple store underground!
-Rode the Subway to yet ANOTHER delicious dinner thanks to Groupon!! This time at Cornerstone!!  They had such incredible steaks and the server was SO nice!
-Took subway to Brooklyn - scary!
-Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge - amazing!

Day 3: Tuesday, September 25th
-Took Subway to Central Park
-Ate at another (you guessed it) delicious cafe for breakfast!
-Experienced Central Park! Street performers, cute row boats and all!
-Had vendor hot dogs (like your see in the movies) for lunch!! YUM!
-Went to the MET (only paid $2 to get in and totally  worth every penny! :) It really was incredible! Especially the Egyptian exhibit!)
-Went to Natural History Museum (Searched for the Robin Williams Teddy Roosevelt Statue (never found it), Scratched our heads at the Evolution exhibit (so weird!), and were in awe of everything else)
-Took Subway back to Times Square
-Hit up a fabulous looking cupcake shop on our way to the New Amsterdam -Theater to see my very first show on Broadway!! Mary Poppins!!
-Went shopping on Times Square - WHOA! It will never be the same now. Shopping I mean. Forever 21 was 4 floors! What!?

Day 4: Wednesday, September 26th
-Went to the Today Show set and successfully achieved the status of awkward tourists creepily appearing in the background in bunch of different shots
-Had another delicious breakfast (i know, surprise surprise) while we walked the route of our nightly activities so we would make it to all of them on time.
-Took the subway to The Statue of Liberty then to Ellis Island (wow..)
-Went to another Groupon provided lunch to Cafe Fordent. (Such an amazingly quaint cafe in what seemed to be the street front space of an apartment building! Cutely run by a charming group of ladies who interacted so hilariously! It was such an amazing lunch, full of incredible stories about their tragic 9/11 experiences and lighter ones about interactions with local people or their journeys to the area. So awesome! Thank you Groupon!)
-Checked in for the Jimmy Fallon Show and perused the NBC store
-Watched Jimmy Fallon LIVE!! We both got to meet Jimmy! (SO FUN!! Ricki Gervais, Little Big Town, and some other dude was on the show, just incredible!)
And as if it could get any better.. after that we went to..
-WICKED!!! Yeah! On BROADWAY!!! So so SOOO amazing!! And one of the #1 reasons for the incredible trip in the first place! SO - just.. perfect. After we were able to check that off my bucket list..
-..We headed to Carve for a celebratory piece of that amazing BBQ Chicken Pizza.
-Then headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep.

Day 5: Thursday, September 27th
Luckily this was our last day in New York because we were EXHAUSTED!
-After we checked out we decided to hit up ChinaTown again because we loved it so much the first time! We picked up a couple more souvenirs (and even got a little more brave to follow the shady vendors down other streets to check out the Chanel and Gucci :))
-Then took the Subway (another favorite New York spot) to 30 Rock
-Checked out the Top of the Rock, reminisce on our awesome week, and got really excited to finally get home to see our cutie little girl
 -After that we decided we had to get more of one of our favorite spots..
-TIMESQUARE where we picked up a couple more souvenirs and gifts and mosied over to our favorite little cafe for one last slice of that unforgettable BBQ Chicken Pizza.. (my mouth won't stop watering thinking about it!)
-After that we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and start our long journey home.

In closing I'd like to share-

The 5 Things I learned in New York City

1- The people are not as mean there as you hear

2- Cars are overrated! The Subway is AMAZING and such a fun way to experience the city, and when we weren't taking the Subway we were able to walk around and see so many things that we wouldn't have even noticed driving around in a car!

3- We are missing out on so much here! The food and shopping is beyond incredible there!! Especially the food why can't it be like that here!?

4- We further learned and realized that we really belong to such a blessed country! Rich with amazing history, incredible architecture, heroism, and pride.

5- As weird as this last one sounds, I realized on the 2nd day there that I felt so.. normal and at ease in New York and it took to the end of day 3 of our trip for me to realize why. There are SO many people there! And all those people are so different and their fashions and looks and styles are all so diverse! It was so refreshing not to feel confined to a certain stereotype even for those few days. As cheesy as it sounds, the thing that city helped me learn the most is that I'm cool because I'm me, and that's the coolest me I can be! :) Ha!