I Love New York!!!

To finish celebrating turning forty I decided to go to New York for the first time in my life. It’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. I’ve watched Sex and the City a thousand times thinking… “Wow New York seems like such a cool place to be.” I desired to walk, with my heels on of course, strutting around the streets of Manhattan. I called my best friend Deborah and asked if she would go with me. I knew that she would want to go since she travels rather frequently. New York exceeded my expectations in more ways than one. I fell in love! I’ve never fallen in love with a city except for the city I live in. But of course I love the city I’ve lived in my whole life! How could I ever love another? Well this blog post is going to explain simply just that. Me falling in love with New York in four days and three nights!

First things first. I did make a couple of mistakes on this trip. But mistakes are just lessons learned in my opinion. I booked my airfare through the Priceline app. When I started searching for plane tickets they were around $250. I’m cheap when it comes to purchasing airfare so I set an alert for my dates & continued to search. One Sunday morning (2 weeks before the trip) I logged into the Priceline app and the price had dropped to $198. I was stocked! A ticket less than $200 flying out of Memphis was a steal in my opinion. The reason this was a bad idea was because it was flying into the Newark, NJ airport. I didn’t take into consideration how I would get to my hotel in New York and how long it would take to get there. Oh let me back up. This was also a connecting flight from Memphis to Charlotte then to Newark. BAD! All BAD! I got to the Memphis airport at around 6:10am. I didn’t get to my hotel until that evening around 6:30! Yes, you read that correctly! It took me almost an entire day to travel to New York! I was exhausted! Not to mention I was in shock that I had to pay $81 for a cab ride from the Newark airport to my hotel! It took a full hour to get there because the traffic was horrible! It was bumper to bumper from the time I got in the cab to the time I got out! A hot mess!!

I used another app called Hotel Tonight to book my hotel room. I love this app cause I can stay in 4 star hotels for less than the regular price. I gambled with the app and waited until almost the last minute (the week of my trip) to book. I knew I could do that because there was only one major event that I knew of going on in the city. BeautyCon… which I was bombed that it was sold out. New York has tons of choices so I knew that I would end up with a super nice hotel. And I did! I decided on Kimpton Ink48 in Manhattan. I was looking for a hotel with a great rooftop view and this one didn’t disappointed. When I checked in Marilyn greeted me. I told her how excited I was to be there since it was my first time in New York and I was celebrating my birthday. I asked for a high floor and double beds, but check in started at 3pm. All of the rooms with views were taken. I was disappointed, but she and a gentleman named Mostafa made up for that. They gave me a $30 mini bar credit and told me they would send something special to my room. I entered my room and it was so cute. Five minutes later there was a knock at the door. A gentlemen dropped off a package along with a bottle of champagne. I knew then that it was going to be a great vacation. This hotel was beautiful. I can definitely see why it is rated 4.5 stars.

I love boutique hotels. Call me bougie if you want cause my best friend did lol! I just think they’re so unique in their own way. I also like amenities. Even if I don’t use them I like to know that they are there if I decide to indulge in them. This hotel offers bikes for a ride around the city. There’s a full service spa that offer several different services such as facials, massages, and body treatments. There is a fitness center if you want to get your workout on during your vacation. Print restaurant is located near the lobby and it offers various seasonal cuisine. And The Press Lounge is a bar and lounge on the rooftop with breathtaking views of Manhattan.

The first night my best friend Deborah’s friend Sherine suggested that we attend first Saturday’s at the Brooklyn Museum. So we had to get there which meant I had to do what the locals do… Catch the Subway! We got dressed (I put on heels with my outfit) & walked to the Subway. When we got there I purchased a $9 Metro card and got on. The thing is I didn’t know that we had to catch a second one to make it to our destination. This meant more walking… in heels! How did Carrie Bradshaw do this all the time? Lol! I will never forget my first Subway experience. Even getting cussed out by a complete stranger for absolutely no reason at all! LOL!!!

The Brooklyn Museum was a pretty cool place. The event was somewhat crowded. They had a live band and there were several different food trucks lined up outside ready for hungry patrons. What I thought was super cool was that we were mingling and listening to music in a museum after ten o’clock at night. One of the exhibits on display was the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo located on the first floor. Appearances Can Be Deceiving is one of the largest exhibitions in the U.S. dedicated to Frida.

After we spent a couple hours at the museum walking around and chatting it up we worked up an appetite. I had to go with the touristy option which was New York style pizza. You can’t visit New York without trying it out at least once! Sherine suggested a spot not too far from the museum called Ogliastro Pizza Bar. I love pizza spots with the wood fire ovens. In my opinion, that’s how you know for sure the pizza is going to be delicious. We decided on two different pizzas… Margherita and the Salsiccia. I could definitely tell the difference between the authentic flavors of this pizza as opposed to the franchised pizza that I’m used to eating.

Sunday we decided to get out and do some sightseeing around Manhattan. Sherine suggested a place in Chelsea named Cafeteria to get brunch. It was two and a half miles from the hotel. We decided to walk and I decided no more heels for the rest of the trip lol!! 2 and a half miles turned into forty minutes. My goodness New York has some of the longest blocks EVER! And it was a beautiful day so it was a lot of people out and about. Honestly I didn’t mind the crowd or the numerous times I heard the honking of car horns. I was just fascinated by the city.

We brunched at a cute, little spot in Chelsea called Cafeteria. It was packed so there was a bit of a wait. Deborah and I sat at the bar and ordered a couple of Mocktails. I took a spin on my bar stool just to look around at all the people. Everyone looked so cool and chic. The hostess came over and asked if we wanted to stay inside or go out on the patio. We opted for the patio. As I people watched, I noticed that most of the people in Chelsea were dog lovers. People were walking by with some of the cutest dogs. But not cuter than my Jaxson of course lol! When the waiter came over I decided to order the build an omeltte option, breakfast potatoes, turkey bacon and a biscuit. Yeah I got a little greedy lol!! My BFF ordered the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. She let me snag a little taste and OH MY GOODNESS! They were mouthwatering! If you live in New York or visit I would definitely check this place out.

After brunch we did a little shopping on the cobbled streets of Soho. We walked all the way from Chelsea to Soho. I needed some orthopedic shoes with all the walking we were doing. Soho was amazing! It is so many stores you can completely get overwhelmed. The Canal Street Markets was insane with people selling all the fake designer bags and sunglasses. Wow just WOW is all I could think lol! Anyway all my fav stores were in Soho. I was in shoppers heaven! Zara, Topshop, H&M, Madewell, UGG, Vince Camuto… everything you could imagine! There is no way I could live in New York! I would be BROKE!! LOL!! I would hardly ever need to online shop cause everything I would want is already there.

We mustered up the energy for one last stop after Soho… The Brooklyn Bridge. I had to see this famous, monumental structure. It was a ton of people out there. I almost got ran over twice by bikers. Clearly they acknowledge the bike lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge lol! It was just that many people that you had to overlap into the bike lane. It was beautiful though. I caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. It was a little chilly out there, but people were still out on the water with their boats. Or possibly some of those were ferries to the Statue of Liberty. Either way the view was perfect. I was just taking it all in.

The next two days I spent in the city alone since my BFF had to head back to Dallas. I slept in Monday. Honestly my legs and feet needed a break lol! Once I peeled myself out of bed and clothed myself I had to do a couple more touristy things. My hotel was not too far from the world renowned Times Square. I knew I would find a Sephora there so I went to pick up my free birthday gift. As always I worked up an appetite walking and knew exactly what I wanted… a lobster roll. I’ve always wanted to eat a lobster roll on the east coast. I knew it would be so delightful! I Googled places near where I was and decided on Luke’s Lobster. It was exactly how I dreamed… fresh and scrumptious! The pieces of lobster were pretty large. This made me happy. I devoured it! It didn’t stand a chance.

After I got full I psyched myself up to do some more walking. There is no way I would be overweight if I lived there lol! You walk everywhere cause Uber and Lyft can get a bit pricey. I found the Rockefeller Center. I really wanted to get out there on the ice to skate, but convinced myself not to go out there and hurt myself. A couple more blocks and there it was… more shopping lol! 5th Avenue! I did a little damage. I could have done more, but on this rare occasion I decided to be good. I literally was just in awe of the hustle and bustle of the streets of New York. It never stops moving. So different from what I’m used to. As the day whined down (it seemed like the time flew by) I headed back to the hotel. I started to get a little sad cause I was leaving the next day. I was already thinking ahead to when I could get back. Before I got in for the night (cause I knew I wouldn’t be getting back out) I stopped by City Kitchen for another fav of mine… TACOS!! As you can guess I did a lot of eating lol! If you know me you know that’s no surprise!

That Tuesday I went back to Brooklyn to get my hair cut by the famous Haiya. That’s another blog post for another day though. Afterwards I headed to the Laguardia airport to leave. I didn’t want to. I had so much fun in New York. I wanted to do so much more. I’ll have a laundry list of things to do when I visit again. I see what all the hype is about now. Honestly if it weren’t so expensive I would consider moving there. I hear studio apartments cost $2800 a month! That blows my mind! My hair stylist is moving to New York so I’ll have an excuse to sneak up there from time to time. Until next time New York… I’ll see you soon! xoxo