oh hey new york city!

this past weekend my roommates and i just took a little vaca to new york city. no big deal right!? it was a little surreal that taking a trip to new york was as easy as just getting in the car and driving a few hours north. my roommate jamie was so great as to get us a ride and a place to stay in queens. she also provided tour guides in the city as we met up with some of her friends. heres a little synopsis and highlights of our trip to new york:

Saturday

First stop--Statue of Liberty! What better way to be welcomed in to New York then seeing Lady Liberty in all of her green glory.

Times Square. this is when i got a little giddy. being in times square with all of the lights and picutres and excitement is definitely the best.

then we hit all the stuff around times square--radio city music hall, rockefeller center, new york public library, and 5th avenue.

Chinatown was a highlight as thats where I got my knockoff Dolce & Gabbana purse. We were led into a store then directed to the "door" that more or less looked just like another wall. then magically, the wall turns sideways showing a secret entrance way to the basement. then we go down to this sketch basement into a hall way with like 5 doors, each opening to a room filled with purses! it was so shady and i was laughing the entire time. dont worry my purse looks legit, unlike the kata spada purses we found as a fam when we went last time. the best though was how you had to leave the basement. heres a photo of jamie trying to figure out how to open the door with the handmade mechanical device.

Memphis. the amazing play that we saw on broadway. lots of singing and dancing and i loved it. i was even happier as i was sitting through this play as i found out about the dodgers sweep. watching a play, celebrating the dodgers and in new york city. could life get any better??

my favorite part of the day: sitting in times square after the show eating cheesecake. a great city with my favorite dessert.

one of my famous vans photos. as you can see my left shoe has a hole in the toe, unfortunately so did my sock for that day.

Sunday

Wall St, New York Stock Exchange and the place where George Washington was sworn in as our first president. Definitely my fave place. I love that man!!

For brunch we stumbled upon this gem: the Manhattan Diner. so good! it was super cute and i had great banana pancakes. and look at jamies waffle! i could go there for every meal.

church in the Manhattan temple. any real world fans? definitely saw chet at church. i snapped a sneaky photo of him. we made eye contact.

central park. beautiful and serene. cha and i enjoyed a new york style hot dog while strolling.

the MET. for some reason i love this building. i remember it clearly from my first trip to NY circa 2000. and what better place to take a jumping photo. there isnt one.

another highlight of the trip--our stop in brooklyn. we wanted to go to Manhattan and then walk across the bridge to brooklyn and get pizza at this famous place called grimaldis. well in true fashion as we are on the subway we realize we dont have an address for grimaldis, nor do we have a map of brooklyn when we get there. then we realize that we missed our stop and we are already in Brooklyn. well that brought about an adventure. unfortunately the pizza place was packed but we did get an AMAZING view of the new york skyline. definitely worth the trip to Brooklyn.

dinner again in little Italy with amazing Italian pizza. and another night stop in times square.

Monday

in sum: crazy crazy morning. we decided to go into Manhattan one last time which meant that we had to bring our bags. so we all had to carry our huge bags, purse(s) and pillow. got the run around on the subway, then had to walk a mile to drop our bags off (at the work office of the girls apartment we were staying at) then we had to hail a taxi to take us to 5th avenue, where we stumbled upon the Columbus day parade which was awesome! then back in the taxi, back to the office, back to the subway with our bags all the way up to Harlem to get in the car and drive back. oh man. it was so tiring! i thought my back was going to break.

it was a way fun trip. i loved being able to take a quick trip to NY with my friends. i loved being able to take the city in slowly and see the big things while missing all of the museums the city has to offer. it made me really appreciate DC. as much as new york is a great city, i really love DC. i finally understand when people say that DC is a big city but with a smaller feel and i really like that. i LOVE the metro and hate the subway. so it made me realize that im at the right spot on the east coast, living the DC life.