New York–Day 1

Tuesday night I left for Tampa, the first leg of the trip up North. Notice I said I, not we. As in David did not join me. There were some last minute changes/things happened to our plans and unfortunately David could not go with me. Heartbroken, disappointed, angry; mild words to describe the way I felt that he wasn’t going with me – but I was going regardless, and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

I am very grateful to my Dad who drove me to Tampa since I got a late start and he didn’t want me driving there by myself. We got into Tampa around midnight, did a quick catch up with my companions for the trip, David’s friend David & Chloe. (The other couple we planned the trip with). We went to bed almost immediately because we had an early flight in the morning!

Wednesday morning all 4 of us went to the airport, my Dad rented a car and drove home, and Me, David and Chloe were off!

The flight was wonderfully uneventful and we were sooo excited to be heading to the big city!

We arrived around 9:30 and took a life-threatening taxi ride into Times Square where our AMAZING hotel was!

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza, it was right in the heart of Times Square, awesome location!

Our hotel, view from our room.

Bathroom, awesome room.

Check in was not until 3:00, so after dropping off our bags for the hotel to hold, we hit the pavement. Did you know you walk A LOT in New York? Oh my lands we did a ton of walking, but we made up for it with our eating :)

We walked all over 5th avenue. And we saw Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, and St. Patrick’s cathedral. Every single place was amazing, breathtaking, etc…we hadn’t planned to ice skate at Rockefeller but we were there, we were on vacation, and how many times are we really going to have the opportunity to skate in NY? Close to nada, so we did it! I am SO glad we did, we had so much fun and made some great memories. We were all a little shaky at first but my the end we got the hang of it. Definitely a memory I’ll never forget.

Central Park, Chloe getting her metro card.

David studying the subway map, ice skating at Rockefeller, Grand Central Terminal.

Times Square!

I just couldn’t get enough of times square, anytime of day you will find it packed with people, and so lively. It’s definitely the city that never sleeps!

Apple Store, Pop Burger Restaurant

We headed back to the hotel around 4 to check in, got settled and then we were off again. We went to a place called Charley O’s right by our hotel for “drinks”. Where I had the first of my many shirley temples. Ya, I’m just not much of a drinker!

After drinks we were off to find a place to eat. We settled on a cozy restaurant called Brickyard. Yum yum!

Dinner at Brickyard: Yum-O!

At this point we’d been up since 4, had about 3 hours of sleep, and I was pooped. Chloe and David headed out for some evening drinks and I headed to a nice warm shower and comfy bed :)

Day 1 = the start of a great trip!