New York - Sunday

Preface: About a week before my trip, I dropped my camera lens down. I thought everything was fine until a couple of days before I left and the auto-focus started acting up. I took it to get fixed, but they couldn't fix it in time and I could NOT go without my camera. So, I took it and tried to manage with manual-focus. Hence, lots of these pictures are blurry. But, to me, they are precious memories!
I am not sure if I mentioned it or not, (ha ha!), but last week, I was in New York on a dream trip of mine. For my birthday, after LOTS of demanding hinting from me, my parents let me know that they were going to send me on a trip to NYC...and the best part, MY MOM WAS MY TRAVEL BUDDY! :)

(Also, some other mom/daughter duos went with us...it was WONDERFUL!)

Since March 4th, I have been counting down the days until it was time to board that plane and get to New York.

(I am serious when I say I drove my mom CRAZY! "What time is our flight?", "What's the weather going to be like again?" "Do you think this shirt/dress/shoes is cute enough?" "What time is our flight again?" "Did you get my text of NY Outfit #2?" "What time is our flight again?")

So, Sunday morning, we headed to New York. There was a list THIIIIIIIIIIIIIS long of things I wanted to do while I was there. We were only there 4 days, so we had to get with it! When we landed, it was beautiful outside.

(And can I say, Laguardia is the ugliest, dirtiest airport I have ever been in? I mean...how old is that place!?)

We quickly checked into our hotel and headed down 5th Avenue to Central Park. Our plan was to eat a hotdog on the street, shop our way to Central Park and ride a rickshaw through the park.

This is where I will pause to say: My mom's friend, Mrs. Brenda, has been to New York a million times. She is a Pro at getting the best prices for everything and even set up a whole itinerary for all the things that we wanted to do. I really don't think we would have been able to see and do all the things we did without her keeping us on task! Thank you so much, Mrs. Brenda!

So, as we made our way down 5th Avenue, we saw all the amazing places like Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, the coolest Apple Store I have ever seen, Trump Tower and, of course, The Plaza Hotel. It was all just how I imagined it.

As we were getting hot dogs for lunch, Mrs. Brenda was working out a deal with the rickshaw driver. We needed three to carry all of us and a discount...right? At one point, Amanda turned to me and said, "LOOK! He's got a 6th finger on that hand!" Of course, I am not blessed with the ability to hold in a laugh, so I burst out laughing and turned around. Once I gathered myself, I had to snap a picture. (Yes...as you will see, I took pictures of EVERYTHING!).

So, the-guy-with-eleven-fingers and two of his buddies biked us through Central Park. It was amazing. We stopped to go down to Bethesda Fountain, Strawberry Fields and to see John Lennon's house. Plus, we saw all the cool stuff as we were riding through the park.

After we finished a Central Park, we went back to the hotel to get dressed. At dinner, we met up with Cristin and one of Sarah's friends, Melissa. We ate at a great Taco & Tequila Bar called Teqa. It was so good.

Then, we walked to the Empire State Building. At first, I was kind of like..."Eh...I don't care if I go to the top. There is so much I would rather do than that." But, my mom insisted. Boy am I glad we did. It was beautiful (and windy as evident from the pictures)!

As we were leaving, Cristin checked her phone and told us all the news: "Bin Laden is dead." UM...WHAT!? I remember where I was when I saw the 2nd tower go down. Now, I will always remember where I was when I heard the news that the mass murderer had been taken down. It was a surreal moment.

We took a limo back to the hotel and promptly crashed for the night.

Monday: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island,  Wall Street, NYSE, Ground Zero, the Subway, Time Square, and Phantom of the Opera

Stay tuned!