New York – My Last Day

My last day in New York was a rainy day which I actually didn’t mind. I love rainy days in New York, it’s a great day to lounge at a coffee shop and people watch. It would have been better if my ankle wasn’t dying and I could actually walk around.

I started the day off at the Discovery Times Square for the Star Wars and The Power of Costume exhibit.

It was really cool getting to see all the characters and all the different light sabers for each character. There was a lot of behind the “seams” information about all the work that went into creating the individual costumes and what they were trying to achieve with each look and inspirations for the costumes that was really interesting to read.
Then of course there was the villain, it was crazy to walk in to this room and suddenly be surrounded by stormtrooper heads and then having this larger than life Darth Vader just looming over you, breathing.

The funnest part for me though was getting to see all the wardrobe for Queen Amidala, the costumes were absolutely breathtaking, they were so beautiful. The fabrics, the details that you got to see up close like that were insane.

I didn’t think I would really care for the costume exhibit, but it was actually really cool to go through all the costumes and reading about all the facts and what the actors thought about their costumes and how it helped them with getting into character. It was a pretty good way to spend a rainy morning in NYC.

The second part of my day consisted of waiting for the rain to slow down in Times Square so that I could get somewhere and then people watching outside of Starbucks. My original plan was to go to this chocolate bar that was sort of nearby for lunch and then I was going to sit at the New York library and read until my shuttle was supposed to pick me up early afternoon, but with my bad foot, there was no way I could walk all the way there and back. And just for the record, it is really hard to find a Starbucks in Times Square that has a seating area, which I get but sucked for me in that moment. I finally hobbled to a place that had outside seating where I sat until it got too cold and then I ended up just sitting in my hotel lobby for the remainder of my day.

I love NYC, it is my second home. But I have to admit that by the time I got to LaGuardia, I was more than ready to go back home! It was a fun weekend though, I got to do all the things I love to do in NYC and then added a few new things to the list. I cannot wait to go back!

If you missed my first three days, you can read about them here, here, and here! Thanks for travelling with me 🙂 !

New York 2016 -Day Three

My third day in New York started with me breaking my ankle! Fine – over exaggeration, but I think I landed on my foot weird when I was stepping off the side walk and mini sprained it or something. I wanted to keep walking from Times Square to High Line which was about an hour walk; at home I would be like no way!! even half an hour driving distance, sometimes I’m too lazy. But NYC has so much to see that I didn’t really care about the walk. I was so mad with myself though, I should have taken it easy and just lounged at a cafe or maybe taken transit. But I didn’t think it was that bad. By the time I got to High Line I regretted it and had to sit down and rest my foot!
But it was worth it, High Line is pretty cool. It’s this old railway that got restored into a public park. I would imagine during Spring/Summer, it would be a lot more beautiful, with green grass and lots of flowers. But even still, signs of Spring was evident with  flowers blooming in certain patches.

There were also a lot of places that you can sit, a lot of street art, and a different view of the streets of New York that was really fun to find and explore. So I walked until my ankle would start up and then I would sit and people watch, or lean out and look out at the city. it would have been better if it was sunnier and a tad warmer. But still, it was really nice and quiet.

On my way to lunch, I stopped by Books of Wonder, a children’s bookstore that sells rare and classic children’s books and lots of modern children and YA books. I couldn’t resist going inside to have a look to see if there was something New York specific that I could bring back for the bff’s baby. This place is so adorable, with a mixture of classic and new book art. They were setting up for either an author event or story time which I think is so cute that they do that! I have to look into this and see if there is something similar here for the bff’s son.

Even the merchandise were really cool with bookmarks as the price tag. They even had some signed copies of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books that I had to do everything in my power to not snatch them all up (though if I had the luggage space, I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t have not bought them)!

I had so much planned for today, but I ended up having to cancel them because of my stupid foot. By the time I hobbled over to Peacefood Cafe, a vegan restaurant with really yummy meals, I was dying. So after lunch I waved down a taxi, went back to the hotel early, soaked my foot in the tub (it was heavenly), and then napped! By the evening, I was ready for Les Miserables!I was so excited because I have been wanting to see this for so long and I still hadn’t seen the movie yet, it’s on my list of things to watch, but I heard that it was amazing. The musical came highly recommended by one of my friends who had seen it on Broadway. For some reason though, I thought I was watching Phantom of the Opera (the Les Mis print wasn’t up until they broke for intermission) so at first when they started, I was so confused because I had seen Phantom of the Opera and it wasn’t Phantom of the Opera. It until later (much later I’m embarrassed to admit) that I remembered that I was here for Les Mis.
Aside from my own stupid blunder, I loved it so much and the cast did such an amazing job, the singing was fantastic. It was so exciting and so sad. I sat in front of a bunch of high school girls and they had all been talking during the intermission that xyz was going to happen and that they were all going to be sobbing, then they were all sniffling and crying and I was sniffing and crying along with them. I heard the woman beside me stifle her laughter (at us I can only assume, because the deaths were sad and not at all amusing).
I really need to see the movie and I also want to read the book now just to see what differences there are. I don’t know how the book will fare though; I tried to read Wicked after I saw the musical last year and I got about halfway through it before I had to give up on the book. I tried reading Wicked several years ago and didn’t like it, then I thought since I loved the musical so much, I would be into reading the book, but no. I still couldn’t get into it for some reason.
After Les Mis, I was starving, so I went over to the Shake Shack for their ‘Shroom Burger and a chocolate frozen custard. Yum! If you haven’t had frozen custard before, I highly highly recommend that you change that. I can’t tell you why I love it so much, I just do. I just wish they had locations in Canada 😦

That’s it from my third day in NYC. More on my last day later! If you miss day one and two, you can read them here and here!

Thanks for reading about my tiny weekend adventures 🙂

 

New York 2016 – Day Two

Saturday was a good day in NYC. This is the second lesson that I learned: check the weather before you make any permanent plans!! I know weather can change, but rarely does it change that drastically that a forecasted sunny warm day becomes a cold and rainy one. I hadn’t checked the weather and made my plans and then bought all my tickets online so that I could skip the lines. So I ended up spending my morning at MOMA on a very gorgeous sunny warm day. But it was still nice because I went as soon as the doors opened so I wasn’t sharing the space with many people. Plus my interest lies in paintings, I don’t know if it’s because that’s where my discipline is, so I skipped all the sculptures and went straight to the top where all the paintings were. There were a few of them I was familiar with, and it was nice, like strolling and bumping into an old friend.

The one that I was most excited about though, was this one:I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but Frida Kahlo is my idol, my hero, my everything. I have never had the opportunity to see any of her original paintings before and to stumble upon it so suddenly, I almost burst into tears. If I could have, I would have touched it. To touch the same strokes that she had made all those years ago. I felt like such a fan girl. I just couldn’t believe that I was really seeing a real painting and not something in one of my books or online. It was such an emotional experience. It took me awhile to compose myself.

There were many paintings and artists that I was unfamiliar with, and a few where I knew the name of the artist, but not the particular piece of work. There were a few where I enjoyed the paintings so much that I made a note of their name so I could go back research them later.

Next time I come back, I’ll have to check out the other stuff.

After MOMA, I walked over to Beyond Sushi, a vegan and vegetarian sushi place that I found through Instagram and everything looked so yummy. When I started planning my trip, I knew that I would have to make a stop here. Luckily, there was one right by MOMA, so it wasn’t out of the way. The only sad thing was that I wanted to try everything but you couldn’t mix and match. Each single order came with 8 rolls and I knew that there was no way that I could do 16 rolls, so I ordered the Mighty Mushroom with a miso soup.When I come back to NYC, I am definitely coming back here so I can eventually try them all! The Mighty Mushroom was so delicious; it was made with a 6 grain rice, a variety of mushrooms, and tofu. It was topped with micro arugula and I love that they made a mushroom teriyaki sauce for the sushi! I have never had tofu in my sushi before, but you barely even noticed it and the mushroom teriyaki was brilliantly made and yummy (I’m not a huge fan of weird sauces)!
The place was a lot smaller than I had thought, but not a lot of people seemed to be eating in, most came to order and took it to go.

On my way I saw a Trump protest that 1. made me laugh and 2. gave me hope for human kind that not everyone is supporting him.

I  did change my plans a little and spent the second part of my day reading in Central Park because it was so nice outside! No jackets needed, sunglasses on, bsb in my headphones. It was such a peaceful and beautiful day. I sat on the benches and read and people watched and had my cupcake from a cupcake atm. That’s right there is a CUPCAKE ATM somewhere in NYC!!!

I was so excited when I saw it and I HAD to stop and get a cupcake from the cupcake atm. The cupcake was (disappointingly) a little stale, but it was fun to get it and watch it making its way to me!

The last part of my day, was the reason why I came to NYC: Nick Carter at the Playstation Centre!! Nick had posted on Twitter that he was going to play here awhile ago and curious, I google mapped it and realized it was right in the middle of Times Square. Which made me miss NYC. Which made me really want to go. The planning, the price searches began. All my anxieties, all my fears, all the stress, were so worth it. The thing about Nick Carter is that he is so entertaining. I may not love his new album (sorry, Nick!), but when he is doing the songs live, he is so full of energy and so much fun to watch, that whatever song he does instantly becomes the best song ever and I’m rocking out and singing along with him. 

The best part of the concert was all the bsb songs he did and then he brought out Brian freaking Littrell! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I was already freaking out and then Brian came bouncing out and then I really freaked the hell out! We all did. Honestly, it was one of the best concerts he’s ever done! I’ll try not to gush too too much and add too much pictures, there will be another post about this from the Toronto concert 🙂
I came out of the concert with the biggest grin on my face. With too much energy in me to just go back to the hotel and sleep,  I pumped up his new album while I wandered around Times Square. Best. Day. Ever. 🙂

More on day 3 later. You can read day 1 here if you missed it!

New York 2016 – Day One

Two weekends ago, I went on my first solo trip. Sure, it was to NYC and I have been there several times, but I was still so incredibly apprehensive. I have never gone anywhere on my own before and I usually depended on my travel companions to guide me to our destinations and back. I have never flown on my own before, I have never travelled on my own before. I thought that it would be so hard eating on my own, going out on my own.

This ended up being a really great experience and I feel like I wouldn’t mind going to NYC on my own again, but I’d still be hesitant to travel elsewhere on my own! I did learn something new from this though. Being my first solo trip and I am not the type that easily makes friends, I find it really awkward to strike up a conversation with a stranger. I mean, if someone talks to me, I’m not rude or going to be rude about it or anything. I just find the whole process…awkward. So I over planned my trip and in that way I was always on the move unless I was eating. Because of that, I killed my legs that are not used to that much walking.
Next time I’ll have to scale back on the things I wanted to do. But the fact that this was my first solo trip to NYC, it meant that I could do everything that I wanted to do without having to consider what other people wanted.

So of course my first time travelling on my own, I get sent to second inspection. I still don’t know why! I need to find out what their little codes mean. Though I feel like it was my fault and I jinxed myself cause the whole time I was in line waiting to talk to customs, I could see the secondary inspection area and it’s all closed doors and I was kind of giggly thinking about the show Border Security. And then I got sent in there. But the guy was really nice and asked me why I was there and I started giggling and responded with to see a concert. He asked me which one? I said Nick Carter!! And he said, what’s wrong with that? I said nothing, but every time I tell people they tend to make fun of me…Then he shook his head and let me go.

My first “day” in NYC, I didn’t land until 9pm-ish. It was so pretty watching the sunset over New York. But I was unfortunately on the wrong side or it got too dark for me to see the Statue of Liberty. The last time I flew in with my friends, we were able to see the Statue of Liberty as we were coming and that was cool.

I got a ride from one of the shuttle services and I thought I was going to die. There was no traffic and still the driver was just speeding in and out of lanes, scooting past cars and vans and I thought several times that we were going to hit something because the lanes seemed so narrow. Clearly, I have forgotten what driving around in NYC was like. But I got there in one piece and first stop was dinner because I was starving! I went to Sapporo the last time I was there and the ramen was delicious! It was close by to my hotel and I thought I’d go back because ramen is my comfort food AND I found out that they had a vegan miso ramen that I was pretty excited about.The only sucky thing was that there was no protein in there, it would have been really easy just to add a few pieces of tofu. But other than that, it was delicious.

After being fed, I walked around Times Square. There seemed to be a few new places since the last time I was there. Like the Sanrio store that had this Hello Kitty thing that turns into the bear (I don’t know the name). I could not stop laughing though because it was so creepy and it was like the Sanrio version of The Human Centipede.

But mostly I was just there to people watch. Times Square will always be one of my favourite places. Where else would you get to hear a cabbie yell at a lady for jay walking while honking really aggressively and yelling at her to “f*** his dick” to which she responded with “I would, but you don’t got one!”. Welcome to New York!

because I love the NYPD horses 🙂

More on day two later 🙂