I (heart) NY

Happy Birthday To ME! If you follow me on twitter, you know that I spent my 35th birthday in the beautiful city of New York. It was my first trip and surely not my last. My good friend Dawn and I bought a travel package at a charity auction for her daughters school. Can you say, guilt free travel? The package included return airfare, 3 night hotel and a $1000 gift card to spend at any Bloomingdales in the USA! We extended our trip to make it 5 nights and off we went.

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Here are a few of my highlights:

The shopping! Oh the shopping. I made a conscious decision to leave my credit card at home to avoid over spending. Well that didn’t save me at all. After spending our $1000 gift card ($500 each) at Bloomingdales on the first day, we hopped a bus and went to the outlet mall. I spent all my remaining cash for the entire trip at Woodbury Commons and had to put out a plea to my husband on Facebook to send more money! And of course, he came thru. It was my birthday after all.

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Walking from the Upper West Side down to Times Square. We started the day with a leisurely bike ride thru Central Park and then followed it up with a walk to the American Museum of Natural History. Yes, this is the same museum that was made famous in the Ben Stiller movie, Night At The Museum. If I was traveling with my kids, this museum would be a must-see with the amazing dioramas of species across the world, the extensive dinosaur exhibit including the impressive T-Rex featured in the movie. The live butterfly room is every little girls dream. After all that biking and walking we needed a snack! Right around the corner from the museum is the Shake Shack. Best. Shakes. Evah. Nuff said.
The walk continued down Columbus Ave where we came across the Magnolia bakery made famous by a little show called Sex in the City and a classic New York City pizzeria called, Francesco Pizzeria.

Traveling tip: If you are traveling with a friend, stop at all the little food places you want but only buy 1 serving and split it. That way you both get to try it and by eating only half a portion you can have that shake, flourless chocolate cake and slice of pizza and have no guilt!

Eventually we made it to Times Square at the end of the day to see the lights. It was certainly something I’m glad I saw but not something I think I need to do again. It seems to be a large gathering place for hoards of people doing nothing in particular.

The people! New Yorkers are often depicted as rough, blunt and somewhat rude people who are unapproachable. Well, if any of them are like this, we didn’t run into them. All the people that we chatted with, asked for directions and exchanged general pleasantries with were funny, kind and humble. However kind and friendly they were to us we did observe some stereotypical New Yorker attitude amongst themselves. Like the time we were waiting on a crowded platform at Times Square to get on the subway and when the doors opened and a young girl leapt like a gazelle out of the crowd to try to get on the train first she was met with a 65+ year old lady who promptly stopped the gazelle in her tracks with the wave of her crooked finger and a stern NY accented, “NO! You wait until the people get off the train first!” The crowd was silenced, the girl turned beet red and several passengers behind the old lady also put their 2 cents worth in about respecting those getting off the train before you jump at the doors. It was AWESOME!

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Thank you New York. I will be back!