June 9, 2017

     Today was another LONG, but exciting day here in New York!  We started out the day eating breakfast at a little place called Sarabeth’s in Manhattan.  Such amazing food!!!  I had the buttermilk pancakes with strawberries and it was to die for (Breakfast food is my fav and I’d have to say this is on my top 5 list of best breakfast places I have ever been to).  It falls 2nd behind an amazing breakfast place in Fullerton, California.  Anyways, the food was definitely very pricey, but it was worth it.

     Next, we hopped onto the Subway and attempted to take it to Battery Park, but there were some complications so we caught a taxi the rest of the way.  We walked around Battery Park and hung out in the park for a little while.  It was such a cute little park with a nice view of the city.  I love, love, love just sitting and people watching and New York is definitely one of the best places to do that!  You can find the most interesting people in this city.  

     So when 1PM came along, we hopped onto the  ferry boat to take us over to the Statue of Liberty and it was so cool!  From far away, it doesn’t look so big, but up close it is so huge.  We bought tickets to go inside the Statue and even go all the way up to the crown!  Shoutout to my mom for buying these tickets months in advance so that we were able to get that opportunity.  The chance to go all the way up to the crown was recentley reopened.  After 9/11, no one was allowed up in the crown for 12 years.  But after remodeling, the crown reopened to the public in 2013.  Now, going up to the crown is very limited as they only let 500 people PER DAY go up to the crown.  Let me tell you, that was a thrilling experience.  To get to the crown, it requires climbing 128 stairs of a spiral staircase (and of course not chickening out or looking down because it’s a looonnngggg way down).  If you’re  claustraphobic, I wouldn’t recommend.  To be honest, I was pretty scared the whole way going up, but I made it!  The view from the top was breathtaking.  Glad I didn’t chicken out.

     Our next stop of the day was Grand Central Station!  We walked around there a bit and I envisioned all my favorite scenes from Gossip Girl.  Then we walked to the New York Public Library and I snapped a few pictures (shown below) of the second largest library in the United States.  Finally, it was time for dinner at Carmine’s in Times Square.  Once again, another #score for us because the food and drinks were incredible.  To drink, I had a strawberry lemonade which was made right there in front of me.  For an appetizer, we had cheesy garlic bread.  Wow.  And for our main course, we had lasagna.  Wow again.  If you ever go there, be warned that the entrees are family style and can serve 3-4 people easily.  

     Our last stop of the day included many stores in Times Square.  We walked around and browsed in Forever 21 (4 stories!), M&M World (3 stories), Disney Store (2 stories!), and the Hershey’s Store (1 story… can’t keep up with the others).  All stores had the cutest items, but I’d have to say M&M World was my favorite out of all of them!  Maybe I’m a little bias since M&M’s are my favorite candy, but you can go ahead and think what you want or make a trip to New York and decide for yourself.
So that was our Day 2!!!  15,467 steps later, we are back safe and sound in our hotel room more than ready to hit the hay!  Goodnight from us people who actually do want to get some sleep in the city that never sleeps.

The spiral staircase to the crown

Grand Central Station

A view from above

Inside Forever 21 in Times Square

Inside the Statue of Liberty

Our cheesy garlic bread appetizer

A man feeding a squirrel at Battery Park

A guilty looking squirrel… “Did they see me steal those acorns!?”

Another view from above

Grand Central Station

XOXO Gossip Girl

Pasteries at Grand Central Station

An awesome stranger let me borrow his 70-300 mm lens to get this shot!!!  Shoutout to @livingthedreamadventures (instagram)

My favorite shot of the day

So many stuffed animals!!!

Hallie and I in front of the skyline

M&M World in Times Square

The finished product- Strawberry Lemonade

Miguel making our lemonades right in front of us!​

A giant Kit Kat at the Hershey’s Store!!

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Everyone always seems to be in a hurry

Breakfast at Sarabeth’s