ℕ𝕖𝕨 𝕐𝕠𝕣𝕜 ℂ𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕀𝕟 𝟛 𝔻𝕒𝕪𝕤

This summer one of my long-time friends Mikayla got an awesome internship in New York City. My mom, her mom, and I couldn't turn down a trip to go see her for a weekend. So, this past weekend we spent 56 hours in New York City. We left at 7 am on Friday and flew back in at 10 pm on Sunday. This was the perfect weekend trip and a great quick getaway. We spent every minute seeing as much as we could. We were able to see a lot in the 56 hours we were in New York.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites at 37th and 7th street, this ended up being a great location. We were close to the subway and Time Square. The first thing we did after we landed in NYC was getting an Unlimited 7-day metro card. Even if you aren't staying for a full 7 days this is a great purchase and you will get your use out of it. We then got on a bus to ride to the subway. We had no issues on the subway and didn't encounter any problems. The only complaint we had was the subway stations were hotter than outside! We sweated more waiting on the subway than we did walking around New York. We ended up being in New York during their once a summer heatwave. One of the days we were there the heat index was 115 degrees! My friend's mom made a loose itinerary for our weekend and it ended up being exactly what we did! It was great to have a loose plan that was flexible with the weather.

Friday (Day one) we visited the Financial District of Manhattan, Mikayla, my friend was staying at Pace University right by Wall Street. We were lucky enough to come on a Friday when the Financial District had a bunch of different food trucks. My mom and I grabbed Mao Boa (dough stuffed with meat) and loved it. Next, we walked to the 9/11 Memorial and then stopped at Industrial Kitchen for some drinks and a snack. This restaurant was right on the water and had great food. Once we finished up our afternoon snack we went to Soho for some shopping. We visited the Lulu Lemon store and after 20 years I purchased my FIRST pair of Lulu Lemon. We then explored Little Italy and had dinner. I highly recommend stopping for a meal there, it will truly make you feel like you are in Italy. I had some of the best Ravioli and most of the restaurants offer free house wine, sangria, etc with your meal.

On Saturday we stopped at Pret a Manger a French coffee chain all around NYC. I had one of the best Iced Chai Lattes I have ever had. I highly recommended this trendy coffee shop but, this is not a Starbucks so don't expect and frilly drinks! We then walked to Central Park and wanted to visit The Met. Once we got to the Met, we visited the Camp exhibit and Jewels for America exhibit. Both were very cool and fun to read/learn about. I highly recommend seeing both exhibits if you find yourself in New York soon. It is also a great place to visit and escape the heat. Once we finished at the Met, we rode the subway to West Village and ate lunch at Tacomobi. We also visited Olivier and co. an oil and vinegar company. I recommend stopping in and trying some samples from this store. After lunch, we went to The Donut Shop and split a lemon sea salt donut and then visited milk and cookies for awesome ice cream sandwiches. After that, we made our way to 5th Avenue for some afternoon shopping. The Zara store here is incredible and has one of the best sale sections I have ever seen. Once we were done shopping, we went back to the hotel to get ready for Aladdin. We saw Aladdin on Broadway off Time Square, it was worth every penny. I highly recommend seeing this play whether it's in Dallas, Chicago, New York, where ever it shows. After the show, we visited Time Square at night and then walked over to grab dinner at the Halal Guys food truck.

Sunday, we visited Hill Song church New York with Mikayla. It was a great time of worship and prayer. We watched a sermon given by Louie Giglio at the Hill Song conference in New Zealand a couple days before. It was all about not letting the devil sit at your table. If you would like to watch this sermon, I shared it on my Facebook page. After church, we went back to the hotel to check out and drop our stuff off at Mikayla's dorm. We then went to walk the Brooklyn Bridge and of course, take pictures. Once we finished taking pictures, we walked to China Town to get much-needed foot massages. We visited an awesome massage place and got wonderful 30-minute foot massages! (Highly recommend doing this) We then stopped at Sweet Green for a late lunch before we headed to the airport for our flight.

We had a fantastic trip despite the horrible heat. It was so much fun and worth it to visit M. We were able to check off some many things and truly dig into New York City. I highly recommend a weekend trip to New York if you can!

𝑂𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙, 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙

𝒳𝒪𝒳𝒪,

𝒪𝓁𝒾𝓋𝒾𝒶