Road Trip Recap: NYC Day 1

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Yesterday I told you all about the fabulous W New York Times Square and today I will tell you about what we did in NYC!!

I have to preface this post by saying that NYC is probably my favorite city in the entire world, for now. It is exciting, beautiful, fast-paced, full of history, and just plain ole fun. I have to say that going into this road trip this was the city I was most excited about. I had been to NYC a few times before and couldn’t wait to share the magic with my bestie. I just wish we could have stayed longer.

We drove from Atlantic City to NYC and I think I almost had a great attack when I drove through the city. It was very nerve wracking but we survived!! Hallelujah and praise Jesus.

Here is the George Washington Bridge…

…I almost peed my pants driving over it but we made it!!

So, we actually parked the car at LaGuardia and took a shuttle to Grand Central and then took a cab to our hotel. Why? Because it was double the cost to valet at the hotel and that would mean that I had to drive through Times Square. No thank you. I think our plan was brilliant. It saved us a couple bucks and we got to experience NYC cabs. HAHAHA!

Here we are on the shuttle heading to Grand Central…

After a very interesting, and sweaty, cab ride we got checked into our hotel and then headed out to find some lunch! I follow a few travel bloggers on Instagram  and had been seeing all these pics of yummy burgers and shakes from Shake Shack so I knew I wanted to eat there at some point in our trip. Luckily it wasn’t too far from our hotel so we went there for lunch!

I got the Roadside Burger…it had caramelized onions and bacon that had been simmered in beer. Best Burger EVER. Seriously. I f you ever get a chance to hit up Shake Shack DO IT!!

After lunch we decided to do a double decker bus tour. We hopped on our bus and got off at Central Park. We tried to see Strawberry Fields but got lost?!? So we went back to Columbus Circle and hopped back on our bus HAHAHA!!!

We also went to Harlem, down Museum Row, and then back to Times Square. I tried to get a pic of Libby getting arrested but the cops said they couldn’t. Boooooo…so she just smiled with them instead. They were really nice!!

Oh Times Square how I have missed you…

For dinner we grabbed a good ole NYC hot dog from a hot dog stand in Times Square.

We ate the dogs on our way back to our tour bus so we could take a night tour of the city!! And of course we had to selfie on the bus. Duh.

Funny story, our bus was parked next to this theater and I took this pic and was saying how much I wasted to see Finding Neverland and the we heard the crown outside the theater scream. When we looked to see what was going on we saw Matthew Morrison!! From Glee!! He’s in Finding Neverland and had just left the theater for the night. How COOL!!! I took pics of him but pf course they all came out blurry. Booooooo.

We finally set off on our night tour and rolled through Times Square first! Note- we tried to sit at the back of the double decker bus every time because you get better pics in the back. You get longer to take your pics and you have more leg room in the very back seat.

Times Square is my favorite area of NYC. Yes, it’s very touristy but it’s so very vibrant and alive and just makes me want to dance!!

The Empire State Building is one of my favorite buildings in NYC and I was able to get it from all different angles on my night tour but this was my fave. Confession- I have never been inside the building, it’s always been shut down when I go! Boooooo.

We got stuck in a traffic jam for what felt like forever and so of course I had to selfie. HA!

We passed this McDonalds on our war into Chinatown and I just thought it was really cool…

Speaking of Chinatown, I could have touched that sign we were up so high!

We also went through Brooklyn and all of these trees reminded me of the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

We stopped and got amazing pics of the Manhattan skyline before heading back that way…

We didn’t get back from our tour until almost midnight so we crashed in our hotel beds and woke up bright and early the next morning to do some more exploring!!

Have you ever been to NYC??
What is your favorite part of the city??