My friend Kirsty, who is probably one of the best photographers I know, as well as a bona-fide world traveler, challenged a group of us who took her travel photography class to put together a blog post of our summer travels. This was perfect for me because I have all of these photos from my trip to New York City that are just sitting on my hard drive so this was the prompt I needed to get them edited and share them. Plus, I would love to share Kirsty's photos with you because if you aren't familiar with her work, you should be!
Haylee and I had the last minute opportunity to join Tim on a work trip to New York City. He works for Heineken so he is able to get up there quite often. Cameron was in Rio for 2 weeks when we came up with this theme. Cam was not happy that we were going to NYC without her but we told her girls who are in Rio cannot complain. Wouldn't you agree? She got some amazing pictures on her iPhone...but that's a whole other blog post!
Thanks to Heineken for bringing us along on the trip! And thanks to Haylee for getting me in the frame as we walked to Do.
Our first stop was Do NYC. We walked there (LONG WALK!) and there was a LONG LINE. Apparently, people wait in hours long lines everyday for a taste of the cookie dough. It was one of those things we can say we did but probably won't do again. It is really hard to eat a cup of cookie dough. But it makes great pictures so let's be honest, it was worth it!
We did a lot of shopping, which I am going to be honest was getting on my nerves because we have all of these stores in Atlanta. I was told that everything is better in New York which I get but it all looked the same to me. Bah Humbug! I know, I know... After Do, we walked over to the West Village to have dinner with Tim's boss and then meet my cousins at a wrap party for her daughter's play. She recommended that we take a walk on the High Line and I am so glad we did. We got there just in time for the sunset over the Hudson and then we had a lot of fun looking in windows and looking up how much things cost on Zillow. We found a 351 sq ft studio for a mere $500k. What a deal.
Ever since we went to London and someone recommended the Big Red Bus, I have been trying to do that in every city I go to. It is a great way to get around and figure out where you want to spend more time. Haylee and I did it twice. First we did it during the day, and then we did the night time lights tour. Even though I am generally against touristy things, it really is the best way to learn a lot about the city in a short time. We saw the big billboards in Times Square (Haylee just happened to notice Harry Styles.) We also decided to go out to eat on a rooftop downtown that we saw from the High Line the night before. Well, It ended up being a little more shi-shi than we anticipated and they were none too pleased when we showed up with our shopping bags after a long day of being tourists. They hid us behind a plant and we could kind of see the sunset if we peeked around it. The food was delish though. Next time we will dress up. We were staying in White Plains so once we were in the city, we were there for the day.
As if we didn't have enough sugar at Do, someone on Facebook told us to go to Milkbar. Plus we've been watching Master Chef so we were curious. Well, I don't think we found the "main" one. This one was a dark little cube in tucked into the front of a non-descript restaurant. There was no where to sit and enjoy the desert so it was a little disappointing. I think this was our hint that we need to stop going to get decadent baked goods. I got the crack pie (ok) and Haylee got the milkshake. She was seriously grossed out by the cereal milk. It tasted like the milk that is left in the bowl when you eat a corn flakes.
We spent our next day exploring Lower Manhattan. We started on the Brooklyn Bridge which surprisingly, I have never walked across! I will spare you the picture of the sweat on my back. It was so hot that day. Such amazing views from the bridge.
We took a guided tour of the 9/11 Memorial. This is the only picture I took. I felt like it was not a place to take pictures. It was a place to read stories and remember that day. I was watching the Today show that morning and they have it playing and it took me right back. Haylee spent a lot of time reading and listening. We did not rush out of there. More than a few tears were shed. This was the only piece of art that was commissioned. It is a different shade of blue (like the sky that morning) for each victim to show that they were not just a collective victim of 9/11 but individuals who had their own unique life and story. If you have never been, I would recommend going and doing the guided tour.
After the Memorial, we went to the observation deck of the Freedom Tower to see the sunset. I didn't even realize you could go up there. Such beautiful views. It was well worth doing. You can even eat dinner up there but you still have to pay the fees on top of paying for dinner so we didn't do that. You can see the remembering pools and the original World Trade Center footprint from the top of the tower.
Oddly enough, there is a pretty cool mall adjacent to the 9/11 Memorial. We checked it out briefly as we went to grab the Subway to Times Square for our night time bus tour. Very cool architecture.
Our bus tour took us across the Manhattan Bridge and a loop through Brooklyn for great views of Manhattan at night. There is no commercial traffic across the Brooklyn Bridge. A little tidbit that I learned on the tour...
Thanks for reading along. To check out Kirsty's travels around the UAE this summer click HERE.
Lisa from Little Loo Photography went to Iceland and her pictures are incredible. Check them out HERE.
Alexandra Mojica went to Japan! Check it out HERE.
