New York City: Day 1

My mom, grandma, and I ventured to the big apple a few weeks ago to celebrate my 21st birthday, a gift from my grandparents. To sum up our trip in one word would be to call it perfect. We couldn't have gone at a better time or had better weather. If you haven't experienced New York at Christmas time then you must plan a trip as quickly as possible... it's Beautiful! There's no way to describe the many events that happened during our 6 day getaway but I will do my best to share my experience of the city that truly NEVER sleeps! This will be the first post of many :)

Day 1
To start off our trip right, my mom and I nearly missed our redeye out of Cali. The security line was easily 200 people deep and took us 45 minutes to just get up to the scanners. We ran to our terminal, shoved our bags in the overhead compartments (which were already jammed pack beacuse it was a full flight), and took our seats with minutes to spare... no lie, minutes! And to make our rushed start even better, there were several screaming babies on the flight so I got a total of about 30 minutes of sleep.

We landed in Newerk at 6 am east coast time and my mom's cousin cheryl picked us and took us to her house in Jersey City beacuse its not possible to check-in to a hotel at 6 am in case you didn't know!
We had SO much fun with Cheryl, Jimmy, & the Baby (Little Jimmy). I don't think I have ever laughed as hard as I did with them. So many random hysterical events in such a short span of time. One being my mom, cheryl, and me driving around Jersey City at 6:30 in the morning trying to find a coffee truck to get pork roll, egg, and cheese sandwiches... we were successful!

The coffee truck we got our breakfast from

Some pictures of Jersey City...

Me and a HUGE clock

the view of NYC from across the Hudson River

My mom and Jimmy

Me, the baby, and my mom.... it was just a little windy

After a few hours rest, some food, and a shower, my mom and I headed to meet out with my Grandma at the hotel.

The PATH train to NYC with all of our luggage... yet another hilarious event. At this point I was not as knowledgable of the subway systems as I soon became, needless to say we ended up taking the wrong PATH train into NYC. We wanted to go into Times Square but we actually went to the World Trade Center (the COMPLETE opposite side where we should've been) :/ opps!

We did eventually make it to the Marriott and had big plans for that night so we just walked around Times Square for a little while and then headed back to the train station so we could head to Jackson, New Jersey (my hometown) to surprise my mom's best friend Cori at her birthday party :)

Times Square

Macy's

Off to Jersey we go again :)

My mom, Julie, Cori, Jessie, and me at Cori's birthday party :) It was so nice to see my friends and family while in Jersey seeing how I hadn't been back to visit in close to 10 years! Definitely made me realize that I need to go visit WAY more often.

After a long night of celebrating we headed back up to the city to get some rest for day 2... our best friends were coming up in the morning to continue the reunion :)

on the subway back

It's 2 am in this picture.... notice the lights are as bright as ever, cars & taxis still fill the streets, and people are still roaming around! The real city that never sleeps :)