New York City is one of my absolute favorite places on earth. Some people hate it because it’s dirty (it is), some people avoid it because of the traffic (it’s absolutely awful) and some people dislike the noise and late-night adventures (there’s lots of that), but I just think there is something SO beautiful and magical about this little city that never sleeps. The constant high-energy that you can feel while you’re walking through Times Square, the rush of trying not to miss the subway, the bartering in ChinaTown and the pizza (seriously…it’s worth it just for the pizza). I was able to visit Times Square for my 16th birthday two years ago, but I ended up in the ER the night before we left and was on strong medication the whole time. While it was still tons of fun, I didn’t get to eat any food (total bummer) and I had a hard time keeping up with the fast-paced nature of the amazing city. This year, we made sure that wasn’t going to happen again.

My mom, my best friend (Stephany) and I headed out at 8am on my birthday to catch the train. (Seriously…who ever invented this idea of a train is a genius. It’s like you’re sitting in your living room but you’re traveling at the same time! WHAT!?) And we rode for 5 hours before arriving at Penn Station. I ran (literally, ran) up through the station and out into the city. We tried to walk to our hotel with all of our luggage (after all, it was only a mile and a half…) but that was probably the worst idea we’ve ever had. So, we snagged a cab that took us to our hotel. Seriously…it was beautiful! Huge shoutout to my dad for making this all happen! We got put on the 54th floor (AHH!) and our adventures began.

For our first night, we headed to Tony’s, a delicious family-style Italian restaurant. Then, we headed into Times Square and explored Forever 21, Toys R Us, and every other store imaginable before heading to see Les Mis! It was AMAZING! We stayed after the show to meet the cast, then we were exhausted from traveling and headed back for an early night (yes, 1am is early in NYC). The second day was full of shopping in ChinaTown, exploring, photo-shooting and eating some delicious food at John’s Pizza (we went twice, for lunch AND dinner). We finished out our trip by seeing “Pippin'” on Broadway and visiting the Hershey store!

I could not be more thankful for my amazing parents who made this all happen for me and I couldn’t be more blessed to have a best friend like Stephany. We are seriously inseparable, and I love her more than anything!

Check out some iPhone shots below to follow us through our NYC journey! Hope everyone’s having an awesome week!

HTP never stops! Spent the train ride typing an article for a magazine coming soon…stay tuned for more on that 🙂

They had PIZZA on the train…PIZZA!

 

 

 

We were cracking up at this pet menu!!