My husband Sean came up with a great idea, why not travel to New York City for the long weekend as a Christmas gift!  What a sweet man!  We both have been to NYC but not together.  We picked a weekend in January and roamed around the city with no plans what so ever!  Those trips when you don’t have anything planned end up working out for the best!  I will explain later on.

I reached out to a good friend of mine, Lauren who used to live in NYC.  Sean and I each picked out one place we wanted to visit while in the city.  We told her we wanted to visit the 911 Memorial and the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise.  My good friend Lauren mapped out a great itinerary for us with those places in mind.  She’s the best and even listed out AMAZING restaurants to try.  We followed the itinerary but also did our own thing.  The one place we wanted to visit was Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree.  Well, we waited one night too late and missed it but can always go back next year!

On Day One we visited central park, went to the American Museum of Natural History, with the world’s largest dinosaur skeleton on display, and found a local Italian restaurant.  There was a long wait for dinner so after we called it a night because we were exhausted from traveling and knew we would be walking all around town the next day.

Day Two, we attempted to get up early to be at the Brooklyn Bridge for sunrise BUT Mother Nature had her own plans and it was already snowing.  So instead, we grabbed breakfast at Bubby’s – Tribeca.  The food was so delicious!  It was a cute, quaint restaurant with lots of character.  Then we made our way over to the 911 Memorial.  We both wanted to go there and visit the museum.  I would highly recommend going there at least once.  I have to say I was impressed with all of the kids there; they were extremely quiet and well behaved.  We spent 4+ hours there and could have stayed longer.  While there I had set up a reminder to enter a day of raffle for a chance to purchase tickets to see the Award Winning Broadway Show Hamilton!  On the ticket website you could enter to win day of tickets, and as I had mentioned before we did not have any plans what so ever, so we said why not.  Later on that afternoon I received the email that we won and paid $20 for a pair of tickets to see Hamilton at the 8pm show that Saturday night!  WHAT?? Is this real?  Sean thought I was kidding.  We picked out a nice restaurant close to the theater and toasted to a fun weekend.  When we arrived we had no idea where our seats were and we didn’t care because we were going to Hamilton, which is the Broadway show to see right now.  Boy, were we in for a treat!  We got escorted to the FRONT ROW!!!  We could see everything!  It was a great show, highly recommend and if you can enter the day of raffle!  You never know.

Day Three, we made it to the Brooklyn Bridge but not for sunrise.  The weather was not in our favor that morning but we were happy to see that part of the city.  I hope one day, if any couples want to be photographed there, they will keep me in mind!  I love adventures and it would be an amazing location for sunrise.  We also went to the observatory deck at the top of One Tower  at the World Trade Center.  I highly recommend it as there is so much to see and the elevator ride is fun!  I was a little nervous with being pregnant and possibly being dizzy at the top, but there were no issues.  We saw amazing views of the city and surrounding areas.

All and all I personally walked 48,250 steps and 22.19 miles that weekend.  It was a nice little getaway to spend time together exploring a new city.  I can’t wait to go back!  Enjoy a few photos from our trip.

Xoxo Jen Araya

And a few iPhone photos from our weekend