New York! New York!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Mr. Tan Lines and I love planning for the future, we recently planned a trip to New York City for this December. We have both been before, but he was very young the last time he was there! My sister Luti and I went in June 2009 right after I graduated from college as a fun girls getaway weekend! Because I am so excited about our trip this winter I wanted to share all of the fun we had with you and maybe give you some ideas if you’re planning on going too :)

Well, first of all we drove. And it rained the ENTIRE way which was a bummer but we made it alright! It took about 4.5 hours, we stopped a few times and the tunnel was backed up as usual, but eventually we made it!

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel which has a great location and great rooms!

We grabbed a quick bite then got ready for our very first Broadway show!! Prior to arriving we had purchased tickets to see The Lion King and we were both super excited! It was AMAZING and I would see it again and again if I could! If you’re ever in New York this would be my first recommendation, it was a great show!

On Saturday we decided to do all of the touristy activities since we hadn’t done them in years! We headed to the Statue of Liberty and did the boat tour which was fun! The lines can get pretty long, luckily we got there early so it wasn’t too bad, but keep that in mind! I also paid this statue man $5 to take a picture with me, definitely a great ‘Merica pic!

Next we visited Rockefeller Center and walked around, took some pics.  This is a place I am particularly excited to visit in the winter, I can’t wait to see all of the people ice-skating!

After that we headed to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was just breathtaking and a wonderful place to see. The architecture is beautiful and the inside art work is just incredible!

Next…phew I know right?! We headed to the Top of the Rock! We opted for this instead of the Empire State Building for a few reasons, first of all…it’s cheaper…a lot cheaper to do this option. It’s also less crowded and…

Most importantly, you get pictures like this!

Next we headed to the M&M store which is a true tourist trap! There is so much to see and buy in that place, I’m amazed I walked out empty handed! We also did some shopping down on 5th avenue and walked around the streets for quite some time. We braved the subway so we were able to get around relatively cheap!

Afterwards we hit Magnolia Bakery which we’d heard great things about and got two cupcakes. Worth the entire trip…the best red velvet cupcake that I’ve ever had!

Finally, we decided to go out for a nice dinner. We originally wanted to try one of Bobby Flay’s restaurants, but they do that weird thing where they close in the middle of the day for a few hours and because it was all the way downtown we decided to stay close to our hotel for dinner. This is also one thing I can’t wait to do on our trip, Bar American here we come! We ended up at City Lobster which was a delicious meal! It was pretty empty inside but no matter, we got a nice bottle of wine and Luti ordered the lobster, rarrrr! And I ordered the filet mignon! Both were delicious and we had a great time!

Sunday before heading out we headed to Times Square and just people watched for a bit and I took a picture with this NYPD station!

All in all it was a fabulous trip and I hope that we can do another fun sister girls trip in the future!

I also had to share this picture..a Taco Bell somewhere in Jersey…yikes!