fall break

What an amazing fall break! We had a fun visit from Daniel's parents for the first weekend of my LONG fall break. We loved having them here with us. We went down to the bed and breakfast in Fairview for the boys to hunt. Anna and I always just relax at the airbnb, chat, eat, and read. This year we did a fun puzzle together and tried to plan a spontaneous Disney trip. The boys got a deer Sunday night, so we left after a yummy breakfast Pam made us on Monday morning. She makes us the best food! We had fun doing another puzzle with Dan's parents at our house before we left to NY. Daniel and I stayed up until 3:00 am Tuesday night trying to finish the puzzle. We got so close! It's fun to find out that we both actually really like puzzles. So we will be doing lots more of them from here on out! 

The next part of fall break was spent in New York. Oh, New York. I love you. I'm so grateful for someone who is as spontaneous as me. We bought these tickets on a whim like a month ago and I'm so glad we did. I randomly got this TEN DAY (did I already mention that?) fall break this year, so we had to go somewhere! I've always dreamt of going to NYC, so I knew we should go when we saw the good deal. Dang Flights From Home - you're going to be the death of our bank account. 

I loved exploring the big city with my guy. We had quite the experience trying to figure out the subway system. It caused a few arguments and Dan getting a little more upset than necessary (and then me getting upset with him for being upset), but it was a learning experience. Travel is not always perfect! I honestly find that to be the fun part about traveling - the unexpected. 

We took a flight through the night and arrived there Wednesday morning. It was pretty interesting first getting on the subway when we got there. Everyone was on their morning commute to work and we stuck out like a sore thumb with our brand new Costco suitcases. Everyone was only half awake on the subway. We had some time to kill, so we rolled around our very loud suitcases to find a coffee shop. We finally found one and got to sit down to some coffee and avocado toast. It felt so nice to finally sit down and not feel like I was about to get robbed! (hello, culture shock)

We were finally able to get to the airbnb around 9:00 am and decided to take a quick snooze before our Statue of Liberty tour. That was the best nap ever in our cute little Hamilton Heights airbnb. Although it was weird to get used to all of the street noise going outside! 

Once we woke up from our glorious nap, it was a mad rush on the subways to make it to our Statue of Liberty tour. That was so amazing, with some great views! 

The rest of our first day was spent walking all over town - quite literally. We walked eleven miles that day. We stopped at the 9/11 memorial, which was so cool! We regret not doing the museum though. We walked over to Little Italy and Chinatown where we sat outside and had a delicious Italian meal right on the street. After dinner, we walked to the Brooklyn Bridge, which was the highlight of our whole trip. We loved standing there as the crazy city happened around us as the sun went down. It was unreal. That night we spent time trying to find an Irish pub that Dan was desperate to find and then we went to witness Times Square at night. So cool! It was crazier than I imagined. All the lights, people, so much overstimulation. We also enjoyed some yummy cheesecake and a strawberry milkshake at Junior's right in the middle of Times Square. What a day! We were completely dead by the end of it. 

We spent Thursday morning and afternoon trying to find some yummy breakfast. We ended up settling and I got a cheese danish (which turned out delish) and Dan settled for a salad. It was fun sitting in the middle of the city just eating and taking in all of the people. We had an Empire State tour after that. We loved getting to go all the way to the top of the Empire State to see the view. It was quite amazing! It was also quiet up there, which was really nice. We took a quick stop at Grand Central and found some yummy pizza after that. We went back to the airbnb to get ready, but ended up taking a quick nap because we were dying. Best decision ever! The rest of Thursday was spent eating the best pizza ever at Gotham's and seeing Wicked on Broadway (so amazing - chills the entire time) and then eating cereal milk ice cream. WHAT? Yeah, Daniel found it for me and surprised me with it because he knows how much I love cereal. So cute. 

Our last day was spent sleeping in a little (we needed it!) and then booking it to Wall Street, which ended up being so cool. We found some cute souvenirs there and got some hot dogs and Dan got some Thai food at a cart. After that, we stopped and walked the NY High Line for a little while and then made our way to Central Park. Central Park was beautiful. We loved just sitting on the bench people watching for a couple hours. We had some pretty yummy ramen after that and then we did our night cruise, which turned out SO amazing! We saw so many cool sights. It was awesome to be able to see New Jersey, New York City, and Brooklyn all fro the water at night. It was chilly, but so cozy at the same time. After that, we realized we were out of time on our trip, so we quickly got more pizza and found a flight of ice cream. So yummy!

We had to be up early the next morning. It was pretty crazy running all over trying to catch subways and trains to get to the airport on time. We at one point ended up on a train and hadn't even bought a ticket, so that was embarrassing. Overall, it was an awesome trip. Definitely not a relaxing vacation by any means, but one that I'll remember forever. New York is so different from where we live. Life is faster and crazier and I even had to remind Daniel a million times to slow down and enjoy it. But it was cool to see how people live over there and how they solely rely on public transit and their own two feet to get around. We will definitely be back someday! 

The rest of fall break was spent having our annual Halloween party on Saturday. Dan dressed up as one of the guys from BASEketball and wanted me to do a complete photoshoot of him (the only time that has ever happened). I was just an alien. Can you tell who loves Halloween the most? It was a fun night, but I'm getting old and ready to just start having a more chill Halloween party... next year. 

It was so nice and much needed to relax all day Sunday. Plus, I had Monday off to get all of my to do's done! So grateful for a break. It was much needed and so good for the soul. 

Next stop... Amsterdam! We leave in eight days! Can you tell we have the travel bug?

xx Kenz