NYC in review

My trip to NYC was quite a whirlwind. I can't believe how fast my time there went. Alissa was such a fabulous host. We spent alot of time, wandering the streets, drinking coffee, and catching up. You should see all the flowers that are in bloom in NYC. Pretty much every street was lined with flower beds with daffodils or tulips - it was beautiful!

Unfortunately I don't have many photos from my trip. I am usually a camera crazy person, but this trip I just didn't pull my camera out of my purse very often!

If you read the other two posts about my trip, then you know about the luggage fiasco. Luckily, I did get my luggage back. When I arrived in Minneapolis on Sunday at the end of my trip. It sat in ground zero of the Swine flu (Mexico City) Tuesday through Saturday, so at my mom's recommendation, I wiped down the handles with disinfectant wipes... just in case. I am happy to have the luggage back in my possession, but am still furious over my experience with NWA. I intend on calling their customer care department this week and writing a letter. Their reimbursement policy only covers $175, but this doesn't come close to what I spent replacing clothes, make-up, toiletries, etc.

That said, I did manage to pull together some cute outfits, with the help of Alissa. Here is one of the outfits that made a few appearances during my trip. I was pretty much a walking advertisement for Gap. Everything I'm wearing, except the shoes, came from that store! Alissa took this pic of me before I headed out to see "South Pacific" which was awesome, by the way!!!

Isn't Alissa's apartment adorable? Their place is in such a great location and there are so many great restaurants within walking distance. Surprisingly, it was actually less expensive to eat out in NYC than it is if you go out in downtown Minneapolis. It helped that I had a local to steer me to the right spots!

On Thursday, Alissa and I took the subway over to Brooklyn and walked back across the bridge to Manhattan. It was a cool experience so I am glad we did it!

On Thursday night, I met up with my friend Jen and her husband Keith. I don't even know when I last saw Jen, but we keep in touch by exchanging mini-novels over email. It was great chatting with her face-to-face for a change, though! I met them at this really cute little French Bistro called Pastis. It was in the Meat Packing District - the area had such a Parisian or European feels. Narrow, cobblestone roads, lots of cute little restaurants. Our meal at Pastis was just fabulous! After dinner, Keith snapped this shot of us!

After dinner with Jen and Keith, I met up with Alissa, her fiance, her future brother-in-law, and his wife. We hit up a few bars in the West Village (I think that was the area we were in?).

On Friday night, I headed up to Washington Heights, which is at the tip of Manhattan. My friend Ali lives there. She's going to grad school at Columbia and lives in a really cool area. We went for a run/walk through this really beautiful park. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera with but I had no idea it was going to be such a beautiful park! It was great catching up with Ali - we hadn't seen each other since my trip to the Dominican Republic in 2006! She'll be done with her masters next spring, so we might go on a trip together to Peru! She is fluent in Spanish so would be a fabulous travel partner!

On Saturday morning, I headed out to Long Island to see the 2 girls I studied abroad with. One of them lives in Long Beach, which is on the tip of one of the fingers of Long Island. Dear God, she lives in a dreamy location! She lives only 3 blocks from the beach. I snapped this picture on Saturday morning. It was really foggy, so the picture quality isn't that great, but you get an idea of how pretty it is! Can you imagine living that close to the beach?

The trip was absolutely wonderful. It was the get away I need, and couldn't have come at a better time. I came back from the trip feeling refreshed. Yes, the luggage ordeal was exhausting to deal with, and ate up 2-3 hours of each of my days, but I didn't let it ruin my time in that fabulous city. I hope to get back out there again soon - maybe even as soon as this summer. We'll see!