8. Go to NYC

Courtney and Sara Take New York

So a couple of months ago I made my 30 for 30 list and the first thing I was able to mark off was to take a trip to NYC.   This is a trip that I have dreamed about since I was little and when one of my friends, Sara, approached me I jumped at the chance to go.  On August 24, 2013 we boarded a flight out of Charlotte and the two small town girls were on their way to the big city.

After about a 1hour and 30 minute flight we arrived at JFK.  We are all about saving money so we took the Air Tran to Jamaica Station  and then took the subway all the way to 42nd Street Time Square.  It also took an hour and thirty minutes but it only cost $7.

Once we emerged from the underground dungeon, some people call the subway we walked to our hotel.  Thank goodness for Google walking maps or else we would have been doomed.  After a few wrong turns we arrived at our home for the next 4 nights, Hotel Carter. 

Hotel Carter is quite an interesting place.  I'm pretty sure it is the cheapest hotel in Time Square only costing us about $100 per night.   I had read before our trip that all the rooms past the 11th floor had been recently remolded so Sara easily talked the young man at check-in into giving us the highest one available so 22nd floor it was.  If you are looking for a top notch place to stay Hotel Carter IS NOT FOR YOU!!! But if you are like us and are essentially just looking  for a clean, safe place to sleep, because really it's New York people who wants to spend time in their room when these so much to see, then check it out.

After a speedy check inn we hit the streets,

First Stop Central Park

 

 



Fellow Gossip Girl Fans this is where Chuck and Blaire got married on the series finale

 

 



After Central Park we walked around the Upper East Side




While walking down 5th avenue I was nearly trampled by a swarm of preteen girls... One direction drove by and it was chaos!!!!

And Ended the Evening in Time Square

The next day we woke up early and cashed in our vouchers for the tour we had bought before our trip.  The company we went through was City-Sights and I would definitely recommend then to first time NYC travelers.  The pass we purchased gave us 48 hours worth of access to their hop-on-hop-off double decker bus tour, a harbor cruise and a ticket to the empire state building.

The first thing we did was the downtown bus tour:  Here we went from Time Square all the way through Lower Manhattan seeing things like Greenwich Village, Soho, Little Italy, China Town and Wall Street.

 

 



After that we went to the Cake Boss Café (hopefully you are familiar with the TLC Show). 

The best cupcake I've ever had!..and I've had a lot of cupcakes



Next it was on to The Statin Island Ferry.  The ferry is free and runs from Wall Street to Statin Island offering great views of lower Manhattan.

The next morning we headed out the Harbor Cruise: Here we saw things like the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and The Brooklyn Bridge

 

 

 

Our 48 hour bus tour passes were still active so we then took the Brooklyn Tour.  Brooklyn is actually the most populated to the 5 boroughs. 

That evening we headed to The Empire State Building



 

 

 





 The next morning we Started off in the Upper West Side:  This day was saved for some museum and shopping action

Serendipity 3 Frozen Hot Chocolate, Made Famous by the Movie

 

The New York City Museum, used as the school from Gossip Girl

Did My Best Blaire Waldorf Impression at the MET

Got cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery from Sex and the City



That Night we finally got a picture together

That's the Problem with traveling as a pair, one pic in 5 days lol

 

 



 

On our final morning we went to the Today Show









 

 

After that it was back to the subway and back to good old NC.  It was a total world wind of a trip.

 

XOXO Courtney