Manhattan, NY 2009

There are just some places that you know that you will 'fit' .. I believe New York is one of them.. We will talk when I get back.

Currently in Manhattan. I am tired as hell. Blogging from the hotel room before getting ready for dinner.

We got in last night, Thursday night around 8pm. We had the option to take the shuttle bus or a taxi to the hotel. The shuttle bus is cheaper ($12 per person, if you buy round trip it's a little cheaper) unless you have 3 or more people riding the taxi $(36 give or take one way to Manhattan..just incase you are ever here.) We got off a ways before our hotel because a nice lady told us "if you get off here.. make a right go up to 8th and make a left, it's not too far of a walk." We followed her advice and did it. We made a right, suitcases in tow and made a left at 8th. We walked 5 blocks until we realized we had walked 5 blocks the wrong way. Now, if you have never been to Manhattan, THE BLOCKS ARE FREAKIN HUGE! We probably walked 20 blocks before we got to the hotel. It was nice in a way though because we got to see the city. The Hampton Inn on 8th and 51st is quite nice I have to say... right in the middle of everything.

We unpacked and got ready to go eat, by this time it was 1030pmish. We went and had drinks at a place close to the hotel called Latitude. Great local spot, people were really friendly.. and drunk. A lot of them were still in work clothes just gettin sloppy. Great people watching. We had a couple of drinks and went to go grab dinner. We ended up heading a street over to 9th and ate at a quaint Thai restaurant. It was really good... can't remember the name thought. A lot of the restaurants stay open till 12am here. Pretty cool.

Friday morning we decided to get up at 515 am to get to the Todays Show at Rockerfeller to watch Kings of Leon. They were awesome as usual... even in the rain. Yes we watched them in the rain. After that we walked to Times Square then Central Park were we walked a lot.. then decided to get a Pedibus (man on a bike with a carriage.) I highly recommend this. It's a great way to see Central Park because it is WAY too big to walk by foot.

Lunch I have to say was amazing. We went to the Meridian Hotel which was recommended to us by a senator who I met in Houston when leasing his daughter an apartment. I will describe it to you the way he did to me. "Walk into the Meridian Hotel, face the front desk. There is a little dark hallway to the left, that no one knows is there, that seems to lead to nowhere. Go down it. Total dive, GREAT hamburgers, cash only." Boy was he right. They melted in your mouth. There was even a camera crew in there, not really sure what they were doing though. I highly suggest doing this if you are ever here. It is between 56th and 57th.

After lunch we hit up H&M.. I was so excited... however Sebastian found more clothes than I did.. bummer for me. Oh well. I wanted to shop some more so we decided to take the subway down south.. to be continued... I'm starving....

Sorry if this blog is a little bit backwards, but I have to write about our last night in Manhattan. One of our good friends Erik from Houston who recently moved to Philly came in to meet us and show us around town. I am so glad he did, because it was one of the best nights I have ever had.

We were exhausted from shopping and sightseeing all day.. I mean literally. My legs, back and feet have never hurt so bad in my life. We met Erik for drinks at a place called Pastis in the Meat Packing District. It was super crowded. They had fresh grapefruit so my drinks went down like water. After that we went to STK and Buddha Bar. These restaurants/ bars are, to date, the nicest that I have ever been in. After bar hopping we cabbed it to the restaurant. We ate at Kingswood in Greenwich Village. We ordered wine to drink and for appetizers we ordered the goat cheese and the mussels. I am not a big fan of mussels, but these were amazing! They weren’t fishy at all. The goat cheese was just as good. I recommend them both. For dinner Sebastian ordered the scallops and I ordered the cod, my dinner won. My dinner was so good.. I am still thinking about it a day later. Desert was just as equally delish. I can’t remember the names of them, because the desert seemed to pop up out of nowhere, but it was this layered graham cracker banana pudding and my favorite were the hot fried square donuts with a secret sauce. Amazing dinner, bottles of Vino, with good friends in a city like Manhattan, you can’t beat it.

So, back to the subway thing. The subway is one of the most intricate ways to travel. It can definitely be confusing, we even got lost and ended up in Brooklyn. We actually thought we had the system down and gave a French man the wrong directions and got him lost as well. I felt so bad! We were able to hit SoHo, Little Italy, the Financial District, Canal St. and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Forget about two things in NY, shoppin and high heels. Shopping on the weekends in NYC is 20 times more packed than in Houston, and the wait to try something is 45 minutes to an hour. High heels are a no no. Pack them in your purse and put them on when you get to where your going. Your feet will thank you.

Maps are a very useful thing. You should have one in your hotel room. Use it!

Things that are different in NYC
-People honk for no reason (come to find out, it means ‘go faster’ or ‘watch out’ or ‘your hot!’
-Garbage is set out along the streets at night. If you don’t recycle, you get fined. The city is so cramped there are no room for dumpsters.
-You pay tax on alcohol.
-There are no, or very few Mexican Restaurants!

So, as far as 'fitting in' in NYC, I absolutely love the city. Would I want to live there, sure, if I was rich! It's definitely a culture shock, things are different, it would take a little getting used to, but as for now.. Houston is home.


Favorite Picts!

New Braunfels, TX - Camping 2009

Ahh camping... I haven't been in ages. A special thank you to Cody for watching Miko while we were out of town.

So we were supposed to leave around 5:30p. Surprise, surprise, we didn't leave till around 7:30p. Within those 2 hours I visited the leasing office twice. Once due to grabbing wrong keys to Codys apt..the other to getting locked out of the apartment. We finally picked up Matt & Tamina, squeezed everything in the car and headed out.. or so we thought.

We jumped on I-10 and thought we were getting on the HOV heading out.. Somehow we ended up on the HOV to 290. I didn't think that it was possible to get lost in Houston, as I have been here my whole life. Well Sebastian proceeded to turn around in the middle of the HOV going the wrong way so we could get back on I-10 while Tamina and I kept saying 'Stop! No!' Glad he did otherwise we would have been in New Braunfels round midnight.

So we got into New Braunfels around 11:30p anyways because we got lost.. yes again. Thank you Garmin. We got lead down a very, very dark road that ended nowhere. You may have thought we knew we were going the wrong way when there were no camp grounds in sight! Oh well. When we did actually get on the right road to our camp site it was an 9 mile drive down a curvy road going 20mph! It took FOREVER to get there! Around midnight we were finally setting up camp.. in the dark.. with the car headlights. I thought it would be hot as heck! To my surprise it was actually really windy, I even wore a jacket. The next day was a totally different story...

Saturday we floated the river that had no water. We actually went the wrong way down the river due to the wind.. and had to paddle the right way. FUN! We probably floated a mile in 5 hours. The sun was so hot that Melissa suffered from heat exhaustion and had to get out before all of us and go back to the car where there was AC. We all continued to drink and Matt continued to do shots.. or more like gulps of some special concoction that Adam made. After floating we went to grab din at the Gristmill.. Needless to say by that time Matt wasn’t feeling well. He ended up forgoing dinner for the bano. Poor Matt.

The next morning we headed out.. Matt still sick and me with pink eye. It was a successful trip! I love camping!

Here are some fav's

Cancun, Mexico 2009

Okay, so this is my first blog ever! I figured I'd be taking a lot of trips from here on out, so what better way to remember them by.
This was my first trip out of the country with my best friend of 7 years.. and let me tell you.. it was probably the most fun I have ever had... besides going to Vegas with her.

So Stef, Lucky, Sebastian & I arrived in Mexico mid day, just in time to get checked in and get some food and a little sun. We met up with another couple from Miami as well. 1st night at the resort was lingerie night so of course we wore our lingerie! Come to find out they had other events like a Playboy model tryouts at our resort! Fun! Dressed in our lingerie people were taking pictures of us.. I guess they thought we were going to try out for Playboy.. Stef.. maybe.. me.. not so much.. Anywho.. we all tried to sneak a peak of some naked ladies.. but they wouldn't let us in. Teardrop. Same night there was a contest..it included a naked man with a sock around his penis.. and a tattooed Holland looking chick with her nipples pierced who literally danced the entire 4 days with her top off. (I really wonder what she was on??) The naked man

with a sock won the contest. Here is a picture of the two...enjoy!










2nd day we took a bus into the hotel zone to do some shopping! I love shopping! We went to the Hard Rock and watched the amazing waves crash on the rocks while drinking some fab Hurricanes. (I then realized...I think I want to learn how to surf) .. That night we went into town to a club called 'CT' pronounce 'City'. If you ever get a chance to go... DO. I cannot remember the last time I sweated from dancing so much in a club... We had a blast!

Day 3.. I have to say day 3 was my favorite. I love to snorkel so this was a MUST on the trip. We were able to get a sail boat for the day.. which was amazing to me as well because I have never been on a sailboat...Boat.. Yes.. Sailboat.. No. Okay, so the boat ride was amazing.. till I had to go the bathroom. I never new going to the bathroom on a sailboat would be so challenging.The waters were so choppy as is..but i went below the dock anyway.. open the bathroom door.. go inside.. just to have the boat tact on me (i learned 'tact' means turn or switch sides) which in turn led to the bathroom door to close..slamming on my pinky finger. It felt like a car door slamming on my hand... not fun. We soon anchored and dove in .. i saw some awesome fishies...schools of them! (underwater photos will be posted soon). When we got back on the boat I wasn't feeling too good. Not sure if I was nauseous from the door slamming on me or if it was all the salt water i swallowed..or if it was from being sea sick.... maybe a combo..eh? Sebastian however took GREAT care of me... (thanks babe).... On to Isla Mujeres...we had some of the freshest fish tacos ever...I'm sure the fish was caught that morning. I do have to admit that the boat ride home was a little scary. The wind was blowing like crazy and the boat was literally leaning on one side and land was so far away you could barely see the lights. Yikes!... but we finally made it back.

That night we went to Lorenzillo's ....the greatest dinner that I think I've ever had in my life. If you get to go to Cancun.. eat here! I went back to the resort like a beached whale, parked myself in bed and passed the F out!

The next day we left.. I hate flying specially after my last trip to Mexico, yet for some reason I can't wait till my next trips..NYC in July ..Rome in Sept... and Acapulco in October..I can't wait! ..... Here are some of my favorite picts!