New York IS Beautiful This Time of Year

…in my DJ Pauly D Voice

To kick off my mom’s “birthday season” (yes, that is a real thing, read about it in my Celebration post) around this time last year a small group of us took a weekend trip to New York City, The Big Apple. I’m no newbie to the big city, we used to frequent there more than once a year to visit other family members. Now I still make it a point to go every once in a while. I have always said New York is one of those places where I LOVE to visit but absolutely could not live there. Too much hustle and bustle for me.

I met my family there by way of the Megabus from Philadelphia. What an easy ride! Most times I can get a ticket for as little as 20-something dollars round trip and the ride is about 2 hours, not bad at all!

We checked in at the Westin Times Square. Such a beautiful hotel right in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. The hotel was in a convenient location, near public transportation routes, and it had a nice bar/restaurant where we watched the infamous Army vs. Navy football game. The first night we had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant, and the staff sang happy birthday to my mom. The birthday songs continued everywhere we went, including the next day by a random group of tourists from Russia!

The next day happened to be the first snowfall of the year, it was extremely cold yet really beautiful. There is something about snowfalls in big cities that is just so picturesque. Regardless of the weather, we still hit the town running. Our first stop was Chelsea Market in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It is a huge multi-purpose building which features a food hall and shopping mall. Tourists and locals frequent to indulge in all of the wonderful food options and to buy souvenirs. This was my first time visiting, I was in the area once before and a friend told me to make sure I stopped in there to get tacos from Los Tacos because they were sooo good. That day I was in a bit of a rush and didn’t stop and I thought to myself, how good can these tacos really be any way?, it is probably not that serious. Well, on this particular day I had time, and boy was I wrong! I fell in loveeee with the tacos! They are made to perfection!!

Later that day we hopped on the Subway to head to Harlem to catch the annual Kids Ameteur Night Holiday Special. Shout out to my cousin for coming up with this idea because it was such a wonderful night! The amount of talent these kids had really made me questioning myself! Lol. They came to sannnggg that night! They brought tears, joy,  and standing ovations from the audience, it was beautiful. The show was hosted by comedian Capone and he def kept the laughter rolling! All of the kids that performed were amazing but one of my favs was Matthew Whitaker please check him out!

Wine Glass Half Empty-Honestly, I am upset that I did not get more of those tacos! lol Wine Glass Half Full– Wonderful time celebrating life, in the snow and all!