Our Trip To Manhattan (And Taylor Swift)
New York has been on the very top of my list of places to visit FOREVER! Since Chris somehow won tickets to see and meet [his love] Taylor Swift, we thought "what better time to go than now?" So over the summer, we packed up our stuff and headed to Manhattan. Chris planned the entire trip; most of it was a surprise for my birthday so I didn't know much of what were doing until a few days before we left.
NEW YORK CITY
For the first few days of our trip, we stayed at the Hudson New York, a super cool boutique hotel near Central Park. I have wanted to stay here since Chris showed me photos from his stay in 2010. One of these photos is hung in the half bath off our master bedroom.
We checked out Top of the Rock where we went to the top of the Rockefeller Centre to catch views of Manhattan at magic hour.
Since this was my first time in New York, we did the tourist thing and stayed in Time Square (at the W Hotel) for the last two days of our trip.
We did a lot of walking, exploring, shopping, and eating.
Then came the big event. Meeting Taylor Swift. I admit, I'm not a mega-fan like Chris, so he took his friend and fellow T-Swift fan Mike, who the experience "wouldn't be wasted on". This day was a little interesting, we had two grown-ass men freaking out about what they were going to wear and what they were going to say when they saw Taylor. The concert was in New Jersey at the MetLife stadium which required a bit of a commute from Manhattan. Chris and Mike didn't account for construction delays and almost didn't make it to their meet and greet in time!
I think Chris' face says it all in this picture. His life is now complete. She apparently smells like sunshine and rainbows. Click here for Chris and Mike's giddy post-T-Swift recap.
If you happen to be a Taylor Swift fan, you may enjoy Chris' custom monogrammed suit which he had made specifically for this event. If you aren't familiar with the meme, you can see it here. And no, this has nothing to do with me, my name just happens to be becky Becki. He got a Taylor high-five for this one. [Note from Chris: OMG elbow elbow elbow don't miss don't miss don't miss].
Chris and Mike had better seats than me (and the friends that went along with me), so he got the opportunity to take some good snaps. The concert was incredible! You can see what my view looked like here. Not nearly as close, but you can get a feel for how many people were there. I think the number was 60,000!
The next day, we hooked up with Hush Tours and did a tour of Harlem and the Bronx and learned some history of hip hop. Chris even got in a little footwork lesson.
For my birthday dinner, Chris took me to Shuko where we did an amazing sushi tasting. It was crazy, I think we counted 27 courses in total. The outside of the building had no signs, just a sleek modern exterior. Inside was a bar, big enough to sit about 20 people. We were served by one of the owners, Jimmy Lau, who confirmed that, yes, he hand sands the unfinished Japanese ash bar surface every morning. Watching and experiencing his work was amazing. Here's a review that was pretty close to what we experienced (and has pretty pictures).
Of course a trip to New York wouldn't be complete without a Broadway show. Chris and I aren't really into that type of thing, but we found the perfect balance of Broadway and offensive humour with The Book Of Mormon. It was A-MAZ-ING!
We had a poke around Grand Central Terminal and found the whispering corner. We stood on opposite sides, turned around, spoke into the wall, and could hear each other on either side. It was super cool, even though we probably looked like two jerks.
What I find fun about the Internet, Instagram in particular, is how you can make friends from all over the world. We met up with Internet friend Marcel, the super nice (and handsome) guy who runs One Dapper Street. He brought us along to a couple of events, as it coincidentally was the beginning of Men's Fashion Week.
Some of my favourite places were the Meat Packing district, the Chelsea Market, and the High Line. On our first day we got sandwiches and fries and sat on the High Line watching traffic and people while sipping on the best ginger ale.
On our last day before heading to the airport, we thought we would get a few last minute adventures in. We hopped on the subway to Long Island NY to check out Sprezza Box Headquarters. We snapped off this view of Manhattan from Sprezza Box's roof top.
On our way back to catch our taxi to the airport, we got caught in a massive rain storm and got absolutely soaked! We rolled through airport security like two drowned rats.