Our trip started off with a red eye flight to Toronto. Let me tell you, red eye flights may sound exciting, leaving one city and waking up in the next, however it’s key to note this means usually a 3.5 hour sleep if you’re lucky and then after a slightly hectic transfer, you’ll get another hour of uncomfortable sleep.

On the bright side, this means that you save as much time as possible and get to spend the entire day in your new destination starting bright and early in the morning.

Day 1: Cyclones and Natural History

After touching down in LaGuardia, we cleaned ourselves up from hours of flying and purchased our transit pass. Unfortunately it was pouring rain which didn’t bode well for my camera or clothing, but it was all part of the experience. Now, from the LaGuardia airport, the easiest mode of public transportation is the Q70-SBS bus that takes you to the Jackson Heights train station from which you can get pretty much anywhere. However, if you view your time as valuable, or you don't have the luxury of waiting the amount of time for the train, you can always grab an Uber. I highly recommend if you are going to take the train during your stay, or public transportation, I would recommend getting the 5 day pass for $32.00 USD that will allow you to move around freely. We unfortunately did not think this through and ended up having to refill our passes a few times.

“I highly recommend if you are going to take the train during your stay, or public transportation, I would recommend getting the 5 day pass for $32.00 USD that will allow you to move around freely.”

We arrived at the Pod 51 hotel after a few misdirections and wrong turns and were lucky enough to check into our room right away. The Pod Hotels have a hostel like concept, sharing a bathroom, and sometimes a bunk bed with your companion, but with a more professional hotel vibe. We stayed on 51st, but there were also locations at 39th and Times Square.

The weather seemed pretty brutal, and that is coming from someone that had just spent a good solid 4 months in snowy cold winter. In the wintertime, prepare for the worst, and pack a parka or something with warm. We ended up spending the day at the Museum of Natural History and braving the cold to get food at a lovely Italian Gluten Free restaurant called Nizza. I highly recommend their homemade gluten free focaccia, it's truly to die for.

Day 2: Canal Street, Little Italy, Broadway and Times Square

After waking up to nicer weather, we hit the road looking to pack in as much as possible before our Broadway show. We decided to spend the morning on Canal Street and finding a bite to eat in Little Italy. We'd already had our fill of Italian the night before, but I wouldn't have said no to gelato or a GF crepe.

CANAL STREET

It's no secret that I'm obsessed with Kate Spade, and I knew that I could find a Canal street knock-off on Canal with a bit of time and patience. I also knew I could find 'Sample Sales' at the sample stores and see if there were any good deals. Years ago I found a pair of $10 Flying Monkey Jeans and they lasted me for 3 years, so you can sometimes find really great stuff if you look hard enough.

I did try haggling for a Kate Spade purse, but after chasing down a lady and then having her argue with me on size and style, I was hesitant to give her too much time. I told her what I wanted and then told to wait. There were cars pulling up with their drivers yelling "Gucci!", "Chanel!" and finally had a car drive up with a man shouting "KATE SPADE!".

I love going to Canal because you can walk down the street and have a man flash 6 watches on his arm to you, or a women open her coat and show you 4 different size "Wichael Kors" (Yes, it's spelled with a W") or "Chanel" bags and try and offer you a price. You want "bling bling"? There are shops with hundreds of knock off sparkly watches. You want Canada Goose jackets? Well they have Triple Goose Power Canada jackets that look almost the exact same.

I came away from Canal without a Kate Spade bag, but the experience itself was enough for me.

LITTLE ITALY

Im all about that pizza life, and even more about the Italian lifestyle after travelling to Italy a couple years ago. This amazing little slice of Italy is settled right in the south end of Manhattan and has a ton of character. We wandered over after our adventure on Canal and proceeded to check out the little Italian shops, restaurants and graffiti. We ended up finding Cha Cha Matcha instead and grabbed some fuel for the afternoon.

We decided to traverse our way across the city and managed to make it back to our hotel with enough time to put on my new 'Sample Sale' shirt and head off to Chicago.

BROADWAY

We spent a good chunk of time on Friday looking for Broadway tickets, and let me tell you, there are tons of places to find them. There are a few side street booths where you can buy them, or you can wander to Times Square and find someone that looks like they're selling something and guarantee you, it's Broadway tickets. Be forewarned, shop around because there are lots of places that sell them and lots of them charge a fee that you don't necessarily find online.

We ended up buying ours online. It was a great decision because we could compare online and the company we purchased from ended up sending someone to meet us outside the theatre to give us our tickets before the show.

Needless to say, whatever you decide to go to, shop around! Don't settle for the first price you find.

TIMES SQUARE

Post-Chicago, we hit the streets to check out Times Square and just sit and stare at the lights. I love how it feels like daylight there no matter what time of night, the lights are truly beautiful.

We ended up walking back to our hotel that evening and stopping in for some tacos at Taco Dumbo which was complete with hanging chairs and a Taco Phone. To die for tacos and the atmosphere was very Palm Springs (something you all know that I am very into right now). After too many tacos, we decided to venture out to a nearby bar and needless to say, we should have planned ahead and figured out where we wanted to go.

Moral of the story, we spent hours wandering around from location to location and ended up grabbing a quick pub drink and then wandering back through Times Square (not that I was complaining). It was a lovely adventure, and we managed to get over 25,000 steps that day, so we rationalized a stop at a bakery on the way home where they had cheesecake and GF brownies. Worth it. We also wandered past the Empire State Building, NBC Studios and the Rockafeller Centre, and while we didn't stop and stare for long, we felt as though we'd checked them off our list for the trip.

Check out Part II of our NYC Trip next week!

Love, E

Traveling to NYC

Day 1: Cyclones and Natural History