Our visit to New York was FABULOUS.

Day 1. We left on Tuesday February the 12^th. The plane was delayed about 3 hours. We sat on the runaway for 3 freaking hours. Finally we took off around 3.45PM. We landed in New Jersey around 6PM. It snowed real bad that evening in New Jersey and the taxi who was supposed to pick us up came late.  

The first night we were supposed to stay in my husband’s uncle #1 and since he wasn’t home, uncle #2 was supposed to drive us there but since it snowed real bad, they decided that we should just spend the night at uncle #2’s house. We didn’t do much. They took us to a Korean restaurant (my husband’s families are Korean). I met uncle #2’s wife for the first time. She was real nice.  

Day 2. We headed to NY. Uncle#2 drove us to our hotel. We had a 4-night hotel reservation in New York. Our hotel, Holiday Inn Express, was located 2 blocks away from Madison Square Garden. My husband bid the hotel on priceline.com for $88/night. It was not bad for the price we had to pay. I would recommend that hotel to everyone.  

We arrived at the hotel around 10AM. Checked in time was not until 3PM. So we stored our luggages in their storage room and we walked around the city. It was sprinkling in NYC that day. My shoes were wet after an hour walking around. We had to buy umbrellas too. Since we were hungry, we decided to get something to eat. My husband wanted to eat some hotdogs and he saw Gray Papaya so we stopped by and he at 4 hotdogs and drank a papaya juice there. We decided to visit uncle #2’s wife’s store located on 37^th Street. She works in a jewelry store called Enttra. We paid a visit and she let me pick some jewelries. When we were about to pay she said they were free for me. She also informed us about a bus that would take us to Meadowland arena in NJ where we needed to be to watch the Spice Girls that night.

We went to the bus terminal and bought 2 bus tickets for later that evening. It only cost us $20 for 2 people round-trip. Next stop was the shoe store. My shoes were completely soaked in water; so I  decided to buy new boots. I bought one pair for 59.99 and it was on sale.  

3PM we checked in at the hotel. We took shower and got ready to go to the concert in NJ. The bus left NYC at 6.30PM. It only took less than 30 minutes to get to the arena in NJ. We had to wait outside in the cold before the doors were open.

The show was scheduled to start at 7.30PM but it wasn’t until 9PM they started the show. I bought some Spice Girls stuff as souvenirs.  The concert totally rocked. I loved it. One of the best times in my life. I was so happy. We took lots of pictures and some videos of their performance. They sang many songs. It was totally worth it to fly all the way to NY to see them. I just wish I had the money to follow the Spice Girls to tour around the country. But, I was happy enough to be able to see them perform. That night we had SO much fun. 

Day 3.  Early in the AM, we went to Penn Station to buy Metro Card. Bought the one-day unlimited ride card for $7 each. We then headed to Central Park today using the bus. We walked around the park for about 30 minutes or so and then we found out our camera’s battery was almost empty. So we started walking around to find an electronic store to buy a battery for the digital camera. Before we knew it, we were in Times Square. We bought the battery for the camera and we started walking around again. It was so much fun. So many people on the street. We went to M&M’s store, Hershey’s store, and other fun stores now I can’t remember the names. We took lots of pictures of the area. We were such tourists!!!! We also passed Broadway but we didn’t stop to see a performance. We kept on walking and walking and walking and then again, before we knew it, we were so close to the hotel. We stopped by at this one chic and modern chinese restaurant called Chef Yu . I had their vegetarian Lo Mein noodle while my husband had a Spicy Beef noodle soup. The price wasn’t that bad. I like the athmosphere of the restaurant. This wasn’t your regular Chinese restaurant.  

Later that evening, we had an appointment to meet with my husband’s dad in Flushing, NY. We took the Subway train to get there. It took about 20 – 30 minutes. The ride was fun though. I’ve always enjoyed Subway rides. My husband’s dad and his gf met us close to the subway station. They took us to a Korean restaurant and I believe they had Kalbi dinner that night. I had a bowl of Unagi and Rice. It was delicious. After dinner, they drove us back to the hotel.  

Day 4. Today we had planned visits to Ground Zero ,Wall Street, Statue of Liberty, and Chinatown. First, we went to Ground Zero. We stopped by at the Trinity Church and prayed there. We then walked around toward Wall Street. Finally we went to Statue of Liberty. I couldn’t believe the amount of security measurements they took. It was like going through the check point in an airport. The whole thing took about an hour and a half. It was such a cold day that day. Then we finally got shipped to Statue of Liberty island. We didn’t stay there that long. We walked through the whole thing in about 15 minutes. Took pictures and we were done.

We skipped Ellis Island because we didn’t feel like it. As soon as we hit the land, we took the bus to take us to Chinatown. We had late lunch at Chinatown. We feasted on dumplings, seafood fried rice, and some other yummies. Then we headed back to our hotel.  

Later that evening, we went to meet with uncle #1’s family at an Indonesian restaurant called Bali Nusa Indah. We had a big dinner there. We ordered so many different kinds of foods. They were all so good.    

Day 5. It was Saturday. I want to visit Magnolia Bakery but we found it was far. So I decided to visit Billy’s Bakery and Babycakes. We took the bus to Billy’s Bakery. I had one single Vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing. It was good but wasn’t as good as I expected. With all the raves I heard, I had set a high standard on their cupcakes but it was ok. I thought my cupcakes were seriously better than theirs.

We didn’t have time to go to Babycakes that day since my husband’s mom wanted to see us. They hadn’t seen each other in 23 years or since my husband was 5 years old. His parents split up and he hadn’t since seen his mom until this day.

My husband’s mom picked us up at the hotel. She lives in Flushing, NY close to my husband’s dad. Kinda weird but ok whatever. She took us back to the area close to where she lives and we went shopping. She bought us some stuff and she gave my husband money. Later that evening, we had dinner at a buffet restaurant. This restaurant had everything!!!! I was so full by the end of the meal. She took us back to the hotel and overall, it was a very nice day. 

Day 6. Today was our last day. Our flight was at 3.30PM. Early in the AM, I asked my husband to take me to Chinatown again. I saw some stuff I wanted to buy. So off we went. After we got there, I bought some stuff I saw earlier. Then we headed back to the hotel before noon.

My husband’s dad arrived at the hotel  at noon. We were supposed to get some lunch in NYC for the last time before we left but couldn’t find a parking spot so we left NYC headed to NJ. We had lunch in NJ. After lunch, we went straight to Newark airport.  We were almost 2 hours early.  Flight was on time. We landed before 6PM. Picked up the dogs before 7PM. And home before 8PM. It was super sweet vacation. It was so sweet that we decided to go back to NYC again in the Summer.