Think of a word, Google it, choose the 11th image that comes up, and write about it.

I chose the word ‘avenue’. It is fitting this image was the one I ended up with… especially after my post yesterday. (I wrote about an experience I had in Tokyo and also mention how I loathe big cities in general.)

After Tokyo… (where I only stayed 3-4 days) I figured I’d had enough exposure to the big city. I had ZERO desire to ever go to New York City… EVER. Even with all of the history and sites to see.

But then a Broadway show I hoped to see ‘someday’ opened in 2018, (my bestie got tickets)… and since she had been to NYC before… and knew how to navigate all-the-potentially-scary-things/places/etc. we might encounter…. I put my big girl pants on, and we made the trip out.

And it was one of the most amazing trips I’ve experienced! I felt like Chandler in the episode of Friends where he doesn’t want to do the site-seeing things, and then he does them and LOVES them. (Seriously, watch the clip I linked… that is almost exactly how it was for me…)

We stayed near Journal Square in New Jersey. We took the subway/train into the city. We ate breakfast at the cutest little bistro/café on a Sunday morning. We spent an entire day/evening on Broadway. We walked through Central Park and down Wall Street. We toured the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and even visited Times Square, more times than we thought we would, actually- because touristy crowds = discomfort, but it wasn’t too bad! (The NYE ball is SO much smaller (from a Times Square vantage point) than I’d imagined!!) We also spent the better part of a day re-living 9/11, experiencing it through the memorial and museum where it happened.

I ate some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life on that trip.

I even got to experience what it is like to chug a full, hot, VENTI, chai tea… because we didn’t realize drinks couldn’t go to the top of the Rockefeller observation deck. (I mean, it totally makes sense… but I wasn’t prepared.) So, that’s a thing I know I can do now.

Even walking around in the early evening hours wasn’t as scary as I had imagined. (Bad guys don’t actually come out and mug people at sunset… shocker.)

The city lights, the movement, the architecture, the people who live and work there… I fell in love with it all after a few days and was actually sad to leave.

The biggest surprise of all… that I hope to go back someday.