It's been one year sense the Theatre Club's Spring Break trip to New York. It's crazy to look back at New York and compare it to how it is now. But instead of dwelling on everything that is going on now I thought I would finally sit down and write the long overdue blog post about what happened on my trip to New York. Day 1. Our fist day started at 3 am with 17 of us meeting up at the college before we headed up to the airport picking up our 18th person on the way. The ride to the airport was met with a semi truck jack knifed on the freeway. Thankfully we were able to get around it making it to the airport in time. After a quick shuffle threw bag check, being grouped together to pass the bomb sniffing dogs and a quick Starbucks breakfast we were in the air and on our way just a little past 7 in the morning. The flight wasn't bad in fact it was actually fun and unlike what I said in my previous blog posts I didn't end up watching Grey's Anatomy or read my book. I watched the second Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. As well as talked to the people around me. Although I didn't have a window seat I was able to get Jacob to let me use his window to get a few pics. We flew into Queens *JFK Airport* in the late afternoon. After a long and slightly confusing wait for the buses we were finally on our way to our hotel in Time Square. Once we were there and settled in we headed downstairs to take what is sadly my least favorite group picture of the whole trip. It is also the only picture of the whole trip that has all 18 of us together. (Well as much of me as you cans see anyway.) Right after the picture was taken we all took off in separate directions to do our own things. Mac, Maddie, and I decided to go to dinner and then head out to explore the rest of Time Square. We had dinner at a quaint little 50's restaurant suggested to us our adviser Emmy. If you're ever in New York I highly recommend that you check out Juniors. After dinner we headed off to M&M World for a much needed chocolate fix. Although its a really cute and fun store to be in it has to be one of the most expensive places I have ever gotten M&Ms in my life. We spent the rest of the night walking around Time Square doing what girls on vacation do best... Shop. Day 2. Our first full day was non stop from the moment I woke up at 7 in the morning until the moment I went to sleep around 1 am. The morning started out with a free breakfast in the hotel and a quick trip to Starbucks (yes we went all the way to NYC and ended up in a Starbucks.) After everyone picked up their day passes we were given the choice to either go off and do our own thing or stay in a group and visit the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the 9-11 memorial. I chose to hop on a ferry with Mac, Maddie, Haily, Kennah and David and head to the islands. We didn't book tickets to go to the top of the Statue of Liberty but it was still fun to be able to just walk around the island and look at it. Going to the Statue of Liberty is something I have always wanted to do. Not going to the top just gives me an excuse to go back one day. After our short time at the statue we hopped back onto the ferry (where I was briefly attacked by a small bird and laughed at by both David and some random lady.) for a short ride on over to Ellis Island. Having family come thew the island I was excited to tick it off my bucket list. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to check out all of the buildings and the library's were closed down for cleaning. It was still fun to walk around and read about the history of the buildings and people who came threw. One thing I was surprised about was the amount of Titanic memorabilia they had in the gift shop. David and I spent entirely too much just walking around looking at things and goofing off and almost missed the ferry back. This wouldn't be the last time we would almost be left behind. In fact we kinda became known for it. I started to make a joke of it quoting Finding Nemo and we became Exit Buddies. After a very questionably ferry ride where the driver literally crashed us into the docks we took a small detour to the mall. Haily, David and I formed a group got something to eat and chilled out for a bit. After a bit we decided to check out a few stores we don't have at home. First stop Louis Vuitton where we met some really nice employees who were more than willing to let us try things on and find anything we may want to buy. Unfortunately none of us make that kind of cash and we left the store with nothing. After our fun in Louis we decided to check out Gauche. That experience wasn't the same as Louis. First off they had eyes on us from the moment we walked into the store. I understand that we didn't dress like someone who would normally shop there, but how are they to know that we don't have money to change that? Haily stayed at the front of the store while David and I went into another room of the store. One of the stores clerks fol owed us the room was set up with a bunch of sunglasses mirrors and candles. I went over to check out the candles. As I picked one up just to check the price 300 dollars for a candle that was smaller than you could get at Bed and Bath. I was promptly told to put the candle down. David was trying on sunglasses trying to take a selfie when he was told to put the glasses back and not to take pictures. Shortly after that we were asked to leave the store. When we were done with our mall trip we went to the 9-11 Memorial. It was both touching and heart wrenching at the same time. Once we got there we broke off into groups to look around. My group started out with Mac, David and I but once again slowly just dwindled down to just David and I. When you first walk in there are these pillar like protections with words and things on them. As you pass by them you get news clips and minute by minute updates about what happened that day. They even have a huge screen with a rebroadcasting of the Today Show from that day. you walk down this long hallway and then come to a set of stares that leads you to ground level. Next to the stairs is a set of stairs that someone who worked in the tower used to help people inside the tower escape. There is also a pillar still standing from one of the buildings that people would tag in for the first respondeners and other people who helped out. Behind that they have a beautiful blue wall that has bodies from that day behind it. They also have fire trucks that were on the scene when things happened. As well as an engine from one of the planes. They have rooms dedicated to the people who lost their lives with things their families have donated as a memorial for the fallen. There is a room you can go into and hear audio of people talking about those who lost their lives. One of the sections is dedicated to the rescue animals and art work people have made for the memorial. If I remember right we spent a couple hours in there. Outside they have a the fountain were names of the fallen are carved into it. They have small holes for people to leave flowers and flags for the different people. This is a part of the trip that will forever stick with me. During one of the ferry rides we had formed a group of 6: Haily, Kennah, Vaneza, Spencer, David and I. From this moment forward this group of 6 would spend practically every waking moment together. Before we had headed out to the Saute Of Liberty that morning I had gone to Madame Tussaud's Wax Figures. I had been to the one in West Hollywood and really wanted to check this one out so I asked a couple people to come along. It really turned out to be one of the most memorable times of the trip. When we got there the people working let us know that there was some big party happening on one of the floors so it was shut off the the general public. I still don't really know what was on that floor. But I know we didn't need it because we had a kick ass time on every other floor. We spent a couple hours there we might have been the only people there at one point. The only reason we ended up leaving is because it was about to close. From tea with the Royal Family to fighting with the Avengers we did it all, and of course we had to have a photoshoot along the way. We just wouldnt be the NYC 6 if we didn't. At this point its around 9 at night and none of us had eaten since the short time we had spent at the mall. So we went to the one place you should always go for a great late night burger... Shake Shack After a quick bite no one was ready to go back to the hotel so we decided to check out some shops in Time Square. Hitting up the M&M Store again as well as the Hershey's Chocolate World. Along the way Spencer and Vaneza won the best couple award for being together for half their lives. (I'm going to say they've won this award 2 years in a row.) Also shout out to the cast of Pretty Little Liars with out this billboard we would have gotten lost trying to find our way back to the hotel on more than one occasion. To round off the night and to tell you the truth I don't even really know why we did this we went to the hotel gym at 1 am. However the night didn't turn out to be over. The say New York is the city that doesn't sleep they didn't mean just the night life. That night out side Mine, Mac, Maddie, Kennah's hotel window their came a sound that sounded like a chainsaw that went on for a few minutes. Followed directly by a jack hammer once the jack hammer was done an alarm went off. Being on the third floor and having an awning right below the window made it hard to see what was happening below. Little did we know just down the hall Taylor was jolted from her bed and screaming at Ashlie about the alarm. Day 3 Today started out with the now NYC 6 infamous I'm downstairs group chat followed with a gross breakfast. I know I shouldn't complain about free food but Hotel Edison had some problems. If you guys want to hear about an opinion about the hotel and what I as well as my friends thought of it, and how we were treated at times then I will write a separate blog for that. Since most of us were running on about 3 hours sleep at this point we yet again headed over to Starbucks for a morning boost. Next we went on a morning trek to The Top of The Rock. Where yet again had a small photoshoot. The Top of Rock was something that honestly I wasn't too sure I wanted to do at first. I'm glad I followed the group and did it because It was so pretty and well worth it. I took some of my favorite pictures of the trip up there. The Top of The Rock starts out with a green screen photo opportunity that we couldn't pass up. (a photo that I later on realized that the cast of Friends also took. Our is better.) After the top of the rock we had a brief debate on if we should go ice skating, head on over to Central Park or go to the Moma and check out the Van Gogh exhibit. Van Gogh won out because how many times in your life are you going to be able to say that you saw Starry Night up close and personal? Before we headed out around the Museum to check out its very unique peaces of art we hit one of the many cafeterias for a small snack. I'm not a huge fan of museums myself but this one had a lot of fun and unique peaces of art. There was one room that I didn't get pictures of that was full of trash but was considered high end art because of the way it was placed on the floor David got in trouble for crossing the line on the floor neither of us saw and touching a piece of trash. That is how we found out it was art. Up until that point I thought they were redoing that room. One of the sculptures they had was a snowman in see threw freezer. One of my favorite pieces of art was a basketball hoop with candles. Their was also a room that played Zen music while videos played and crystals hung around the room. I want to be able to go back some day and check out the room that has the old movie posters I started to look at a few but didn't have time to really look. We spent a good couple hours in there just walking around talking and having fun. I don't remember how the idea came around or who talked about it first but instead of taking a walk around Central Park The 6 decided to rent bicycles and ride around the park. So after I we all pitched in and I signed the paperwork and gave my ID to the people at the bike shop we were off. Their surprisingly aren't a lot of places you can take bikes in Central Park. At least not in the area we were in. I was also surprised at the amount of stop lights they had in the park. It was the perfect weather to just bike around chill out with each other and you guessed it take some pictures. It was a pretty chill bike ride around the park. With only a couple hiccups. We thought Spencer losing his chain was going to be the worst of it. Unfortunately we were wrong. When everyone else had eaten a little something at the Moma Vaneza opted for just a couple small pieces of fruit. As we were approaching the end of the park she got a little dizzy and took a pretty scary fall, flipping head over handle bars and landing face first on the cement. Thankfully she was able to cushion her fall with her arm and didn't hit her head or get seriously hurt. Their were a couple cops near by who we got to come over and check her out. They didn't have a first aid kit for her cuts and she didn't want to go to the hospital so we decided to just start our trek back to turn in our bikes. After turning in our bikes we stopped by a local deli for something to eat. That night the Theatre Club and a couple other people on the trip had tickets to go see the Broadway production of Chicago. Before we got ready we all decided we needed time to chill. So we headed to the boys' room to watch some tv and just hang out. While Haily, Kennah and I went to see Chicago David, Spencer and Vaneza ended up going to the movies to see the latest How To Train Your Dragon to help Vaneza keep her mind off the fall. Chicago was a really great show and I am really glad we chose to see this one. The music was amazing and I love the story lines. While a hand full of the people who went on the trip seen more then one show threw out our trip I only saw that one. Which I guess gives me another excuse to go back someday. After Chicago Ashlie, Jacob, Zach and I went back to the hotel for a quick change and to pick up David. We then went to dinner at a Deli Emmy suggested we go check out. (I feel like I forgot to say that Emmy used to live in New York.) It was cute and reminded me a lot of Deli's in Seattle so we all kinda felt like we were home. They had a sitting area up stairs where it was just the 4 of us and let us hang out past closing. The main reason we went out was so that Ashlie could see Grand Central Station. Jacob and Zach called it a night leaving just Ashlie, David and I to go exploring. You meet some really interesting people in New York on our way to the train station we ended up talking to some random guy who for some reason thought we were British then proceed to ask David "Are you English?" He miss understood replying "Yes." The guy went onto explain to us that its up to us to vote no on Brexit, Grand Central was under a bit of construction and almost completely dead when we got there but the security guard seemed to like us and let us go exploring. We didn't stay long. We weren't ready to head back to the hotel so we decided to take a walk around the city a bit and check out Madison Square Gardens as well as parts of Broadway we hadn't see in the day time. It was a fun walk and a great way to spend our last night in the city. Day 4 The last day started with everyone finishing up packing their things and storing them in Emmy's room. Then the I'm downstairs group chat. We skipped the free breakfast and even bailed on the morning Starbucks. We headed out to Dunkin' Donuts which in our opinion wasn't as good as people say it is. From there we did some more exploring of Time Square. While we there threw out Time Square people were asking for donations holding onto big clear square boxes. We were on our way back to the hotel to meet up with our advisers and some of the others and head over to Brooklyn when we were approached by one of these people. He kept asking us for money. None of the 6 said anything to him we entered a small crowed of people to try and get rid of him. Some how we ended up next to a man and his wife. The person with the box somehow took this as we were a family. He turned to the man and commented him all of his beautiful daughters. The man looked uncomfortable but looked at his wife and said "please leave my family alone." and we all proceed to cross the street. That's the story on how the 6 got adopted in NYC. We took the subway to Brooklyn by this time most of us had become sort of experts on the subway. I say most because Ashlie had yet to grasp it. (I got permission to talk about this.) Out of all of my friends Ashlie is the most well traveled. She is constantly on the go however she has the worst sense of direction. She also loves tea more than any other person I have ever met. Before we went to New York Ashlie and Taylor booked reservations to a Tea Room. While most of us went to 9-11 they went to Tea. To get to where they needed to go they had to take the subway, Ashlie miss read the maps and instead of coming back to Manhattan she ended up in Brooklyn not once, not twice but three times before she finally got it right. When we were on our way to catch out train to Brooklyn Ashlie was on my left I remember her talking to me and then all of asudden she was gone. One of our advisers had to go and find her. After we got into Brooklyn we went to a very small tea and coffee shop. The shop was so small that only about 3 of us could stand in it. From there we headed down to the waterfront. Once we got our fill of the view we headed out to check out the town. We stopped into a couple book shops and other small businesses in town, 5 of the 6 even got yelled at for taking yet another group photo. A random lady walking by in a very disgruntled Brooklyn way said "Its a fucking sidewalk!" from that point on it became the phrase of the day. Given the fact that we hadn't eaten yet that day the 6 along with Taylor set off to find some food and get in as much of the city as we could since we wouldn't be there long. So where do 7 college students from Washington State go when they're on Spring Break in Brooklyn New York? Starbucks. It was a cozy little place to chill and talk about our trip. The tables had charging stations for your phones the wait wasn't long. The random part was that we need to ask the barista the code to the bathroom. Random fact since I ordered so many photos of this trip from the app Free Prints they sent me a poster sized print of this photo to say thank you. I still haven't found a frame for it. Brooklyn was one of the places I really wanted to see while we in New York and I am still grateful that Emmy added it to the itinerary. One of the reasons I really wanted to go was to check out Joe's Pizza and not just any Joe's Pizza so under the promise of real New York pizza I dragged them with me. I am happy to say Joe's was a great hit and to this day they best cheese pizza I have ever had. No one can change my mind on that. We spent the rest of the trip grabbing beagles and boba tea while checking out some more local shops. Once back in Manhattan we had bit of time left before we had to head out to the airport. The 6 decided to take advantage of this hit up some of out favorite shops (I'm pretty sure I went to the Disney Store at lead 5 times this whole trip.) and just take in Time Square one last time. 4 days really just wasn't enough I know we all wished we had just one more day. The bus ride JFK was a trip all in itself. The buses showed up and we were told to split into two separate groups. Kennah, Spencer and Vaneza went with one group while Haily, David and I ended up with the second group. Now I am sad that the 6 were split up for this part. Not because we weren't all in one place but because Kennah, Spencer and Vaneza totally missed out. What we didn't know at the time was that group 2 was getting into a party bus. It was a great way to say goodbye to the last 4 days. We goofed around with Emmy and everyone else on bus listening to Eminem and other artist that should defiantly be played in a situation like this. Although the bus wasn't stocked for a party we made our own. I'm really bummed out I can't post non YouTube videos on here because I have some great ones from that bus trip. Random fact I bought that hat because I kept steeling David's the whole trip and if you pay close attention to some of the other pictures I ended up wearing his anyway. I also keep forgetting I own that hat. So this is me once again publicly asking David to just give me his since clearly it looked better on me and I liked it better. Our plane ended up being 2 hours delayed so we all just hunkered down at our gate some people slept (or tried to sleep if a certain person would have let me) We played heads up on my phone and did some bottle flips and had just a chill time together. Once again I took more videos that pictures at this point. (Shout out to whoever took this picture I'm pretty sure it was Ashlie.) The plane ride home was one to remember. We had a lot of turbulence at once point everyone was told to just sit down and ride it out. The best part was this guy who was still determined to make it to the bathroom despite the airline attendant calling him out over the PA. At one point she just yelled "SIR! JUST SIT DOWN!" he sat on the floor and waited it out. At another point of the flight there was a person who had a panic attack and the ever famous "Is there a doctor on board." came from overhead. The flight eventually evened out and had a pretty quite flight home. The bus ride back from Seattle was really quite most everyone had passed out at this point wanted to but couldn't or were just too tiered to be social. All in all it was an amazing trip and I wouldn't change a single moment of it. I have said that if I could relive any point in my life that vacation is top of the list. Hopefully one day I get the chance to go back to New York. Until then I will have the memories of that one time 6 random people decided to hang out together and had the time of their lives for the rest of the week. XO That One Girl
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Proof that I can be conferrable in the oddest spots. This was the summer I decided to try to lighten my natural hair color. I hated it the whole time. I couldn't wait to be able to go back to blonde.
It's a 2 for 1 blog post today. I have had the song "Wasted On You." by New Kids On The Block stuck in my head all day. I woke up this morning and I had the lyric's; "I know I gotta give you up. But I just can't let you go. Save my love for another. Cause it's wasted on you." running threw my head. Weirdly enough its not even one of the songs I listen to a lot. I thought a lot about whether I wanted to post this on here today to be honest. Because I am a 30 year old, who is admitting that she still listens to NKOTB. Not just the old stuff I grew up with But the new songs as well. I knew I would get a lot of flack for posting this. And admitting I own this album. But I stopped and thought screw it. This is my page and my life. If I want to post about this song I can. Despite all the hate I know I will get. I asked my mom recently "Out of all the musical fazes I have gone threw in my life which one annoyed you most?" I for sure thought she would say Hanson. But she looked at me and said "New kids..." I asked her why. Her response "Because its still happening." I haven't done one of these *on my blog* sense August. So I have decided to throw it back to about 4 years ago? I think is when this picture was taken. here's hoping my sisters don't mind me posting this one.
I haven't done a throw back Thursday in a while. And I was going threw some old pictures to find something from more then just a couple years back. I found this and thought it was perfect for an old school tbt pic. So this week I'm throwing it all the way back to 1999 and the 8th grade dance. It was Hollywood themed. Here's hoping that the people in this picture don't kill me for this.
XO That One Girl This weeks TBT is from a girls trip in 2013 to Seattle. On the first night we decided to take a walk to the Space Needle. On the way we could heard huge bangs that sounded like more like explosions. When we got to the Needle we found out that they were playing one of our all time favorite movies *The Princess Bride* outside. It had barley started when we got there. It was just one of the many happy little surprises we discovered that weekend. And if you ask me not a bad way to start our trip as well.
XO That One Girl I have been meaning to do this for a while now. But I always forget to post them. This week I made it a point to remember. This weeks TBT is an old pic its about 5 years old. Will was about 3 years old when I took this pic. He was always asking me to take a picture of him doing one thing or another. Hamming it up. One of my fav times is when he was staying the weekend and he said "Mama Stephie take a picture of me skating" He was 4 at the the time and he fell off the board. *he wasn't hurt* he got really excited and said "did you take my picture?!" haha. This one is one of my favs.
Throwing it back all the way to 2008 and the haunted corn maze. It was so cold that night. But a lot of fun. As I have said before I have a fear of corn fields. (Do to watching children of the corn at a very young age) so it takes a lot of gut for me to get in one. Especially after dark. So when I sugested we go to this. I think everyone was bit surprised. This night turned out really fun.
XO That One Girl |