New York City

The heels that I decided to wear were starting to hurt my feet, but I remember thinking it was so worth it just to keep walking. Daniel and I had just walked out of my KD Formal for some fresh air and started to stroll around Downtown Valdosta. We were chatting about our hopes and dreams and it’s wild to think that we’ve already started making big strides with them. I remember Daniel talking about how cool it would be to have the opportunity to work in NYC and I chatted about how awesome it’d be to be a photographer. That’s one of the things that I like about him so much, we dream big all of the time like it’s no big deal.

Fast forward a few years and this past weekend I had the opportunity to meet up with him in NYC. He was there for work and I was in Maryland for the Bayside Workshop (more on this later) and our schedule lined up perfectly. It was my first time in the big city and let me tell you, it was a bit overwhelming! SO.MANY.PEOPLE.

Between the two of us, Daniel is the travel planner and I loved roaming around this city with him. I’m so thankful that we had this opportunity to spend time together and explore a new place. We walked more than I have in a longgg time, but it was totally worth it! Enjoy a few of my favorite photos and some tips on traveling!

The New York Public Library. It opens at 10:00 am and is absolutely stunning, plus their wifi is super fast so it’s a great place to get some work done.

Have you ever heard of Airbnb? If not, you should try it out. Instead of staying at a hotel we rented out an entire loft apartment located in a great area. We paid less than half of the price we would have for a hotel and it was wonderful! It was small, but had a queen bed, bathroom, full kitchen and a tiny table. Perfect for traveling!

When you stand beside the Freedom Tower and lookup it disappears into the sky.

I was in awe of the World Trade Center Memorial

Our first day together we walked for what felt like forever and then we decided to give Citibikes a try. I get really nervous about things like this, what if a car hits me?!? What if I wreck into another cyclist? For real, these are fears of mine. After some convincing from Daniel we paid out $10 for 24 hours and hopped on. It’s neat because they have stations all over the city, you’re allowed to have the bike for 30 minutes at a time then it has to be checked back into a dock in order to avoid an additional fee. There are bike paths on several of the roads and one day we went from almost 40 blocks like it was nothing. Thankfully we were going down hill so we just had to steer and enjoy the view!