I want to wake up in that city that doesn't sleep...

New York has been top of my places I most want to visit for as long as I can remember. So I was so excited when I knew that we were going to visit as one of the cities on our East Coast tour. This was part of the trip that was planned meticulously. We only had 2 full days in the city and I wanted to make sure that we hit all of the main tourist spots. For such a little island it certainly crams a lot in.

We arrived into a very wet Penn Street Station, early on a Sunday evening and scuppered the 100 or so metres to our very well placed, given the down pour, hotel - The Affinia Manhatten on 31st and 7th in mid-town.

I want to say that we lived the dream from that moment onwards but every day was packed and so after settling into the hotel we took a little stroll, although in New York that was about 30 square blocks, and settled on a small pizzeria off Time Square for some sustenance before hitting the sack, ready for a day of exploring the following day.

Day 1 was planned as uptown, the park and some of mid-town. Shopping was planned at every stage of the trip.  Without knowing it, 7th Avenue was a good place to actually start out. We headed North towards Up Town looking for the park and after our small foray the evening before knew that at some point we would stumble across Times Square. This was not before small diversions into American Eagle, Macy's and MAC.

Nothing can prepare you for the noise and busyness of this city and Times Square just epitomises it.

As you walk up you walk some more and then some more and then finally there is a hint of green and then a wall of luscious leafs and you know the park is in sight. I wanted to hire a bike and cycle around but the hubby totally disagreed so instead after another stop in Starbucks (it is air conditioned) we made our way into the park via Columbus Circle.

This photo was taken from the 'Sheep Meadow' and I just love how you see the city popping up over the tree line. Manhatten doesn't look that big on a map and Central Park is only a small part of that but let me tell you this is one massive park. We were in there for 2 hours and didn't even make it the whole way around.

There is a section of the park along The Mall and near The Terrace (recognised this from Gossip Girl) where the street performers converge and we spent a little while just wandering around and taking it all in. There were lots of people making huge bubbles which were so pretty.

We finally made it to the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir with slightly sore feet (I think my husband was regretting the choice not to get a bike by this point) and I thought of all the movie and television scenes that use this as a back drop.

We exited the park at the east side on to 5th Avenue next to the Metropolitan Museum and slowly made our way back down towards the city. The east side was just magical, not a neon sign or Starbucks in sight just row after row of gorgeous park side apartments full of the worlds wealthiest people!

On 5th Avenue we had a little shopping break and browsed around Bloomingdales, Sephora, Apple and Dylans Candy Bar where we literally acted like kids in a sweet shop wanting to buy everything. It is a total playground full to the brim of every sweet treat imaginable!

After another pit stop at the hotel to rest those weary feet we freshened up and headed to the Empire State building wanting to watch the sun set over the city from this famous landmark.

Followed by a walk to Times Square to take in all the lights at night - and it is still as crazy at night as it is in the day!

Day 2 was our chance to see some of down town and we started with a helicopter tour from the pier close to the South Ferry terminal port. This was a birthday present for my hubby and we couldn't of been happier with it!

The flight takes you around Ellis Island so that you get a great view of Lady Liberty, before heading up the Hudson to see the island of Manhatten from this unique perspective. From this aerial view you really can see the distinct up town, mid town and down town areas. The flight took us all the way up to The Bronx and over the Yankee Stadium before heading back down The Hudson with views of New Jersey. 

We've never been in a helicopter before and I would recommend a couple of travel sickness tablets before hand if you have a sensitive travel stomach like I do. 

Our flight was with HeliNY.com and I couldn't recommend it enough.

 Whilst down town we really wanted to visit the 9/11 memorial garden and new freedom towers. These are very impressive and I thought the garden was a really apt and tasteful memorial to those who lost their lives in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the city. 

As a tourist be warned that the queues to get in this are massive and on a hot day there is absolutely no shade until you make it into the garden so do make sure you have water with you and visit the bathroom before getting in the queue!

 

We were so lucky that the ice hockey league play off's were under way during our visit and as our hotel was right outside of Madison Square Gardens we were lucky enough to get up in the build up to that nights game. There was a total buzz as the fans arrived and the drummers tried to get the atmosphere up.

I love the fact that walking around this city is like walking around a movie set. Everywhere you go from Central Park, to 5th Avenue to Down Town there is a location you remember seeing in a film and we were lucky enough to see them filming part of the next Spider Man movie.

I have to say that the countless blogs, tourist guides and guide books I had read while planning couldn't prepare me for this city there is just too much to see. I can't wait for the next opportunity to go back and spend some time seeing a little bit more of the hidden city rather than the tourist hot spots that we packed in to this trip.  

Hot in Miami

A few weeks ago there was an instagram post with pictures from the USA and then a USA Beauty Haul of some of the goodies that were picked up but I haven't actually posted about some of the wonderful things that we got to do when we were in the great big US of A.

First stop for us was the city of Miami. I'm not going to lie, the reason we went is because we are both obsessed with the television series Dexter and thought that Miami looked like a cool place to visit. 

Warning this is picture heavy.

We arrived in Miami on a Saturday evening. After queuing for what seemed like hours getting through immigration we picked up our convertible treat, popped the roof down and pulled out of the car park...where it was absolutely chucking it down. We looked like such idiots having to stop and pull over to put the roof back up. After a hairy drive to our hotel in the dark and rain, driving on the wrong side of the road we made it. The rain continued but the next day the sun was shining. 

We started the day with a little trip to the beach...I mean come on it was South Beach!!!! Amazing beach and those gorgeous art deco hotels and pastel colours.

 

Oh yeah I was a total geek and carried around my East Coast Lonely Planet like a comfort blanket along with the Trip Advisor city guide app. They both had a couple of walks that would take you around the sights of South Beach so I thought (lesson learnt) that it would be a good idea.

 

I just loved these gates. I mean they have Flamingos on.

 

Our little walk took us to the arts center and its little park outside. It is a weird inside out building but it was quite cool to look at. We happened by chance across the Lincoln Mall. To me an American mall is a massive out of town building but this was so not that and so cool and different. First of all it was all outside. So a bit like a really big (clean and well manicured) high street. As it was a Sunday there was a market on, and lots of restaurants serving brunch. 

In Lincoln mall were these 2 buildings that I had to take photos of. The first is the first church in Miami and it was just so cute and I loved how it looked. The second is an old style movie theatre which I felt just totally epitomised the architecture and art deco style that Miami is famous for.

The next little find was Espanola Way which wasn't much to behold on a sleepy Sunday morning but...

...we headed back that night and it had transformed into a little Spanish style piazza. A lively street with restaurants and pastel ice cream parlors  and magical lighting. It was buzzing in the evening and we had our alfresco dinner at a Cuban style restuarant yum yum.

The walk wasn't such a great idea because let me tell you it was HOT HOT HOT which made it almost impossible to enjoy. So we headed back to the hotel and grabbed our car to go cruising around South Beach including Ocean Drive which we were unable to stop on so there are no photos :-(

Such a massive fan girl - on my itinerary (and trust me there was an itinerary) was a trip to DASH. Lots of skinny and expensive clothes in here but picked up a few souvenirs for my equally obsessed sister.

A couple of food highlights. The first was an amazing mojito from the Cuban restaurant. For obvious reasons it wasn't Cuban but the restuarant had over 40 types of rum and so I had to get the waiter to talk me through a few options. I choose well and thoroughly enjoyed this.  The second is the husbands hot dog. I should have put his arm next to it so you could see the size of it. My lunch was Calamari which turned up on a huge platter and on further inspection was a pound of the battered rings! I just thought this was so American - large hot dog, wrapped in ham covered in warm cheese *food memories*.

 

Organising a trip like this is difficult and I was really struggling to work out where to stay. I randomly tweeted Ruth from A Model Recommends because I had seen a few posts of hers from Miami and so wanted to see if she had any recommendations. She did have a few and I went for Townhouse. This is just on the corner of 20th Street and Collins Avenue so in the middle of all the action in South Beach. Its a paired back, relaxed boutique hotel that has no art deco elements about it at all. It is white, white, white with highlights of red all over it and so cute that you get a Townhouse beach ball on your bed.

A cool roof terrace was our respite on the afternoon after our little tour around South Beach and if you craned your neck over the balcony and looked right you could just see the ocean.

 

Our second day in Miami really was a highlight and I was able to tick off one of the 3 things I had on my 'must do' list for our trip and that was swimming with dolphins.  We headed to downtown Miami to the Seaquarium where we had booked ourselves on the Dolphin Odyssey. 

In small groups we were invited into the pool to meet the dolphin pod that we would be interacting with. There are 3 different pods at the seaquarium and they take it in turns to work and play. The instructors are really entertaining and informative about the animals you are sharing the water with and know who each of the dolphins are and their individual personality traits. 

We got to do a few tricks and feed the dolphins and watch them from underneath the water. They were real posers and we were able to have a photo together cuddling the dolphin. A couple of times we had to get out of the water because they were misbehaving a little. The finale was the dorsel fin pull to the other side of the tank. It is just amazing to see how powerful but graceful these animals are.

The last photo is the peacock at the seaquarium who put on a full display for us and just looked stunning in the fading Miami sunshine.

We ended the day driving to Orlando.

Have you been to Miami and if so what did you get up to?