Why I Chose Not to Move to New York City

Hey guys,

So today's post is going to be kind of personal and it took me a long time to actually write this post. One of the reasons I wanted to write it is because it's been almost 2 years since my sister and I thought about moving to New York. Also, since I recently took a trip to New York I thought it would be fun to finally finish writing this post and actually post it! I absolutely love the city of New York! It is one of my favorite places to visit, I never get bored and I just absolutely love the atmosphere! It's so fast paced, high-tech, and people from all over the world live there. It's such a unique experience and if you've never been, it's number one on my places to visit list. This city is amazing and theres a reason it's been featured in so many movies and TV shows! 

Anyways, one of the main reasons I chose not to move there is because it's my favorite place to vacation. If moved there then I would be living there and I would have to pick new favorite place to vacation which probably would have to be Florida since that's where I'm from and all of my family lives here. But honestly, I couldn't pick Florida as a new favorite place to vacation because I don't actually like Florida enough to want to vacation here all of the time. The only reason I would be coming back was for my family and I don't necessarily consider that an actual vacation then. I wouldn't be exploring anywhere new I would probably just be seeing all of my family that lives whenever I came down.

The next reason is because it is just way too expensive to live there. It's also way to expensive to really do anything as well! I've watched a lot of those videos on facebook about people living in their tiny loft apartment in New York and how they barely get by with their rent and the amount of money they make but they still choose to live their because why not? It's an amazing city! But I just don't think I could imagine paying so much money for rent and other expense to live either with 3-4 other roommates with no space or just my sister and I in a studio with no space and with two dogs. Because yes my sister and I have a dog each and we definitely would not leave either of them behind.

Speaking of no space, I just don't think I could handle how tiny and confined everything is there. I've pretty much always lived in a house with a yard except for 1 semester when I lived in a dorm! I've had dogs and other various animals throughout my life too and a backyard for them to play in! I don't think I could handle having to take my dog out for a walk 2-3 times a day and making them stay on a leash every time we went. My dog enjoys being able to run around the backyard sometimes and just sit down in the sun and relax. I've also pretty much always had my own room and when I moved out of my parents house I've always had an extra room that my sister and I typically use as an office! I think if I had moved to NYC that I might have suffered from some sort of depression over this because I kind of am claustrophobic so I think I would have handled it well.

I also did not want to move there because I know for a fact that I would severely miss my family. The one semester that I lived in my dorm, I absolutely hated it so I drove home every single weekend just so I didn't have to be there. Thankfully I went to a school that was only about 2 and a half hours away so the drive was super easy and went by pretty quick! I currently live like 5 minutes from my parent's house and they are constantly coming over here to our house or we are going over to their house. We also pretty much spend every weekend doing something with them unless one of us is out of town. I also go on a lot of vacations with my family so I would miss being able to just take weekend trips to Disney with them. Granted I was planning on moving there with my sister so I think that would have helped a little but I still think I would have been depressed about not being able to go to dinner with my parent's whenever I wanted.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! For now I think I will stick with just vacationing in NYC! I look forward to that trip pretty much every year now and I hope it's something we're able to keep doing every year!

Keep checking back for more posts even Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Thanks for stopping by!

XO, Steph

New York Summer 2018 Day 5

Hey guys,

So today was our last day in NYC! It was a Monday and our first stop was Good Morning America! We had never done the show before but it is something that I think we're gonna try to do every time we go from now on! It was actually a lot of fun! 

Debby Ryan and Alyssa Milano were some of the stars that we on the show and it was pretty cool because they walked right by us and stood near us and said hi to us! So that was kind of exciting! 

We got to take a picture Ginger Zee so that was fun! She's tanner than us and we live in Florida! 

We also got a free treat from the show! 

So we realized that we hadn't taken a trip to Central Park the entire trip so we hopped in a cab and headed to the park! We found a mini waterfall and it was super cute! I love exploring this park because you find something new almost every time you go! It's definitely one of my favorite parts of the city and I love stopping by every time we go even if its only for a 10 minute walk! 

Before we went back to our hotel to grab our bags we decided to stop in the Hershey store and get a quick snack! It was absolutely delicious! 

So we totally almost were late to our flight! We thought we left with plenty of time but the highway ended up being so busy! We asked our cab driver if he thought we would make it in time and so he eventually started taking short cuts and back streets to make sure that we made it on time! We made sure to tip him very well! 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Until next time New York! It's also so hard to leave this city! 

Thanks for stopping by!

XO, Steph

New York Summer 2018 Day 4

Hey guys,

So today was our last full day in New York. The last day is always the hardest and the saddest. We always try to make sure that we fit as much as we possibly can into our last full day because who knows when they next time we will be taking a trip to New York again. We did so much on this day and it was such a great day. I have to warn you now but this post is going to contain a lot of pictures compared to the other days! I hope you enjoy them and keep on reading to find out what we did!

So we started off our day by getting on a bus tour of the city. We did this the last time that we were in New York and honestly they're kind of great! This time it actually came free with our hotel because my mom bought this package that she didn't realize she bought so we took advantage of it and took the downtown bus tour and we used it as our transportation to get us down by the water closer to the ferry's so we could take one to Governor's Island.

Once our bus dropped us off we had to walk a little bit to get to our ferry location. We were taking a ferry to and island just outside of the city called Governor's Island. This was the first time we had ever been and it was definitely something I would do again, I would probably just wait until it cooled down. I actually ended up getting sunburnt on this day probably because we spent so much time outside. 

Anyways the ferry ride to Governor's Island is super quick and it's a lot of fun. You can bring your bike or kids can bring their scooters. You can also rent bikes once you get to the island if you don't live in the city or near the city and don't have a bike with you. It seemed like there were a lot of things to do on the island, we happened to go on a day where we had a lot of stuff to get done but I'm pretty sure that you could the entire day there. The one thing that we did was a take a free tour of the fort that's on the island. It's technically called a castle but it's more of a fort. We 

Also, the ferry ride there is free on the weekends from 10-11:30 am. So we made sure to make it for the 10:30 am ferry! 

On the island we ate lunch at a for truck called Taco Vista! And one thing I have to say about New York tacos is that their tacos are definitely not the same as Florida tacos or tacos that I've had other places! I mean they're still good but they are not your regular taco, just warning you!

After lunch we walked about the island more and explored some different parts before we had to head back to the ferry! 

Overall, the island was very pretty and I wish we could have had a day to explore the whole thing because I'm pretty sure we barely saw any of it but it was just to darn hot out to even think about spending more time there. If we ever go back in the fall when it's cooled off quite a bit then maybe we can spend a whole Saturday or Sunday there just exploring and see what else there is to do on the island!

After we left the island we headed back into the city to wait in line at the Tickets, Tickets, Tickets booth in Times Square again. This time we got tickets for Chicago! I actually didn't take any pictures of this show at all apparently, my bad! We had never seen Chicago and my mom and I didn't even really know what it was about but we thought it would be a good idea to go see a classic show that pretty much is always showing in New York.

I honestly can't remember what we did after we got our tickets, I kind of want to say that we went back to Macy's to finish up shopping before the show. Since we had gone the night before and we ended up closing down the store there were actually two more floors that we didn't even get to see so we wanted to make sure that we went back to check those out before our show! I'm super glad we did because I ended up finding quite a bit of new stuff for my new job! I'm super excited to wear all of the new clothes that I have purchased recently. I actually think that I'm going to do a haul post showing you everything that I purchased in New York and then maybe another one showing you all of the things I have purchased recently for my new job!

After we finished at Macy's we head back to our hotel to get ready for the show! I don't actually remember what we ended up doing for dinner that night but I'm sure we ate something! Anyways, Chicago was a good show! I really enjoyed the dancing and all of the singing. I honestly had no idea that it was about committing crimes or anything like that but either way it was still fun! I'm really obsessed with the movie Burlesque and it kind of remind me of the same theme minus the crimes! 

After the show was over we headed back to our hotel to go to bed because we had to be up kind of early the next day to do something, which will be discussed in my next blog post! But before we made it to our hotel we stopped at Junior's to get some cheesecake because our hotel was actually right across the street from it and they have this super cute to go section where you can buy some items and get them to go! We each got a piece of cheesecake when we really should have shared. I only ended up eating like half of mine because it was so rich and I just could handle all of it. However, it was absolutely delicious!

Here's all of our shopping bags! We did a lot of shopping as you can see! We have this tradition where we take a picture of all of our bags because we always end up doing so much shopping! 

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Check back on Wednesday to read about our final day in NYC!

Thanks for stopping by!

XO, Steph

New York Summer 2018 Day 3

Hey guys,

So today was pretty much just a shopping day! We shopped on 5th Ave, at Rockefeller Center and at Macy's at Herald Square! Anyways we woke up at around 9 and got ready for the day. My mom was kind of already ready so she went downstairs to get us breakfast at Starbucks. This was actually kind of a hassle because I thought it would be a good idea to order from my phone so my mom wouldn't have to remember everyone's orders except I didn't select the Starbucks that was connected to our hotel. That Starbucks didn't actually do online ordering so I sent the order to the Starbucks that was a couple blocks away! So my mom and sister actually went downstairs to go grab our breakfast.

So I can't remember the exact order we did everything in so I'm pretty much just going to tell you everything we did on this day! I believe the first store we hit up for the day was Ann Taylor. This was like the first store we came to when we turned on to 5th Ave. Only my sister and I got some stuff from here. I got a few shirts for work because obviously they sell really great work clothes haha! 

Also, one of the things we did is Rockefeller Center. We always have to make a pit stop at Rockefeller Center to see what's going on! There are so many shops and places to eat downstairs and we pretty much always have to go shopping at the Banana Republic that's there, which is exactly what we did! 

This is one of my favorite buildings in Manhattan! It's St. Patrick Cathedral! One of the reason I'm so obsessed with this building is because it's located on 5th Ave! This is like my dream wedding location because so many famous people get married here and it's been featured on so many tv shows and the interior looks gorgeous! 

After we finished at Banana Republic, we headed to Bill's Bar and Burgers which has actually become one of our favorites thanks to last year's trip (we ate here twice last year). After lunch, we headed back out to do some more shopping! We went to Victoria's Secret next and I was the only one that got anything but I got a really good deal so I was happy about that! 

We also shopping at Hollister on 5th Ave but I was the only one that got anything there as well. I also got another really good deal here too! I ended up getting like 3 clothings items for like $30 things!

The stores we had shopped at, at this point include Gap, Hollister, Victoria's Secret, Banana Republic,  Forever 21 and Ann Taylor! 

So we ended up closing down Macy's! Which is something we pretty much do every time we take a trip to New York. We always manage to go at the end of the day when pretty much everything else is closed except for stores! We bought quite and a lot and this is actually the only trip we ended up taking to Macy's because we didn't actually make it to a couple of the floors since we closed it down.

As you can see, we ended up buying a lot at Macy's! We ended buying a lot of shoes which is what took so long! We found some pairs in the clearance section and then they have to go to the back to search for the shoes for you which can really take a long time! I think I bought 2 pairs and my mom bought 3 and my sister got 1! 

Anyways thanks for stopping by!

XO, Steph

New York Summer 2018 Day 2

Hey guys,

So on our first official full day in NYC we ended up waking up around 11 because of the fact that we didn't get to bed until like 3 something. We didn't plan to sleep in this late but I don't any of us really set our alarms and if one of us did we slept right through them! We were all pretty tired. My sister was the one that actually woke my mom and I up because I guess she heard her alarm and she was like "okay guys, it's time to get up!" Anyways we finally got up and got ready! Then we headed downstairs to have lunch in our hotel's restaurant! 

This picture is supposed to show how ridiculously tall our hotel was but it doesn't really do it justice!

The food was pretty good! I had the Roasted Turkey BLT! But to be honest the bread was a little too hard for my taste. It kind of was actually hard to eat the sandwich because of that but I was fine. I still ate most of it!

Our waitress gave us free waters to go! She put them in coffee cups which kind of made it challenging to drink but it was very sweet of her and really appreciated it!

Next, we headed out into the city to check the first thing off our list! The Downton Abbey Exhibit!

The Downton Exhibit was pretty good. I enjoyed viewing all of the clothes! They were very pretty and super detailed! I can't even imagine all of the hours that went into designing and creating all of the dresses and outfits for this show! 

This photo was taken in Times Square obviously! It was taken while my sister waited in line at the Tickets, Tickets, Tickets booth to get discounted tickets for Anastasia which was the musical we saw that night. I highly recommend using this booth if you never have before because the prices are amazing and the seats aren't that bad either. We got there and waited probably like an hour the time and then we did it on Sunday and it was probably only like a 30 minute wait. Which isn't too bad for the prices in my opinion!

After we got the tickets we headed back to the hotel to get somewhat ready for the play but we still had a couple of hours before we actually needed to be there so we decided to do some shopping in Times Square so we headed out and we went to the Gap that's located in there. We each got a few things and then we decided it was time for dinner and that we wanted pizza so my sister googled for a pizza place nearby and we grabbed some slices and a salad to go! 

We headed back to the hotel with our pizza so we could eat it and we also needed to finish getting ready for the play. Once we were done eating we got dressed and made we had everything we needed for the play and then we looked up directions on how to get there and then we headed out the door!

The musical was absolutely amazing and I definitely recommend seeing it if you are wondering what to see on Broadway! We love seeing broadway shows every time we go to Manhattan because you can't really see shows like that anywhere else. We have a local theater but nothing really compares to seeing shows actually on broadway!

After the play we walked to Shake Shack to get some milkshakes! We each got a cookies n' cream milkshake and they were absolutely delicious! Once we got our milkshakes we walked back to our hotel to get changed and then we decided to go shopping because none of us we were really that tired and a lot of the stores in Times Square stayed open pretty late so we headed downstairs to check them out!

We ended the night by going out shopping in Times Square at the Forever 21 that's the store. The store was an absolute mess! We seriously could not believe how messy it was and it actually made it a little hard to shop but my sister and I found a couple things and I was super happy with all of my purchases because I think that they are work appropriate and I can't wait to wear them to my new job!

After we were done with Forever 21 we headed back up to our hotel room so we could go to bed. By this time it was probably like 1 am so we definitely had stayed up late again but thankfully not as late as the night before!

Thanks for stopping by!

XO, Steph