Oct 5th to the 8th,

A few weeks ago, I was talking- well complaining- to my friend Miranda about our upcoming Fall Break and how we had nothing planned. Our summer seemed wasted since we were in school, and now we had a week off and weren’t going to do anything? On a whim, I decided to hop on and check out flight prices to NYC and TO MY SURPRISE, they were DIRT CHEAP. $218 round trip/nonstop to New York City. With a little push from Miranda, Dhane, and my mom, I decided I’d buy them and surprise Jake for his birthday. 

Let me tell ya, IT WAS SO HARD keeping this a secret! I almost blew it like 99 times but I pulled it off! I surprised Jake, and it was so worth it. 

I packed bags for the both of us and dropped them off at our friends house before Jake got home from work. Our flight was that night at 11:59 PM, so I got us dinner reservations in SLC with our friends to throw him off a little. They picked us up, and we were off to dinner. After we ate, I gave Jake a little present to open, he immediately said, “Do I have to open this right now? Can’t we just wait til we get home?!” UGH. This boy!! “Nope! OPEN NOW.” This was the paper in his present! HE WAS SHOCKED. He kept saying, “Wait! Tonight?? We have to go pack!” Haha. I think I nailed it.

Red-eye flights are BRUTAL and I was beyond tired when we got to NYC, which lead me to make my first stupid travel mistake. Let’s just say my lesson is learned, and I’m glad I didn’t learn it the really hard way. (Note: ALWAYS take legitimate taxis, Ubers, or Lyfts. Okay? Okay.) We arrived to Dhane’s apartment, took a nap, showered, and went on our way! It was Jake’s first time to New York so we had a lot to pack into just 3 days. We visited Colombia’s campus, got some mediocre cheap New York Pizza, and visited Times Square. I bought us tickets to see Harry Potter and The Cursed Child on Broadway, which was a two-part show, so that took up the majority of our day BUT IT WAS AWESOME! The most amazing special effects I have ever seen in a play. So beyond cool. We met up with Dhane in between shows to grab dinner at Gnoccheria by Luzzo, and then we finished up the night with milkshakes from Milk. The next day we went to Jacob’s Pickle for brunch and it was SO GOOD. Highly recommend. To work off that massive breakfast, we rode bikes around Central Park which is definitely my favorite thing to do in New York. Central Park is like the little Haven of NYC. You forget you’re in a massive city in that pretty park. We then headed over to the Rockefeller Center to see the piano from the movie, Big, and it was freaking BROKEN. Lame. But we ended up going to the Top of the Rock instead, which I LOVED. Afterwards, we went to Magnolia Bakery for the infamous banana pudding and The Strand Bookstore to get our future kid’s a children’s book. For dinner that night, we went to The Smith on Lincoln Square and met up with one of Jake’s friends from High School who’s currently living in NYC. We ate delicious mac and cheese, burgers, and sticky toffee pudding. It was a perfect night (s/o to my mom and dad for our meal :)) thank you). Jake’s birthday was the next day and we debated whether or not to wake up at 4 AM to try to get on Jimmy Fallon. Long Story Short, I was out-voted. We didn’t go, BUT Jake did promise me we’d try next time. Instead, I let Jake decide what we would do! He decided on bagels and a tour of Madison Square Garden. I picked a fancy, overpriced bagel place which was a bit of a bust, but the tour was actually totally legit. Jake got a picture in the Knick’s locker room to make all of his friends jealous, so I’d consider it a success, haha. Since Dhane still had class, Jake and I decided to head over to Chelsea Market for lunch. I had never been, but needless to say, I loved it! We split some tacos and noodles, and then finished lunch off with apple spice doughnuts. Geez, I am getting hungry just writing this! New York seriously has the yummiest food. After lunch, we met up with Dhane at Riverside Park and headed to dinner. It’s a tradition to go to a Japanese Steakhouse for Jake’s birthday every year- so we went to New York’s version of that- Flame Hibachi. Our cook was rather funny, for lack of a better word. He asked Jake how old he was turning and asked him to open wide- he then proceeded to spray ALCOHOL down Jake’s throat while singing the Happy Birthday Song. Jake was confused and thought he was spraying lighter fluid down his throat, but afterwards we found out it was Sake. Jake got his first taste of alcohol on accident on his 25th birthday. Happy birthday Jake! For dessert, we went to Serendipity for Frozen Hot Chocolate and called it a night. I’d say his 25th birthday was one for the books! We had an early flight the next morning so nothing to report there. But a huge THANK YOU to Dhane for hosting us and letting us stay on your futon in your living room, haha. This was for sure a trip to remember.