A wintery weekend in NYC!

Spending a couple of days in New York with my girlfriend Ariel--before flying home to Indiana--was such a fantastic way to wrap up my travels! We saw and did a lot in such a short time (story of my life, haha).

We spent Saturday in Uptown and Midtown Manhattan -- Saks Fifth Avenue, Central Park, Time Warner Center, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Hall, Macy's on 34th Street, Times Square

Ariel standing strategically in front of Lady Liberty. Who knew that she's located just outside Central Park? ;)

Ice skaters! I *loved* Central Park and the beautiful view of the city. :)

This photo doesn't show it, but just outside Radio City Hall was craaazy busy! So many people!

A really sweet lady took this photo at Rockefeller Center for us. Again, the place was packed with people, just like at Times Square too...

I could totally be on Broadway! haha

Day #2: Downtown Manhattan -- Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, World Trade Center Ground Zero, Greenwich Village, SoHo shopping district, Chinatown, Little Italy

We also went to Brooklyn by accident since we stayed on the subway too long, oops! But it allowed us to see a nice view of the city & the Brooklyn Bridge, which we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

We arrived at the financial district around lunch time and bought some hot dogs from a street vendor--the NYC thing to do, right? For the record, they were pretty good. :)

The World Trade Center site is being rebuilt with six new skyscrapers and a memorial to the casualties of the attacks.

Despite the freezing cold weather, we walked around two different neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan--Greenwich Village and SoHo--and did some window shopping. Later that evening, we went to Chinatown for dinner and foot massages, and walked through Little Italy on our way back to the subway...

Ariel lives in an apartment in Queens, so it was a long subway ride from Downtown! It was so nice spending time with her and seeing so much of the city.

And now it's nice to be back home again in Indiana for Christmas time! I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing next year, but I'm not going to stress about it. Instead, I'm just going to enjoy this time with my family. :) So I'm taking a blogging break, until my next travel adventure...whenever & wherever that might be.

Have a happy holiday season!