Guest Post: Kelly's trip to NYC

Today's post comes to you from Kelly, an old high-school friend of mine. Be sure to visit her at her blog, My Joy Project. She writes with honesty, humour and spunk!

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Hello all you lovely readers of Pughs' News - and thank you to Erin for asking me to guest post while she is away enjoying England with her lovely family :)


Making a decision on which vacation spot to share with you was a tricky one. I have been blessed in the last few years to have traveled quite a bit and they have all been my favorites! My most recent adventure was to New York to see a friend. I did two long weekend getaways over the course of a couple of months this past Spring, and have posted some pictures to share with you. I had to restrain myself from posting more pictures, these are the precious few that made the cut. I hope you enjoy :)

Does this look familiar? That's right, Times Square! I was blown away at how many people there are on the streets of Manhattan, there were thousands! Everywhere you looked in Times Square (and the surrounding area) was advertisements and billboard and signs for everything! A lot of the ads were for Broadway shows, or movies, or tv shows and the signs were massive! I think the billboard for Target was almost the size of my house!

"Rethink Your Daily Routine" - ya, jet off to New York for the weekend!!

You absolutely MUST have a street pretzel!
I chose the classic salted pretzel, my friend
(a local New Yorker) got mustard with his.

My favorite shot of the day, Easter Long Weekend and look at that blue sky! This was taken when we stopped for a latte at Bryant Park, which is a few blocks away from Times Square. You know in the movies when you see a bunch of people at parks playing chess and drinking coffee? Ya, they do that at Bryant Park too, very cool to see in person.

I bet you all know where the Staten Island Ferry goes, right?

Of course! The Statue of Liberty! This was taken at Battery Park, which is where you'd go if you were going to take either the Staten Island Ferry, or one of the Statue tour boats. It's in downtown Manhattan, as opposed to mid-town Manhattan which is where Times Square, and Broadway, and 5th Aventue etc is. Downtown is where you'd find Wall Street, and of course, Battery Park. We were running out of time that day, so we didn't make it up close to the Statue. This was good enough for me anyway, the line up was horrendous!


My second trip to New York was at the end of May just in time for Memorial Day long weekend. My friend lives in Long Island, and one of his favorite holiday spots is Montauk. Montauk is in the Hamptons at the very Eastern end of Long Island. Yep, that's right, where all the rich people have their summer homes. Above is an example of one of the places we drove by. Kind of looks like something Erin might post on her Saturday Morning Daydream, no? I guarantee there a comfy deck chairs and pitchers of iced tea, and a pool (equipped with pool boy) in the back there....

Montauk is very much a beach resort kind of town. Kind of like an Eastern version of Tofino (for you Vancouver Island dwellers), without the hippy vibe to it. More like with the metrosexual "where the pretty people go" vibe lol.

Cyril's Fish House (located on the main road to Montauk, just past Lobster World and the Crab Shack) looks pretty empty in the photo, but that's only because this was taken very early in the morning. Show up here at around 4pm or so and it is totally the place to be! It's completely 'come as you are' casual atmosphere made for an interesting combination of people. There had to be easily 200+ people there the afternoon we went. They were either still in their bathing suits and beach clothes, or ready for a night on the town. We lost count of how many people were wearing Aviator sunglasses, but came away knowing that clearly they were the hippest accessory going lol.

The Montauk Lighthouse marks "The End" of Long Island.
A must see for all tourists. Check that off the list :)
Let's go back to Cyril's haha

Like I said, Montauk is a beach town and I was lovin' me some beach that weekend.!! I really had no idea what to expect from a weekend getaway to the Hamptons, and maybe someday I'll get the opportunity to go again and do some more exploring. Maybe you will too!!

I hope you all got a little joy out of this virtual escape to New York, and thanks again to Erin for inviting me to share my adventure with all of you!

Happy travels!!
Kelly

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Thanks, Kelly! I've always wanted to go to New York City. I enjoyed this little escape very much!