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All of NYC in 3 Days

Today I’m going to share how to see everything in New York City in 3 days and not feel overwhelmed! The first time I went to NYC was with my husband when he proposed.

It was a great trip but I was also distracted with being newly engaged and my new ring. 😉

This time I went with my mom and we had a great time!

Day 1

We landed at LaGuardia really early and then took a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at Hampton Inn in Times Square.

The location of this hotel is perfect, I highly recommend this hotel!

After dropping off our bags we went to pick up our tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour.

If you have read my past travel entries you know how much I love and recommend these tours! They are the best way to see big cities at your own pace! You can get on and off at all the big stops while enjoying the views from an open double decker bus. I bought the 3 day pass that included: Uptown Route, Downtown Route, Night Tour, ferry ride around the city, ferry ride to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, and tickets to Top of the Rock. This also included the Brooklyn Route and Harlem route, we didn’t do these two because the night tour covers Brooklyn and the Uptown Route covers Harlem.

This is what the routes look like! It covers everything!

The first day we did the Uptown Route.

We love sitting on top of the double decker bus. You can see things from here that you can’t from a car let alone the subway.

The first stop was Strawberry Fields in Central Park. This section of the park was named in memory of John Lennon.

Imagine circle

The bus then drove through Harlem. We didn’t get off anywhere but we did see a few cool things such as the Apollo Theater. This is the famous theater where the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and many others started their careers.

Then we went inside the Plaza Hotel.

They had an Eloise store! I was so excited because I LOVED these books/movies as a child.

We then got tickets to go inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). We saw a lot of famous pieces.

Self Portrait by Vincent van Gogh

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies by Claude Monet

Our next adventure was a subway ride to the Brooklyn Bridge. You have to ride the subway at least once while in NYC.

It was a long walk but the views are breathtaking.

The final stop of the day was Times Square. Day 1 ended earlier than Day 2 and 3 because we were exhausted from waking up at 3 am!

Day 2

On Day 2 we did the Downtown Tour, took a ferry around the city, and the Night Tour.

The first thing stop on the Downtown Tour was the Freedom Tower (the new 9/11 building).

This is now the tallest building in NYC and it is beautiful!

The two 9/11 memorials are right next to the Freedom Tower.

They did a great job designing the memorial fountains.

Then we took a ferry ride around the city.

Such a big city!

We took a little stroll through the Waldorf Astoria. What a gorgeous hotel!

I have to admit I got lost once during this trip and it was trying to get to Grand Central Terminal. We made it though!

We finished the day by taking the Night Tour. Isn’t Times Square beautiful at night?

The views were fabulous and we had a great tour guide!

We loved this part of our trip!

Day 3

Our final day consisted of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Top of the Rock.

Trying to take a selfie at the Statue of Liberty.

The views of Manhattan from Liberty Island were gorgeous!

We were a little disappointed in Ellis Island. They need to make this place a lot more interesting and bring back artifacts that are currently in storage.

Our final stop of the day was the Rockefeller Center. We had tickets to the top which is called the Top of the Rock. This is my favorite place in NYC (and one of my favorite places in the world) for two different reasons: my husband proposed here and the views are to die for!

These views really show you how big NYC is.

This blog post just gives you a snapshot of our trip. Until next time NYC…

Cheesy Chicken Tator Tot Casserole

This easy Crock-Pot recipe is super tasty!

Ingredients

• 1 bag frozen tator tots (32 ounces)
• 1 pound chicken breasts, diced
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• ¾ cup milk
• Salt/Pepper
• You can also add 1 bag of bacon bits if you wish

Instructions
1. Spray Crock-Pot with nonstick spray or use a liner
2. Layer half of the frozen tator tots on the bottom

3. Sprinkle 1 cup of shredded cheese on top of tator tots
4. Add diced chicken on top.
5. Season with salt and pepper
6. Add one cup of shredded cheese on top
7. Put the rest of the tator tots on top
8. Finish with the rest of the cheddar cheese (1 more cup)

9. Pour ¾ cup milk all over the top
10. Cover and cook on low for about 4-6 hours
11. Enjoy!

American Pasta

Do you like Marinara and Alfredo sauce? Have you ever tried it combined? If not, you should! My husband calls this American Pasta because it’s red and white (the blue is missing though).

Ingredients:

1 box penne
1 (24 ounce) jar Marinara sauce
1 (15 ounce) jar Alfredo sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to box
2. Drain Pasta
3. While the pasta is draining, mix the two pastas in the pot

4. Stir in the pasta
5. Stir in the mozzarella

6. Pour pasta into a baking dish (I used a 9×13).
7. Cook on 375 degrees for 25 minutes
8. Remove from oven and sprinkle with parmesan cheese
9. Cook for another 5 minutes

Enjoy!

Our Amazing Race: Portugal and the Netherlands

Our last two stops were Lisbon, Portugal and Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Let me first say how excited I was to travel to Portugal! The pictures looked beautiful. We had a great time in Portugal, but it wasn’t as pretty as I was expecting and I didn’t realize how far you had to travel from Lisbon to get to the beach.

Here is an old fort/castle right on the water. It reminded me of building sandcastles as a child! 😉

We ate lunch along this street one day. This is the main shopping/restaurant area in Lisbon.

Our second day in Portugal was relaxing. We spent the entire day at the beach!

Now on to Amsterdam!!!

This city is beautiful! It reminds me so much of Venice with all the canals but without the Mediterranean feel.

Just being tourists and exploring!

Such a pretty city!

Here Judd was trying to find some Nutella gelato for his wife! 😉 He was successful!

Red Light District. It wasn’t quite as bad as I was expecting.

We visited the Anne Frank House.

At the Rijksmuseum to see the iAMsterdam sign.

Being a child at heart, Judd had to climb on top!

Aren’t these cakes amazing?

We loved Amsterdam!

Our Amazing Race (11 countries in 16 days) is over but we will never forget this incredible adventure!

Our Amazing Race: Morocco

We got to visit a continent that we’ve never been to (Africa) and a new country (Morocco)!

We actually stayed in Malaga, Spain and traveled to Tangier, Morocco by ferry. While planning this trip, I wasn’t impressed by the hotels in Tangier, so we decided to spend the nights in Malaga.

Morocco is such a great country to visit with an unique culture.

I love traveling the world and being married to this man!

Just walking around town!

Saying hi to a local camel. We went on a camel safari in Dubai so we decided not to ride them in Tangier!

We had a traditional Moroccan lunch with music!

We really enjoyed this and the food was actually delicious.

The decor at the restaurant was gorgeous!

We went to a carpet store. We didn’t buy anything because its not really my style but they were beautiful.

More shopping. I love shopping in unique places like this! We rarely go in to the standard souvenir shops where you can buy t-shirts and teddy bears, you can do that anywhere!

Aren’t these buildings so cool?

Now on to Portugal and then finally the Netherlands!

Our Amazing Race: Spain

The next country on our list was Spain! I’ve wanted to come here for years! We flew into Barcelona and stayed here for two nights. I could not have been more in love with this city! Below are pictures from Barcelona.

Behind me is Casa Mila. A guy by the name of Antoni Gaudi designed several of the most famous tourist attractions in Barcelona. We visited several of the places he designed. This was one of the places, notice there was not one straight edge.

La Sagrada Familia Church also known as the “sandcastle church”. This was also designed by Gaudi.

Isn’t it beautiful?

This picture is from Tibidabo Hill. This hill has a beautiful amusement park and church with gorgeous views of the entire city.

The amusement park and church

Casa Batllo- Another one of Gaudi’s masterpieces. I loved all the tiles!

We spent an afternoon at Barceloneta Beach. This wasn’t the prettiest beach I’ve been to but it was fun!

In my last post I mentioned that Barcelona won the UEFA Finals. While we were in Barcelona the entire city was celebrating.

There was a parade with the players’ one of the days. It was so much fun to watch! I thought Americans were crazy about sports but they don’t even compare to Europeans and soccer!

My favorite place in Barcelona was the Park Guell. This is another one of Gaudi’s masterpieces. It was originally going to be a neighborhood with houses but a lot happened and now it is just a BEAUTIFUL park! Judd and I got a little picture crazy here, below are more pictures!

Now on to Malaga, Spain and Africa!

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