And by hot, I mean literally hot. I arrived in Manhattan on Friday and the high temperature for the day was 94˚F, which doesn’t sound so bad when I live in a city that hits 115˚F often during the summer… except I rather have 115˚F of dry heat over 94˚F with humidity any day. Maybe it’s because I’ve lived most of my life in the desert, but I cannot stand humidity, not even a little bit. Besides being extremely uncomfortable, it makes my already hard to handle hair even more of a mess, so I wore it pulled back the whole trip, as you’ll notice in all the pictures. Also, excuse any excess shine on my face you might see, but between my combination skin and the sweat, my adored Hourglass primer and Laura Mercier powder could barely keep up, and I wasn’t as good at retouching my makeup as I should’ve been. On top of all that, and at the risk of sounding too whiny (which I usually am indeed anyway), due to other, ahem, circumstances, I was also very bloated the whole time I was there.  So, bottom line, I am not very happy with how I look in the pictures but since I don’t use Photoshop, both you, my beloved readers, and I are stuck looking at the reality of my travels.

Now, all that said and as whiny as I can be, I’m not complaining… no, really, I’m not, I promise. I mean, I was in New York… wonderful, fabulous, exciting, beautiful, eclectic, full of possibilities, New York!!! The one and only, and my time there was all of that and more. I’ve been fortunate enough to have visited the city several times already (this was actually my fourth trip there), but this time was even more special because we took my 13 year old stepson along and it was his first time there. So I was just as excited as he was to show him around the main sights and the several fun activities the city has to offer, which are so many, a lot of them were a first for me too, despite having been there before.

I won’t tell you all about the trip in a single post because you know I like to keep them short(er), for your sake and mine. So, I’ll start with my first day there, and tell you about the rest in subsequent posts.

Like I mentioned earlier, I arrived Friday early morning. I actually took a red eye flight from Phoenix Thursday night, and didn’t get much sleep on it, so I was pretty exhausted when I arrived. Luckily, my husband and my stepson had gotten in the day before and spend the night in New Jersey to be close to the airport (I flew into Newark), so I was able to take a little morning nap there since check in at our hotel in Manhattan wasn’t going to happen earlier than 3 P.M. Of course I didn’t want to waste much time sleeping, so I just took a 2 hour nap and was good to go.

Nevertheless, we decided to take it easy on Friday, and we just drove around the city for a bit, as an introductory tour for my stepson. Then went to the TKTS booth on South Street Seaport to try to find a good deal for a Broadway show, which we did, but more on that later. After, we had lunch at a little chain cafe, nothing fancy but even simple sandwiches at low key cafes are so yummy there. Next, it was time to check in at our hotel.

We stayed at The Roosevelt Hotel, which is gorgeous and has a great location in Midtown Manhattan, almost behind Grand Central Station (one of my favorite sights… but then again, you’ll hear/read me saying that about most places in New York!). So we got settled in, and after a quick change of clothes, off we went to visit Grand Central Station and look at the Chrysler building. And those are the pictures I share with you on this post: the first outfit I wore around Manhattan (technically), and some pictures I took of Grand Central Station and the Chrysler building. I had also planned to use some official pictures of the hotel from their website (since theirs are far better than any I could’ve taken) to share with you, but turns out they don’t allow that, so if you would like to check their photo gallery, you can do it here.

Dressed up in heels to explore the hotel

Wearing flats to explore the city

View of Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building

Chrysler Building

Grand Central Station façade .

Grand Central Station Main Concourse

Grand Central Station ceiling

What I Wore
Top: H&M
Skirt: Vintage
Handbag: Deux Lux
Belt: H&M
Orange Shoes: Gianni Bini
Flats: Crocs
Sunnies: $5 pair from street vendor in Mexico City