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OUR JOURNEY IN THE BIG APPLE: DAY ONE & TWO

Our Journey in the big apple has been a journey in the works as far as sharing it with you all! But as promised, within the next two weeks I will share the exciting places we got to experience in our trip to New York, day by day that we were there. We have way too many pictures to share of each specific day, that each day deserves its own post! Hope you all are as excited as me! Again, like mentioned in our previous nyc post, it will be our daily adventures.. so please bare with me throughout the next two weeks. Our first post was dedicated to some tips while we were there and what we found helped us save some money while there. Now you will be able to see all we saw and did while there. Like our previous post mentioned.. we were definitely on a reminiscing mood when we wrote about our tips. Now that another post is ahead of us, i can’t help but to get excited each time I look at our pictures. I hope you all enjoy them as much as Xavier and I do, and we hope you visit some of these lovely places in your future travels, if you haven’t already of course. Here are our adventures through day one and two of our stay. I decided to bunch these two days together only because day one was pretty short, since it was our arrival day. Well… here it is! Our journey begins! Enjoy.

.::DAY ONE::

A wait in the airport, a tour of our hotel, and a stroll around 59th St and 5th ave. Followed by a quick stop to time square.This line at the airport for a cab, was crazy!

.::DAY TWO::.

First stop East Village, Tompkins Square Park, near by where we had breakfast.

From there we headed down towards the Financial District and made a stop at the World trade center.

This lovely day, was also the day we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge (where we got Engaged!) and of course headed over to Brooklyn. In Brooklyn we made a stop at Brooklyn Heights where we walked over to the Brooklyn bridge Park and Fulton Ferry.. they’re pretty much all in the same area!

And being in 'awe' by the view was sufficient enough to keep me blinded as to what was going to happen next...a Proposal! — And being in ‘awe’ by the view was sufficient enough to keep me blinded as to what was going to happen next…a Proposal!

Here we celebrated our engagement with some Brooklyn pizza and ice cream! yum!

The night was young, and after our Brooklyn adventure was done, we headed over to the city to see the view from up above! Empire State Building was waiting for us, a chance to take in the view, our day and our future ahead.. oh and did I mention the freezing cold air?? Yeah it was a quick view from up above. lol

Well… there you have it! Day one & two in a nutshell… sort of lol. Lots of pictures huh? I wanted to make sure you all got a great idea of our day, our adventure and wonderful journey through the city those two days. Now that I have shared these two days with you all, I can’t wait to share the rest of our days! I want to go back to NY already!? Whose with me?

I hope you all stay tuned for the upcoming post! They’re going to be exciting and full of more pictures and our adventures. Would you like to visit any of these places or already have?? We would love to hear all about them and which are your favorites!

-Jen ❤

*all images are property of La Vida, life as it comes

REMINISCING ON OUR NYC TRIP & SOME TIPS

Today, we’re reminiscing on our NYC trip last month. Ive been slacking a little with my blog post lately due to much time spent searching for “wedding stuff” and have postponed much of my blogging! Sorry in advance y’all! But today, I decided that it would be the perfect day to blog about our trip to New York, which was exactly one month ago. Mainly for three main reasons.. One, both Xavier and I woke up ‘missing NYC.’ Two, exactly one month ago, we woke up in the big city ready to take on all it threw our way. Least but not least…Today marks exactly one month that we have been engaged!!! eek! Isn’t this the perfect day to blog about or trip?? i think so! We really felt that this was one of the most successful trips Xavier and I have taken together. We had a budget before we left home and we did amazing sticking to our budget. Well, I won’t ramble too much about our trip! I will try to get to the point. Mainly because we’re so excited to share a lot of our pictures with you all. We already shared our eating adventures with you here on Eating in the Big Apple, and now we’re excited to share the places we visited! This trip was not only fun, exciting and a big adventure, but one of the most memorable that Xavier and I will share in our lives! We truly are so blessed to have been able to have such great experiences in NY and just the opportunity to take a trip like we did! I hope you all enjoy our memories as much as we did. Since there are sooo many pictures that we would love to share with you, we are going to have to break down our adventure. The way I will be doing this, is by breaking our days spent in New york, day by day. In a way we will have a series of our NYC reminiscing throughout the next two weeks (give or take guys.) Each post will be dedicated to that day we spent in NY and what fun adventures we ran into that day. So please stay tuned! We are very excited to share them with you!

Before we move on to the good stuff.. We wanted to share some of our little insider tips that helped us throughout our adventure there. Here are our NYC tips before we share our lovely pictures with you all. Most of these helped us stay on budget! I hope they are helpful and I hope you put them to use if you plan on making a trip there soon!

::TIPS::

-One thing that I highly recommend if you’re going to be in the city for a couple of days and want to go the more touristy areas is purchasing The New York Pass. They have over 80 city attractions that can be visited by just showing the New York city pass. By the time you add them all up at regular price you’ll probably end up spending more than you would if you were to just purchase the pass! This of course is as long as you make sure to visit it enough places so that the pass pays for itself or more, you’ll pretty much have a win win situation!

– One of our biggest tips when visiting the city is also to bunch together the different places you want to visit by districts or at least their near by neighbors. It’ll save you a lot of walking and the hassle of going from a far place to another far place! Trust me, if you’re on limited time, you’ll appreciate this!

-Another tip for anyone traveling to the city and on a budget, skip the taxi fares from place to place.. (they’ll add up) Instead purchase the 7 day unlimited subway pass! This metro card will come in most handy! It’s $30.00 pp, but so worth the buy. The subway can get tricky, and not every time you swipe will the subway entries open..what it will take is your money! So instead, the unlimited pass will let you swipe till the gate opens and it will last up to 7 days, as many rides as you’d like! Score!

-Lastly, Download the HopStop app for your iPhone (if you have one) if you’re a risk taker like us and want to get around the city ‘subway style’! Once we got the hang of it, and read the instructions, lol, it was super easy! It will tell you the near by stations and where to get on and off! Easy breezy! It will take you to your destination by the nearest subway station close to it and give you directions from there on. Sweet!

Hope those come in handy, and just like our previous NYC post, We would love to take you all on our journey in the city day by day! So stay tuned for the upcoming posts.. Only this time, ‘day by day’ will be ‘one blog at a time’ so that each day gets the attention it deserves,lol. ;O

So don’t go anywhere and stay tuned! I look forward to sharing with you all such a sweet experience for us.

..oh..and…

..happy one month of engagement to us..

..love you babe..

Jen<3

PUMPKINS UNDER PALM TREES

In on honor of Fall, and its last month with us for this year… A day full of pumpkins.. Florida style under palm trees! A couple of weeks back we paid a visit to our local farmers market, Flamingo Road Nursery. It’s probably one of the most known farmer’s market in the Ft. Lauderdale area for their pumpkin patch. We made it on the last day that the farmer’s market was offering the pumpkin patch. It was full of people eager to get their hands on the most orange and roundest pumpkin there!

Down here in South Florida, our pumpkin patch experience is quite different from up north. Last year we sweat up a storm in probably 90 degree weather… Don’t worry we had a little better luck this year. It wasn’t as hot this year and we had a nice breeze to cool us off! None-the less, we kinda made it a quick trip! Drank some cold apple cider, rode the hayride and picked our pumpkins and headed home! The amount of people there was kinda crazy… we don’t do big crowds well.. so it was a trip, quick and to the point! It still was a great day spent with my honey and little sister!

What we were most excited for was really choosing the pumpkins to take them home and carve! Believe it or not, none of us had ever carved a pumpkin. There’s a first time for everything and we can now scratch that off our to-do list because it was a great success! First stop after was to our local arts & craft store, Michael’s, to pick up some necessities for our pumpkins. Well lucky for us, they had pumpkin carving tools on sale for 88 cents! score!

We headed over to my parents house and set up our work station and began to get our hands dirty!! Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do! Every time I look back on them it reminds me of the fun we shared with my little sister and how great of a day we had! It was so heartwarming to see the excitement and the twinkle in my sisters eyes as she carved away her own pumpkin. She’s growing too fast and I’m making sure to cherish all the little moments with her. It’s always so joyous seeing her be proud of herself! (because yes, she carved it herself after we cleaned it out for her) It was also fun to do something new with Xavier. I must say we make one heck of a team! Not only did we enjoy the day but being able to spend time with my family and having my parents watch us is always special!We made more memories, and good memories are always welcomed in my book!

Here is our day captured on my iPhone! Enjoy! Show us your pumpkin carving designs… we would love to see them!

We hope your fall has been full of wonderful memories too!

Jen<3

EATING IN THE BIG APPLE

Eating through the Big Apple was simply an adventure! I’ve been meaning to brag…I mean, BLOG (lol) about the many places we ate on our trip to New York City. We talked about how excited we were to be going to NYC in our countdown post. I just haven’t had time or at least made time to share it with you all! The excitement of our engagement has taken over me, lol. That moment also excitedly happened while we were there! Well I’m finally ready to take a breather and share with you all our lovely experiences. There are just endless amounts of restaurants in the city itself, its lovely! From ‘Big known’ restaurants to ‘little hole in the wall’ places and just your average ‘everyday chain’ restaurants. None the less, food is… well food and food is yummy!! Lets just say that our bellies were extremely happy while we were there. I’m really excited to share all the places we had a chance to visit on our stay, they were all so delightful in their own ways. (well minus one, that i will mention and why it might have been a bad timing)

Before we got to New York, we made sure to do our homework, we searched many restaurants and asked some friends that knew of places in New York, we even had some fellow bloggers recommend some great restaurants. We tried to not only go to some well-known restaurants but also restaurants that fellow New Yorker’s enjoy on an average day. Well.. sit back and grab cup of coffee and a note pad and be ready to jot down some of these lovely places. You never know when you’ll be making an unexpected trip to the Big Apple and I’m sure it’ll come in handy, lol. I will literally take you on our food journey, day by day. We had quite the adventure and the best part was that my honey and I were together and we did it on a budget! It was a great success! I’ll give you some pointers on how we managed to stay in our ‘food budget’ and later on another post how to tour the city on a budget as well!

Enjoy!

{ARRIVAL DAY}

When we arrived in New York, it was about 5pm.. By the time we got a cab from La Guardia Airport to West of midtown where we stayed, and got settled in to our hotel, we needed a boost! We decided to go to a very well-known place and do what fellow New yorkers’ are best at.. Night life! So we headed out for our first stop. TAO restaurant. This place was pretty amazing. It definitely had a ‘loungy’ feel to it. We embraced our long day of waiting for our delayed flight and celebrated that we had made it to the city, FINALLY! this called for Celebratory drinks and appetizers.

I enjoyed a TAO-tini, which was delicious, I didn’t want it to finish! Xavier had some cold sake and according to him, it was good! Since we knew we had late dinner reservations that night, we opted out on dinner servings and had some appetizers which were also pretty amazing! (TIP: This btw, is a great way to get a taste for the food without spending $45 dollars per plate!)

Our second stop for the night was Bar Americain, a Bobby Flay restaurant. The ambiance was subtle and relaxed. And the food was delicious. After a long day of luggage, lines and waiting we wanted to make sure we went to bed with full bellies, we deserved it! So we did… very much worth the indulgence!

{DAY TWO}

Upon waking up we grabbed a cup of coffee for the road..well the subway, lol and headed out towards the lower east side of Manhattan. There we went to Clinton St. Baking Co. Can you say uh.. pancakes?!! They’re their best sellers and I got to taste why! Delicious. Word of advice here, it’s a well-known little place, so get there early! It’s a tiny little place and its known not only by the locals but more and more visitors are taking a trip to try their delicious brunches! We waited an hour! Thank goodness for the little park we found a couple blocks away from there. (TIP: Brunches are a great way to stay on budget, breakfast and lunch for the price of one!) We were so full, it held us till later on for dinner!

The next two places i must mention we went to right after Xavier proposed on the Brooklyn bridge! Hence, you’ll find these two cute little places in Brooklyn. These we found out through another lovely blogger from NYC, and her New York City guides, loveTaza.com. Thank you because they were delicious! No fancy dinners for us after proposal, just some lemonade and pizza! Perfection!

Lizzmonade concession stand under the Brooklyn bridge pier 1. We had the mint pineapple lemonade and it was AMAZING! they’re the cutest little concession stand, yet making lemonades with a bold statement! A must try for sure!

Our romantic proposal called for a romantic dinner…. PIZZA!! Juliana’s Pizza! Lets just say… one of The Best Pizza’s Xavier and I have had. We sat at their little bar in the back and had front row seats for the pizza making! Fresh ingredients everywhere! The staff and owner walk around and made us feel very welcomed!

We couldn’t leave Brooklyn without dessert, so like any normal person would do on a very windy cold night, we had ice cream! A little taste of some very delicious butter pecan ice-cream was eaten that night right under the Brooklyn Bridge at the Brooklyn Bridge Ice-cream factory.

{DAY THREE}

Day three called for another great brunch at Friedman’s Lunch, this time in Chelsea. (This is another place you want to be early to) Don’t let the name fool you though, they have a great breakfast and brunch menu. And for all my Gluten free people, one of the biggest gluten-free menus I have seen. If you want a taste of some good comfort food, this is a good stop! Xavier tore away at the fried chicken and waffles!

Since our day was dedicated to Chelsea, we made our way towards the Hudson river to Pier 66. There we stopped for some late afternoon drinks at The Frying Pan. A historic lightship that is permanently docked at pier 66. Next to the Frying Pan is Maritime Bar and grill a railroad barge also permanently docked there. The view is breathtaking and the experience is unique, especially for us folks not from nyc. It’s apparently a hip spot in Chelsea and I could see why.

Our next stop in Chelsea, was probably one of my favorite places we stopped to eat at. Right in the middle of the meatpacking district you can find Fig & Olive. This lovely place was actually recommended by a fellow blogger and friend, Teresa, over at aleandtere.com. Thank you Tere because we were a very happy couple that afternoon. The restaurant is beautiful, the service is amazing, and the food is to die for. Simply Delicious.

{DAY FOUR}

We lined up for another brunch in Midtown West at 44 &X Hell’s Kitchen. The food here is simple, but good itself. And if you’re in NYC, why not go to Hell’s kitchen?? umm, I think, yes!

Ok so after getting some Chipotle in the afternoon and after much walking, we had searched for a bakery in the city that according to many was very delicious and known. Well that night we made it to Magnolia Bakery. While the bakery itself was super cute and decorated so wonderfully, our experience was quite the opposite. In their defense we made it to the bakery very late at night. The cupcakes we got there were super dry and the frosting was as stiff as a rock. At this point, we kinda wish we hadn’t found the bakery, lol. We told this to some people after returning home, and they were quite shocked.. so maybe we just went at the wrong time?

{DAY FIVE & OUR DEPARTURE}

This morning we just got some good Starbucks and headed to the city, there we ran into this little hole in the wall. A place called Dough, originally based in Brooklyn but now found in the city near 5th ave and 19th st. umm.. heaven. The most fluffy donuts we have had our hands on. A must try!! They have a great selection too! We were so happy to have run into this place.

After some walking and ending up in the Flatiron district, we made our way to Eataly! Well, because we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. So on we went to the rooftop of Eataly, a little Italian Market too cute and amazing to pass up, and landed at Birreria restaurant and brewery. The wine and cheese selections are war to good to pass up! trust me on this one.

Oh and you can’t go to New York and not get shake shack and head on over to central park and eat on the great lawn right?? well don’t worry we made we did! And after some good shake shack we needed an unforgettable send off back home to Florida…

So what better way than with the biggest, most soft and delicious cookies…um ever??! Enter, Levain Bakery! This place is found on the upper west side of Manhattan, a few blocks away from the American Museum of Natural history. TO DIE FOR! They were so good, we had to stop and sit on some New York style steps like in the movies lol to eat them! It was so big that I saved the other half for my flight! This place is definitely known by the locals.. super small, in the ground, at the corner of the block next to a little school. Lets just say I ordered what the little kids (and moms, lol) were ordering! Please please pay them a visit if you’re ever in the city!

I hope that this journey wasn’t too long for you all, I wanted to make sure I took you through our eating adventure in the Big apple! What better city than New York to not be on a diet!? There can’t be such thing when visiting NYC. No way Jose! May I add, that our experiences were all so great and we would do it all over again if we didn’t have to gain some extra pounds?? lol. I hope this little guide helps anyone whose paying New York a visit. I also hope that it makes you feel like a local and not your typical tourist in all the touristy dining places. New York for us was amazing this time around that we stuck to mostly experiencing local places and not your typical restaurants! Enjoy and Bon appetit!

With all the love in my belly from NY,

Jen ❤
*all images are property of La Vida, life as it comes

MEN TELL ALL, Again!

Men tell all, again! Yes, it is time for round two! Last month, i thought it would be fun to join a group of ladies on the ‘Blogger men tell all‘ link-up. My fiancé (eek! I can say that now! lol) and I actually had a great time being part of the link-up and thought it was a great idea to make him a part of the blog more. Im sure many readers find it interesting to get to know the guy behind the girl a little more… you know the one she always mentions! lol. Well here is round two! This one may not have been that exciting for us only because it was mostly about Halloween and we really don’t do Halloween. None the less, it was fun hearing his childhood stories on halloween. Hope you all enjoy! Safe festivities to all this week!

-Is Halloween your favorite Holiday? If not, what is? “No, my favorite is Christmas because Im Cuban and our culture really celebrates Christmas Eve, aka ‘Noche Buena’ and I get to be with all the family, eat good food, open gifts and see others happy.”

-What will you be dressing up as for Halloween this year? “Most likely, nothing. I am not a fan of Halloween.”

-What is your go-to drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic)? “Non-alcoholic, I drink water! and alcoholic, I like me some wine, Pinot Noir!”

-What is your favorite scary movie? ” I don’t really have one, I don’t really like them.. But I would rather watch old school movies like ‘childs play, pet cemetery, Nightmare on elm street, halloween and thirteen ghost. I don’t really care for today’s scary movies.”

-What is your best Halloween memory? ” When i was younger dressing up with my childhood friends and trick or treating around the neighborhood. But we also used to egg houses and paintball houses!” ( I was really shocked at this point! lol, I couldn’t believe he did that!)

-Xavier

http://www.thesamanthalife.com/search/label/Blogger%20Men%20Tell%20All”

THE PROPOSAL!

The proposal! Yes, our proposal! It was simply perfect. Xavier and I are officially engaged and we could not be more excited! Not only are we excited but we are so remarkably blessed! Our relationship has been a blessing in disguise from the very beginning. Xavier and I met in Nursing school and to many’s surprise, he and I were not even friends in the beginning. I was a little apprehensive to start a friendship with Xavier, mostly because of his “I’m a stud and I know it” kinda walk he had, lol. According to him, he always just “wanted my attention.” I didn’t give him my attention until some semesters after in school where we actually had to be in clinical’s together. We got to know each other some more and we actually became great friends. Towards the end of nursing school our good friend Anita, aka cupid, started stirring things up for us and long behold the truth came out! We actually liked each other and we both were okay with it. Our last semester in nursing school, Xavier and I were pretty much inseparable and he asked me to be his girlfriend! That moment alone was unforgettable… picnic by the bay, asking me to be his girlfriend and dolphins swimming right by the water. No seriously, that’s exactly how it went! Just lovely. We also have been so blessed to share graduation together, passing our boards together and being hired as Nurses weeks apart! Some months into working we even got our own place! So many memories.. and to think that we have so many more in our future together fills my heart with so much love. God has truly been watching over us and for that we are grateful.

For those of you that have followed my blog, you’ll know that Xavier and I had a trip planned to NYC this past week. That trip was ‘supposedly’ meant to be a mini-vacation to NYC and to attend an event in Madison square garden. Little did I know, one of the most important questions in my life would be asked. On that day, Xavier and I woke up to the usual New York city noise and the hustle of the crowd. Little did I know Xavier had been planning this day for some months. Our day started by getting some very delicious breakfast and a walk in the park. After our bellies were full we headed to the world trade center memorial. From there we had plans to meet up with Xavier’s friend and his girlfriend to head to Brooklyn. After some debating on where we were really going to meet them and lots of painful walking, Xavier told me that we would meet them at the Brooklyn bridge, so we could walk across it. Lets jut say I was not a happy camper and my feet were in so much pain that I quickly told him, “I am not walking the bridge!” Well to my surprise, Xavier turned around and gave me a very sturdy and loud “WE ARE WALKING THE BRIDGE!” I was so stunned that I just stayed quiet and agreed,lol. I gave in, sucked up the pain and headed to the bridge in pain but excited to see the great Brooklyn bridge! Little did I know, this was all planned.

THE PROPOSAL: We got to the start of the bridge, Xavier stopped to put his jacket on and get his camera ready so we could take some awesome shots! I quickly followed his steps so that we wouldn’t have to stop in the middle of the bridge and hold up people who were doing the same. ( This was the moment that he very sneakily put the ring in his pocket that he had been carrying in his camera bag!) I was so blinded by the view that I didn’t even notice this! lol. Well, we walked close to the middle of the bridge were we met up with his friend and his girlfriend and we all kept walking together. To my surprise as well, they were in on the plan! Just about midway on the bridge we all stopped to take some shots. Xavier asked to use my camera so he could take a panorama shot while I took a picture of his friend and his girlfriend. ( This was the moment he took a picture of a small piece of paper with some very important words) Once again, I of course did not even notice, lol. Well right after, Xavier asked me to give his camera to his friend so he could take a picture of us on the bridge. The next part, is the best part of this story!!

On October 17, at 3:20 in the afternoon, Xavier and I made one of the best memories in our lives thus far. He asked me to grab my camera and look at the cool shot he had taken with my camera. To my surprise, and it was a very unexpected surprise! It was the most beautiful picture i had ever seen! It was him holding a little piece of paper with the best words on it… “WILL YOU MARRY ME?” The moment was perfect, the timing was perfect and the setting was breathtaking! A this moment all I could do was cry. I literally threw myself on him while he was on one knee and ended up on my knees too! lol. I cried out of excitement and the feeling of love that was rushing through me. It was a feeling like no other and a feeling that I cannot even describe with words. Knowing that you will spend the rest of your life along with the love of your life, your soul mate and your lover is the best feeling ever.

It was a moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life and that when thinking back on it, will always bring a smile to my face. It will be a memory that will be in our hearts forever and a moment that will remind us of our love. Our proposal was perfect for us in every way possible. We were experiencing a new place together, doing something that we enjoy doing as a couple (taking pictures.)Our story thus far has always had ‘unexpected moments’ and this is another that will be added to our list. These ‘unexpected’ moments for Xavier and I have been the best moments and moments that show us our endless blessings.

We are so thrilled for our future ahead. I know that I cannot imagine spending a future without him. He makes me better, he supports me, takes care of me, loves me unconditionally and makes me complete. I know that we will always be there for each other through the good times and the bad. I can only pray that God continues to bless us in our future ahead. We are very excited to share this moment with all our loved ones and with you all. So here are our perfect pictures captured by Mike, Xavier’s friend. THE PROPOSAL.

ps. It was a little windy that day.. lol

love,

Jen and Xavier.