My Day in Harlem, NY Part 1

People are completely shocked when I tell them I have never been to New York City. Growing up we didn't take many vacations because it was so many of us and as I got older I never had a reason to go or friends that wanted to go, so I never cared to take a trip down. After visiting I can say that I have fallen in love. The New York City vibe is something that you will never find in Syracuse. It was heaven and I fit right in.

A few people were worried about my trip but I am 27, I think I can handle it lol. I kept joking that I would need a fanny pack, map and huge camera around my neck. I travel every year so I know the does and don'ts of traveling and did I mention I'm 27 lol. This was however the first time I took a trip and my daughters were not with me. So I hit the road with my cousin and our friend and the ride was a breeze. It's usually around 4 hours but we got there in little under that, thanks to little to no traffic.

The basis of the trip was business (read about that here) and after that it was time to take the city all in. I knew there would be a ton of walking so I wore flats, but still kept it cute. We spent most of the day shopping and checking out the scenery. The amount of stores that carried plus size clothing was more than I can count. In Syracuse we have about 4, so having a ton of options was a breath of fresh air. Tere were so many choices to make which definitely did not help my shopping problem.

It was also nice to see the murals and artwork painted on buildings. I am a fan of graffiti too and there are some very talented people out here. The buildings were beautiful, especially the brownstones. I loved them and they reminded me of the movie Crooklyn. I could see myself rehabbing one and making it fabulous. We spent so much time walking around we didn't even think about eating until around 8pm (we had breakfast at like 9am).

 

 

My coworker and the fabulous stylist Kendra Porter told me a few great places to eat and we decided on Sylvia's. There was a ton of people there and we thought it would be a long but it wasn't, only around 20 minutes. We ate outside and the service was excellent. The food......A+ it was delicious. I had chicken and waffles but I tried what my cousin ordered too. I definitely recommend Sylvia's if you have never been. We ended up sitting next to a retired basketball player (how cool). We didn't know who he was but a ton of guys did and our waiter gave us all of the details.

 

 

All in all the day went of without a hitch and we had a blast. This was not the end of our night though so stay tuned for part 2.