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As far as the title...if you know, you know. *giggles*.
My official spring break landed on the days March 4th through 8th this year which was also the tail end of the Mardi Gras Celebration which began January 6th and ended on Fat Tuesday, March 5th. This would have been nice to know considering my friends and I arrived midday on the fifth. To our luck, we stayed on St. Charles Ave. which was one of the main streets the parade was held on. Upon our arrival, we walked up and down the block trying to find our AirBnb. Once we found where we were staying with the help of my GPS and a local, we settled in, showered and got dressed. While making ourselves at home, we had a mini photoshoot with the good light coming in from the semi-balcony doors. . After our shoot we headed out to the parade. I'm not sure what I expected of the actual parade but I definitely did not expect people to be throwing random objects from foam footballs to pineapples. There was no real significance to these items just more so being able to use these items as souvenirs. There were a variety of vendors on the streets that sold both liquor and food. Okay, brief intermission, besides crawfish, it's a must that tourists try the drinks by the name of, Hurricane, Fishbowl, and Hand Grenade as well as beignets:) I tried all but one and for the most part, I must say 10/10, I highly recommend. The parade ran until about roughly 8 p.m. if I can recall correctly. Following the parade, we walked 10 minutes to Bourbon St. The street was packed with people. There was a number of restaurants, clubs, and bars. People were on balconies throwing beaded necklaces down to the people in the streets. Both men and women showed their chests to get thrown beads. We ate on Bourbon twice and both times were a fail for me. The first night eating there I ordered a shrimp po'boy, fries, beignets. The sandwich was dry, the fries were normal, and the beignets were good but it literally tasted like bread with powered sugar. And though my tastebuds weren't screaming with excitement, I would eat it again. The second night we ate on Bourbon I still didn't learn my lesson because I ordered an alligator po'boy with sweet potato fries...again it was dry and I could only eat so many sweet potato fries. Bad ordering on my part and I think I might just stick to the po'boys up here in Michigan. The second day in New Orleans we got a late start, we headed out for brunch at 2 p.m. and stumbled across a restaurant that ended up being the best food that I had ate while being in Louisiana. I ordered a seafood omelette that contained crawfish, shrimp, mushrooms, and other veggies, a biscuit and grits...my mouth is watering just thinking about it. While searching for a place to eat brunch and for something to do after we ate, we half-assedly site saw around the French Quarters and Business District. Knowing mean is knowing I love to shop, therefore we went to The Outlet Collection at Riverwalk. This was located in the back of a hotel but was still a legitimate enclosed mall on the Mississippi River. Not seeing much, we all left empty handed and headed back to our room. I'm not sure if it was just that there was literally nothing eye-catching or that I wasn't in the mood to shop that I couldn't even find any souvenirs worth buying. Later that night my friend got her first tattoo! The people in the shop were nice and the manager had really nice business cards. Like REALLY nice! The cards were made of the same material that credit cards are made of. He was far too fancy for me but on a side note, I need some. Overall, the southerners had really cute accents and they made us realize our accents too or how "proper" we were one guy said. After we left here is when we went to eat on Bourbon again. After eating we searched for a social spot to go to. After club hopping for about 45 minutes we ended up at this club called The Swamp. They played lots of throwbacks and many songs I didn't know so I wasn't too lit but one guy was. The bouncer to the club was trying to escort this drunk guy out but the drunk guy got violent and took the bouncer out. This cleared half the club out because of course everyone wanted to see. At this point the bouncer lost the fight and someone else was put on door duty. Ending the night off with a bang we prepared for our departure in the morning. Though I left some details out, I enjoyed myself in New Orleans and definitely would go back to learn more about the history of both the state and city as well as eat at some better restaurants! *inserts rolling eye emoji* Oh! And for the title, this old man holding beads came up to my friends the day after Mardi Gras when we were talking to this man and said, "Happy Late Mardi Gras" in this croaky kind of voice and scared my friends off. The man we were talking to responded, "I don't think they want no beads man." Lol I promise it was funnier in person. See you next Spring Break 2020... XOXO
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From one cold place to another, I must say New York was the better of the two. For you all who don't know, I live in Michigan. While it would be nice to go somewhere where I could wear a bikini and show as much skin as possible in the middle of January, it was just as nice going to a place that I have always wanted to visit. I attended NYC with a group of girls who are either business or advertising majors all interested in working in corporate retail (preferably the fashion industry). We stayed a total of five days and had plenty of time to explore the big city.
The first day was a pretty chill free day. We arrived in the city around 4 pm and checked into our hotel. After getting settled in we went to eat of course! The first meal wasn't my favorite, I got a small buffalina pizza which tasted like any other thin crusted pizza honestly. On the bright side the place was very cute on the inside. After dinner, we caught the subway to Canal St (my boyfriend A$AP Rocky has a song by this name). Here we visited Glossier. I must say, this store's presentation is immaculate, a great place to take photos, the worker's are so cute in their matching uniforms, and the packaging tops it all off. I wanted to buy something just because of the packaging. (Presentation is everything) We wrapped the night up by walking up 7th Ave and grabbing snacks. Wednesday morning we grabbed NY bagels and smoothies and headed out to our first company visit which was TJX's Buying Office. After this meeting, we met with Macy's at their headquarters. After our company visits, we grabbed some more food at Pennsy's Food Station where I got a chicken panini. This also was not my favorite meal. After eating we visited the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) Museum where we saw some very high end designers such as Balenciaga, Dior, and Alexander Wang's old designs. From this museum we visited the Museum of Illusions which was very fun of course but also educational if you read how the illusion worked. Before settling in for the night, we visited a tattoo shop which was very expensive so of course we left the same way we entered. That night was wrapped up by grabbing a random man's door which we thought was Uber and him looking at us like we were crazy. (I think I got McDonald's that night...safe choice. I loved it) The next day was an earlier morning so sadly breakfast was missed. We started the morning off with FAO Schwarz which was the most fun company visited. The store was so fun and I literally wanted to buy myself all the toys in the store just because of the worker's knew how to sell the product. I definitely felt like a kid again. Following this visit, we went to Chelsea and visited Shadow. Wrapping up the company visits, we visited Michael Kors headquarters. I went to bed early this night and caught up on some well-needed rest. Friday was the first day of the National Retail Foundation (NRF) conference. This day consisted of hearing numerous speakers. Though all of the speakers were very informative and influential, some of my favorite speakers were Karen Katz (former CEO of Neiman Marcus), KJ Miller and Amanda Johnson (founders of Mented Cosmetics), and Andy Dunn (founder of Bonobos). After the the first day of the conference, we attended a MSU alumni mixer which was very fun. I met many people living in the New York area that all were where I am now however, everyone's path was different on how they landed in NY. After the mixer ended, a few of us did some shopping and window shopped at the stores on 5th Ave. This night concluded with more McDonald's...they forgot my apple pie but everything else was delightful. For the last full day in NYC we attended the conference and got to speak with professionals and ask them questions in a more intimate group setting, After this, most of the students left to attend the career fair. The career fair was like any other career fair just a bit smaller and of course only retail companies were in attendance. After the career fair ended, we headed back to the hotel to change and enjoy our last night in the big city. For the last night we got some real NY pizza (I got buffalo chicken pizza), 10/10 I was very pleased after my numerous fails at trying new foods. We headed to Times Square and attempted to shop some more. After not finding anything we ran into Cody Simpson and went to the Sugar Factory (not with Cody of course). The next morning we headed out to the airport at 7. As we walked out, we were greeted by snow. A perfect time to leave I believe. All in all NYC was everything that I imagined and more. It was literally like the movies. Buildings toppling over you making you feel so tiny and millions of people making you feel like a small fish in a big pond. I definitely don't know if I could live here but I would love to go back when it's a bit warmer considering you walk almost everywhere outside of catching the subway. (Which I found confusing cause NYC is soooooo much bigger than I thought.) I also loved how everyone was different, and by this I definitely mean you could people watch. You had so many different ethnicities as well from Asian, Latino, and Italian who had their on communities within the overall NY community. People were at work speaking Spanish and I'm like...I seriously need to learn another language or at the least pick up a New York accent because their accents are to die for. New York definitely showed me a good time, we have unfinished business because there is so much more I need to explore. P.S. I put visiting NYC on my 2018 vision board so manifestation is real and dreams really do come true:) Almost 3 months ago (time really does flies) I visited Texas. My trip here was like a G-rated version of girls trip. I went with my niece, my sister, and her best friend to visit her other best friend. This 3 day trip consisted of numerous activities ranging from wedding dress shopping for my sister to numerous Raising Cane's trips. Though I did see a lot and did a lot, I realized on the first day that 3 days was not enough to explore what this big state has to offer. We stayed in Dallas and being from Detroit, I thought I knew everything there is to know about a city, however the more I travel the more I am proven wrong.
The first day was more of a chill day. With that being said all we did was eat. I tried one of America's favorite aesthetic foods, In-N-Out Burger for the first time. (This was right after I gave up red meat...you read that right haha. I had to reset me giving up red meat after that burger.) Out of ten stars I would rate In-N-Out a 7. Very overrated, not meaning that the burger was not good but it was just like any other burger. The second day was a blur. We had breakfast at one of the classic and controversial places, Waffle House. After our delightful meal, we set out to dress shop for my sister. We went to I believe two dress shops and they were so pretty and cute like every girl's dream. We found some winners and some questionable dresses. Though it may seem like this was a pretty short day it was LONGGGG. We brought the day to a close with a family dinner. It's funny how I don't remember what I ate but everyone else had Raising Cane's. After dinner, my sister and her friends put on a show for my niece and I by singing and acting out some throwback music videos. (If you have me on Snapchat, you saw the live concert too) For the last full day in Texas we had breakfast at Breadwinner's Cafe which was also scrumptious. With this being said, Texas is a foodie's heaven. You could literally eat at a new place everyday. After breakfast, we went on to dress shop again, this place was my favorite dress shop we went to. Even though we did not find anything, I got to take some really nice pictures. Skylar also enjoyed and ran around and photobombed just about every picture I took. After dress shopping, we went thrifting at Buffalo Exchange. This thrift store is one of the more costly thrift stores. While they had a few nice things, I only purchased a cute multi-colored turtleneck shirt which ran me $18.00 in itself. While my young bones were ready for the next adventure, the grannies needed a rest. We dropped them off to nap and set off for Klyde-Warren Park which reminds me a lot of Campus Martius in Detroit. This is where I explored the city on foot and took most of these pictures. Afterwards, we headed home and went to dinner. I don't recall the name of the place we had dinner but it was like a Joe's Crab Shack. This night concluded with me and Sky cuddled up watching a movie. The following morning we headed to the airport. For the first time, I spent my entire day in the airport due to our flight being delayed several times. Trips are always cut too short but Texas was amazing with an exception of the blazing heat and intimidating highways. If only I could show you guys more! Times like this are when I wish I would take my YouTube channel seriously...maybe in the future but for now we'll stick to imagery:) I hope you enjoyed your 5 minute mini version of my trip! Who doesn't love to travel or see new places? I'm sure we all do and if we could, we probably would travel more often than we do. Most often the reason for this is because of lack of funds or not enough time. However, this year let's vow to get out and discover new places no matter how big or small. It can be a new city or a new restaurant. Personally, I know there are a few places I would like to visit this year including, Miami, FL, Canada, California (for the NBA Allstar game), New Orleans, LA (for the Essence Festival), and a million places in Europe. Now I'm sure I won't be able to check all these places off my list but I will be able to check just a few off. On this new blog page, I will document all the new places I go. I would also love to hear about the new places you go to in the comments. Life is too short and the world is too large for us to not start right away. Well what are you waiting for? GO START PLANNING!!! Well, after you finish reading my blog haha.
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