So this is way overdue, but I’m still getting use to this blogging thing…
vā-kā’shən – a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday
And this is exactly what we did a couple weekends ago in the Big Apple! Jason’s Christmas gift to me was a weekend exploring the city and celebrating Chinese New Year (also known as Tet for us Vietnamese folk). This would also be the first real vacation we’ve taken since we gotten married, and the first time we’ve been to a city together. And what a weekend it was – we ate, we explored, we were tourists, we slept, we left technology at home, we had FUN, we bonded, we vacationed.
And here are the top 10 highlights of our trip:
{1. Planning is fun}: We had each day planned out, what mode of transportation to take, what we wanted to see/do and it worked out really well for us.
{2. NYC has amazing FOOD!} (and you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to find it): Gourmet Mac n cheese, lychee sangria, Malaysian food, pizza, tofu desserts, nutella French toast – the food tour was delicious and it was fun to play asian and take pictures of all our food (but now it’s back to the gym) If there’s a long line, the food is probably worth the wait! We loved doing a “restaurant crawl”. We’d get an appetizer at one place, main dish at another place, and finish off with dessert at a 3rd place. This kept things interesting and we got to try a lot more food!
{3. Being a tourist is fun}: I didn’t think I’d enjoy just sightseeing, but we had so much fun going to all the tourist spots in the city and doing what tourists do best, take pictures of everything! We went to Central Park, Chinatown, Rockefeller, Times Square, SoHo, East Village, Brooklyn Bridge, etc.
{4. Well known cupcakeries are a hit or MISS}: Magnolia’s was a total let down – I’ll stick with my own cupcakes 😉 (www.cupcake-delight.com)
{5. Top of the Rock is worth the money}(look for a coupon because there are plenty out there): it was sweet seeing a view of the whole city. And of course, we got great pictures that look like we are on top of the city!
{6. Going to a broadway show is a must!}:Buying broadway tickets online beforehand is not a bad idea – you avoid lines, you still get a discount, but just make sure you look at what ROW you are buying. We bought our tickets to Jersey boys thinking we were in the middle of the theater, turns out, we were all the way in the back! But we could still see everything and the show was awesome.
{7. Happy Year of the dragon}: The whole point in going to NYC was to celebrate tet. We showed early to the parade at 11a, only to find they were running on Asian time and the parade didn’t start till 1:00p! FAIL.
{8. We (I) really like taking pictures}: I had a blast taking over 600 pics to document our trip. My goal is to do this on most vacations and then make photo books to relive the memories.
{9. Taking walks – one of our favorite activities}: And how perfect this was for NYC because you walk EVERYWHERE! We walked around Little Italy, SoHo, the streets of Chinatown, and even an early morning stroll over to Brooklyn.{10. Doing it together}: All in all, exploring the big apple was great fun – but mainly because we did it together…awwww
On the way home we listened to Mark Driscoll’s sermon on “Real Marriage”, and his sermon focused on being friends with your spouse. He described that there are three types of relationships,
- back to back: when you’re at each other’s throats
- shoulder to shoulder: when you’re good at doing projects together or doing tasks; and
- face to face: where you are hanging out with each other, and you and your spouse are friends
Our trip was definitely geared towards building more face to face time for us. Jason and I are great at being shoulder to shoulder, but when it comes to hanging out, we struggle. We’re learning that a key ingredient for having a great marriage is really that you have a friendship with your spouse. It’s really amazing to see how God has grown our relationship in just the past few months of marriage. He really is my best friend.
Our next vacation adventure is off to Florida for a week to visit the grandparents!