{THE BIG SURPRISE//NEW YORK CITY}

Finally the day arrived where we could reveal the big birthday surprise to Rosie - YOU'RE GOING TO NEW YORK! Man, oh man, was it the hardest secret ever to keep. For someone like myself, not known for being the world's best secret keeper, this was quite the feat knowing for a year that we were going to the one of the best places in the world and having to keep it quiet this whole time! We went all the way to the airport without her knowing, and finally we were able to let the secret out and celebrate! We made our way through to terminal five, the one terminal that you'd be more than happy to be stuck in, had a little browse and headed to Giraffe for breakfast. I'd never been to Giraffe before but it is such a cool mexican restaurant. We tucked into some delicious breakfasts, Mum and Rosie opting for the Mexican one and myself going for the good old classic full English. The other thing I loved about this place was the fact you get a little giraffe cocktail stirrer in your drink too, although some of that fascination might be down to the fact I was a bit giddy about going to New York! When the time came, we boarded our plane and settled down to eight hours of pure film watching, which I'm not going to complain about! I ended up watching Friends with Kids, The Lorax, The Hunger Games and a bit of Wanderlust and by the end of all that we were in New York, hurrah!

We then came out the other side, bought our first of many Starbucks of the trip and taxied our way to the hotel. The hotel we were staying in was The Park Lane Hotel right by Central Park which was amazing and such a handy spot as 5th Avenue was only round the corner. It was a lovely hotel with a classic American style to it and after dropping off our bags, we didn't want to waste one sightseeing minute so we headed off down 5th Avenue for a browse. Although the jet lag quickly caught up on us so we headed into TGI's for a well deserved big bite of American food. I had a delicious burger with chips that just hit the spot and a bottomless cup of still lemonade that was just what the doctor ordered. We then toddled our way back to the hotel to sleep ready for an exciting and busy morning the next day.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to get a head start on the day and get up the Empire State Building before all the crowds arrive. But first, breakfast! The breakfast was held in a really grand room with a big window that looked out across to Central Park, with lots of comfy seating areas. We had lots of delicious hot chocolate and then we tucked into all that the breakfast buffet had to offer. They had the biggest, fluffiest bagels with butter patties, assorted danish pastries and fruit among other things but to be honest, after a bagel and a pastry we were all pretty stuffed! After breakfast we headed off to the Empire State Building and made our way up and out onto the observatory to look at the 360 degree breathtaking views. New York is incredible, but this view made it even more so. Although some see it as a concrete jungle, there are some truly beautiful buildings there, the Empire State Building being one of them. We bought ourselves the mandatory tourist shirts from the gift shop and headed back down ready to begin SHOPPING. Which ultimately, was one of the things I was most excited about in New York if I'm honest! I got a couple of blouses and a pair of shorts in Forever 21 which I have been wearing constantly since and then we set off on our trek in the search of Victoria Secrets and it's Pink store. After what was nothing short of a pilgrimage, we finally found it and spent a fair amount of time getting lots of lovely comfy things from the Pink section and some delicious smelling Victoria Secrets body sprays.

We then found our way to Broadway and had a stroll down their amazing street markets, getting a whiff of the tasty smelling street food which eventually we had to succumb to! We treated ourselves to burritos and ice cold fresh still lemonade and perched on the sidewalk and it was absolutely delicious and a lovely way to spend our lunch, taking in the buzzing New York atmosphere.

After that, we visited my ultimate favourite bit of New York - Central Park. In such a busy and full city, I was surprised to find that Central Park had the nicest community vibe to it. Such a lovely park, with people playing games, football, baseball, big groups of friends gathering together to enjoy the summer sun. We walked past a fountain and there was music playing with couples ballroom dancing along to it and others watched on. Truly beautiful and mesmerising, I could never see this sort of thing happening in London. The park was huge and it clearly provided respite for those who wanted to get away from the buildings and into the fresh summer air.

By the end of all that we were truly knackered and so after a failed attempt at searching for a 'hidden' burger restaurant we settled on The Brooklyn Diner. But in no way were we compromising as this place was amazing! It looked like a proper diner on the outside but the food and atmosphere inside were second to none. It had a really buzzy yet chilled vibe and all the seating areas were booths which was cool. I ordered the cheeseburger which is ''New York's Best Cheeseburger'' according to the New York Time, which had acclaimed many of their other delicious dishes, my sister went for the mac and cheese and Mum went for the cheeseburger too. No doubt about it, it was the best burger I have ever had and I have eaten a lot of burgers! It was literally melt in the mouth delicious, I just wanted it to last forever and the chips were amazing too! Such a appropriate way to end such a knackering day, giving us a chance to sit back and relax in a truly lovely atmosphere. Along the sides of the booths they have plaques with names of celebrities that frequently visit the diner, Sarah Jessica Parker being one of them and I read somewhere that Paul McCartney goes there for breakfast most days which is pretty cool! We then strolled back to our hotel and hit the hay ready for the next day of excitement bike riding round Central Park and visiting Soho.

The next morning was a little more chilled than the previous one, we grabbed some breakfast and headed out on our way to Soho by subway. Once we had worked out the conundrum that was the Subway with it's confusing ticket system and boiling hot atmosphere we finally we made it out the other side, right outside a Pink store which, quelle surprise we had to go in. I found that the people in Soho were so much friendlier than Central, one shop assistant being delighted to be talking to someone who was British which was funny. We popped into the Anthropologie there which was lovely and my sister and I bought these little five year journals where every day you have to answer a question and over the five years you're writing it you can look back and see how much your answers have changed. There was also a great indoor market called Chelsea Market with all sorts of shops that we walked through and we also walked along the skyline garden which was really beautiful in the summer sun, taking in the atmosphere. I loved Soho because I felt it showed me how a true New Yorker lived, rather than the tourist spots like 5th Avenue which was great but a bit busy. We popped into The New York Burger Co. for lunch which was delicious and we had a couple of mini burgers with chips, getting a little bite of all the different flavours they had to offer, and they offered the hugest choice of sauces ever too!