Brooklyn Bridge + Museum of Sex = A Typical NYC Girls Trip

I can’t remember the last time I went on a girl’s trip…

(spends 10 minutes browsing through old blog posts to see when was the last time I went on one…)

Update: It’s technically been a year and a half since I went on girl’s trip.

The last trip being when I visited my girl, Anna, in South Carolina for my 29th birthday last year.

Oh, Anna Banana… I miss you and can’t wait for you to come back in October.

(She was deployed to Afghanistan this past April so PRAYERS UP for her safe return!)

With that said, back to girls trips or there lack of.

I think they’re so important.

Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling with Charles but I really do believe going on an all girls/no ding-a-ling trip is like food for the estrogen soul.

So when my girl, Camesha a.k.a. Cam, mentioned that she wanted to go to Afropunk Fest in NYC for her 30th birthday, I was all in.

Joining the trip was our other close friend, Lauren a.k.a. Peach, to complete the trio of traveling chicas.

^^ From Left to Right: Peach & Cam

I’ve known both Cam & Peach since my first week of school as freshmen in college.

I met Cam while folding clothes in the laundry room of our dorm building and I met Peach the first Friday after Freshmen Move In (a.k.a. a major college party night) at our campus’s 24 hour diner.

We were both underage drunk and ended up sharing a table together as we attempted to “feed the liquor”.

I also met our other close friend, Tia, on this same Friday night. She was holding onto a pole (also underage drunk) and I remember when I walked passed her on the way to the diner, she said “Hiiiiiiii” and waved at me…

A few weeks later, all 4 of us were hanging out lol.

And then two years later, we became roommates for our Junior and Senior years at college and have been super tight ever since.

Unfortunately, Tia wasn’t able to make this trip as she was pregnant & gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl, Gia, a week before our trip but she was there in spirit.

^^ Girls Trip Essential = Mimosas

We caught the bus from D.C. to New York after work on Friday and found ourselves in front of our AirBNB in Brooklyn five hours later.

This was both Cam & Peach’s first time staying in an AirBNB and it was funny to see their reactions when we arrived.

Them = “Soooo how do you know that they cleaned everything?” Me = “I guess I just trust them based on their reviews?”

Them = “We can just use their pots and pans to cook?” Me = “Yup.”

Them = “Mmmm I don’t trust their water filter, we should get some bottled water.” Me = “That’s cool. Let’s go shopping and then we can make breakfast in the morning.” Them = “Bet.”

As a seasoned AirBNB traveler, seeing our accommodations from their perspective was refreshing and brought me back to the first time I ever used AirBNB and had the same concerns about the cleanliness and quality of my stay.

I guess over time with my exclusive use of AirBNB, I’ve forgotten that it (despite its upward trend) still isn’t quite considered the norm when it comes to how people book travel accommodations.

Both Saturday and Sunday morning, we made breakfast courtesy of a quick grocery run to the Trader Joe’s across the street.

While eating our eggs, toast, potatoes and meatless sausage with a large swig of mimosas on the side, we talked and caught up on all the little details of life that you can’t really summarize and share via group text.

We laughed, we cried, we shared the weight of life and lifted said weight off each other’s shoulders for those few hours by simply being there for each other in person… Soooo important not to take for granted the power of being present.

Post brekky time, we all took turns showering and getting ready for whatever NYC decided to throw our way.

The first day, we spent at Afropunk Fest which was my first time ever attending a music festival. I loved it. The line up of artists who were scheduled to perform was on point.

It was also the best kind of event for people watching. Everyone was dressed.

People were dancing and vibing during the DJ sets between each artist’s performance.

We got to see Sampha perform live which 1) the man’s voice sounds even better in person and 2) to see him play all these different instruments throughout his set was pretty dope.

We ended up leaving right before Solange performed because the crowds were getting a little out of control and all three of us didn’t feel comfortable in super packed setting.

We legit had to push our way out against the massive flow of thousands of festival goers who were moving in the opposite direction towards the stage where Solange was scheduled to perform.

It was a little nerve wracking but we eventually got out and treated ourselves to some bomb ice cream around our AirBNB’s way.

I don’t have many photos to share from this day as I decided to leave my SLR and just be present in the moment with my girls and great music but here are a few photos I shared on Twitter last night.

Our second day in NYC, after breakfast, we decided to bail on the festival since the main artist we wanted to see (Kaytranada) was scheduled to perform late in the evening when we would be on the bus back to D.C.

So, instead, we spent the day taking advantage of the awesome weather by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan.

We stopped by CVS beforehand and got some snacks to hold us over during the 30-40 min walk.

^^ Cam spotted a lady selling Churros and couldn’t say resist. :)

Once across the bridge and officially in the Big Apple, we hopped on the subway and made our way uptown to check out a museum that piqued our curiosity… The Museum of Sex.

This is the part where I need to warn you that next couple of photos in today’s post may contain artistic displays of nudity, sexual toys, and innuendo which is what one should expect to see when visiting the Museum of Sex.

(Definitely not a place to visit if you veer on the prim and prudish side of life.)

The museum had a different themed exhibit on each floor.

For example, the first floor had a very thorough timeline of sex toys through the ages. Another floor was animal themed a.k.a. it broke down how other animals have sex which was interesting in a “national geographic meets soft bestiality” kind of way.

But out of all the floors, my two favorite exhibits were 1) “The Female Gaze” which showcased artwork of women created by female artists and 2) “Jump For Joy” an indoor moon bounce of blown up boobs… We had so much fun jumping and falling and attempting to be grown up about the experience and failing immaturely.

Last warning… Click away if you don’t want to see a bike turned into a sex toy with a dildo attached.

For those of you choosing to read on…

^^ Voila! Peach and I couldn’t help but giggle as we passed this contraption… Like seriously, how does this thing actually work??? O_O

^^ This photo really resonated with me. I loved the au natural/nature combo and felt an urge to recreate it. Don’t know where this run down building is but I’d love to find it and take a nude self-portrait… One day.

^^ Right before we got in the boob bounce! ^^ I know it’s blurry but I love this pic of Cam & Peach (bottom left, falling down). It really captures the essence of the moment.

As with all fun things, our time in NYC was coming to an end… We eventually hopped on the subway, headed back to Brooklyn to grab le bags and then made our way to where the bus would pick us up for the trek back to D.C.

Right next to the bus stop was a yellow wall with a plant inspired mural on it. We couldn’t resist snapping a few pics while waiting for our transport to arrive.