The past four years have represented major life transition in sisterly relations = I became a mother of two boys and my sister, Gigi, became a teenager. A full on 14 year old who is a freshman in high school and prepping for her quinceñera next summer… Sidebar: prepping for this post had me all nostalgic and rereading a post I had shared from when she was FIVE years old (O_O).
With life life-ing and time time-ing, we didn’t get much quality one on one time together in 2023 and I thought it would be a fun idea to go on a girls trip to close out the year. Our first ever sister trip; the beginning of what I hope to be an annual tradition.
And so, a couple days after Christmas, we hopped on a bus to the New York City for a 48-hour trip. Her first ever time in the Big Apple and my first time back in 10 years after living in NYC for three years. Despite the weather being overcast, foggy and drizzly, we made the most of our time seeing all the sights and I got caught up on all the high school tea in between. Gosh, high school life and drama… I’m so glad that chapter is behind me.
All that said, here’s a dump of photos I took on my new digital film camera (and a couple from my iphone) during our trip. It was really nice to snap pics on the go and not overthink composition since the camera doesn’t have viewing screen. I tried to stay open and curious throughout the experience and it was fun annoying Gigi (who was trying to blend in) because I was ‘acting like a tourist, taking pictures of everything’ lol.
After getting off the bus at Penn Station, we walked over to K-town for some Korean BBQ for lunch and headed down to the Lower East Side to check into our hotel. Bags dropped off, we took the F train to Brooklyn and got off in Dumbo to stroll along the riverview and then walk back to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge. The day concluded with us seeing the 9/11 Memorial site, getting Indian cuisine for dinner at Panna II, checking out the Rockefellar Center and Times Square (only be to underwhelmed because it was pouring rain around this time) and then stopping by CVS for snacks and water bottles before zonking out at the hotel.
^^ As you can see via the photo above, Gigi was over the step count by the time we got to Times Square at the end of the night. We had walked over 21,000 steps in one day… Add in the cold, rainy weather and it alllllll just took a toll on her physically. To be fair, I did send her an itinerary ahead of time and told her we’d be walking all over but I don’t think she realized what that meant until she went through it in first person. Oh, to be a travel rookie.
NYC sister trip, day 1 = complete.
Until next post.
xo, Setarra
7
