One of our friends from high school got married in Brooklyn last weekend, which meant we got to go to NYC for the first time ever! We were there for 3.5 days, which were jam-packed with touristy fun and partying with great people. 11 of us stayed in an Airbnb together, so we had no shortage of good company.

The wedding itself was at the Brooklyn Historical Society, and the ceremony took place in a gorgeous library with intricate woodwork. There are no buildings like this anywhere near Boulder - it felt like a fairytale.

Outside the Ed Sullivan Theater - taken with our GoPro - which I love for these fun wide-angle shots, and not knowing what you've gotten until you upload it to your computer!

Another highlight for me and Nathaniel was going to see the Late Show with Stephen Colbert! It started with a stand up comic who taught us to be LOUD because all the sound from the audience you hear on TV is 100% real on his show. Stephen Colbert came out, and did a little Q&A with the audience, and the band practically gave us a concert! Not to mention that the Ed Sullivan Theater is absolutely gorgeous! At the end, make sure to go up front to see the dome if you can’t see it from your seat. I would definitely do this again (but make sure to reserve your tickets way in advance, and get to the theater early - they over-book to make sure they’ve got a full audience, but it is free!).

Because this was our first time to New York, we naturally had to do some touristy things. We went to the American Museum of Natural History, which you could seriously spend a week at and not see everything. We mostly saw dinosaurs (and their special exhibit, “Dinosaurs Among Us” about the connection between birds and dinosaurs), gems, minerals and meteorites. I wish we’d gone into Hayden Planetarium, but we were on a limited time frame. I guess we’ll just have to go back! 😉

We walked around Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Central Park in Manhattan. It was rainy when we went to Central Park, so it almost felt like an enchanted forest! We found Belvedere Castle, and just explored a bit. Because it was rainy, it wasn’t very busy, which was a plus!

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was CROWDED but lovely. You can see the Statue of Liberty wayyyy off in the distance, and you get to see the skyline, and as someone who has spent most of her life in Colorado, was almost unreal!

We went to the top of Rockefeller Center to see the city from above. This was a bit expensive, but it was beautiful. It’s good to get your tickets in advance, or you might have to wait a couple hours. A lot of people climb the Empire State Building, but from Rockefeller, you can see the Empire State Building, which was nice.

While we were there, we ate at Katz Deli and Les Halles, along with a bunch of other small places for (rainbow!) bagels, pizza and coffee. We rode the subway EVERYWHERE which was convenient most of the time, but significant delays made getting to the airport kind of scary.

We definitely want to go back, though. We only scratched the surface of what the city has to offer, and I wished we had more time to explore