Our second day in NY was a special one since it was this handsome guy’s 28th birthday!

I tend to go all out for his gifts (since I kinda get to enjoy them myself – for example: this vacation).

Don’t even ask me about all the other stuff I’ve given him throughout the years.

BUT, I have to admit that he’s completely spoiled worth it.

We were supposed to get an early start since we had a full day ahead of us. That did not happen. Sleeping in till 10:00 a.m. was mandatory.

For those of you who don’t know me personally, I am a huge foodie. In fact, I like to plan my vacations around certain places to eat. Everything else just comes later on my traveling agenda. Hunger pains were hitting us hard, so a hipster brunch in Brooklyn (South Williamsburg) was first on the list.

We made our way to this lovely place called Diner. Yeah, that’s it. Not The Diner. Just Diner. I’ve been wanting to try this spot since I’ve seen so many lovely pictures of their food on Instagram. I could pretty much write a full review on how awesome this quaint restaurant is, but this post isn’t Yelp.

Let’s continue…

They change their “specials” every day, so instead of an actual menu, we received a written list of food items on a long piece of receipt paper. I thought this was pretty cool.

Now this right here! My oh my oh my! Our dishes totally lived up to the IG pictures hype! We ordered ham and eggs and a frittata. I highly recommend this place.

Okay, next stop. Exploring Brooklyn (my favorite)!

After getting a full dose of artsy fartsy, we headed back to the station and made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Here’s a fun musical fact for you all…

The J/Z subway stop at Marcy Avenue is where Shawn Carter got his rapper name “Jay-Z” (along with paying homage to his music mentor, Jaz-O).

Before leaving to New York, I had to purchase a padlock for the Brooklyn Bridge.

This love gesture is illegal simple: lock your heart away as an expression of everlasting love then throw the keys into the river.

We actually kept our keys which I plan to attach to a necklace of some sort or just my keychain.

The idea originally came from the novel, “Ho Voglia di Te” (“I Want You”) by Federico Moccia. It started in Rome a few years ago, then made it’s way to Paris, and recently became popular in Brooklyn.

Our love padlock will not be there when we come back. Workers frequently monitor the bridge and immediately remove new padlocks that are found. It was fun for the most part, which is why we did it in the first place.

Alan tricked me and told me to turn around and smile. In result, came this picture.

I had no idea. LOL!

Bucketlist item #327 and #328 can officially be crossed off – Brooklyn Bridge  + attach love padlock to the Brooklyn Bridge 

We made our way back to Chambers station to head over to the ball game for our date night.

C’mon, you know I had to incorporate sports into our vacation. This was another gift for my main man. We have never attended a game together outside of the Bay Area. And even though we are Giants fans, we had to visit this popular stadium and see the Yankees play.

Item #451 can also be crossed off the bucketlist – Watch a baseball game at the Yankee Stadium

Got a Yogi Berra bobble head.

We got to chow down on some sliders at the ball park. Unfortunately, they were disgusting and not worth a single picture. You want some of the best stadium food (or just food in general)? Head over to AT&T Park. Crazy Crab’z, Ghirardelli, Peet’s, etc. I’m just sayin’

Alan and I didn’t stay for the entire game (we aren’t Yankee fans). So after a few innings of walking around and charging our iPhones, we finally went back to Harlem.

We got ready to hang out with an old high school friend of ours who currently lives in New York. Little did we know what we were going to get ourselves into…

On the 6 train, just like J-Lo. Ha!

This beautiful lady is my friend Adriana. I’ve known her since high school and she’s such an amazing person. Adriana is just way too much fun. It’s always great catching up with folks you haven’t seen in awhile. Even better when it’s on vacation.

Thanks Adriana for taking us out! We haven’t partied that hard since….

Heads up: The following pictures are way too blurry with bad lighting, which pretty much explains our night. LOL!

Everything we ate in New York was delicious (except for the food at the Yankee Stadium). After having a couple rounds with Adriana at a bar in Soho (I think), we took a taxi to The Jane Hotel in West Village & had a late night snack at Cafe Gitane. The avocado toast and aioli on focaccia was amazing. I love the simplicity and the flavor that both dishes had. I even started making my own avocado toast at home since I’ve been back. We also discovered a new favorite beer, Coopers (the green label). Where can I find this in the Bay Area? BevMo?

After snacking and another round of drinks, we took the elevator to The Rooftop at the Jane for our first New York rooftop bar experience. We loved it!

This specific spot wasn’t overcrowded with tourists (like ourselves). There isn’t a view of the Empire State Building; however, the Hudson River with the New Jersey lights as the backdrop was a great substitution. I actually think I prefer this spot over the other rooftop bars I’ve researched prior to our trip simply because of the relaxed vibe you get while hanging out here.

Very Great Gatsby-ish.

Then!!! After hanging out at this bar, we went back downstairs where Adriana’s boyfriend, Daniel met us. There may or may not have been a couple more rounds of drinks and dancing on table tops at the club. Way too much fun at The Jane!

Supposedly this is the original disco ball from Studio 54. Crazy, huh?!

You think our night ended here? Wrong. We left the club and walked around and ended up at another bar. I don’t know the name or the location, but apparently there was happy hour going on at 3:00 a.m. We got a pitcher of margarita and some beer as our nightcap.

Adriana and Daniel.

How we managed to accomplish all this and make it back home beats me, but we did. I definitely wasn’t prepared for the massive hangover I would receive the following day. But it was all worth it!

Did I mention that we had to catch the Greyhound bus to Philly the next morning? Yeah, our trip didn’t end in New York. We actually planned this trip to the east coast for the Made in America music festival (Alan’s actual birthday gift).

Exhausted? We were. And I got pictures to prove it. Stay tuned!

Related articles

• New York Photo Diary (Day 1) (datuknows.com)