Today was a jam-packed day with about 13 hours and 20,000 steps spent exploring New York City. We began our adventure where all of our adventures will begin, Harlem. Some things we got to see around Harlem were Strivers Row, Abyssinian Baptist Church and even special access, thanks to some every kind police officers, to the Harlem  Hospital Center’s art exhibits. We continued down numerous blocks with crisp New England air testing our patience. We made it to the Apollo Theater which is a venue that has hosted so many famous figures throughout the years, especially those of color. Our last stop in Harlem gave us a chance to appreciate the Harriet Tubman Memorial Statue. Afterwards we took a ride down to enjoy the natural beauty of the world renown Central Park. Endless, winding paths carve their way through this city’s treasure.

Walking around the streets of Harlem you get a good sense of their strong, proud black history which was beautifully shown through various murals and restaurants throughout Harlem. None better than Sylvia’s to show us how soul food is done. The most popular dish of the group was chicken and waffles. All senses where active here, as we were serenaded by some soulful live Gospel music. The singer went around to each table and asked where everyone was from and the diversity of New York was in full affect. We of course had people in the house from different states like Lousiana, but even more surprising was the number of international people there. Some of the nationalities were Swedish, Danish, French, Spanish, Korean, Argentina just to name a few and this took the entire group by surprise.

After lunch we wandered in Chinatown which might as well be a different country. Vendors lined up as far as the eye can see peddling their goods onto the ople and visitors of New York City. We even received many offers for Louis Vuitton bags from random corner hustlers! How exciting! We ventured on into the Mahayana Buddhist Temple which was awesome. Many cool buddhist relics where bought; little porcelain cats and karma bracelets.

Next part of our adventure brought us to the Staten Island Ferry, bringing us close enough to the Statue of Liberty to talk many groups pictures and plenty of selfies. Trust me when I say, we have enough selfies to last us a while. Then we ended the day with some New York style pizza at Lombardi’s and italian pastries from Ferrara Bakery. All in all a pretty busy, yet satisfying day.