It's been waiting for you 🗽🚕🍎

It's early 2023 and miss Taylor Swift has yet to announce a Canadian leg for the ERAs tour and this swiftie of 16 years is getting anxious.

As I stare at every re-sale site possible each and every day watching the prices drop closer to show time a vision appears in my mind.

What if... we fly to New York for the weekend. Bus to New Jersey and stand outside Met Life Stadium an hour before show time to try and score tickets last minute. Crazy? Or my best travel idea yet.

Look what you made me do Taylor...

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Friday, May 26th 2023

We flew into New York late evening on May 25th and headed to our hotel downtown. We stayed at the Moxy NYC Time Square which ended up being one of the coolest and trendiest hotels I think I have ever been in. We headed to bed before waking up bright and early on the 26th.

Today we knew we had most of the day to explore but also knew we would be on our feet a lot in the evening in hopes we would get into the concert. We started walking to the High Line and took the stairs up to see a beautiful stretch of pathways covered in plants and artistic structures. We got here super early around 9am and it was so quiet and peaceful just the two of us as we walked towards Chelsea Market.

We explored Chelsea Market and got to see lots of small vendors and trendy food shops to grab a bite to eat. This is where I found a few patches and pins for my travel collection. We decided to head back outside to check out the Hudson River and little island. This structure walking up to it was so incredibly interesting and was a great spot to relax and bring your family for a day out.

📍The High Line

📍Hudson River and little island

📍Chelsea market

We started our walk back along the High Line towards Time Square and this is when we started to notice how crowded the High Line gets. We finally reached Time Square and started to explore. It was so cool to be back after 9 years, we started to chat about some of our memories in NYC when we were 16 and how now as adults, we really got to explore the city ourselves and we just felt so happy with how far we had come. See below side-by-side shots of Josh and I in Time Square. 2023-2014

After a quick stop at Grand Central Station, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the concert... (That we still didn't have tickets for)

📍Time square

📍Grand Central Station

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📍New Jersey Met Life Stadium: Eras Tour

After we got back to our hotel, we took some time to get ready before heading to the bus station to head to New Jersey. I was becoming incredibly anxious as I was scared I wouldn't be allowed on the bus without tickets. After reading about how many fans wanted to tailgate at previous shows in Nashville and Texas this was my backup plan if I indeed did not get tickets. We hopped on the bus with no questions asked and headed off to Met Life Stadium with about 55 other swifties.

We reached the stadium, and my heart began to race as I felt so much closer to my dream of seeing Taylor again. It had been about 8 years since I had seen her at the 1989 World tour, and it was a dream come true to be so close. We reached the gate where we couldn't go any further and we began scrolling stub hub waiting for our moment. 

I started handing out friendship bracelets to fans and little girls and boys outside the stadium who also could not score tickets. It was such a surreal moment to talk to other fans and tell them I came from Canada. After 2 hours of scrolling and glitches we tried our hardest and could not get tickets.

As Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince started to play a few tears were shed and a few very dramatic pictures were taken of me sobbing. My incredible husband looked at me and said, "Let's make the most of it tonight and enjoy the concert from out here". That moment truly made me realize how lucky I am to have such a supportive husband who puts up with my unhinged obsession with a not so little singer from Pennsylvania.

I danced and sang the night away feeling so lucky to get to do something so crazy. I bought merch and handed out bracelets in line and ended up making some amazing friends who I spent the evening with. We screamed and cried hearing each and every song, the surprise guests and music video premiere that happened on our night.

This was one of those moments in my life that I truly will never forget. I would do it again in a heartbeat to have those incredible memories. The ERAs tour (Nicole's version) was a success. ✨

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Saturday, May 27th 2023

After an exhausting first day we slept in slightly before heading to Greenwich Village to explore and grab some breakfast. We walked past the iconic Friend's Apartment that was featured frequently on the show. I also knew I needed to of course walk Cornelia Street and see Taylor's old apartment she used to live in. The area was so beautiful, and I now understand why she loved living in the village so much. There were several lyrics spray painted on the sidewalk along Cornelia street and we stopped to take some pictures. 

📍Greenwich Village

📍Cornelia street

After exploring Greenwich Village we decided to walk along the waterfront all the way to the 9/11 memorial. It was incredibly busy and quite emotional to witness. After years of understanding the tragedy as a Canadian and seeing footage and documentaries it truly made me emotional standing next to what used to be the Twin Towers. We took some time and walked around to pay our respects and read the names of those who were affected. 

Once we had a quick bite to eat, we started our walk to the ferry for the Statue of Liberty. We got to see this back in 2014 when we first came but only from a distance on the ferry. This time around we wanted to go to the island and see Lady Liberty up close. We got to the island and began to explore and grab a drink to cool down. 

📍9/11 memorial

📍Statue of Liberty

A place we never got to explore when we were originally in New York City was Brooklyn and DUMBO. We took the subway both ways and enjoyed seeing some beautiful views of the Manhattan Bridge. The area felt very luxurious which I was not expecting. We even saw some loft listings and were astonished by the prices. We originally wanted to walk back over the Manhattan bridge, but we were running out of time so decided to head back to our hotel. We had a long day of walking and exploring so we decided to have a movie night instead.

📍Downtown Brooklyn

📍DUMBO

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Sunday, May 28th 2023

Today was our last day in New York City but thankfully our flight wasn't until the evening, so we decided to do some last-minute exploring before heading back to Toronto. Our first stop was the Top of the Rock which we never got to experience back in 2014 (We did the Empire State Building instead). We headed up the elevator all the way to the top and enjoyed the beautiful view of Central Park and the rest of NYC. After our time int he sky we headed downstairs to of course the gift shop. This was a gift shop specifically for NBC so we got to see a lot of merch for shows like SNL, the office, Parks and Recreation and many more. 

After doing a little shopping we decided to grab a bite to eat at a little diner called Apple Jack's and had some brunch. The staff were lovely and really enjoyed sitting down for a meal since we had mostly been enjoying fast food. 

Our last and final stop was Central Park. It ended up being such a beautiful and warm day to walk around, enjoy some music and read a book in the park. We had about 2 hours to relax before we needed to get to the airport. We laid in the grass and watched thousands of New Yorkers enjoy their Sunday. New York will always be one of my places to travel to and I hope we get to go again in another 10 years and see how much our lives have changed again. 

📍Top of the Rock

📍NBC Studios

📍Lunch at Apple Jack Diner

📍Central Park