Even though I’ve barley scratched the surface of NY, my most recent trip gives me a greater sense of the expansiveness of the city.

We stayed in Queens near Laguardia. It was a quaint older neighborhood, with accessibility to the Mets-Willets Pointe station, by either car or a short ride on route Q48 or Q23 (see local route schedule). From there you could easily catch the train into Manhattan.

My mom wanted to ride a on a double decker bus 🚌and since it was Mother’s Day weekend, I obliged. Initially, I was annoyed thinking 💭 “this is not going to be a cool experience.” And then I began to see parts of New York that you only see in movies or on television. The tour not only established the historical importance of the boroughs, it also highlighted the historical significance of the various neighborhoods within the boroughs.  I learned that the Apollo, located in Harlem used to be a “whites only” venue. To think of the countless African American talent and contributions that have not only come out of Harlem but more specifically the Apollo is amazing to see.

It was a perfect, sunny day with a nice breeze. If you have a day to explore the city, Greyline bus tours are an affordable, educational and good all around fun way to explore New York. We started both our uptown and downtown tours in mid-Manhattan. The bus also tours through Brooklyn, however this tour ends the earliest with the last tour of the day beginning at 3pm. It is an unlimited hop on, hop off bus for as long as your pass permits (24hrs up to 3 days) with various pickups and drop off locations throughout the city.

The main reason for our visit was to attend the Mother’s Day: Good music festival featuring Erykah Badu and H.E.R! Anyone who knows me understands the love that I hold for Miss Badu is everlasting and very real and my mother is equally infatuated with recent Grammy winner H.E.R. She wanted to see H.E.R perform while she was on the European leg of her tour which also fell during my mother’s birthday month but we could not get our schedules to align so NY was the next best agreed upon location. 

The show was amazing! Both ladies had good energy and kept the crowd moving. The DJ in between sets was also phenomenal. He had the Barclays rocking. My only complaint is the sound system. Barclays is not the best venue for acoustics.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time in New York! It was great to catch up and reconnect with friends. It was rewarding to see the smile on my momma’s face and to spend Mother’s Day with one another. A couple folks asked me how I plan to top this years Mother’s Day effort and my answer is simple, I’m not! Next year she’s getting a card. 😂