My family's trip to New York City was in celebration of my sixteenth birthday. With my dad being from Brooklyn and my mother's best friend being from Queens, nobody needed much convincing. The flight there was interesting enough, seeing as how it was my friend's first time on an airplane. She was amazed by the view and by the fact that the seat had TVs connected to them. The only thing that didn't amaze Sarah was the fact that she had to wait until we were 10,000 feet in the air to use her cell phone and laptop. When we landed, we had so many people in our group that we had to take two taxis. One taxi, the taxi with my mother's friend, Miss Ana, along with her three children, went to Queens, where they would be staying with a relative. My taxi, the one that held my parents, younger brother, and Sarah, took us to the Aloft hotel in Brooklyn. The hotel was relatively new being only a week old and had me captivated from the moment I stepped through its doors. The lobby itself was amazing with it's waterfall wall, "egg-chairs", pool table, and seemingly endless supply of mouth-watering snacks. But we were never in the hotel for very long. Each morning we woke up at seven and spent our days in Manhattan. We divided our time between all of the big tourist areas such as Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Broadway, the Museum of National History, the Empire State Building, and Central Park. Broadway was by far my favorite place to be, since I aspire to be a singer someday. We saw Phantom of the Opera, my favorite musical at the time. My favorite musical currently is Wicked, which I unfortunately did not have the chance to see in New York. Central Park was another all day adventure. We spent most of our time looking for the famed Balto statue, which I had learned about in the movie by the same name. While in Central Park, we saw a newly wed couple taking wedding pictures. The park, being the only truly green place in the Big Apple, was indescribably beautiful and seemed like the perfect fit for a wedding. I can only hope to imagine how beautiful it is when covered in a fresh blanket of snow. Being avid fans of the Percy Jackson series, visiting the Empire State Building was a must for my brother and I. Although we weren't able to go to the 200th floor, we did enjoy the spectacular view of the city below. All in all, my experience in New York was one I will never forget and it has turned me into a future New Yorker. I plan to move to Manhattan as soon as I can and also plan to make a living for myself while performing on Broadway. My parents have always told me to dream big and New York City is the place where all my dreams will come true.
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