40.7127° N, 74.0059° W: New York City, United States

Fresh off the plane from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico my friend and I jetted off into a golden yellow cab to the upper west side of Manhattan.

“Sea urchins in hand to street urchins of New York I had less than 48 hours to soak up the scene.”

We strolled through High Line Park of Chelsea that used to be a railway back in the day; it’s now a modern day park of art.

From exquisite geometric enigmas of Kandinsky at The Great Upheaval exhibition at the Guggenheim to finding artist Daniel Ashram’s Snarkitecture gashing out copius amounts of foam; we reveled up the excitement at every step and corner. It’s the city that never sleeps.

We bounced around Soho to find vintage shops, boutiques, dive bars then to (N) a very narrow tapas bar that served incredible food, but service without a smile. The delectable bites of rich flavors were well worth it before we hopped the zippy yellow to see a favorite Australian band Cut Copy. On stage at the renowned Terminal 5 venue on W. 56th Street, I had to band geek out and support the album with a fresh white CC tee to add to my collection.

With gratitude, this time there were no Amazonian 6+ foot guys or girls standing in front of us, so the awe of fifth row felt like the first row, front and center. Their rhythmic and melodic energy was explosive, as the entire crowd amped up for one massive dance party. Oh yeah, my heart was on fire! We ended up after partying at another venue in Chelsea into the wee hours of the morning.

Jamming back to the apartment, I finished repacking my surfboard bag, bikinis, snorkel gear, a heavy winter coat and over the knee boots at about 3am with a half hour of shuteye to spare.

“A jet-black town car swept me up at about 4am to dash off to JFK airport; back to home sweet home, the west coast. Sleep never felt so good.”