We are thrilled to announce that we are now officially Starwood Preferred Platinum guests!  We reached our goal on December 31st, and we are looking forward to our first year of shiny, platinum SPG benefits.

So where did we get our final stays in the Countdown to SPG Platinum?  The answer is: New York City and New Orleans.  Two incredibly unique cities.  Two separate blog posts.

It is not unusual for us to go into New York City for a night on the town.  By train, it’s an easy escape for us, and we love indulging at one of our favorite restaurants, or enjoying a drink at a swanky bar.  In the mornings, we pick up our favorite NYC breakfast fuel: pumpernickel bagels with tofu scallion spread, and we stroll through Central Park, sipping our coffee, until we find a perfect place for our bagel picnic, the perfect place to watch the baby strollers, the joggers, the dog walkers, the “fit bitters” taking their 10,000th step in the great outdoors of New York City.

For 3 stays to go, we finally got the opportunity to stay at Le Parker Meridien, a Starwood property located only a few blocks from Central Park.  This hotel has a pretty interesting vibe, from a rooftop pool overlooking Manhattan, to a hidden-behind-the-curtain burger joint in the hotel lobby.  People are drawn to this hotel for the appropriately named, Burger Joint, with an ever present line of people waiting to get a glimpse of the delicious items waiting behind the curtain.

Our guest room was huge, with a flat screen television my husband swooned over for the duration of the stay.  In New York City, spacious hotel rooms are rare, and this one had more than enough room to spread out.  We were amazed by the view from the pool, especially when Paul took this photo of the pool’s reflection in the glass.  How often do you see a pool floating over Manhattan?

Since we don’t often get to stay in this part of town, we made a new delicious discovery just down the street from the hotel.  Bengal Tiger Indian Food looks and feels like your typical hole-in-the-wall, which usually means that the food is fabulous.  If you can get yourself past the door and up the stairs of this tiny establishment, you will be rewarded at the top with fluffy rice and warm naan.  The service is friendly, the food is tasty, the portions are huge, the price is right, and it’s BYOB.  What more could you ask for?

In New York City, we live by taking as many steps out of Times Square as we can, finding the magnificent things beyond those twinkling lights, like the Indian food heaven hidden at the top of the dark stairs, the burger behind the curtain, the pool party floating above Manhattan.

Cheers to the SPG Life!  We think Platinum looks good on us.