A year or so ago, I booked a trip with some dear friends to go to NYC for a girls' weekend--so exciting!! We missed out on a couple of other close friends who weren't able to go due to work & a new baby, and then at the last minute one friend had to drop out due to some tragic circumstances with extended family. We missed them all and I'm hoping that this post might persuade them to hop on board the next trip, because we had the BEST TIME!!
We flew out of Indy at the literal crack of dawn; I think we left around 4 am? It felt extremely early BUT it was pretty great because it gave us another full day in the city!!
This is my friend Stephanie, who was our master planner--she took a long list Ruth gave me of all of her favorite things & places to eat in the city and turned it all into the best itinerary!
We took an Uber from the airport to our hotel, left our luggage, and then walked to Grand Central, which was super close to our hotel. We were all hungry by this point so we grabbed some food at Grand Central (I think I had a ham and cheese croissant and Steph & Melissa had banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery). I think Grand Central is SO beautiful!! I still remember the first time I saw it when I was maybe 12 and just being totally blown away by that ceiling.
Totally giddy and happy!!!
Then we walked to Mangia, where we had very delicious lunches which I forgot to photograph, but I think I had a kale salad and a chicken salad sandwich, and we got peach-raspberry pie to go. The whole city was just waking up to spring and it was SO beautiful!!
We walked over to Central Park. The air was juuuuust starting to feel a little warm and while the wind was chilly, the sunshine felt amazing!
Spring just starting to peek out!!
We walked past the lake and found a sunny spot to sit on a bench and enjoy our pie before walking over to Belvedere Castle and the Literary Walk.
Then we made our way over to the Met!
Visited my favorite painting of all time (cool story, my sister Elise is in NYC right now and texted me a photo of this a couple days ago, gosh I love that painting so much and I love that she remembered that from the last time we were in NYC together!),
Interesting fact about this painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware--the frame is a replica because they lost the original frame. How?! It's huge!!
They were setting up for the Met Gala the next day, which was kind of cool. We spent quite awhile at the Met and then headed over to Levain...
And then we were super tired so we took an Uber back to our hotel. I honestly do not remember if we ate dinner; I think we just ate stuff from Levain! We were so tired from the early flight that we basically just laid on our beds for awhile and talked about what we should go see that night. Eventually we made our way over to the theater district and bought tickets for Music Man for two days later & Harry Potter for that night; we literally slid into our HP seats as the lights were going down which is my perfect ideal of timing, hah!
It was really fun to see and while it was not my favorite show ever, I'm glad we saw it, because the first act was really fun and I loved seeing all the special effects to make it feel like the actors were actually performing magic. The second act was both boring and over the top, but overall it was a fun show to see (but I'm glad we didn't pay more than $60 to see it).
We walked over to Central Park. The air was juuuuust starting to feel a little warm and while the wind was chilly, the sunshine felt amazing!
Spring just starting to peek out!!
We walked past the lake and found a sunny spot to sit on a bench and enjoy our pie before walking over to Belvedere Castle and the Literary Walk.
Then we made our way over to the Met!
Visited my favorite painting of all time (cool story, my sister Elise is in NYC right now and texted me a photo of this a couple days ago, gosh I love that painting so much and I love that she remembered that from the last time we were in NYC together!),
Interesting fact about this painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware--the frame is a replica because they lost the original frame. How?! It's huge!!
They were setting up for the Met Gala the next day, which was kind of cool. We spent quite awhile at the Met and then headed over to Levain...
And then we were super tired so we took an Uber back to our hotel. I honestly do not remember if we ate dinner; I think we just ate stuff from Levain! We were so tired from the early flight that we basically just laid on our beds for awhile and talked about what we should go see that night. Eventually we made our way over to the theater district and bought tickets for Music Man for two days later & Harry Potter for that night; we literally slid into our HP seats as the lights were going down which is my perfect ideal of timing, hah!
It was really fun to see and while it was not my favorite show ever, I'm glad we saw it, because the first act was really fun and I loved seeing all the special effects to make it feel like the actors were actually performing magic. The second act was both boring and over the top, but overall it was a fun show to see (but I'm glad we didn't pay more than $60 to see it).
Great view of the Empire State Building from our hotel...I loved seeing it at night! We walked over by Rockefeller Center and went to Shake Shack as one does post-show (I did not anticipate how many places would already be closed on a Thursday night!).
The next morning I went for a solo run to Central Park and it was so beautiful! Running in a big city is one of my very favorite things to do, so it was a lovely way to start the day. Then we finished up the rest of our Levain treats and hopped on the subway to Russ & Daughters, which had an incredibly long line that just did.not.move. Finally we bailed out of the line after half an hour or so of just standing still on the pavement waaaay far from the door (it was clear that we would be there for hours!) and went to Economy Candy, which was WILD and so fun. I took way too many pictures trying to capture this for my kids.
We all bought a bunch of stuff (I can't even remember what I bought but I know I bought the gummy sushi because Luke and Abigail were so excited about it! Can't remember what else...) and then walked over to Chinatown.
This part was a little crazy! Our friend who wasn't with us had a specific place she wanted to eat, so we had put that into the itinerary, but then we ended up going there and it had a long wait and all of us were REALLY hungry. So then we walked around and I think we went into at least 4-5 places before we finally found one. By this point I was SO insanely hungry since we hadn't really eaten breakfast!
Mmmmm delicious food, I'm hungry right now and this looks pretty amazing!
Then we walked over to Brooklyn. I used the bridge to run hill repeats every time I visited Ruth & Jordan when they lived in Battery Park City, so it was fun to actually walk the bridge and really have the time to enjoy it!
We went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens where the cherry esplanade was in full bloom and totally breathtaking.
The tulips below were in the Fragrance Garden and it smelled so insanely delicious in there.
Then we took the train back to Manhattan...so tired!
And went to Los Tacos OF COURSE!!! Also I super super wish we had time to get more tacos, we were booking it to get to the harbor and my great regret is that I did not eat as many tacos as I would like to eat right this second. (But I did get horchata.)
We basically RAN from Los Tacos to the harbor and bought tickets for the harbor lights cruise as they were sounding the last call--again, my favorite timing!
I LOVED this. Highly recommend taking one where you can both see the buildings in full sunlight and then watch the sun go down and all the lights come on.
So so so beautiful.
It was freezing out on the water but we had the best time!!
Then we went back to Times Square...
And finished up at Black Tap.
And back to our hotel! When our fourth friend wasn't able to make the trip, we cancelled our second room and decided to just figure out 3 people and 2 double beds. Our solution was a million feather pillows and a yoga mat, which was actually surprisingly comfortable (or maybe I was just so tired it would not matter where I slept!). But here are all of our pillows ready to make the floor bed, haha!
The next day I went for another run in Central Park...
And then we went to Grand Central and ate more yummy food (I think I had salmon toast and a green smoothie) on our way to Aux Merveuilleux de Fred.
Found the cutest little park to eat some treats!
Then we went to Chelsea Market...
And the Highline...
And Little Island, which was so beautiful. We ate some snacks here and watched the boats on the Hudson.
It's pretty hard to see in this picture, but this is the old White Star Line dock where the Titanic was supposed to come in and...did not. So I took a photo of the very faded White Star lettering for my Titanic-obsessed kids. (You can still see some of the dock piles sticking out of the water.)
Made a quick stop at Greenwich Letterpress (where I bought the coolest color-change candles that are currently on my dining room table, my kids are obsessed with them.)
Recharged our phones and ourselves at Molly's Cupcakes!
Loved the flower installations everywhere!
Passed a cool street fair and did some browsing...
The best treats at Dominique Ansel (seriously, the kouign amann is always the best thing I eat in NYC).
Then we walked past a few places our kids really cared about (my kids were more impressed by the Ghostbusters fire station and less by Taylor Swift's apartment, but Melissa's daughter happened to be at my house when she sent the Marco Polo from Taylor Swift's, so at least my kids heard what the appropriate teenage reaction should be, haha!).
And then on to the thing we had all been REALLY excited for--Music Man with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster!
I cannot even describe how good this show was. It was AMAZING in every way possible. Every single person on that stage seemed like they were having the absolute best time of their lives, Hugh Jackman was incredibly magnetic and charismatic and SO talented, Sutton Foster was hilarious (I never thought of Marian as funny, but she was amazing!), and the whole show was just SO SO SO good. Absolutely go see it if you can.
And of course we waited at the stage door!!!
And then we went to Joe's Pizza in Times Square which was WILD at midnight on a Saturday; Melissa commented that this was the most people she had been around since the pandemic began! It was seriously nuts.
The next morning we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral and caught part of mass before our brunch reservation--I'm so glad we had time to do this! I love St. Patrick's and it was so beautiful to hear the mass and the gorgeous organ.
So, so, so beautiful. I said a lot of prayers in here during Ruth's treatments; it was really good to be back sitting in those pews and think about how much progress she has made.
We slipped into the Lego store quickly just to grab a few photos for our kids...look at these fun moms!
And then went to brunch; I was so obsessed with how gorgeous La Grande Boucherie is and took a million pics of everything.
That mosaic tile!! Seriously, totally swooning over it.
Love the bathroom doors...
A couple views of the oyster bar (that ceiling!).
Elise texted me from here while she was ordering asking what I'd ordered and when I told her the mussels she said "I KNEW IT." (Okay I am predictable but seriously the best meal of my life started with mussels when we were in this tiny little town in France, so I always order mussels if they're on the menu.)
A perfect end to a perfect weekend--can't wait for the next one!! So so so much fun exploring a city I adore with friends I love so dearly.
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