🚕Saturday🚕

Our final day in NYC was the one that we travelled around the most. We were able to meet up with lots of our friends which was such a nice treat.

1. Breakfast- Doughnut Plant

The walls were decorated with giant plush doughnuts.

Our friends Jaron and Natalie were in NYC at the same time as us. We had such a great time exploring the city with them on Saturday.

The doughnuts that the four of us tried. They were so yummy and not your traditional doughnut flavors. ( tres leches, creme brûlée, peach, Valrhona chocolate, cinnamon sugar, and oatmeal) My favorite was the Tres Leches.

2. Highline: A public park built on a freight rail line above the Manhattan West Side. The views were incredible. I could not believe all the gorgeous flowers we saw.

We could even see the Statue of Liberty!

3. Chelsea Market: Loved this place and had such a blast exploring the area!

I grabbed a couple of brownies from Fat Witch for our friends Rachel and Spencer. The Wicked brownie reminded me of Rachel because she loves the musical.

We didn’t eat here but stopped for a photo.

4. Lunch- Shake Shack
We met our friends Matthew and Catherine here. My Minneapolis friend, Naomi told me that I had to stop here. Great hamburgers and fries!

5. Central Park

I tried to convince Justin to rent a row boat but he was not interested.

5. Dinner- Josie’s Restaurant

I could not wait to meet up with my friend, Rachel. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen her since Justin and my wedding. We had such a great night reminiscing about IU. I’m hoping I can convince her husband and her to come visit us in Minneapolis.

I have a feeling I am forgetting some more of the highlights from New York. It was an incredible trip and I am so happy that I got to go with Justin and his parents/ Gail and Bill. I could not have asked for better tour guides. I can’t wait to get all of the pictures printed and in some frames.

Smiles,
Erica

I know the title of this post is cheesy but you know I’m a teacher and I just ❤ a good rhyme!

🚲Friday 🚲

I started my day off by grabbing a taxi (by myself… I’m not sure who is more proud of me… my mom or my husband) and heading to my first Soul Cycle class at the Union Square location. I made sure to call a week in advance and book my class and I am so glad I did. I learned from some other cyclers that the instructor, Marvin is great and that the class would be a blast and full since he hadn’t taught in a couple weeks. Now here is the real shocker… The whole trip I had been looking for Katie Holmes/ a famous person and had not seen anyone… Well you can imagine the excitement I felt when Nate Berkus walked into Soul Cycle and sat down 2 bikes from me (no, I did not get a picture and nope I did not go up and say hi… But yes, I did stare at him a bit.) I must say I am sad that there is no Soul Cycle in Minneapolis because I loved it and would go all the time.

Dean and Deluca- I knew I wanted to stop here when Gail said we should go to SoHo. I bought Justin a sea salt chocolate chip cookie from their bakery and he loved it. I kept thinking about how fun it would be to make a basket of a bunch of their goodies for a housewarming gift or to take on a picnic.

Serendipity 3 had been a place I wanted to go to for a couple of years. I remember it appearing in the movies Serendipity and One Fine Day. It was a fun treat to share.

Have you ever had a celebrity sighting? 

🎨Thursday🎨

1. Breakfast: Ess-a-Bagel
I tried to link to their website but for some reason I am not having luck with it. I had an everything bagel with veggie cream cheese. The bagels had a great texture and the cream cheese was full of yummy veggies. I would definitely suggest you check it out next time you are in New York.

2. Museum: Museum of Modern Art
I really enjoyed seeing the exhibit on 6th floor that reminded me of aspects from my childhood. They had the map and globe from Pee Wee’s Playhouse.

My favorite piece. (from far away you would not know that it is paint brushes)

3. Lunch: Banzo Bar
We stumbled upon this place and I am so happy we did. The best way to explain it is that it is a Mediterranean version of Chipotle. You pick either pita, wrap, salad. Next you pick your filling. I picked pita with falafel and a bunch of veggies.

4. Snack: Magnolia Bakery
My cousin, Marcy suggested that I go here. My favorite was the s’more cupcake and Gail really liked the chocolate cupcake. I ended up buying a cookbook. I will definitely be making cupcakes soon. I can’t decide which ones to make first.

I’ll post part 3 tomorrow.

We have been back from New York for about 24 hours and I have managed to unpack, do four loads of laundry, and upload all of my pictures. I have not blogged in a bit but I wanted to make sure I was organized and had a clear idea of how I wanted to share my experience of visiting New York for the first time. I had been given suggestions from many coworkers, friends, and family members of what we should do while we were in NYC. I wrote them all down and researched a bit online and came up with a list of some spots that I knew I wanted to check out. This is how I saw NYC on our first day there.

🍎Wednesday🍎

1. Lunch: Ben’s Delicatessen …really yummy corned beef and great homemade pickles too!

2. Snack: Baked by Melissa…My favorite flavors were Cinnamon and Tie-Dye. I am going to try and recreate these treats soon for my friends.

3. Dinner: Pellegrino’s…Great restaurant in Little Italy! We met our friends Shai, Mathew, Catherine, and Meredith. This was my favorite meal from the whole trip. I had a mushroom risotto that was so yummy. I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting New York.

Side Note- Gail (Justin’s mom) and I managed to explore 5th avenue a bit in the afternoon on Wednesday. I did not snap any photos while we were exploring. I was able to buy a Dior lip gloss while at Bloomingdales that is a brighter shade than I usually wear.

(still love looking at this picture)

***I’ll post on part 2 tomorrow.***

What are your favorite things to do in NYC?