New York, NEW YORKKKK!
I have ALWAYS wanted to live in NYC even though I’ve only been a few times. When I was in college and working at the J. Crew call center I dreamed of working at 770 (the headquarters for J. Crew) and meeting Jenna Lyons and living a fabulous life. Life didn’t pan out that way (shocker) and instead I moved back to Dallas even though I applied for about 2500 jobs in NYC.
Fast forward, now I have a ton of friends from high school, college, and birthright that live in NYC so now I can just go visit them and experience all of the greatness that New York has to offer, without having to pay the taxes 😉 #winning
My sister and I were really wanting to go on a trip to NYC and it also happened to be one of our friend’s birthdays the weekend that we were interested in going. A college friend that lives close to the city also just had a baby and is moving out of the country so I wanted to see her before she moves away. There were just a lot of good reasons to go and I had the vacation time, so we decided to hit it upppp.
We left Dallas on a Friday afternoon and got in kinda late to a veryyyyy chilly New York. We dropped our stuff off at our AirBnB in LES (Lower East Side) and found a sushi place for a quick bite. The next day we went over to pick up my Cronut order (Julia gave me the insider tip to order ahead and not have to wait in line like a PEASANT). I had pre-ordered two cronuts two weeks in advance. The flavor for November was Banana Hazelnut, which to me didn’t sound suuuuper amazing, but lemme tell ya it was DELICIOUS. Believe the hype, get yourself a cronut from Dominique Ansel’s bakery next time you’re in town. You will not be disappointed!
After the cronuts we were in search of a warmer winter coat for Tara since homegirl only brought a light jacket to NYC when the temperature was going to be in the 40s…. We then made our way to get some knishes at Yonah Schimmel’s Knish Bakery. Several of them were vegan so Tara went to town and even got a bagel to-go as a snick snack for later. We walked all over the city just exploring and made our way to the Chelsea Market to meet my friend Patty and her husband, Michael. I hadn’t seen Patty since I was in college so it was really nice to catch up and we served as a great distraction since they were on their way to a surprise party for Michael. After hanging out with them we got MORE sushi before heading back to the AirBnB.
Saturday night was our friend Natalie’s birthday. We hadn’t seen her since the summer on birthright and one of our other birthright friends, Ben, was also in town so we were pumped for our mini-reunion. Before the party we pre-gamed at Ben’s parent’s apartment on the Upper East Side and met his sister Alex who came along with us to the party. We had such a good time catching up, drinking, and dancing the night away. Tara and I got a little turned around at the end of the night and instead of just walking across the street to our AirBnB from the last club we went to, we got a cab to it and the guy never told us it was LITERALLY right across the street. He drove us around the block AND then charged us $10!… We figured it out the next morning. #failÂ
The next day we met our other college friend, Brently, for brunch at this suuuuper nice vegan place near Chealsea. We then walked the High Line and saw tons of cool buildings while chatting. He had some stuff to do so Tara and I decided to walk around Central Park. She REALLY wanted to climb a rock and got her opportunity. We enjoyed people watching for a good portion of the afternoon and looked forward to the next day.
Monday came and we had more food adventures to attend. First stop was Russ and Daughters for bagels, lox, and latkas. Then we trekked our way to Brooklyn for RAINBOW bagels from The Bagel Store and prime thrift store shopping. We took a mixture of cabs, Ubers, the subway, and our own two feet the entire trip. I was nervous about which subway stops to take, but my friend recommended using the Citymapper app to tell us EXACTLY which stops to take. It was awesome for subway stops, less awesome for walking directions, but we made it wherever we needed to go.
After Brooklyn we made our way back to Midtown to the Empire State Building! Our friend, Sahara, from high school works at a PR agency in the building and was able to get us the VIP tour past all of the lines FO FREEEEE! She really hooked it up and we were so happy to see her, even if for a short while.
After seeing the building and getting a drink with her, we headed to dinner with another college friend, Nathan! The three of us hung out a ton in college and it’s been several years since we have all been together at the same time. He filled us in on his life and job and his love for New York, all the while convincing me even more than it is my destiny to live there. He was battling a cold and had to work the next day so we didn’t stay out late, but I was really glad he took the time to see us.
The next day we were very sad as we prepared to leave and go back to our normal lives. We tried another vegan place down the street for breakfast and then found another donut place on our walk back. We headed out to the airport pretty early since we needed to vacate our AirBnB and just hung out in the American Airlines lounge for a few hours. They had a guacamole bar at this one and Tara was pretty pleased with the selection of vegan-friendly snacks. Our flight home was pretty chill and the next day we were back in the grind of normalcy. It was a short trip, but very fun and full of friends and food.
Here’s to hopefully visiting again in the near future!
-Savvy
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