Hi!
It's been a minute ... heck ... it's been FOREVER since I've posted on here. But life has been hectic and also at sometimes boring. Funny how that works.
But anyways! I'm back to share a recap of my weekend in NYC! I had the pleasure of tagging along with my mom to the city that never sleeps and it was glorious. The weather was PERFECT. Probably the one time I've gone to NYC that it wasn't rainy, humid, or extremely windy and cold.
The trip started Saturday morning. My boyfriend and I accidentally overslept past our alarms, putting us an hour behind schedule. We had to drive to my mom's in Maryland and from there we started our trek! Not before stopping and fueling up with some good ol' healthy breakfast from Bojangles (if you couldn't tell, I'm being sarcastic ;)). Once we had our breakfast, we were on our way! The GPS took us a scenic route through Maryland and Delaware, seeing places we had never seen before. The drive wasn't bad at all, it wasn't until we were close to the city that we started to get some traffic.
Once we got to the city, we parked in a garage not too far from the hotel, maybe all of one block over and one block up. I used SpotHero to book the parking garage and for 24 hours it was $55. Then we walked to our hotel on 43rd St. We stayed at the Westin hotel which was quite lovely and clean. A nice place to pretty much just put your head down for the night.
After checking into the hotel we went and met my mom's coworkers/friends for lunch as they were visiting NYC from Seattle! It was really nice being able to meet people I hear my mom talk about constantly. We went to a restaurant called Obao in Hell's Kitchen. One thing I must warn if you are planning to go to NYC anytime during the pandemic probably, you must have a vaccine card and ID to dine inside places! I completely forgot mine but was able to retrieve a picture of it I had stored online.
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Shrimp Pad Thai
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At Obao, I had a Thai Iced Tea and the Shrimp Pad Thai. Overall, the food was delicious, the atmosphere was enjoyable with ambiance jazzy music playing, and I felt safe!
After eating at Obao we had to go to Macy's on 34th St. for my mom! Knowing that it was such a short trip, I didn't have many items to check off my list. Over the years I've been able to go to NYC plenty of times and I don't really care so much for tourist things as I've been able to do a lot luckily. I just cared to have fun, be safe, eat good food and have good drinks and just make some memories. At Macy's my mom secured some Stuart Weitzman boots! One day when I "grow up" I'll be like her ;). But as for this trip, I just wanted to go to the Muji store and maybe try a unique bakery/cafe!
After Macy's we went back to our hotel so she didn't have to haul the boots around all day and then we went to Muji and some stores in Time Square (which is not a place I prefer to hangout around in). In Times Square I just cared to see the Disney store mostly :). We also went to MAC and then we were on our way to our dinner reservation at a Cuban restaurant in Times Square called Havana and honestly the drinks and appetizers there were pretty filling.
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| Passionfruit Mojito! |
At Havana, we had mojitos galore! I got a passionfruit one and then a pineapple one. We also had empanadas and Mexican street corn. I decided I was quite full from the drinks and apps and just wanted a Guacamole salad with shrimp. Unfortunately I didn't realize 9 shrimp on my salad would turn it from a $9 salad to a $27 salad! That's roughly $2 a shrimp which I found quite ridiculous. Nonetheless the food was good and so were the drinks but just be warned. Eating in NYC can be expensive, I have found though that the more you stay out of the Times Square area the cheaper the food is so keep that in mind.
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| Radio City Music Hall |
After eating dinner we decided to take a stroll up 5th avenue all the way to where Central Park begins. After our walk we decided to start walking back down and took a quick stop in Duane Reade. I needed a toothbrush and we stopped to buy some bottled water and other necessities. Once back at the hotel, we all just got ready for bed and hit the hay. I'm not the type of person who likes sleeping under the covers so I was freezing cold for most of the night until I put one of my cardigans on!
The next morning we woke up and tried to work out a plan for what to do with the less than 3 hours we had left in the city. We decided that getting some coffee and tea was a good start. I found a place called UT47 which looked really cool so we decided to head to that. It's located in Hell's Kitchen off 47th St.
Once we got there, it was definitely a popping place. They had mochi, boba, macarons, coffee, tea, breakfast, you name it. They even had some Vegan options! My mom decided to get some macarons and I had the iced maple latte with oat milk and it was delicious!
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| They can their iced beverages! It was so bizarre but cool! |
As we moved onto our next food location, I sipped on my maple iced latte. My only concern was that people were going to think I was drinking beer at like 10 AM. We decided to get some cookies from Schmackary's. At the time that I'm writing this post, I only tried the Hummingbird cookie my bf got. Everything looked good and they had lots of options!
After getting Schmackary's I made my way to the Muji behind Bryant Park. Both stores were kind of a bust with not nearly the same amounts of stationary and pen inventory that they had pre-pandemic. I have resorted to probably just trying to look online for stuff.
After we left Muji we just walked down 5th Ave. to 34th St. I decided to take some pictures of the Empire State building as it's one of my favs!
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| Empire State Building |
Then we decided to try to find a boba place that wasn't a chain that we have back home in Northern VA! We decided to try out Yifang Fruit Tea which was located on 6th Ave. (Also, I'm just now seeing that YiFang is a chain and there are some locations somewhat close to us *facepalm*).
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| Passion Fruit Green Tea |
I had a passion fruit green tea and it was perfectly sweet yet tangy! I would definitely recommend giving it a try.
After getting our Boba tea, we decided to go to Joe's Pizza to get some authentic New York style slices for on the way home. We got a Supreme pizza and the store was packed. I really enjoyed looking at the pictures on their walls of all the celebrities that have come before!
Once the pizza was secured, we made our way back to the hotel but the Carlos' Bakery on 41st St. was just calling my name so I decided to stop to get a chocolate cannoli and a lobster tail pastry! Then we raced back to the hotel to collect our bags, say goodbye, and we were on our way. Of course we couldn't end the road trip without a stop to Waffle House and having some yummy breakfast for dinner!
Overall, it was such a sweet weekend and I couldn't have asked for more. If you've made it this far I just want to say thanks so much for reading! Down below I will recap the food places we went to and that I recommend.
- Obao of 9th Ave.
- Havana Central off 46th St.
- Ut47 Kitchen off 47th St.
- Schmackary's off 45th St.
- Yifang Fruit Tea off 6th Ave.
- Joe's Pizza off Broadway
- Carlos' Bakery off 8th Ave.
Well that's all for now folks and friends!
Until next time,
XOXO,
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