our trip to NYC...

Our trip to NYC was my favorite trip yet. I absolutely LOVE the city. I know it’s not for everyone, but for me, it’s my favorite place. I dreamed of going to New York growing up, and I had the chance to go for the first time in 2005 on a college mission trip. I fell in love and literally cried when I had to leave. I’ve somehow managed to go back at least once, sometimes twice, every year since 2005. Kaz has already said I have to take off next year:( I may be able to find a loophole in that:)

We had a great time, and so relaxing. I put a lot of thought and time in this trip because I’ve always wanted to go at Christmas. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in the amount of lights that we saw. There were a lot in certain places, but in some places it didn’t even look like Christmas. My favorite place in the city, is looking at the Plaza Hotel and Central Park. It’s absolutely beautiful to me. Kaz and I love Central Park, so I decided to look for hotels around Central Park, and I don’t think I could have found a better hotel location for us. Our hotel was right beside the Plaza and our view from our hotel room was the Plaza and the front of Central Park. It was stunning. We stayed at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel. We WILL stay there again. 

We landed Friday morning and after checking in, went to eat breakfast at Sarabeth’s[right next door]. I made reservations because I had heard so many great things about it, and let me just say, it was DELICIOUS! We liked it so much we went back another morning. After breakfast, we walked along 5th avenue, by Rockefeller Center, and in Central Park. We watched the sea lions at the Central Park zoo[one of my favorite things to do] and sat in the park for awhile with a hot chocolate. We went to FAO and found WAY TOO many things we wanted to get Annie Rice, so we decided to just leave with some candy instead, and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We ate dinner at STK. We always do 1 night of a really nice dinner. This was our night. Our bill was close to $150 but we did enjoy ourselves and all the delicious food! 

Day 2: Saturday

We walked A LOT this day. We went through all the Christmas markets at Bryant Park and walked down to the high-line and ended in the meatpacking district. I had heard a lot of great things about a mexican restaurant in meatpacking called Tortilla Flats, so we ate lunch there. It was good, but not great. I wasn’t impressed but the atmosphere was great. We walked through lots of shops around Soho, Greenwich village, etc. When I travel, I always look at On Vacation Location, and found out Zach Efron was filming a movie around where we were. It wouldn’t be a NYC trip without me celebrity gawking a little right? So we sat for about an hour around where he was filming and then after about freezing to death, decided to keep walking. He was inside a building, so we never saw him. We had dinner that night at Da Andrea with Kaz’s uncle and family and had a great time catching up and spending time with family. The spaghetti was SO GOOD!

Day 3: Sunday

This was my FAVORITE day there. It was so relaxing. We slept in late, and had brunch at Serendipity. For dessert, we had one of there famous frozen hot chocolates. I have decided, I MUST got to Serendipity on every trip from here on out to NYC. The decor and atmosphere is so fun. 

After brunch, we took a LONG nap! We got up and got ready to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was a WONDERFUL show! We ended with pizza at John’s Pizzeria. OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE PIZZA place EVER. I’ve gone there[usually more than once] on every trip to NYC except 1. 

Day 4: Monday

We had breakfast at my favorite breakfast nook near Time Square, db Bistro Moderne. There french toast is amazing:) After breakfast, we did a little more celebrity gawking of Blue Bloods. Again, there were filming inside, but it’s still fun to look! We went in Macy’s and Bloomingdales, and then relaxed a little more at the hotel before going BACK to Johns’ pizza:) Monday was a very COLD and rainy day. We picked up dessert on our way home, and ended the night with a movie:)

Day 5: Tuesday

We had half the day before it was time to leave the city. We went back to Sarabeth’s for breakfast. Again, SO GOOD! We grabbed our hot chocolate and spent the remainder of our time in Central Park. 

We had such a fun, fun time. I loved seeing all the lights, and walking through the city. We also ate really really good!  It was a much needed trip for Kaz and I, and I don’t know how it could have been any better.  New York is a magical place to me, and I hope the Lord continues to allow me to make more trips in the future. 

exhausted...

AND THE BEST PART OF OUR TRIP, coming home to see our girls! Maggie Ruth rolled over for the first time while we were gone:( And we told Annie Rice, we had a surprise for her and she kept thinking it was a candy cane or chicken and fries:) Sweet girl. We gave her a marshmallow sucker! She LOVED it!