Hey guys! So all my blogs these days seem to be about traveling…but that feels like it’s all I’ve been doing. It seems like I haven’t posted anything “normal” in forever…and I never even told you about our trip to San Antonio last month!
{All of this traveling always seems like a good idea three months out but I always end up behind on everything with these consecutive weekend trips.}
Anyway, I am NOT complaining about my trip to New York last weekend. I had a fantastic trip—probably my favorite in awhile… Travel was easy, the shopping was good…and we saw Newsies.
Friday morning I hopped on a 9:30 train {with the help of an Amtrak redcap who was suspiciously friendly and snuck me on the train early… Spent the first 20 minutes of the ride thinking my gullible self was being trafficked to a sex camp}. Once I relaxed and realized I was indeed on a legit train, I enjoyed my Starbucks, my Kindle, the huge seats and quiet car, clean bathrooms, and the plug for all of my gadgets. “Why don’t I take the train everywhere??”
{Because typically, the tickets cost more than a plane and it takes 3x as long…}
But I snagged a ticket for $80—well worth the easy travel. No lines, no IDs, pack all the liquids you want! Amtrak: lower your prices and I am sold.
Anywho. By 12:30 I was in the city meeting up with my favorite ladies. After a quick lunch {spinach & ricotta pizza} and dropping my bags at the hotel, we went downtown to the 9/11 Memorial where we had 2:30 reservations.
I’m glad we went, but I will say, it took a long time. After picking up our tickets, we walked a good six or eight blocks to the entrance…then through a mile of lines, showing our tickets 16 times, going through security… Just to get in. It was well worth the trip and the people honored there deserve so much more than we could ever build, but there wasn’t much to look at. We spent about 10 minutes walking around the park and reading the names along the sides of the fountains {a North and a South, positioned precisely where the towers stood}, amazed at how quiet it was in the park, just yards away from the hustle and bustle. It was a gorgeous day and I’m so glad we went and showed our respect. Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel and rested up for our dinner at Joanne Trattoria.
Also known as Lady Gaga’s parent’s restaurant that just opened last month.
This place doesn’t have a speck of Lady Gaga-ness in it, you would never know she had anything to do with it—it’s small and quaint with lots of exposed brick and green moss and twinkle lights. The focaccia bread was delicious, the stuffed mushrooms outstanding, and I voted my eggplant parm was the best order of the table. I know New York has a million Italian restaurants to choose from, but Joanne was worth the trip!
It is also well positioned one block down from Magnolia Bakery’s Columbus Ave location so we grabbed some cupcakes and banana pudding to take back to the hotel.
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Saturday was all shopping… We headed toward Union Square where we hit up Fish’s Eddy—one of my favorite stores in NYC. The inventory is generally the same whenever I go, but it’s always fun to go in.
We also went to a new store I’ve been stalking online and I love it so much that I almost don’t want to tell you about it. {Shhhh… it’s Joe Fresh} It’s fairly priced without being overstocked and crowded {like H&M or Forever 21} and it’s full of bold solids and my favorite—horizontal stripes! We spent at least an hour in there and I think between the three of us, we tried everything on. I can’t wait to go back! {I was too busy shopping to take pictures.}
From there we went to lunch at Hill Country Chicken—a spot I meant to eat at with my mom when we were there last summer, but ran out of time… It is so cute, so NOT Manhattan, and the food was awesome.
We ordered a Mama’s Coop: 4 pieces of chicken, two sides, two biscuits, and two mini pies for the three of us. It was too much! But sooooo good.
{We also found out there’s a Hill Country Barbeque—on my list for next time!}
More shopping followed after lunch until we were exhausted and needed to clean up and rest for our Saturday night show—Newsies!!
This is the same show we saw in September when Tyler kidnapped me {remember that?}, but it was only in previews in New Jersey then. Because it such an outstanding show, it was picked up for Broadway, where it has been in previews for the last week or two and officially opens tonight!
The cast was the same as in September and they were just amazing…phenomenal: Jeremy Jordan, Kara Lindsay, Andrew Keenan-Bolger…. I was initially hesitant at the minor story changes and really bummed with the lyric changes {How can I sing along??}, but now that I’ve seen it a few times I’m ready for the new soundtrack.
{Did you hear that? Hell just froze over…}
In an attempt to be objective: the actors are so talented, the story and dancing so energetic, and the audience so excited to see this story come to life after 20 years, I have no doubt that anyone will love this show without the slightest bit of nostalgia needed to supplement. The audience was insane, everyone was cheering from the start, and ready to give a standing O after the opening song. No one was ready to go by the end—the applause lasted forever like, “Maybe if we all clap long enough, they’ll all come back for more!”
{Unfortunately Broadway doesn’t work like that…}
We weren’t out of the theater before the cast was out front signing autographs. I was too cool for school to push my way in but it was so fun to stand to the side and watch the actors and the excited fans. {I’m not too cool to follow them all on Twitter though…ha.} After such a high energy show, I was impressed how quickly they were out there giving more of themselves. The show runs through August and all signs are pointing to a ton of success—way to go guys, you deserve it!
{Try and resist this—I dare you. I double dare you.}
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As if this blog weren’t long enough, we still had one day left in New York! Nothing big this day—we went to Chinatown for cheap purses and a quest to find my beloved discontinued perfume {to no avail.}
I did buy this beautiful “Tory Burch” bag though! I had no intention of doing any shady purse shopping, I was just looking at this cute green purse and of course if you so much as glance at a purse, they’re all over you trying to haggle. Then I heard, “I put Tora Birsh laba on fuh yoo!” SOLD!
{Yes, it is as big as it looks!}
Then, as we were wandering through Soho, we happened upon C. Wonder… This store was oozing with horizontal stripes and preppiness. I squealed every time I turned a new corner… They had clothes, jewelry, purses, luggage, housewares… It was such a cool store.
We spent some time in Times Square and Rockefeller Center before all going our separate ways back to our respective cities. A few hours later I was back in DC…I wasn’t ready to leave though and have since spent the last three days trying to convince my husband we should move to New York!
Come on, wouldn’t we make great Manhattan-ites for a year or two? Tyler’s job is up at the end of the year anyway, so why not? {Have I told you that? Maybe not—Tyler’s boss isn’t running for re-election in November so his job is done in January. This was big news a few months ago…}
And thus concludes the longest blog ever—sorry, I hate reading long blogs too. Hopefully you at least enjoyed the pictures and got a few new ideas on where to go the next time you’re in New York. 
{I’ll be adding this blog to my travel page—I recently spruced it up. Go check it out!}
