Weekend Recap - NYC Edition

Per usual, signing on to do a little recap on a Tuesday morning. It was a little tough getting back into the swing of the things yesterday, especially with a seemingly ever growing list of holiday to-dos, but several cups of coffee helped. BUT we've made it to mid-week, people ;) Gotta love a holiday work week.

But for now... let's go back to New York.

Chelsie and I left Chicago on Wednesday night after work, landed at Laguardia around 10 p.m., and headed to our hotel. There were a few mishaps at the hotel which first wound us up in the most rundown room I've ever been in (and I don't have high standards, so that's saying something ;) ), and then to the smallest room I've ever been in (but at least it was clean). Luckily we were moved to a renovated room the next night which was actually pretty nice.

We started out Thursday morning by getting breakfast at a diner on the way to the SATC tour.

cornbread french toast YES OKAY

We met at The Plaza for our tour and I sent Sammy several snaps making as many Home Alone II references as I could.

on the bus!

Wonderful photo, per usual, but we were in a moving bus, OKAY? They were putting the Christmas tree up (that's it behind the Swarovski sign) and I wanted to show Sammy how they do it. There are a bunch of guys on each level of that steel structure behind the sign putting the tree up and then our tour guide talked about how they have to secure the Swarovski tree topper to the surrounding buildings because it's so heavy.

I went on the SATC tour with my mom when she took me to NYC when I was sixteen and at the height of my SATC obsession. At the time, they were promoting the first movie, so they hadn't added any movie sights to the tour yet. It was fun to go a second time and see some of the same stops but also the ones they've added since the movies have come out.

One of those movie sights was the restaurant where Carrie and Big have their rehearsal dinner. They weren't opened yet, so it was cool to walk around with limited people inside.

We of course went to Carrie's stoop. This is my third time going there (told ya, obsessed), and I loved getting to see it again with Chels.

As we were walking back toward the bus, I had to stop and take a photo of this person's front door. It was so beautiful! That glossy black? I can't.

Toward the end of the tour it started to snow (which was fun because there were people on our bus from other countries who hadn't ever seen snow before!) and we ducked into Magnolia's hoping to get a treat. They're slooooow in there and we had to get back on the bus, so we gave up our space in line. But I had to snap a picture of the cakes in the steamy window--I loved all the vintage stands they were sitting on.

One of our last stops was the bar Aiden and Steve open together, Scout (not called that in real life). We had a cosmo and watched the snow fall outside the window. It felt very New York.

After the tour, the snow started to come down even harder but it was incredibly wet so we got soaked as we walked around a market in Bryant Park. It was still beautiful though!

Since we got dropped off near the New York Public Library (where Carrie and Big are supposed to get married the first time), we decided to duck inside to warm up and dry off a bit. It was so cool to walk around in there.

The original stuffed animals that inspired Winnie the Pooh are in there which was fun to see. Look at Piglet! 

After that we walked over to Two Boots for some pizza. It came as a recommendation to me from a former coworker who used to work in NYC and we definitely enjoyed it. They had some cool, unique flavors that were fun to try (mine had spinach and artichoke dip on it instead of pizza sauce). 

Chelsie's husband is a saint and stopped by the house on Thursday and Friday evening while Sammy was working to help us out by taking Henry out and hanging with him for a bit. So naturally we facetimed with him ;)

After dinner, we tried to get an Uber or taxi, but it was rush hour and the traffic was so bad, we couldn't get anything, so made the miserably cold and wet walk to the theatre where we saw Frozen!

It felt so good to get inside and warm up!

I like Frozen, but I'm not a nut about it like everyone else is, so I wasn't expecting all that much from the show, but I should know better than to assume anything less than stellar from Broadway shows because I've never seen a bad one--and Frozen was no different. It was incredible, especially the children. They blew me away. And they released fake snow at the end which was really magical.

We decided to stop in the Old Navy in Times Square on the way back to our hotel because "they were having a sale" and not because Old Navy is one of our favorite stores ever ;)

We finally made it back to the hotel, but not before passing a Ben & Jerry's on the way and forcing ourselves in to get midnight snacks to take back with us.

Friday morning we had plans to grab something from Levain and walk around Central Park.

I got a baguette with jam and butter and a cafe au lait and lived my best life on a bench in the park.

I've been to Central Park almost each time I've been to NYC and have always enjoyed it, but not like this time. I couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. If I lived in Manhattan, I don't think I could go enough (at least during the day, it would be ignorant of me not to mention how dangerous it can get at night).

We sat on a bench and walked around a bit before heading out of the park.

We exited the park right near The Plaza and were luckily able to hail a cab right away because we had an appointment to get to... ;)

I will fully admit to being a little apprehensive about making an appointment at Kleinfeld just because we JUST got engaged, don't have any date set (which Kleinfeld requires when you make an appointment, so I had to fudge it a little bit...) or plans made, etc. So far, getting engaged and the start of wedding planning has been more overwhelming than blissful, so I was a little worried I'd have a SATC rip-this-dress-off-me moment in the dressing room. 

But I'm happy to report, from the moment we stepped into Kleinfeld, I was nothing but giddy and excited. It was SO nice and relieving to enjoy a wedding related task (which makes me sounds all sorts of ungrateful and bratty because, as always, millions of people have actual problems, but this has been my experience so far, just wanting to be honest).

If you watch SYTTD, everything looks exactly like it does on TV. The lobby, the showroom, the dressing rooms, everything! I even got to wear the robe the brides wear on TV ;)

My consultant was so lovely and she had an assistant (who ended up being Robert De Niro's cousin!--the blonde woman behind me) who was SO up my alley as a human, I can't even stand it. She had this intuition about her that was so engaging. She guessed my astrological sign based on how I was talking haha and then guessed what me and my girlfriend did for a living, the city where Sammy and I got engaged, etc. It was so fun to be around her because I love people like that.

I tried on a lot of dresses that I had saved to my Kleinfeld account prior to coming (they ask you to do that so your consultant knows a little about your style before you arrive) which were almost entirely a-line skirts. I realized I saved a lot of those dresses in the same style because it's what I consider to be the "safe" choice for my body, as if that's the only style my body-type should be wearing. Even though they were lovely (the one in the picture above was one of my very favorites I tried on), I realized that I didn't want to get lost in a dress and I didn't want to settle for something I had convinced myself I "had" to wear because I'm of a certain weight. So because my eyes are naturally drawn to dresses that are more fitted, that's the direction we went in and I couldn't be happier. I'm so happy my consultant pulled fitted dresses for me because, while I still want to lost some weight before our wedding, I'm really thrilled with how I look in them TODAY and that's a result of reworking many, many years of thinking about my body negatively. It was a liberating thing to say, fuck it, I'm not wearing a dress I don't absolutely love just because it's the kind of dress I've convinced myself I need to wear. BYE. So went full on Jessica Rabbit in this bitch and I was/am a happy camper. 

I had actually shown Sammy a few of the dresses I was saving on my account as I saved them, and OF COURSE, the dress I ended up loving the most is the one he said he didn't like haha. People keep telling me if I end up getting that dress, or something similar, he probably won't even remember because it'll look different on me than the model OBV, but still, I was like classic, that would happen to us haha.

I mean, have you ever in your life?

I only saved one form fitting dress on my account and my consultant wasn't pulling it because it was a little outside my price point, but I asked her if I could see it on me just because I wanted to rule that style out because I was adamant it wouldn't look good on me. WRONG ;)

(only reason I'm not including a picture of me in it is because I don't want Sammy to see on the off chance he reads this haha)

I'm really happy that I found something I love so early on because now I can keep an eye on that designer (I love all their other stuff too) and I have a clearer idea of the style I want.

It was a wonderful experience and I will forever be grateful to Chelsie for suggesting it. There have been a handful of wedding-related things I've always wanted to do and have thought about forever, and going dress shopping with Chelsie, just us two, has been at the top of the list, and it was nothing short of incredible to get to do that at a place like Kleinfeld. I will truly never forget it.

After our appointment, we stopped into a bar for some bubbly, which was so fun, and talked for hours. Then we stopped at Vanessa's for some dumplings and everything else on the menu.

There was a Trader Joe's and a Trader Joe's wine shop down the street, so we stopped in and got some snacks before heading back to the hotel. And were settled in bed before 9 p.m. And appropriately so, the finale of SATC was on E! to be followed by the movie, which we happily watched among all our snacks.

I think Friday was my favorite day of the trip. We did the best things and it felt so easy and relaxed and so much a representation of our friendship. I just loved it so much.

Saturday we got up and had reservations for brunch aka bottomless mimosas and bellinis.

I got short rib eggs benedict that were so good. We stayed there for about two hours drinking our weight in mimosas (I eventually switched to bellinis because they were so good). 

We wandered to our Queen's pop-up shop and browsed while still a little tipsy which was fun.

And ya girl may or may not have gone home with this sparkly blue limited editions. (The picture doesn't do them justice, they're so magical. And may be my wedding shoes, who knows.)

We had plans to go to the 9/11 museum, but needed a snack beforehand, so we stopped for bagels before grabbing an Uber.

We did the smaller memorial museum (about a block or so from the actual memorial) first, and then did the (much) larger museum second. We stayed until after they closed and could have stayed longer. It's a hard thing to write about because the magnitude of that day is still so strongly felt and remembered, and it's weird to say that the museum is so good because the subject is so awful, but it's probably the best museum I've ever been to. It's curated and organized impeccably. It was truly humbling to be the presence of not only the memorial itself, which is so beautifully done, but also all the items within the museum, especially people's personal artifacts. While it can be a difficult space to be in (I could see some of the images and video footage, even the sirens, being triggering for some people), I think it's important every single person, especially Americans, who pass through NYC go and visit. 

After the museum, we grabbed dinner at Da Marino's which is where Big takes Carrie and sings to her in SATC. The tour continues even without a guide! ;) This is a terrible picture but it kind of gives a glimpse into the atmosphere. 

I was surprised to find the food was just OK. By the end of the trip, I realized that I think I need to go to Brooklyn for all those hole-in-the-wall restaurants I was hoping to find in Manhattan. 

On Sunday morning we got up and finished packing our bags before heading out to lunch. My dad had recommended a restaurant that ended up being really close to our hotel, so we walked over to Don Antonio's for some fried pizza.

But first, we started with fried spaghetti cakes, a decision that needs ZERO explanation.

This place is famous for their fried pizza; they fry the dough before baking it in their wood oven. It's as good as it sounds.

After that, per another recommendation from my former coworker, we walked over to Ample Hills for some ice cream which she told me would blow our minds. And it did. Like really blew them. And I don't even like ice cream all that much.

I got a dark chocolate Guinness flavored ice cream (two flavors I absolutely hate, let alone put together, so that's saying something about how good the ice cream is) with spiced brownies, brown butter cookie dough, and toffee bits. And if that was diabetes enough, I got a scoop of "the munchies" which was pretzel flavored ice cream with pretzel bits, crushed m&ms, ritz crackers, and potato chips. And I'd like to eat that flavor for the rest of my life.

We grabbed our bags from the hotel before heading to the airport and got there with just enough time to relax a little bit before boarding. It was so nice to get home in the earlier part of the evening because I had time to visit with my mom, brother, and grandma before heading home (Chelsie and both went to our parents house from the airport). 

But the night wasn't without it's stressful moments haha. Sammy was working and Henry had gotten out of the kitchen because the gates weren't entirely closed and had accidents all over the house, so that was fun to deal with when I got home haha. But then again, who can get mad at this face? 

Even after dealing with all that, I was still able to unpack and relax for a little bit before Sammy came home.

It was such an awesome trip and I'm SO glad we were able to do it, especially at this stage in our lives. No one else I'd rather do it with.

Even though I've loved all the traveling I've done in the last two months, I'm glad to be home with no trips in sight, which is a weird thing to say because ideally, I'd always be traveling or have something on the horizon. I think I'm just excited to spend this next season, especially because of the holidays, at home with my boys. But I have a feeling come March when it's still thirty degrees over here, I'll be itching to get on a plane somewhere warm ;)

Have a great week, all! xo