I had an absolutely fabulous time in New York City this past weekend (well, long weekend) and that is mostly because of my amazing tour guide Emily. I have been to New York several times throughout my life and covered most of the major attractions - the Statue of Liberty, the Met, Guggenheim, MoMA, Times Square, Empire State Building, Grand Central, etc. - so I was happy to relax and just enjoy the city with Emily.
I arrived mid-morning Thursday, and after checking into my adorable little boutique hotel, The Blakely, I met up with Emily in Tribeca to head to the TRESemme hair studio. It was the last day of fashion week and we wanted to take full advantage. We emerged fabulously coiffed and headed for lunch at Balthazar, which was probably one of the best meals I have had in a long time. We worked off lunch by exploring (and shopping in) SoHo. Eventually, we made our way to the original Magnolia Bakery in the West Village, because we had to have some of their famous banana pudding. After several hours of exploring and taking pictures, I was exhausted from travel and headed uptown to my hotel to relax for the evening (I had been up since 4 am to catch my flight!).
The next day Emily and I decided to live out our Upper East Side Gossip Girl fantasies. We brunched at Sarabeth's (where I met Emily's friend Kate who joined us for part of the day), strolled through Central Park (naturally by Blair's duck pond), stopped by the Plaza, and sat on the steps of the Met (which we also went inside to see the costume gallery and the newly open Le Brun exhibition). After being spotted on the steps of the Met, we headed to Ralph's Coffee to refuel before our appointment on The Top of the Rock.
The Top of the Rock was great and I highly recommend it. It's a perfect view of the city and photo op. After another long day, I grabbed some sushi to go and headed to my new hotel, Le Parker Meridian, to review my notes for my interview the following day.
The next day was the day of my big interview. I was full of nervous energy, so I headed back to Central Park to walk it off. After my interview was over, I did a bit of window shopping down Madison Avenue before heading to Mood (which, sadly, was closed). I also stopped by J.Crew and picked up this adorable gingham lined jacket (pictured above), but more on that later.
That evening I met up with Emily who took me to the most delicious Mexican restaurant, Toloache (in Midtown). We drank fancy margaritas and indulged in a lot of guac and mole. After dinner we strolled through Times Square and headed to Junior's for their famous raspberry swirl cheesecake... because when in New York!
For my last day in the city we started our day brunching at Two Hands in Little Italy before exploring the Lower East Side (where we found the cutest heart wall) and heading down to the Brooklyn Bridge. Thank goodness we got lucky with the weather, it wasn't sunny but we were so happy it wasn't freezing on the bridge. We strolled across, stopping along the way to take a million photos. Afterwards we made a brief stop in Emily's neighborhood, Wall Street, before I had to head uptown and catch an Uber to the airport.
Hopefully I will have good news to share soon as a result of my interview (although, it didn't go spectacularly, so I am not getting my hopes up). But either way, I had an amazing weekend and made a lot of fabulous memories!
XOXOLabels: featured, my travels, NYC, Postcards, US
