Another NYC Visitor!

A few months ago, I got a Facebook message from one of my lifelong friends who also happens to be my second cousin who grew up a few miles from me.  She said that she "might" be coming to NYC from Berlin for work a few months down the road and that she would love to see me.  Of course I was super excited but didn't want to get my hopes up because I didn't know when she might be coming or how long we were going to be here.  So when I got a message from her a few weeks ago, again saying that she might be coming soon I started getting even more excited.  Finally, I got confirmation she was coming for sure, for work and wanted to come a few days early to spend some time with me and I could not wait! 

She was slated to get in Friday afternoon at JFK but as is the usual, her flight was delayed over 3 hours.  I managed to get exceptionally lost getting to the airport (my first time ever to JFK) but I got there and after a long ride back on the air train, subway and Path we got back to our place around 9.  We also had to stop for a night time picture of the lovely Freedom Tower.

Here she is settling in for the night after a long flight all the way from Berlin.  She brought me some Germany Starbucks mugs and lots of candy!  If I wasn't already ecstatic to see her I sure was then haha.

We started out early Saturday morning with no real destination (well we did, but nothing set in stone).  We started out around Christopher street and just kind of wandered up toward Gramercy and Chelsea drinking coffee and checking out galleries and such.  We actually only made it around a 10 block radius from where we started, but it was a fantastic day!  We still walked like 10 miles, it was just very concentrated!

We popped into an insanely busy Chelsea Market.

We stumbled across the "Chanel No. 5 In a New Light" exhibit in Tribeca.  It is a pretty amazing little exhibit that just takes a few minutes to walk through but is a delight to all your senses.  At the end we got to make some handmade postcards to send out (for free).  SO keep an eye on your mailbox!  If I know your address off by heart you might get one!  We also got some samples of the "In a New Light" fragrance.

After our morning of wandering we were ready for some lunch.  We stopped at Bubby's Highline for a delicious brunch/lunch.

After lunch we did some more wandering and photo taking.

I found this fragrance... it doesn't smell like anyone I know from Maine haha

The new Whitney had just opened the day before we were in the area.  The line was insane but we went to check out the lobby and giftshop.

We climbed up the Highline to see some views of the city.  Check out my Highline Blog to see more.

Oh and we had the best popsicle ever!

We came across a store I have wanted to visit for a long time the "This Story" store.  Their slogan is "Point of view of a magazine, Changes like a gallery, sells things like a store" Right now it is her story, so it contains all items to empower women and things made by and for women and suggested by different celebrities.  Very cool and some amazing items!

Next stop, one of both of our favorites, the Flatiron building.  We were meeting Josh and Andrea's friend Catherine for dinner.

We grabbed dinner at Punch Bar.  Fantastic!  Tuna Tartare and salmon for me!  That ended our night and Andrea went to stay with Catherine for the night to have a visit.

Sunday was a bit more of a quiet day.  Josh and I kinda just hung out for part of the day, then were bored so we headed into Manhattan in anticipation of a msg from Andrea to meet up somewhere.  Josh had never been on the Highline so we stopped there to check it out and had another popsicle haha.  We wandered a bit until Andrea messaged and we headed over to meet her and Catherine at Grand Central Station.  Love this place!

We wandered bit and took some pics of cool buildings, mainly the Chrysler building which Andrea and I are both in LOVE with.

We stopped at the Pod39 Hotel to go up to their beautiful rooftop patio, Salvation Taco, to have a drink and of course some tacos.  This view is probably the best in the city and the tacos and drinks were also great.  It wasn't packed either which is always a rare treat in NYC.

We really loved that rooftop and spent quite a while up there!  Once we came down we did some more walking as we worked our way back to the Flatiron area to check out Urban Space's Madison Square eats.

At Mad Square Eats they have, in my opinion, the best food selection of all of the Urban Space food markets.  Basically it is a bunch of NYC food vendors in restaurants all in one place.  We got amazing lobster rolls from the Red hook Lobster Pound along with a margarita.  For dessert we got the best Ice Cream sandwiches from Melt Bakery.

Monday, the two of us started out at the NY Public Library.  As you may have seen in previous posts I absolutely adore the Library and I was sure Andrea would too.  We explored the halls for a while and then found their current exhibit "The Public Eye" which talks about how things have change in regard to sharing photos and our lives.  It was actually really interesting.

After the library we went behind it to grab a coffee in the lovely Bryant Park.  It was a gorgeous day!

Any fans of the movie "Scrooged" out there?  The Bryant Park Hotel is in the movie and is on my top 5 list of favorite buildings in the city.  Probably the only black building with gold rooftop.  So pretty.

It was again time for lunch and Andrea wanted to check out Junior's Most Fabulous Cheesecake as recommended by another woman from our hometown.  I had heard of it, but as much as I love cheesecake, I don't generally go somewhere just for dessert.  I sure wish now that i had went there everyday that we have lived here though.  We got just cheesecake (they actually have a huge food menu).  I wanted the carrot cake and Andrea got the strawberry and we shared.  OMG not even kidding you need to go there.  There is a location right off Times Square so easy for tourists to get to.

We needed to walk off that massive amount of cheesecake so we started again, with just a quick glance into Times Square on our way to Rockefeller Center.

Rockefeller Plaza has a new exhibit out front, which is a little different than their usual ones...  but really cool.

Our next stop was FOA Schwartz, but we got to walk by St. Patricks on 5th ave first.  Gorgeous!

Andrea was super excited to go to FAO Schwartz (so was I), the world's largest toy store.  Sadly only 2 days after we visited, word came through that they are closing :(.  Hopefully they will be moving to a new location though.  Anyway, she was really excited to see the Big Piano, but I had another surprise first, Zoltar!  I was really pumped that she was super excited for this too.  We got our fortunes told and both of them were actually pretty awesome.

We stopped at the Muppet building center, I still have to do this!

Blinged out Etch-a-Sketch and Slinky.

Playing the piano.

After leaving the toy store, we decided to go to Dylan's Candy Bar for a drink.  Dylan's ended up being closed for renos but we did stop at Bloomindales on the way and when we walked out there was the queen of NYC herself, SJP, filming an ad on a taxi!  How New York!  I was so excited, this os one person I always really wanted to see while we were here.

After our exciting SJP experience, we walked over toward Central Park.  It was getting to be late afternoon and it was so pretty and a but cooler than the scorching city.

As we were walking, we came across something else that excited me...  I think it was the Fox Network renewal party.  We waited a few mints and got to see a few celebs.

Kellen Lutz:

Will Forte:

Terry Cruz:

Rob Lowe:

And a selfie with Andre Braugher, from one of my favorite shows, Brooklyn 99.

We kept walking and checked out some cutie turtles at the Turtle Pond.

And got to see a gondola in front of the Boathouse. We were exhausted after walking like 13 miles, so headed home for an earlier night!

tuesday was Andrea's last work free day unfortunately.  We started by going to Washington Square Park to enjoy another lovely day.

For lunch we stopped at another pretty iconic place.  Russ and Daughter's at their new Cafe location on the Lowere East side.  These are touted to be the best bagels in NYC and I think they must be!  We both got a plate with bagels and fish and the normal toppings.  Delicious!

Oh and Dessert was chocolate and strawberry french toast,  I don't even like french toast but this was to die for.

Our last few hours before Andrea had to meet her boss in Brooklyn at their AirBNB in Brooklyn were spent wandering in one of my favorite areas, Soho.  The buildings and streets here are so classic and beautiful, not to mention some of my favorite stores are here.

Our very last hurrah was a selfie photo booth in Reformation, a cute store in Soho.

We had such a great time, and I know how laid back her time here was.  Josh and I actually got together again in Brooklyn with Andrea and her boss Sebastian for dinner.  Such a great evening! Any other visitors before we leave at the end of June?  I would love that!