12 hours in NYC

New York City!!! That place is so magical to me. I feel like I could visit a million times and never see everything I want to see (or, let’s be real, eat everything I want to eat).

This past weekend Josh and I took a whirlwind trip, spending Saturday in Manhattan and Sunday in New Jersey visiting some of our best friends. It’s funny because when I’m on a trip with other people, I am perfectly happy to let someone else take the lead with planning. But when it’s up to me, you’d better pray for my travel companions because they are about to receive a minute-by-minute itinerary that starts at 5am sharp.

We actually stuck to this schedule surprisingly well, even with a morning flight delay. I think it was because I overestimated transportation times. The day was BUSY but so much fun! We started off by taking the metro to Two Hands for brunch. They told us it would be a 30 minute wait, so we decided to take a short stroll down the street and stumbled upon La Colombe. Serendipity! We split the draft latte and WOW. Serious game changer!

Brunch at Two Hands was fantastic. I got the Zoe’s market plate and Josh went with the burger. I loved that it was an Aussie-themed restaurant!

Next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge, then exploring DUMBO on the other side. We basically power walked the whole thing because it was sooooo colddddd. But worth it! That view of the Statue of Liberty, and the Manhattan skyline… love it.

It was 20 degrees and windy so I have zero regrets about wearing this hat

After a quick jaunt around DUMBO (Josh got a beer and I got some chocolate at Foragers), we took the metro to Central Park. Strolled around Central Park and then went to Levain Bakery aka home of The World’s Best Cookies. I really don’t think I’m overstating it when I say that they are the best cookies I have EVER had. I mean just look at those melty chocolate chips and that perfect ooey-gooey center!

Our afternoon was spent hitting up a lot of the New York classics: Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s cathedral, and Times Square. Whew. We really didn’t spend a whole lot of time at any of these because by then it was getting dark and we were tired.

Our final stop of the day was Chelsea Market for dinner. I told Josh I felt more overwhelmed there than in Times Square- soo many delicious food options! It was like Raleigh’s Morgan Street Food Hall on steroids. I finally settled on tacos from Los Tacos and they were diviiine. Homemade tortillas get me every time. Josh got some sort of beef noodle bowl (from I forget where!).

After our bellies were full, we navigated back to Penn Station, then Newark Airport train station, then the actual airport, then took a shuttle to our hotel. SO MUCH TRANSPORTATION. Needless to say I slept veryyy well that night!

The next morning we took a train to visit our friends in New Jersey. We hadn’t seen them since our trip to Chincoteague Island last August, so it was really good to catch up and also to meet their sweet new baby!

Overall: SUCH a fun weekend and I wish I could have spent way more time a) eating my way around NYC, and b) hanging out with our friends. Thankful for so many happy memories!