NYC...finally!

So a long time ago, I promised a recap of my New York City trip with my mom.  At long last, said recap is here!  (Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures of really delicious and bad-for-you food.)

We stayed at the 6 Columbus hotel in Columbus Circle.  The first night we were there, we were in a teeny room (I know NYC hotels are small, but this one was ridiculously so!).  It was a bit on the dark and dreary side too.  We got lucky (and came across some very nice people who worked there) and moved to a really nice room the next day.  The hotel is adjacent to Central Park and has a subway stop right next to it, so it was a great location for us.

It was also adjacent to the Time Warner Center, which is home to one of my favorite bakeries: Bouchon Bakery!  My number one travel vice is that I eat pastry essentially nonstop whilst on vacation, and this trip was no exception.

Our annual Mother-Daughter NYC trip started last year as a way to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so this year, we had to start off by seeing the Schiaparelli and Prada Impossible Conversations exhibit.  We were there the week after the Met Ball, so it was fun to visualize all of the previous fanciness taking place.

The exhibit itself was awesome!  You could get pretty up close and personal to the garments that were on display, which I really enjoyed, and the short films depicting fictional conversations between Prada and Schiparelli -- on topics like whether fashion is art, or whether embellishment belongs near a woman's face or her lower body -- were fascinating.

After we left the museum, we took a little stroll down Park Avenue and looked at the gorgeous buildings.

On my way to NYC, the airport bookstore cashier stuck this Anderson Cooper bookmark in my Us Weekly, and he hilariously became our trip's unofficial mascot.  Here he is enjoying the sunny afternoon at Shake Shack (tip: the Madison Square Park outpost is charming, but the line is absurd.  We went to the Upper East Side location, and it was great!).

After we had fueled up, we walked to the J. Crew Collection store, which carries lots of the fancy Collection items that aren't in regular J. Crew stores.  It's cool to see and touch things like this skirt in person.  (It felt amazingly soft and luxurious, if you're curious.)

That night, we went to see Death of a Salesman.  It was devastatingly awesome.  I say that because it's so depressing and tragic (you keep thinking, well this can't get any worse, yet it keeps doing so), but the performances were amazing.  Philip Seymour Hoffman was absolutely mesmerizing, and Andrew Garfield was surprisingly good.  Also, Andrew Garfield was surprisingly ripped.  It took me most of Act One to get over it.  Don't you think of him as being super skinny?

The next morning, we headed to Soho for some serious shopping and wandering.  We stopped at Dean & DeLuca for pastries and cookies breakfast and coffee, which was the perfect way to start the day.

We shopped until we dropped (literally)...

...and rested our tired feet at the Kate Spade shop on Broome Street (just like last year!).

We ate a late lunch at Joe's Pizza.  Earlier this year, I went to New York City with my husband, who cares not a whit about food in general, but takes New York-style pizza in particular very seriously.  We had pizza three times in one day, and Joe's was the clear winner.  It is so, SO good, so I had to go back.  There's a square across the street to sit in and eat your pizza in the sun, too.

From there, we walked to the Magnolia Bakery in the West Village.  Mmmmmm.  We ended up eating too much and had to cancel our dinner reservation at Cafe Cluny!  Whoopsie.

Also, the Village is just lovely.  The tree-lined streets are so pretty, and there are charming shops and restaurants on every corner (and lots in between).

That night, we went to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which could not possibly have been more the opposite of Death of a Salesman.  It was 100% upbeat, and Nick Jonas played the lead role, in which he was perfectly hammy (also, we just about died of the giggles when it was revealed that our trip mascot, Anderson Cooper, was the narrator!).  Afterwards, we ended up eating dinner at Five Napkin Burger, which was really delicious (and predictably required a lot of napkins). 

The next day, we hit up Fishs Eddy and ABC Carpet & Home (both of which I highly recommend!) before heading to Eataly for lunch.  The lemon sorbet was as good as any of the limone gelato that I had in Italy.  (Warning: this place is nuthouse crowded.  Mentally prepare.)

That night we went to the Top of the Rock to see the nighttime skyline.  The lobby of the building was crowded with people getting in line for the Mick Jagger-hosted Saturday Night Live, and my mom almost successfully maneuvered us in by feigning confusion over what line we were supposed to be in.  So close (and also so close to being escorted out and forbidden from ever returning to NBC property, ever)!

On Sunday, we caught the tail end of church (making us sort of bad, but sort of good, right?) at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is really breathtaking.

We had our last bits of pastry at Bouchon (good thing we were leaving soon, because pants zippage was becoming a problem).

And visited Grand Central Station, which is just as grand as it looks in movies. 

While we were inside, we saw a mother and her grown son trying to take a picture of themselves, so we offered to do it for them.  The mom thanked us and said, "My son won a marathon today!"  We were obviously impressed, until the son rolled his eyes and was like, "Mom, it was a 5K."  Still impressive, but funny to see how moms never stop overstating their children's accomplishments.  Exhibit A: my personal paparazzo.

So there you have it: one truly awesome trip to New York City!  I think NYC just might be my favorite long weekend destination.  What's yours?

(All images belong to Tall and Salty)