NYC Girls' Weekend

This past weekend I was able to join my mom and sister in New York City for a girls' weekend. My mom had to be there for work (NY bridal fashion week), so Kenzie and I took advantage of the free hotel room and tagged along. The only bummer was that my mom did have to work during the day. We did get her at night, though!  

The night we arrived, we enjoyed our first yummy meal of the trip (certainly not the last - come on peeps, it's me, you know good food - lots of it - is going to be involved), recommended to me by my friends the Halls. It was a Mediterranean restaurant called Akdeniz near our hotel in Midtown.  

The next day, my mom went off to work, and I took Kenzie on her first subway ride. Thanks to the most handy app ever - Hopstop (thanks, Mandy for telling me about this one!) - it was a cinch to get around the subway. Our first stop was Doughnut Plant near Soho. I've heard about this place forever and knew it was a must. We tried the Peanut Butter and Blackberry Jam, the Creme Brulee, and Tres Leches. To describe them as delicious is a complete understatement. Instead, I'll just say they're life changing. 

After doughnuts, we walked about a mile over to Soho for shopping. A few hours there, and then we walked up through Union Square and Madison Square Park. We were hoping to eat at the Shake Shack, but the line was ridiculously long and despite our morning doughnut binge, we were actually super hungry again and didn't feel like waiting in line. So we opted to grab a sandwich at Mario Batali's marketplace, Eataly, and eat near the Shake Shack :)

Food pics - Akdeniz salad, Seredipity sundaes, Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookie, and the PB and Blackberry doughnut from Doughnut Plant

Madison Square Park

After lunch in the park, my friend Beth joined us to head over to Chelsea to walk the Highline... but surprise, surprise, during the walk over to Chelsea we found our way into a bake shop to test out a macaroon. Beth got strawberry thyme and it was incredible. My banana nutella didn't even compare.

At the Highline, we met up with another friend of ours who just happened to be in NYC the same weekend. 

Angie, JP, Kenz, me and Beth

At the end of the mile-long walk was Chelsea Market - a charming indoor market place with a ton of eateries and markets. Definitely worth checking out and grabbing yourself a Jacques Torres cookie. 

My mom was able to get out of work for a couple hours and joined the gang in Chelsea. We then explored several of the major fashion designers stores around the Meat Packing District.

After a couple hours of fun, my mom had to head back to her showroom for the runway rehearsal. Kenz and I decided to go back and watch her in action. And can I just say, my mom is awesome! It was so fun to see her doing her thing - reminded me of my childhood when she directed and choreographed all our church and school plays... and that was just child's play. This was the real deal. Needless to say, we had a blast watching the runway rehearsal and observing my mom in action.

Saturday morning we got to sit in on the first show of the day. The models and dresses were beautiful.

After the show, Kenz and I headed up to Todd English's Food Hall under The Plaza. Then it was off to gawk at the amazing clothes at Bergdorf Goodman and a walk through the Upper East Side.

Oh, and a quick stop at Dylan's Candy Bar

That night we had Italian at Serafina's, walked through Time Square and saw NEWSIES!

Newsies was so good. So so so good! 

So good!

After the show, we chatted for a couple hours over dessert and finally made it to bed around 2 a.m. As you can imagine, getting my 19-year-old sister out of bed before 10... before 11 was impossible. So we got a late start Sunday. We walked over to the West Side, had lunch at Eatery (super yummy food), met up with Beth, JP and Angie again and went on a bike ride through Central Park. This was another highlight of the trip for me. It was such a fun way to see this massive park.

That night we had dinner at Dos Caminos (great guacamole and Mexican street corn) and dessert at Serendipity.

It was such a fun trip - and the first girls' trip the three of us have taken... certainly not going to be the last. 

Love you girls!

And believe it or not, Ryan and Westin did survive five days without me. They filled the time with mini-golf, plane watching at LAX, a Dodger game (Westin's first - he LOVED it), playing baseball, and watching baseball :)

Definitely missed these two!