Brooklyn

Sadly our last day together has come. Shayda and Katie headed out early but Ceci, myself, and a few of our NYC friends went to brunch at tbsp.

Maddie had the Cinnamon French Toast made with brioche bread. I think she ate the bacon first and avoided the fruit altogether :)

I had huevos rancheros. Mmmmmm

Meet Ceci's friends, Alejandro and Anil. They're clearly lovin' the brunch spread.

After brunch we all parted ways and I headed to Brooklyn with Maddie, who I'll be staying with for the rest of my trip. We spent the afternoon doing Brooklyn-y things, like lounging outside with drinks and ice pops....

 ...and playing air hockey with the new table Maddie found on a stoop. Moose was probably better at the game than the two of us.

We spent the evening watching the VMAs, which were actually being held right down the street from us.

Loved all the charming townhouses on the tree-lined streets.

Maddie had been going on about this life-changing pizza place in Brooklyn. It's called Lucali and it's one of those tiny little places that you sit practically on top of the person at the next table, but it's worth because the food is so good. They have a specific list of topping options each night. After much debate we landed on half artichoke/garlic and half pepperoni/hot pepper. Still deciding which half was my favorite.

She had been raving about their dessert calzone. It's stuffed with ricotta cheese and topped with nutella, honey, salt, and powdered sugar. I made friends with the staff and they were fans of the fact that i'm a blogger, so they gave us two desserts instead of the just one we ordered. I thought that I wouldn't be able to finish a whole one alone....

...but clearly that wasn't a problem. It was melt in your mouth good. Sweet, creamy, and just a little bit of saltiness.

Brooklyn was a nice little breather from the hustle and bustle of the city, but there's STILL so much left to do. Be sure to check back for the last two days of my adventures!

XO,
Lo

Tweet Pin It Now!

NYC Part 2

After our day of roaming Chinatown and Soho, we got all dolled up and went out on the town. We went to dinner at Brio in Flatiron with Shayda's friend Jen. We ended up here sorta by mistake. In the middle of dinner we realized that Jen thought we had picked it, but we all though Jen told us about it. Still not exactly sure how we got there, but i'm glad we did because it was deeeelish. We had a perfect view of the Flatiron Building from our table.

Their house wine was Gavi, my favorite!

 After dinner we headed to the super chic rooftop bar 230 5th. I mean, LOOK at this view!

So excited to finally reunite with my friend Maddie from school! She's an official New Yorker now.

What initially I thought was a major photo fail, I decided it was cool after a couple looks, so here ya go.

Cheersing our street gyros. They're from a food truck right next to our hotel, we definitely visited it more than once.

Day 3 in NYC we spent waiting on an imaginary Jay-Z concert. Here's the story: One of our friend's who is somewhat of a social media/celebrity expert told us there was rumors he was having a secret show in Brooklyn with Beyonce and Justin Timberlake. Being that this was the day before the VMAs, and that lots of websites were talking about it, we decided there was a decent chance it could happen. We weren't about to miss any concert of this caliber, so we hiked on over to Bushwick and found the rumored spot. There were a few hundred people there anxiously waiting with us....Three hours later nothing had happened. Finally we reluctantly headed out, only later to find that the whole thing was a hoax. Oh well, it makes for a great story!

At least we had some pretty art to look at.

After our concert letdown, we went to Smorgusburg. It's a flea food market type thing held in Williamsburg. It's great because there's just about any food you could want. Most things are in fairly small portions so you can jump around from tent to tent and munch on anything from mac and cheese to tacos to ice cream to....you get the picture.

  

Chowing down on our shrimp tacos.

Tons of people were just sitting out with their food and admiring the view.

This was our last full day together. Wish we had longer! 

I'm still not done with all my adventures though. I'll be spending the next couple days running around Manhattan on my own so be sure to check it out!

XO,
Lo

Tweet Pin It Now!

NYC Part 1

This week I'm hitting up the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps, the...yes I'm going to keep using as many cliches as I can think of. Sorry. I flew in for a long weekend with three of my favorite girls. We met during study abroad last summer and have decided to keep the travel going. I visited them in Atlanta earlier in the year and this time we decided to do it big and go to NYC. Travel weary and a bit delirious, we got in Thursday afternoon and headed straight out on the town. First stop: Times Square.

Introductions are in order. Meet Ceci, Katie and Shayda. Ceci, ever the little traveler, just wrapped up a cross country roadtrip from California to New York. I'm jealous.

Dinner was at John's Pizza. It's housed in an old church which provided quite a beautiful little setting for dinner.

By far my favorite sangria I've ever had. Not too sweet and not too dry.

 We had the bruschetta pizza on whole wheat dough. So so yummy.

The famous Macy's at Herald Square (sadly minus all the Rockettes dancing like on Thanksgiving day). You could easily spend half of a day roaming all the floors. I spent a little too much time in the shoe section.

Our fearless leader hailing our cab.

 Up and at 'em for day two. On the agenda is roaming through Chinatown and Soho.

Loving their bubble teas in Chinatown.

Lunch was at Burger + Barrell in Soho. I happen to completely agree with their sign.

 I had the truffle burger served with truffle fries. It sounded like a great plan, and it was really good, but half way through I was experiencing truffle overload. I still managed to eat most of it though.

After lunch we took the subway to Grand Central to have a look around....

Ceci and I playing at the whispering wall. If you stand and talk into one corner the person can hear you at the opposite end.

I think the Chrysler building is my favorite of the skyline.

We then headed over to Bryant Park, possibly one of my favorite spots in the city. In just a couple weeks they'll be setting up for fashion week here.

Shayda and I had a mini photo shoot while we were there. When I say mini I mean like thirty pics of each other. 

This was a HUGE moment. Grom is a gelato chain we discovered while we were all in Italy together and visited it almost daily. NYC is the only location in the U.S., so I have been dreaming about visiting for months.

I had pistachio, salted carmel, and crema di grom (vanilla with graham cracker and chocolate pieces). If you ever find yourself near a Grom, GO! It is without a doubt the best.

Content after our gelato fix, we wrapped up day two and headed back to the hotel. There's tons more left for us to do in the city so check back tomorrow for more adventuring!

XO,

Lo

Tweet Pin It Now!