Travel Diary: New York City

This NYC travel diary is pretty much all about amazing places to eat and drink in the city, which is my favorite kind of trip! Both Mark and I have been to the city several times and had done all of the touristy things, so this trip was mostly about spending time with his sister and her husband at their favorite places. I have got to tell you, going to New York (and pretty much anywhere else) and staying with locals is the way to go. They know all of the best places to take you and where to avoid :) 

Mark's sister works at the XO Group and we were able to see her office when we got in on Thursday, which was so nice and had this stunning view. I don't know how you would get any work done!

On Friday I had my first ever lobster roll at Luke's Lobster! I have to say that I liked the delicious toasted bun a little better than the actual lobster (#allofthecarbs) but it was still good. Also, highly recommend the blueberry lemonade. 

We started Friday night off at The Raines Law Room, which is a speakeasy, hence the poor lighting in the above photo. It was so cute and cozy, and the drinks were 👌

Dinner Friday was at Saxon and Parole where I had, no joke, the best bacon of my life. I made everyone try it because it was that good. If you go, order the burger and you'll see what I'm talking about!

Saturday was spent in Brooklyn, which I was really excited about because I hadn't spent much time there before. It's such a fun and unique part of the city. I knew that I wanted to go to Milk and get ice cream, because hello I'm a blogger and their stuff is so Instagrammable! Sorry, not sorry. Anyway, they have a location in Brooklyn we stopped by and I learned the hard way though that you have to specifically ask for cereal as a topping. Boo. I got the fruity flavored ice cream and it tasted exactly like Fruity Pebbles even without the cereal!

We spent a good part of the day on Saturday at Radegast Hall and Biergarten, which was so fun, and I'm not even a beer drinker! We pretty much parked ourself at a table for several hours and everyone ordered a liter of beer, or in my case a mini cider, and we sampled some excellent sausage. Can you tell in the above photo that it was like 90 degrees out? 😅 It was a pretty hot trip overall, but that's better than rain.

After the beer garden we headed over to the Wythe Hotel which has a rooftop bar that affords you the above view of Manhattan. I love me a good rooftop!

The highlight of Sunday was our brunch cruise around the Statue of Liberty. I'm pretty afraid of boats, but I really enjoyed it and it was a great way to get some beautiful views of the city. Mark's sister joked that she likes to show people the city from a boat so you don't have to deal with the crowds. Can you see that line of people in the picture above? Yikes.

Our last day, Memorial Day, we laid pretty low and hung out at their apartment with lots of food and games.

It was an amazing, and indulgent, trip. It was also just what the doctor ordered after some stress at work. Can't wait to plan our next trip back!

xo Catherine

p.s. you can read my New York Travel Diary from 2014 for a fun comparison if you'd like :)