12/28-31/2019
We headed to NYC for a few days in the Big Apple to see all the holiday festivities. I have been to New York tons of times, but never at the holidays, and was SO excited to finally be there. We flew in around 2 PM and immediately headed out on the town after checking in at the Excelsior hotel.
First, we walked just across the street from our hotel to Central Park. We meandered through the park exploring as we made our way to the Wollman Rink.
The Wollman rink is just on the edge of the park by the Plaza and was featured in Home Alone 2.
We grabbed a pretzel from a cute stand just outside Central Park.
And then we headed to Bryant Park, where there’s a winter village, ice skating rink, and giant Christmas tree.
We ate a delicious and authentic Italian dinner at Eataly. We then headed to Chelsea Market and got dessert at the Doughnuttery, one of my favorite places ever!
We ended the night in Times Square, seeing all the bright lights and crowded streets just ahead of New Years Eve.
We started day 2 with a cute breakfast at Tarallucci e Vino (where we ended up going everyday).
We then headed to the Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes! It was an amazing show!
We then grabbed a quick lunch at Serendipity, which was so adorable and VERY crowded. We were lucky to get a seat quickly and try the delicious frozen hot chocolate.
We then made our way across the river to the New York Hall of Science! We saw the lego exhibit (The Art of Brick), that Brandon loved, and Gingerbread Lane, before making our very own gingerbread house in a sweet class!
We then headed down to Brooklyn to Brooklyn Flea where we explored and ate a yummy dinner from Smorgasborg overlooking the beautiful view of the city.
We finished out the night with a quick stop at the pop up Miracle on 9th, and getting Insomnia cookies!
Day 3 started again with a cute breakfast before we headed to the Hudson Yards where we were surprised to be able to get free tickets to go up inside the Vessel, which was such an amazing experience!
We then started our walking tour of all the city’s most Christmassy things!
We saw the plaza and Eloise, one of my favorite childhood Christmas movies.
We window shopped an saw all the beautiful decorations on 5th avenue!
We stopped for every Christmas tree we saw, saw Grand Central Station, and the Lotte Palace Hotel (from Gossip Girl).
We saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral!
And stopped at the ornaments outside Radio City Music Hall.
We had to see Rockefeller Center of course! It was as awe-inspiring as I imagined.
We stopped for a New York Slice right outside the Empire State Building.
And then went to the top in the crazy winds.
Later in the evening, we headed to Restoration Hardware for dinner reservations and to explore our favorite home decor store.
We finished out the night at 230 5th rooftop, where we drank hot chocolate with a view of the Empire State Building among some fun igloos.
It was the BEST trip, our first solo trip since we got married! We can’t wait for the next one.
