My youngest sister Julie came for a visit earlier this month. We had a fantastic time. She and I started her visit off with a weekend trip to NYC. As I mentioned a few months ago, when my sister Sarah visited, Manhattan offers endless things to do. This was my ninth trip to the city and it was just as fun as my first visit. It's getting so much easier for me to navigate the city now- which is a major bonus. Julie didn't have too much on her agenda. She wanted to hang out in Central Park- eat good food, and just walk around different neighborhoods.
We chose a boutique hotel on the Upper West Side, Hotel Belleclaire. They were offering a pretty good summer deal, and I love boutique hotels. Hotel Belleclaire is in a perfect location- right near Central Park. It was an easy walk to Lincoln Center, where we enjoyed an al fresco lunch across the street at Josephina. We had hoped to score tickets to Shakespeare in the Park, but the line was ridiculous by the time we got there. Instead, we decided to head to Brooklyn and make the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It had been on my list of things to do for a while, and the weather was absolutely perfect. When we got to Brooklyn, we happened to pass a TKTS booth that had no line, so we spontaneously decided to buy discount tickets for an Off-Broadway show for that evening. I can't explain it, but that fueled our energy for walking the Brooklyn Bridge. It just felt like everything was going right! We were both in great, goofy moods!
After we made complete fools of ourselves on the bridge, we headed back up to our hotel and got ready for dinner and the show. We saw "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" at the Westside Theater. Conveniently, there was a really cute restaurant located right next door, called Elsewhere. We had a light dinner- with an appetizer of Lavender, Rosemary Popcorn, that I think we will both remember forever. It had a perfect combination of sweet and savory with a honey butter in addition to the herbs. It was fabulous- and I will be creating my own version. (I will share it with you, of course!)
The show was great- all about life, narrated through the clothes we wear. It wasn't necessarily what we expected, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. It is funny to think back on life's experiences and think about the fashion trends of the time. There is a particularly hilarious discussion about purses. After the show, we headed over to Serendipity for sundaes. The next few pictures will sum that up.
Haha, did Julie defeat the sundae or did the sundae defeat her? Maybe a little of both? The next day, we had brunch at Sarabeth's, which was phenomenal and I highly recommend. Afterwards, we just did a bunch of walking around before catching our train home. It was another fantastic trip to the city- full of great food and fun!
