Whirlwind Stop in New York

Four days might not sound like a whirlwind stop, but when you are talking about New York City, it is! I met up with Jacqui at JFK after flying in from Orlando, and we headed to our cute boutique hotel in downtown Manhattan – Hotel Giraffe. By the time we arrived, unpacked and got organised it was already late afternoon and we had dinner booked for Nobu at 6.30pm. Nobu was as good as always, never a disappointment! On Saturday we got ready with the intent of having breakfast/brunch at Pastis, but upon discovering one of our favourite places, Le Pain, only a few blocks again we succumb to it! You just can’t go past their organic mint lemonade. After breakfast we stopped in a Filene’s Basement on 6th Ave, and then headed to Soho, namely Bleecker St. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting some of our favourite places, and to even my surprise, I walked out of Marc Jacobs bagless! Needless to say, I had acquired a bag or 2 already! We then walked from Bleecker down to Soho, and by 6pm our feet needed some rest. We intended to have dinner at Lombardi’s pizza, but when we saw the line, we chose another pizzeria nearby and then trekked back, with shopping bags in tow, to the hotel.

On Sunday we had an early start, as we were heading out to Woodbury Common, the biggest outlet centre in the world located about an hour outside of New York. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel, and caught a taxi to the Port Authority at 42nd St where the bus departed from. The outlets have gotten even bigger since we were there 2 years ago. We arrived just as they opened at 10am, and put in a very solid effort, catching the 7pm bus home.... a very long day but well worth all the bargains we found! Needless to say, we crashed pretty soon after getting home. On Monday we decided to try out breakfast as a cute little French Cafe we had walked past earlier in the week, and is was a good decision. The French Roast is now another place we can add to the very short list in the US who can make a good and proper espresso coffee. A great discovery. After breakfast we caught the subway to the Upper East Side to spend some time on 5th and Madison Avenues. We had lunch at the cafe inside DKNY and checked out the massive shoe department in Saks on 5th Ave. Would you believe it’s so big, it even has its own postcode! By Monday afternoon our feet were truly starting to feel the pain of pounding the pavement for 3 days straight so we decided to find somewhere close to home for dinner. We found a quiet little diner just 2 blocks from the hotel, which our feet definitely appreciated!

And before we knew it, Tuesday had come around and it was time for me to head to Canada.... see I told you it was a whirlwind trip to New York! As a final New York experience, we had breakfast at the famed Balthazar in Soho, but unforetunately it did not live up to expectations whatsoever. Next time we'll be sticking to Le Pain. So a few bags heavier, I flew via Toronto to visit Matt and Sherry in Calgary.