New York City

I've been quite the traveler lately. I got back from Disney on Tuesday night, worked for a couple days, and then I headed to my mom's house in New Jersey. My mom and I decided awhile ago to do a New York City weekend since neither one of us has spent much time there (I think I've been there for about 24 hours total). We were there for 2 days and managed to do and see a lot.

We started with shopping in Greenwich Village. We went to the Magnolia Bakery for its award winning cupcakes. There was a line around the block for these cupcakes. Crazy. My review: good, but not earth-shattering. The icing was very sugary and while I like my sweets, I've never been a fan of straight sugar. But they were good and a fun experience.

We also found the Coach store and I got the most adorable purse. The purse is exclusive to the NYC store and part of their Legacy collection. God, I feel like such a girl. I normally don't care about brand names and all that but I just LOVE Coach. I usually contain my Coach shopping to the outlet store but I could NOT resist this bag. Below are some pics that don't do my new purse justice. I'm not sure if you can tell, but it's actually a very small bag, and the striped lining is in both of the outside pouches and the center section.

We also checked out some of the boutiques and I tried on a bunch of stuff. But at the end of the day, I couldn't get past the price tags: $300 for a shirt??? Seriously? I do not live in that world. We stumbled on a street fair which was more our style and I found a cute, artsy shirt there (not even remotely close to $300). We also went to a store called Century 21 which is supposed to have great discounts on designer clothing and shoes. It was basically a giant department store where you pick through things and there is very little organization. I no longer find this type of shopping fun, although I might have enjoyed it in my younger years. We also didn't find a lot of truly "designer" clothing. We did however find some nice brands for shoes- Manolo Blahnik shoes for $200 instead of the normal $500 price tag. Would someone like to explain how a pair of shoes is ever worth $500??? Needless to say, we left empty-handed.

We went to see Patti LuPone in Gypsy on Saturday night. She was amazing but the show was, um, "eh". My mom and I both left feeling like it wasn't a very well-written show, was kind of over-dramatic, and lacked substance. We also got half price tickets on Sunday to A Chorus Line. That's an old favorite that we saw when I was a kid and I've grown up knowing the music. That was a lot of fun.

We made sure to get some New York style pizza and also ate at a really good Italian restaurant near Times Square. We walked around Times Square and went to the M&M store. I also spotted the Naked Cowboy and had to get a picture. I also have pictures of him and I together but I am SO not posting those here. In case there's any question: yes he's kind of a pervert, yes hugging him was creepy, and yes I felt a little dirty afterwards. Totally worth it. ;)

One of the most memorable experiences was taking one of the bike carts (as opposed to a cab). It's basically a 2 person cart pulled by a guy on a bike. It was more like a ride than transportation. Our guy weaved through traffic and came within inches of other moving vehicles. This is a great way to travel the city.

We headed back to my mom's house and had planned for a few days at the beach but the weather was crummy. We ended up just visiting and I left a little early for home. Better to save those vacation days for good weather.