On a scale of 1-10 how tired are you of hearing about our trips to New York City? 😉

I hope you’re still hovering around the lower end, because I want to share a little about our latest adventure! This trip was extra special, because I booked my first ever NYC-based commercial photography client AND got to take my family along for the fun. I was equally excited and nervous about the opportunity and so thankful that the client was happy with what I delivered… that’s always a relief! And once the work part of the trip was finished, I got to relax and just enjoy being in our favorite place. We visited some of our usual spots and tried a few new experiences too.

Here are a few highlights:

– Kingston’s favorite bagel place is Leo’s Bagels in the Financial District. So after getting into the city and dropping our bags at our hotel, we went to the nearest subway station, bought our Metro cards and headed straight to Leo’s. To our surprise the line was almost 2 blocks long! This was our first mid-morning on a Saturday experience at the shop, and we had no idea what we were in for! Normally, we would have kept right on walking past that line, but Kingston had been talking about a bagel sandwich from Leo’s for weeks. So we stood in line for 1.5 hours and got our yummy sandwiches then took them to a nearby park and enjoyed every single bite! Was it worth the wait? The bagels are consistently good, but honestly, there aren’t many things in my book that are worthy of that kind of time. Our kid was so happy though, so… yes? haha!

– We took our time exploring Eataly in the flatiron district for the first time. Everything in the huge market is imported from Italy, so we got a kick out of all the different foods. I found a cookie the size of my head, the guys had some delish (and beautiful) pastries, we saw giant cheese wheels and huge slabs of meat hanging from the ceiling, watched a chef teach a pasta making class (definitely checking that out next time), and Kingston bought a fancy bottle of oregano infused olive oil. The sounds, smells, and beautiful food made us feel like we were back in Italy!

– The New York Transit Museum store inside Grand Central is one of our favorite shops for fun souvenirs. We stop in on almost every trip. But we had never been to the museum itself, so I put that on our list, and it turned out to be such an interesting place. First of all, the New York Transit Museum is located inside an old subway station (in Brooklyn). How cool is that?! And it’s full of pictures and stories about the history of public transit in New York. We all agreed that our favorite part was the area with all the different subway cars dating back to the early 1900s. We walked through all of them and loved looking at the old signs and advertisements from the last 100 years. What a fun piece of history!

– We had a great experience staying at StayPineapple NYC for the first time! This boutique property is located in the garment district and is full of funky, unexpected artwork. We had adjoining rooms and got the best surprise when we opened our curtains to find the biggest terrace we’ve ever seen in NYC! Hotel rooms in the city are notoriously small, but the terrace made us feel like we had so much space to relax and enjoy the fresh air. We also loved that StayPineapple offered welcome drinks, provided cozy robes, and each bed had double duvets, so Anderson and I got our own covers – ha! Genius. I’ve reached the stage in life where a hotel bed can make or break a trip. So I’m happy to report that I had the best sleep every night! This hotel was the perfect home base for our adventures, and they have unique properties all over the country that I want to check out for future trips!

– Our favorite meals were all in the breakfast/brunch category this time: breakfast at Maman (they BEST French food and one of our must-stop spots), brunch at Jack’s Wife Freda (the Soho location is my fav!), and an extra bougie breakfast at The Palm Court inside The Plaza Hotel. Did you know you can have breakfast at The Plaza even if you aren’t staying there? The only catch is that you can’t get a reservation, but if you walk in anytime before 9:00am you can try to get a table! Pro tip: There’s usually plenty of availability on weekdays. They also offer tea time in the afternoon, and you can get a reservation for that. The Plaza has such an interesting past! We read a bunch of facts about it during breakfast, and our favorite one was that a Russian princess once lived there for two years with her dogs, cat, pig, owl, and an alligator!

Other highlights included: taking in the breathtaking sights from Top of the Rock, stopping at the fire station from the original Ghostbusters movie, finding a piece of the Berlin Wall, getting coconut creme donuts from two different Doughnut Plant locations, dinner at Tavola, finding a “Team Cronut” shirt for Grandma at Dominique Ansel Bakery (she was Cronut sitting!), a sunny day in Central Park, having dinner at The Smith with friends who recently moved to the city, finding out that some of our other friends who moved to Texas were also in town and getting to randomly meet up with them, the holiday market in Bryant Park, sharing a pie at Adrienne’s Pizzabar. I try to document our travels in my Instagram highlights, or you can click here for more fun adventures.

I always leave this city with a full, grateful heart – and this time was no exception. It’s never lost on me that every trip, every adventure is a gift!