New York City In The Spring

My sister Kelsey and I went to New York City this spring because I won a Travel Mom giveaway! It was so much fun to do our first sister’s trip and experience my favorite city in a new season! I meticulously planned out our itinerary with activities and places that were close to each other, and we had a blast!

April 30

Madison Square Park

The Flatiron Building

Harry Potter Store

This is the first time we’ve been in New York since the Harry Potter Store opened! It was so fun to see all the cute new items since we last went to a store with Harry Potter merch. They have a lot of cool effects and a cafe in the store, but we knew we’d have a lot of good things to eat at our next stop.

Max Brenner

Kelsey and I went to Max Brenner in October 2016 with some family, and we knew it was time to go back! Our waiter was so cool– he had awesome nails and told us all about his favorite doughnut shop in the East Village, which we decided to visit while we were in the area that day.

Washington Square Park

The Friends Apartment

This iconic red shop is where the exterior building shots of Friends were filmed! We’ve never been to the East Village, but I love it! It was fun walking through and seeing all the cute colorful shops and building craftsmanship.

The Doughnut Project

Kelsey and I got a maple cruller at the shop that our waiter at Max Brenner recommended. It was so delicious!

Times Square: shopping

Grand Central Station

Ellen’s Stardust Diner

A long-time bucket list adventure of mine, Ellen’s Stardust Diner, a restaurant with singing waiters and waitresses lived up to the hype! It was sort of expensive, but the food was incredible (take me back to when I was eating those fries!), and the performing waiters and waitresses were AMAZING! My favorite songs were Phantom Of The Opera by James and New York New York by Marquisha!

Paul put a straw on my head during his mash-up of Suicidal and Stand By Me, which my sister thought was hilarious. I loved when Nicole sang Let It Go, flinging straws from her apron as her “snow”, with an assist from another waitress, who blew her hair back with a leaf blower.

Mrs. Doubtfire!!

My favorite movie, Mrs. Doubtfire, was made into a Broadway musical just before the pandemic reached the United States and Broadway closed its doors. I’m so glad I was finally able to see it! It was everything I dreamed and more! They included many of the jokes from the original movie, while putting their own spin on it.

May 1

Winter Garden Theater

Kelsey and I got to the Winter Garden Theater at 6 am, just behind a sweet former New York Times editor, and just in front of three NYC college girls, one of whom happens to be from Utah! It probably wasn’t the best idea, since we were staying pretty far away in Queens the first few days of our vacation, but we (barely!) survived.

We thought the box office opened at 10, but because it was Sunday it opened at 12, so we waited in line for 6 hours in the rush ticket line. It was super cold, so we got Krispy Kreme hot chocolate, and later, I walked to Liberty Bagels on 5th to get us some rainbow bagels! I discovered plain cream cheese is really gross, so we split Kelsey’s strawberry cream cheese one. It took me a lot longer than it was supposed to, because a bike race kept crossing my path!

A lot of people passed us later in the day and commented on how dedicated we were

I tried to spend more time on my kindle than my phone, but my phone was still almost dead by the end of this experience haha! We got into the box office at 12 with a huge line behind us, and got two front row tickets to The Music Man! Cold and exhausting, but even so: 10/10, would do this again.

We ended up missing church because we went the wrong way (I TOLD her smh), but we got 99 cent pizza and sat in front of Macy’s Herald Square instead. After walking around Times Square to stay warm, we headed back to the Winter Garden Theater.

The Music Man

This musical was so well done! Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster did SUCH a good job and it was so sweet! The costumes were amazing, and both Hugh and Sutton broke character and couldn't stop laughing at one point. The audience also raised a record amount of money for Broadway Cares (hundreds of thousands of dollars), which was really cool to witness. I thought some of the actors were going to pass out from excitement!

Serendipity 3

Kelsey and I enjoyed a mint frozen hot cocoa and birthday cake frozen white cocoa! Serendipity’s frozen hot cocoas are enormous but SO GOOD!!

Roosevelt Island Tram

We finished our day by taking a ride on the Roosevelt Island Tram. We hoped to go at sunset but Serendipity took too long, because our reservation kept getting lost, unfortunately. Even so, it was incredible to see the gorgeous city lights. Next time I’m in New York, though, I’m definitely going at sunset.

May 2

Subway to The Park Central Hotel- drop bags off. Subway to Brooklyn

Russ And Daughters Cafe

Russ And Daughters is an amazing, historically female-run Jewish cafe. I got chocolate babka french toast and we ate on a bench in the rain.

Dumbo

Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1

Tragically, I lost most of the pictures I took on this day, because I attempted to transfer them to my computer and permanently deleted them before I realized it didn’t work. I will forever be sad about it, but here’s one I took on my sister’s phone! This cloudy/rainy day was so gorgeous, especially in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Bridge

We walked across the whole thing in the rain! We were so ready for some food, so it’s lucky that our next stop was one of my favorite places to eat in the city!

Little Italy

We went to La Bella Vita and had pizza, spaghetti and the best bread ever— Italian restaurants really know how to do it!

Little Paris

Mid-morning, we went to a new area in NYC: Little Paris! We stopped at Maman for some treats. Kelsey got a raspberry white chocolate cookie and I got a Nutella beignet.

Subway, pretzels outside grand central

The Met Gala

Well, we didn’t actually attend the Met Gala, but we went to The Met when it was going on— that counts, right? We got pretty far up in the crowd to try and see some outfits, but we didn’t see much! Definitely saw Sebastian Stan in his lovely monochromatic hot pink ensemble, though.

Central Park

Suite with view

Thanks to The Travel Mom’s giveaway, we were able to stay in a suite at the gorgeous Park Central Hotel with a view of Times Square on one of the top floors! We had a living room, people. A living room. Plus, just look at this view!

May 3

Grab-and-go breakfast at Park Central

Flower District

Since it’s spring, we had to take a visit to the NYC Flower District. It was so fun to see and smell all the stunning flowers and chat with some of the shop owners and staff! I heard a lot of people discussing the overturning of Roe V. Wade, a historic moment that happened this morning. I won’t really get into what my feelings are about it, other than that I believe people deserve the chance to choose, and that Roe V. Wade was a precedent case for a reason. Regardless, overhearing people discuss big things happening in the world is one of the things I love most about cities, especially New York City.

High Line

We walked past the construction of the new man-made beach and the Vessel at Hudson Yards to get to the High Line, where we walked along a beautiful city garden escape!

Magnolia

Our first time at Magnolia Bakery! We went to the Columbus Circle location. I got their iconic banana pudding, and Kelsey got a chocolate icebox cake, which she loved. I liked the pudding, but I prefer things like this without fruit chunks- I love the flavor, but the texture difference isn’t my favorite.

99 Cent Pizza & Liberty Bagels

Kelsey got another slice at our favorite 99 cent pizza shop (we might be a little obsessed!), but I went back to Liberty Bagels to try another rainbow bagel, this time with oreo cream cheese. This one was so much better, and this is definitely one of my favorite spots to eat in NYC now! I’m hoping to move here in about a year, and I will for sure frequent this amazing shop!

Bikes around Central Park

Redeye Grill

The giveaway included a dinner at the Redeye Grill! It was so good. I got NY strip steak, Kelsey got filet mignon and we split them! We each liked each other’s steak, but liked our own best. I also got black truffle garlic bread, which was the absolute star of the show. I will be going back for that for sure.

Neil Simon Theater

MJ is a new musical at the Neil Simon Theater! The actor playing Michael Jackson was so good, I honestly thought it was the real Michael! Kelsey said it might be tied with her favorite musical, Wicked!

May 4

Summit One Vanderbilt

After checking out of our beautiful hotel and storing our luggage, we headed to Summit One Vanderbilt, a new observation tower! It was raining and very foggy, but still gorgeous!

Glass floor, mirror room, balloon room

Sheep’s Meadow

We got 99 cent pizza from our favorite spot near Central Park, and then headed to Sheep’s Meadow, which was nearly empty due to the rain!

Temple

We walked to the LDS Manhattan Temple since we didn’t get to go to church here yesterday! We didn’t go in, but it was still fun! We walked through The Mall, a lovely tree-lined walk in Central Park on the way back!

Magnolia

Part two at Magnolia Bakery, where I got a funfetti cake, and Kelsey got the chocolate icebox cake again!

Central Park

We returned to Park Central to get our bags, and while Kelsey slept in the lobby, I took one last walk to Central Park! It was a gorgeous day and a gorgeous walk, and I can't wait to come back.

Subway to JFK

We hopped on the subway and said our last goodbyes to NYC. Until next time!

<3 Ashley