Welcome To New York, It’s Been Waiting For You

An early morning wake up call and two flights later, we landed in New York City just in time for lunch and a day celebrating Fourth of July.

After a moment of panic when I realized I lost my brand new hat (it was adorable, guys), I had to sadly leave the airport empty handed. But I couldn’t be too sad, because soon enough we drove into my favorite city in the world.

We checked into our hotel for the week and took a stroll down to The Great American Health Bar for lunch.

I ordered a fresh squeezed orange juice to rehydrate after the flights.

And what I thought would be a light salad, turned into a hearty lunch.

The Great American Health Bar is a completely kosher, mostly vegetarian haunch right in the heart of the city. Famous for it’s late night celebrity stop-ins and awesome salads, we knew it would be the perfect first stop on our adventure.

And it did not disappoint. My taco salad was amazing, filled to the brim with fresh veggies, and the taco shell was the best I’ve ever had.

Once we finished up lunch, we took a jaunt down to FAO Schwarz to visit one more time before it closes.

We found out from someone who works there that due to a crazy increase in rent (it’s been in that spot since it first opened in 1862) FAO Schwarz will be closing early July, moving the entire inventory and employees to it’s parent store, Toys R Us, until it moves to a new (and secret!) location and reopens sometime in 2016.

Of course that meant we had to stop by the Schweetz shop for some candy.

My sister, Hannah, and I took this as an opportunity to try any and all of the sweets we hadn’t tried before (and some of our favorites too!).

Feeling wired after inhaling our gummies and skittles, we walked over to the beautiful St. Patrick’s Cathedral to show Jordin and his sister, who’s never been to NYC before.

Aren’t the stained glass windows spectacular?

We lit a candle for our loved ones and headed back out into the city streets.

I love walking through New York as the sun is setting, and tonight was especially pretty, with a nice cool crisp in the air, which was very surprising for July.

We tried to stay away from the large crowds, and settled into a restaurant right down the street from our hotel, Rue 57.

I ordered the homemade chicken soup, which is probably my favorite thing on the menu.

We also enjoyed oysters.

And lots of truffle fries.

I finished the night off with a spicy crab roll, and then headed back to the hotel to catch some zzz’s so I’m rested for a big day out on the town tomorrow…