Summer Fun // Visiting NYC

Last week, I shared some photos from a wedding that Cameron and I attended in Philadelphia; prior to the wedding, we went to visit my sister and her fiance in NYC! Even though it was a quick trip to the city, we had a really great time and so I wanted share some (ok, a lot of) photos from our visit!

As much as I love Portland, New York is definitely my favorite city! There’s just something about it that’s unlike anywhere else. I love the energy and I feel like I see something new each time I visit. And the nice thing is that because my sister lives there, we always have a reason to go back. That’s why I feel like when we go, we can just enjoy it without feeling pressured to squeeze a bunch of things into one visit. And although I love going to shows and museums and seeing the sights, this particular visit we had such nice weather that we just enjoyed walking around…and eating, of course!

Before going to New York, the one thing that Cam said he really wanted to do was go to Katz’s Deli. We’ve both been here before and it’s super touristy (it’s the restaurant from the “I’ll have what she’s having” scene of When Harry Met Sally) but it’s so so good! Seriously, their pastrami reubens are out of this world! It’s kind of chaotic, but worth trying if you’re in NYC! (especially if you like reubens!)

Happy Cameron 🙂

I asked Cam to take a picture of me and this is what I got…a picture of Steve Buscemi. Ha!

After lunch, we spent the afternoon doing some shopping in Soho and enjoying the weather 🙂

And yes, I realize that it seems a little ridiculous to go to a shopping mecca like New York and go to Old Navy…but maternity clothes are expensive yo! And the ON in Soho happened to have a really good selection of maternity stuff, so I picked up a few pieces…and then made Cam carry them 🙂

After meeting up with my sister and Ben in Union Square, we headed to Brooklyn for dinner!

We ate at a really delicious restaurant called The Gorbals in Williamsburg which I’d highly recommend! It had a really eclectic menu with lots of interesting dishes, along with a sweet rooftop. 

(You can see some of the food pics from this restaurant, as well as the rest of the trip, on my Instagram!)

The next day, we had breakfast with my sister and Ben before work, and then headed out to do some more exploring! They live on the Upper East Side fairly close to the East River, and so this trip we had some time to check out the Carl Schurz Park, which is where Gracie Mansion is located (the official residence of the Mayor of NYC). It was a really nice place to enjoy the gorgeous weather!

We eventually made our way over to Central Park – we had thought about going to the MET, but since we’ve both been a few times, we figured we’d just enjoy the sunshine instead! 🙂 Plus, we got to check out some new (to us) parts of the park we hadn’t explored before, it’s such a beautiful place!

After making our way through Central Park to the Upper West Side, we grabbed some cookies at Levain Bakery (so good!) and enjoyed all the gorgeous architecture in that part of the city!

We made our way down to Columbus Circle and you can kind of see that the temperature says on the CNN sign says 76 degrees – unheard of for New York City in August! It was seriously amazing 🙂

We met my sister at her office in Midtown and then headed to have a late lunch at one of her and Ben’s favorite French spots – La Tarte Flambee! This place is legit and their tarte flambees are delicious 🙂

For dinner, we headed up to Harlem to try out Red Rooster!
It’s owned by Marcus Samuelsson (of Food Network/Top Chef fame) and we’ve been wanting to try it for ages, so I’m glad we finally got around to it on this trip!

We started the evening with chicken & waffles and deviled eggs – they were both great, but the chicken and waffles stole the show for me! They were really simple, but perfectly cooked. For my meal, I had the mac & greens with maple bacon – it was definitely some of the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever tried! The bacon and collard greens added so much flavor. It was a really filling dish though! And surprisingly, that little side salad it came with was also amazing because it was so perfectly dressed! Everyone really enjoyed their food, but it be prepared to leave this place absolutely stuffed!

Red Rooster is definitely a popular spot! I really enjoyed the vibe of the restaurant and the food was amazing! I’ll admit though, it did feel almost little voyeuristic to go to Harlem, an area we’d probably never venture up to otherwise, just to go to this restaurant. Clearly lots of people do the same thing…but then there were a lot of homeless people around the restaurant who actually live in the area that provide quite a contrast to the people dining. It just felt a little strange to come up to Harlem to have “soul food” that’s supposed to be influenced by the neighborhood…and then try to get in a cab out of there as fast as possible. I don’t know if that makes sense, but if you go, you’ll see what I mean…however, I did really like the restaurant and would recommend it!

We had a really great time staying with Melissa and Ben (their apartment is super cute!) and we had a quick breakfast with them before heading out of town to Philadelphia. We ate at Maison Kayser, which is a delicious French bakery that Melissa took me to on my last visit to NYC.

Had to get some pictures of us (sort of) matching 🙂