New York, New York

My recent trip to New York City was amazing.  Ever since Lauren & I "met" on-line, we've talked about meeting up in real life.  It finally worked out this year, so we planned a New York City adventure.  And, as we knew it would be, real life was awesome.  

It's so cool to hang out with someone who doesn't look at you like you've got a third eye when you take pictures of wallpaper in the hotel and talk about how you think you could replicate a similar pattern using emboss resist ... or that a metal plate in the street reminds you of a card design ... or how you could translate concepts from art you see in museum art into paper crafts.

I'll share this trip in several posts, so you won't go on picture overload (or NYC envy overload).  This was our hotel & we would highly recommend it ... reasonable price (by NYC standards), good water pressure, free breakfast, relatively quiet and great location.  On the downside, only one very slooooow elevator & climbing the tight winding stairs made us dizzy (well, dizzier than we already are).

First stop on our adventure was the International Center of Photography Museum (where strangely enough they don't allow photography in the Museum).  I did snap a cool picture of this ultra-chic mannequin wearing an awesome skirt made of newspapers.  And as I was secretly hoping she would, Lauren surprised me with my very own travel scrapbook to fill with memories from the trip, so we began our ongoing scavenger hunt to find lots of fun things to include.

Next was a walk around Times Square, which was filled with people on a Saturday afternoon ... we'll, it was pretty much filled with people all of the time.

I loved all of the possibilities for cool reflection in photographs.

 

And of course the amazing St. Patrick's Cathedral.

 
After that, we enjoyed an amazing supper at La Bonne Soupe.  I had a smoked salmon and cream cheese crepe, which was scrumptious.  Lauren enjoyed one of her all-time favorite dishes ... Brandade, which was a puree of codfish and potatoes laced with garlic and olive oil (it was yummy too ... we pretty much shared all of our meals on the trip, which was an awesome way to try even more fabulous foods).

Next we schlepped off to Strand Book Store (where I was apparently so happy to see 18 miles of books that I didn't snap a single picture).  I have been searching for a long time for an affordable book of botanical illustrations, and I found one there.  We also found lots of cool artsy books that we'll be incorporating into future projects.  And the best news was that we didn't have to pay any sales tax (or carry the heavy books back on the subway) because we had them ship them all home for us.  How cool was it to have presents waiting for me when I returned.

We finished our day with delicious cake from Magnolia Bakery (Red Velvet for Lauren; Coconut for me) enjoyed in our hotel room while we worked on our Travel Books (we pretty much scarfed down the cake before we remembered to take a picture ... imagine us smiling with icing on our chins).

A perfect end to an amazing first day in NYC (I'm smiling now remembering it ... so much fun).   Lauren will be sharing her travelogue too, so you can check out both perspectives.

Comments

[Susan McRae]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun!

[JeanFB]

Looks like a fantastic trip! I'm looking forward to seeing your travel scrapbook!

[Janelle]

Sounds like a wonderful trip -- and I do already have NYC envy. I've never been -- but my husband keeps saying he's going to take me. Maybe this will be the year (although, it'd be really, really fun with a girlfriend!). Can't wait to hear more.

[Dawn T]

How exciting Steff. I've been to NYC once for 2 days many many years ago ( 12 in fact) and would love to go again, - and to meet an on-line friend... icing on the cake!!!

[lauren]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!! how ♥flippin♥ fab is this??!? i am TOTALLY diggin' the sensation of seeing the trip from someone else's eyes! WOW!!!!!!!!