CITY GIRLS: PART 2

This was a first for us. I don't think Navy and I have ever had this kind of time together in her almost 10 wonderful years of life.....JUST THE TWO OF US!! I don't even have words for it. When Danny and I went on a trip for our 10th anniversary I anticipated us feeling closer and more playful getting to put everything aside and just BE together. With this being our first trip together, just us girls I didn't realize we would have such a similar experience. I knew it would be fun, but we bonded so much closer in a way only time like this could have created. It was SUCH a special trip!!

We got to our apartment on the Upper West Side around 4pm last Saturday. After settling in for a minute, we walked over to grab crepes around the corner. There's always so much to do and see and eat in New York City so the last couple times we've visited its become a rule that we only plan one activity per day. It helps the day feel flexible and keeps me from stressing about trying to cram in every experience I want to have and just enjoy being there! A few days before our trip I looked to see if there were any movies playing in a park nearby and found out there was going to be a movie in the park on the Upper East Side the first night we were there. After getting some food and settling into the apartment, we decided to walk there through Central Park instead of taking a train or bus. I'm so glad we did because on the way we saw so many people playing music and dancing. We even passed by this group of couples taking a Tango lesson, right there in Central Park! (Definitely adding a dance class in Central Park to Danny and I's date night activity list!!) On the way to Twenty Four Sycamores Park over on the east side, we stopped at Dylan's Candy Bar for some movie treats. Not long after getting to the park we laid our blanket down on the concrete, snuggled up and Navy fell asleep on my shoulder. It was such a fun moment with all the city sounds in the background while this great big 9-year-old girl fell asleep on me. I love getting involved in local activities when we go on trips. Its the same kind of thing I love doing here in Phoenix and makes wherever we go an extension of home. Navy woke up long enough to help me devour our candy and watch the first half of Hotel Transylvania 3, then we made our way back to the apartment on the train, which had us make a transfer at the Time Square subway station where we got to enjoy even more live music. 

Sunday morning we slept in before making our way over to Alice's Tea Cup. This was our one activity of the day that Navy chose! Months before our trip I asked her what she wanted to do in the city and her two things were going to tea (at either The Plaza or Alice's) and going to Wicked! It was our first time going to Alice's Tea Cup and both of us said it was the best tea we've ever had! I remember telling Naveya how much fun it was getting to be there with her and how we should do a trip like this together every year and spend a weekend together in different places. She responded saying she wouldn't want to go anywhere else, so as of right now a girls trip to NYC every year is in order. Including a stop into Alice's Tea Cup. It was a hit and I'm so glad she loved it!! 

After tea, we went over to The Met for some good air-conditioned wandering indoors! Naveya loved the Camp exhibit and the view from the roof garden is unreal. Just like our rule of choosing 1 thing a day, the Met is so big we only stopped in a few places to check things out and said, "We don't have to see it all today. We'll be back for more next time." For the rest of the afternoon, we made our way back over to the west side and went to one of my kids favorite stores, Flying Tiger. They have all these fun toys, games and art supplies which make for fun souvenirs they'll actually use and enjoy. Flying Tiger wasn't far from the apartment we were staying in, so we walked down Columbus stopping to stare at all the beautiful architecture along the way home. It seriously is so beautiful! Sunday night we met our friend Amanda Petersen in Soho to take some photos of Navy and I in our element, wandering the city. Amanda is an incredible photographer! She's taken our photos a few times in the city, it's always so fun, and I literally cried looking through the pictures of Navy and I. They're SO GOOOD! (You can see some of them in my City Girls: Part 1 post HERE) We had the best time wandering Soho in search of treats first, then stopping for dinner at Lombardi's before making our way home.

Monday was our last full day in the city. Most of the pictures I took on my phone are from Monday. I had spent the last couple days soaking it all in and snapping some quick videos on instagram. So by the time we got to Monday I tried taking a few more pictures. We also grabbed a couple disposable cameras for Navy to take some photos of her own. (She got a camera for Christmas, and recently the battery charger went missing. We're gonna be moving in a few weeks, so as we pack I'm hoping we'll find it. In the meantime, I'm grateful for a couple old school disposable cameras to get to see the city from her point of view.) The camera store was right around the corner from Levain Bakery. Danny requested we bring home some of their chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, which are to die for!! So we basically ran a few errands and ate cookies for breakfast Monday morning before heading up to Jacobs Pickles for a late brunch!

We made a stop at West Side Kids, a toy store right across from Jacob's Pickles, and then a little 50 cent machine caught Naveya's eye on the way to the 1 train we took down to Lincoln Center. She got a little stick-on mustache from the 50 sent machine and wore in the whole way there, walking around the city and sitting on the train with that little mustache. I love that goofy girl!! The rest of the day we took it easy. We spent some time at the apartment watching Netflix and just relaxing before going to Midtown. Our planned thing of the day was to enter the lottery for tickets to Wicked! Broadway shows save a number of tickets at a crazy discounted price to be raffled off in a "lottery". Most shows do the lottery online these days, but Wicked does it in person there at the theater a couple hours before each show. You literally go, write your name on a piece of paper that I guess they pull out of a hat or one of those bingo things that spins. Haha! It was actually fun being there in person, because everyone is standing there in a crowd around the Gershwin Theater doors. They walk out, call out the names one by one, check the winner's ID and have them prove they have the cash to pay for the tickets right then and there. The last name they called, it turns out the other person they were with had also been picked and already won the 2 tickets they needed. So they went in and picked one more final name, and it was NAVEYA! It was the highlight of the trip! They even gave Navy a button that says "I won the Wicked Lottery!" It's so special she wore it pinned to her shirt yesterday! 

We had so much fun and made the most of the time we had together. We lived like locals just the two of us girls in one of our favorite cities and I literally couldn't have asked for more. On top of getting to soak in that special time with my girl, there was this empowering feeling of traveling alone, just the two of us. I felt so in my element there. Some moms instill in their children a love for reading, art, science, or sports. New York City is my thing, and it makes my heart so happy getting to share these precious life moments there with my family. Until our next girls trip and tea time, New York. I love you!