An NYC weekend for The Pretty Dish!

I’m back with a little recap of our quick weekend trip to NYC for The Pretty Dish!

So let’s see. This trip was SO different having two kids! Eddie and I have been to NYC a bunch of times by ourselves. We love to just walk and walk for miles. We’ve been with Max a handful of times too. With both kids, in icky weather though? This was a leeeettle bit of a challenge.

Max remembers being in the city last year, so he was excited to go. For weeks leading up to it, he kept asking “do we go to New York City today mama?” and once we got there, he was just in awe. The tall buildings! All the cars! Cranes on top of the buildings! All the pigeons!

His excitement was contagious and just oh-so cute.

First up, the hotel! Remember in my Boston recap when I told you that the Fairmont hosted us for our stay? Well, they are amazing and did the same for a portion of the NYC trip. And it turned out that the Fairmont in NYC is The Plaza Hotel!

Cue all the Kevin McAllister vibes, right? I was definitely living my best 90s life on a stage of Home Alone 2.

I can’t even TAKE how gorgeous this hotel is. Since the four of us went, we did a room with two double beds. This is the only way we could really work around it with Max only being three years old, but not sleeping in a crib. This is what we’ve done for the other travel since, and it’s worked out. I take the DockaTot for Emilia and place it (on top of the covers, obviously) on the bed, then I am under the covers in that bed. Max and Eddie are in the second one, and it’s great!

Sure, definitely different from our lives as a no-kids couple for seven years, but this is fun. Ha!

Now for this stunning place. Oh my gosh.

LOOK AT THIS BATHROOM. I basically wanted to live in the bathroom that weekend. The shower, the tub – all of it was so stunning.

The best part about this room was that it was big enough to comfortably hold our double stroller with the four of us + all the luggage. That’s huge, because that double stroller is huge! And with Emilia still in an infant seat, and with Eddie having the kids on his own for a lot of the time while I had meetings, we HAD to bring that stroller. This room was perrrfect.

Can we talk about my favorite part of the The Plaza? Well, ONE of my favorite parts?

The Champagne Bar. OMG.

OMG!

I loved this. I met my publicist (but also, really, my friend/girl crush) Kate there for a drink/snacks on Friday and that’s when we had the incredible strawberry jalapeño champagne drink that I recreated last week. Just the atmosphere of this little corner of the room was fabulous. I had many many thoughts after that happy hour, like

I need to come back here ASAP without kids.

How inappropriate would it be for Eddie and I to go down there for a drink with two babes in a stroller?

Should I see if they can deliver me a drink to my room even though my kids are six inches from me? Hmmmm.

Really though, this just makes happy hour feel extra special! The drinks on the menu were so inspiring.

The breakfast in The Palm Court was also such a lovely experience. Max agreed, and we were very classy being downstairs at 7AM (hello toddler hours) in his PJs.

What else.

In all the times we have been to New York, we had never ventured down to the Shops in the Plaza. There are a few shops on the main level, but once you get downstairs – OMG, so much delicious food! I love the open concept where you can try multiple things. Max had ice cream here, I had coffee, I had a delish lobster roll, Eddie had pizza at one point, Max had a doughnut – the morning we left I had an almond croissant that was top notch – so much goodness. There were crepes! Pizza! A market!

Everything!

The great part about that was that you didn’t even have to LEAVE THE HOTEL! Sure, this was totally different from our normal NYC adventures, but come Sunday, when it was 30 degrees and torrentially down-pouring and we had two kids under the age of three in car seats/stroller? It was super challenging to get anywhere without being drenched and miserable.

Gah. I just felt like this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to stay there and it was just so incredible! Just as dreamy as I thought, you know? I am so grateful that this is a part of the book tour. I can’t believe it’s real life.

Our other highlights?

The night we got there, we did end up walking for miles. It was kind of chilly, but I wore Emilia and Eddie mostly carried Max and we just went. That was so fun. I ended up in Sephora and Eddie found this carbonara pizza (which I totally recreated! Coming soon!) from B Side Pizza and Wine and it was unreal. He brought it back for us to enjoy so we didn’t have to cram strollers into tiny nooks.

Thankfully on the day of my book signing at MacKenzie-Childs, it was a gorgeous 70 degrees! I had the event, we got to stroll a ton in central park, head to the zoo – all that fun stuff! It was so lovely and nice.

Not only is the MacKenzie-Childs store incredible (it’s like being in Alice in Wonderland, for real), the staff is so warm and welcoming and they always go over the top. The event was so fun and I love working with them. It was amazing meeting people who had driven in from all over. I’m so glad that you guys love the book! Max really enjoyed the event too, as evidenced above.

Again, we spent lots of time in Central Park so we could walk and run and play!

We also had Milk Bar! Even though we had been there before, I had never tried the cereal milk ice cream! It was delicious – not sweet at all – and I was wearing Emilia while carrying it who promptly dunked her little baby hand into it which caused me to accidentally dump the container on the sidewalk after three bites. Whomp whomp.

And Eddie found his new love that weekend: Sprinkles cupcakes. They are definitely the best bakery cupcakes I’ve ever had!

On Sunday, I did a fun DIY event/workshop at Word bookstore in Brooklyn. We made the beachy waves sea salt spray and a lavender vanilla lip scrub and it was super fun. These kind of bookstores are my most favorite. Like I want to get lost in the little stacks, a la Felicity. We had a small group for the workshop so it was intimate and fun and we just had the best conversation.

After that, it got freezing cold again and all the rain came, so we cuddled up under the covers and snuggled for the rest of the night. I love being in a hotel. Granted, I enjoy it a bit more when I’m alone, but we had such an amazing time on this trip!

And with that, we were on to our next stop! xo