Newport
Before we met up with Alison in NYC, my mom and sister stayed at my house for a day and so we headed to Newport to walk around the cute town, do some shopping, and of course get some lobster rolls. We came across the sweetest little shop that sold items made from seashells. Brynn got the cutest necklace, I got some darling earrings, and we made plans for some beautiful seashell "flower" arrangements for Brynn in the future!
Also pictured here is the cute makeup bag I made as the welcome gift for the trip - my mom and I had pink bags and Alison and Brynn had grey ones. They were filled with candy and all say "Girl's Trip 2023", though some of that vinyl fell off because maybe I didn't use the correct type of vinyl for the bags with my Cricut but it was fun to receive anyway!
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Broadway
Before we even made it to NYC we saw a miracle. We left with what I thought was enough time to get to the train station, park, and then have about 10 minutes before our train arrived. Well maybe I should have planned for 30 minutes before the train because while we were walking up the stairs, we heard the train coming. We ran up the last set of stairs and walked immediately on to the train and it departed not two minutes after we got there. If we were just a few minutes later, it would have been a very different start to our trip!
When we did make it to Penn Station, we met up with Alison and dropped off our things at our hotel and then headed to a bakery to get chocolate croissants! They were AMAZING. Instead of just one line of chocolate in the center like normal, there were two lines of chocolate and it was heavenly! They actually gave us Nutella croissants at first and I made Brynn super embarrassed by asking them to switch them all to chocolate croissants (like I ordered) and I am so glad I did!
Brooklyn
After brunch we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge! Alison learned from her friend that you can actually use any credit card that has the tap function as a subway pass so that was incredibly helpful information as we made as our way through NYC. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and walked around Dumbo where we got lunch. The sandwiches were my favorite meal of the entire trip (which is saying a lot!) and I am so glad we found the Bread and Spread. It was quite a long wait but Alison and I sat in the tiny restaurant and waited while my mom and sister found us a table in the outdoor seating area. We couldn't have been luckier with the weather!! It was absolutely perfect!
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Alison absolutely loves plants so we obviously had to hit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (though we all kept calling it the Botanical Garden because that is just way more fun to say). Spring in bloom at the garden was just breathtaking. I loved taking photos of and with all of the gorgeous flowers and we all had a really fun time seeing everything! Alison impressed us with her plant knowledge and it was fun seeing her in her element. We did get a tad turned around when trying to find the correct exit but because of that, we were able to take photos of the purple flowers at the end!
harry Potter Store
Our next stop on our itinerary was the Harry Potter Store. I am the only one in the group who has been to Harry Potter World at Universal and I told them that once you visit this store in NYC you basically have been to every single shop at Harry Potter World. This visit was the first time I went downstairs in the NYC Harry Potter store and it was just a super fun experience! I loved seeing all of the authentic props from the movies and had a fun time taking our video of us casting spells with the wands that embarrassed Brynn greatly.
Bad Cinderella
One of the most hilarious parts of the whole trip was right before we went to Bad Cinderella. We wanted to stop for a dessert but didn't have much time before the show started so we quickly went to a bakery and got croissants. Alison got a chocolate mocha dessert, Brynn got a blueberry cheese croissant, I got a cheese croissant, and my mom got a strawberry croissant. They took so long to give us the desserts that we had what felt like seconds to eat it before we had to get in line down the street. So we ended up eating it in front of the trash can and I had my foot on the pedal to keep it open. We threw away half of our desserts as we were eating to make it go faster and several people passed by and needed to put stuff in the trash. One guy even said "so sweet" as I told him to please throw his stuff away as if I was holding it open for him. But the saddest part was that my mom actually really loved her dessert and was sad that she threw away half of it!
The show itself was great! My full broadway critique will be on Instagram saved to my highlights but it was a very fun show! It was silly and kind of cheesy but the songs were exciting and it was a fun show!!
Brunch
On Sunday morning we were exhausted from the day before so we took it easy and went to brunch in Chelsea. We had walked 12 miles on Saturday!! Chelsea was a super cute area and the brunch place was very instagrammable. The hanging plants were just perfect and just look at how beautiful the presentation was of our food!!
Chelsea High Line
The Chelsea High Line is an elevated linear park and greenway made from an old New York Central Railroad spur. It was super fun to climb up and walk above the city and see so much green. It felt like we weren't even in New York City. There were a lot of people but it didn't feel as hectic as Times Square. We all really enjoyed it and I, of course, loved taking photos up there!
Little Island
Little Island is an artificial island park and I thought it looked super cool as it was all raised above the Hudson River. It was fun to walk around and the neighborhood near this park was also super cool. We walked down the street where the Chelsea market was and we wished we had time to stop by the restaurant called Los Mariscos to get fish tacos! Next time we go we will plan on eating tacos outside in the cutest little public booths that are right outside Chelsea Market. We also didn't have time to go inside the market but I bet that would be a fun time too!
Overall it was a fantastic trip!! We basically did everything on our itinerary and they were all fantastic choices!! I am all about getting together, even if it is just for a weekend! We saw Alison only on Saturday and Sunday but we did so much stuff and had such a good time together that it felt like much longer and it was so incredibly worth it!!
Narragansett
I figured the day after we got back from NYC we would just want to chill (we did a total of 17 miles while we were there) and so the beach it was! The weather was again, perfect. I planned a fun picnic filled with many options of food and snacks and was so concerned about packing for that, that I forgot to bring sunscreen, the beach tent, or a wagon. Also it said it was going to be a high of 71 degrees and I didn't think about how in the sun that would feel much hotter so none of us wore our swimsuits. But even so, we had a great time. We ended up finding a place that sold $20 sunscreen so we were able to stay for a bit.
At first Nellie only wanted to sit on my lap (the child does not like getting sand on her feet or anywhere) which worked out well because then we could all hang out on the blankets and eat our picnic. Then it was getting hot so Nellie decided she wanted to stick her hands in the water. Well, holding her up to only let her hands touch is quite the workout so when she wanted to do it again, I tried putting her feet down on the ground. She lifted her little knees right up and was not interested in standing on the sand. After kindly forcing her to try it, she realized that she actually loved running into the water and letting the waves crash on her feet. It was so fun to see her hold hands with my mom and sister and run into the freezing cold ice water that was the ocean. It was the perfect end to the perfect girl's trip weekend!! Can't wait to do it again <3
