Mother/Daughter Trip to NYC, Part 2
coffee, pastries, Cornelia Street and reflections on our first mother/daughter trip
Welcome back to another Foodies Across the Pond! Jane is still on break, so you’ve got me, Lisa, this week! If you’re brand new, I’m based in the US and Jane, my fabulous friend and biz partner, is based in the UK. We write about food, motherhood, life as empty nesters and travel….always with a thread connecting both sides of the Pond. Grab a coffee (or cup of tea) and let’s chat……
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For everyone in the US…..Happy Mother’s Day!
With that said, this holiday, for many, holds a landmine of emotions. However you’re spending today, I hope you’re spoiling yourself and doing all the things you love — a hot cup of tea, sitting in the sun, going for a walk, curling up with a good book, meeting a friend for brunch. Jane and I are sending you loads of love and wishes for a day that’s full of more happy memories and moments than sad ones. ❤️
Let’s dig in to Part 2 of my mother/daughter trip to NYC!
In case you missed Part 1, you can read it here:
Eating our way through NYC, Part 1
Hi Foodie Friends! This is Lisa, chiming in from the US Side of the Pond. Jane is spending this week at the Welsh seaside and will be back soon! If you’re a new reader, Jane is the other half (definitely consider her the better half!) of Foodies and lives in the UK.
Now that you know all about our favorite restaurants, here are some of our fav “extra” spots!
L’Appartement 4F - the cutest little bakery with a walk up window located in the West Village. One bite of their pastries and you’ll immediately be transported straight to Paris. We pretty much ordered one of everything for our train ride to Boston…..and inhaled the entire box!
For all you Swifties (my daughter and I are massive Taylor Swift fans and have been to 4 of her concerts)……yes, we stopped at Cornelia Street. IYKYK
Very cool (and very large) home that Taylor Swift lived in with her then boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. It was made famous in her song, Cornelia Street, on her Lover album.
Happier Grocery
I love a market! Farmer’s market, neighborhood market, bougie market…I love them all!
Happier Grocery definitely has the vibes of Erewhon, but with a NY accent…lol! From the minute we walked in, it was instant love. I could have wandered the aisles forever!
The first level has a wide assortment of ready made food that looked and smelled insanely delicious. We were offered sample bites, and it was at this minute I regretted not having a massive fridge in our hotel room. I wanted to buy one of everything!
Downstairs you’ll find everything from high end (very, very high end) skin care on one aisle, organic diapers on another aisle, and a wide assortment of highly curated, ethically sourced non perishables (jams, mustards, coffee, etc.)
I could have spent hours here. But we had more exploring to do, so we grabbed a couple of juices and a box of fresh fruit to eat back at our hotel. Both the fresh juice and fruit (strawberries, blueberries and blackberries) were 10 out of 10!
For most of our trip we’d had really great weather…..and then Monday decided to “Monday” and it rained.
But, being from Seattle, we didn’t let a little rain stop us. Lexie had bought tickets to the 9/11 Memorial Museum — the one museum we had on our list. So we layered up (feeling very grateful we both remembered to bring our rain jackets), figured out which subway line to take (it’s actually incredibly easy to navigate!) and started our day at the museum.
It was our first time experiencing this memorial, but won’t be our last. I wish I could fully describe the moving tribute it pays to all who were affected that horrific day. To those who lost their lives…..the notes, belongings recovered in the rubble, voicemails….to the first responders, some who risked, and lost, their own lives to save others. And the survivors, the people of NYC……it’s and incredibly beautiful and respectful tribute.
You have the option to do a self guided audio tour or walk through on your own. We walked through on our own, but I would do a self guided audio tour next time.
Usually in museums, there’s an undercurrent of murmured conversation. Visitors quietly discussing the painting, the artist, the brush stroke, or a specific detail in the carving of a sculpture.
Here, there were only hushed whispers.
I highly recommend if you haven’t been, to make the time visit.
After the 9/11 Memorial Museum, we took the subway to the Upper Eastside and stopped off at Butterfield Market. Such a cute market!! More low key than Happier Grocery, but definitely worth a stop of you want a quick bite.
Lexie and I shared a caprese sandwich they put in their panini press, so the cheese was gooey melty perfection. There wasn’t any place to sit, so we ate standing up, outside, under the very small awning. The sandwich got wet, and the box got soggy….but that was all part of our rainy day adventure!
I wasn’t about to leave NYC without walking through Central Park. And since we were leaving for Boston the next day, today was the day to do it.
The best thing about a rainy Monday in NYC is we had the park all to ourselves, save a few squirrels and a couple of ducks.
Last words……
We were in NYC for 3 full days and it wasn’t nearly enough time.
There were things we wanted to see, restaurants we wanted to visit, and, of course, stores we wanted to shop at…..but we blinked, and the 3 days flew by. Although, I feel no matter how long you spend on vacation, you’ll always want more time.
That’s literally my thought whenever I leave after vacation…..I try to be in the moment and soak it all up, but I also wish I had more time. Maybe that’s just me perpetually living in a state of FOMO?
The last time we were in NYC Lexie was in 5th grade…..and now she’s graduating college next month…..and my son was a freshman in high school. The last visit was full of museums, walking, more museums, eating, “fill in the blank” tourist attractions….it was hectic and busy with all the frantic excited energy of a “first time” visit.
This time around it was just my daughter and I. We leisurely walked through different boroughs, spending time with friends and family, as Lexie decided whether or not this is a city she wants to move to when she graduates.
Both trips were fun, but, honestly, I love revisiting a city I’ve been to before and letting go of all the touristy “must haves”, and living like a local instead. I relish all the slow moments, unhurried stops, window browsing, people watching….with no time table to keep track of.
Is that how you like to travel, too? Or do you love all the touristy things a city has to offer?
Our first mother daughter trip was amazing……and we might just have to start an annual tradition!
Until next week…..
xo
Lisa
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What Mom REALLY Wants on Mother’s Day
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