Our final two days in New York have finally made it to the blog!We got up early Sunday morning and headed straight to starbucks to get something warm in our hands. We planned to visit DUMBO (down under the Manhattan bridge) and it was COLD.
We took a car to Brooklyn and then found our way over to DUMBO. We only had to ask for directions once so that was a total win in our books. The views were amazing!
We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and almost got pancaked by bikers six or seven times. They. Are. SAVAGE. But we survived and the walk across the bridge was one of my favorite memories from the trip. We weren't too terribly far from One World Trade so we decided we would head over to see the 9/11 Memorial. It was so somber and hear-wrenching to see the names of all those who lost their lives during the attack. But the memorial was so beautiful. I found myself running my fingers over the names etched on the half wall, praying for the families that lost the ones they loved. Definitely a heavy part of the day but so grateful we got to witness how the city paid tribute to the fallen men and women.We decided we wanted to grab a light lunch at Chelsea Market so we took a car and it was about a ten minute drive from the memorial site. Last time I was in New York, I lost my mind over these mini cinnamon sugar and glazed donuts. They are SO delicious! We also stumbled across a plant-based sushi booth and they won us over with their samples. Normally I'm not a fan of sushi because I don't like anything fishy, but this stuff was out of this world good.We wandered around Chelsea for a while before deciding we needed to get back to get changed and ready for afternoon tea at The Plaza.
The Lobby of the Plaza is so pretty! I mean, that tree! We quickly re-lived every Home Alone 2 moment we could think of without totally embarrassing ourselves before going to check in for our tea. Initially we were seated right by the door to the kitchen. Like, our backs were to the restaurant and all we could see (and smell!) was the kitchen. I hated to be annoying but when you hype this up as much as we had, the experience is everything. So i asked the waitress if we could wait for another table. They were so kind and had us seated within a few minutes at a much better table. The tea was yummy and the food was ok. Not exactly what I would expect from such a highly renowned restaurant. But thankfully none of us were super hungry. We just enjoyed soaking up the experience of being in such an iconic location!
After tea, we shopped around the gift shop, and by "shopped" I mean "looked." Can you say $95 for a tea cup. No ma'aam. We had to stop out front for a picture before we left. While I was getting my picture taken, I was being heckled by a homeless man. I won't even repeat what he said but let's just say, it was enough to make a girl blush and want to hide in a corner. Yikes.When I was taking Mary Margaret's a picture, a man walked up and asked if he could take a picture with her because she looked like a Disney Princess. I mean, yes, she totally looks like a Disney Princess but GET OUTTA HERE. MM was for too sweet to say no. We were both ready to leave after the whole picture taking fiasco.
We went back to the hotel to change into comfier clothes and decided instead of eating dinner at our fancy reservation spot that night, we would cancel it and go have pizza instead. Such a good choice! It gave us more time to go see Top of the Rock and to watch the light show a few more times. 
After we had pizza, we were all worn out so we headed back to our hotel to go to sleep.Our final day in the city consisted of an incredible breakfast at The Smith (THE best breakfast spot in New York!) and then we did some souvenir shopping before going to see The Museum of Natural History. We didn't have a lot of time to take in the Museum so we definitely want to go back next time.On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off for a quick hot chocolate at Ralph's, which is a hidden gem of a coffee shop on the second floor of Ralph Lauren's store on fifth avenue. SO cute!We grabbed our bags and headed out to get a car to take us to the airport. Our bellman was hilarious, y'all. He had the most incredible stories of all the famous people he'd seen come in and out of The Palace over the years. I could have listened to him for hours!We had a pretty uneventful flight back to Atlanta and were all pretty ready to see our people. Atlanta welcomed us with rainy, mild weather. Thanks a lot! But no matter the weather, there really is no place like home.Thanks so much for reading about our trip! If you have any questions about anything we ate, where we stayed, what we wore, let me know! So happy to share!
By Laura Godfrey
×