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Prepping for NYE with the Hyatt Times Square

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of taking a trip into New York with my blogger friend Missy, of Missy on Madison, to spend the day and evening at the Hyatt right in the heart of Times Square. Missy moved to the West Coast a few months back so we got to catch up with a little girl time in their Marilyn Monroe inspired spa!

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We started off by getting our hair and nails done, then spent a little while unwinding in their relaxation room with hot tea and coffee. Once we were well rested and ready to go we were escorted into our gorgeous guest room with one of the most amazing views of the city I have ever seen! We may or may not have popped a little bottle of champagne to sip on while we got ready to go up to the rooftop bar. (We did… we totally did).

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After we got ready it was time to head up to the sky lounge to enjoy small bites and a few more cocktails at Bar 54. I can’t even remember the drink I tried, but it was pink and fruity and AMAZING! The food was even better. We snacked on a mushroom flatbread pizza, and do you believe it was the first time I’ve ever tried a mushroom in my life? Oh man it was good! Mushrooms with manchego cheese, so good! We also had porchetta sliders, and pigs in a blanket, and believe me, you can really not go wrong with pigs in a blanket. Everything was so delicious I can’t wait to get back there to try something else on the menu!

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After dinner and drinks we stepped outside to check out the amazing views this hotel, and all of its guests, rave about. At first you don’t even realize what you’re looking at, you’re so high up. After a minute everything came into focus and you realize you are 54 floors up in the city overlooking almost everything in sight. The view was breathtaking, to say the least. If you’re going to be in the city to watch the ball drop, skip waiting in the crowded streets where you literally can’t even walk away to use a bathroom. Consider watching right here from this balcony (you can see the ball directly behind me in this picture!)

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This was one of my favorite days in the city, I cannot thank Missy enough for inviting me and the Hyatt Times Square for having us! What are you guys doing to celebrate the New Years this week?

WHAT I WORE: MOLLY & ZOEY TOP (similar) || UPHORIA BOUTIQUE SKIRT (similar) || FOREVER21 HEELS || ZARA NECKLACE (similar)

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My trip to Bahstahn

Sorry folks, this post won’t be super fashion-forward. It was cold, rainy, and windy the entire duration of my trip. Didn’t leave much room to play with cute outfits & accessories. I think you’ll live though.

Friday morning Matt & I set off bright & early with our good friends Alex and

Francesca and Me bored to death in the back seat.

Francesca; we were Boston bound. This was my first time ever in Massachusetts. As much as I loathe Boston fans (no offense, kids, really) one cannot deny how beautiful their state is! As soon as you cross the boarder you can tell you’re in MA, it’s really a pretty place. We arrived at our hotel right outside of Boston around 3 in the afternoon. It was about a 5 hour drive all together, not too bad. We showered up and headed in to Boston for dinner. We ended up at the Union Oyster House, which is the most amazing place! It’s technically the original restaurant in all of the US, and!The toothpick was used for the first time at this place…so they say. The only thing that upsets me is they have a giant tub of lobsters all crammed on top of each other clawing around for their lives.

I opted not to have the lobster that night, hah. Dinner was fun, and afterward we explored the city, which was also fun. Anyone who knows Morristown knows Dark Horse... well there’s a ‘club’ called The Purple Shamrock well it’s the Dark Horse of Boston, minus the creepy cerial killer’s basement. Otherwise, same exact place. We also got to visit Cheers!Where everybody knows your name. They did not know our names… in case you were wondering.

Saturday we headed to Salem, which is the perfect place to visit around Halloween! Oh my goodness, it was so much fun! There are haunted houses on every corner, awesome bars every where you turn, and real witches wandering the streets. There’s so much history crammed into one tiny town, it’s seriously so much fun! We had lunch at a place called “Rockafellas” that served a drink so spicy you had to sign a waiver to have one. The Helltini. Matt & Francesca both ordered one. She finished her’s in like 10 minutes, it took Matt about a half hour, lots of water, and a full plate of french fries to get his down. But when they were done they got to take home a super cute t-shirt stating they survived the helltini. Totally worth it! After a full day of sightseeing we ended up back at our hotel around 11 and passed out.

Sunday we ventured back into Boston for lunch and shopping before we headed home. We ate at a little place called Ned Divines, which I suggest everyone should visit if they are every in Boston, the place is awesome. Overall the trip was a lot of fun, I felt like I couldn’t sleep enough when I got back, I was exhausted! These are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.

 
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The fabulous life in the BK

Yesterday Matt, his sister Brianna, and I made a trip to Brooklyn for the day and night. We had every intention of getting there early to hit up the fantastic Brooklyn Flea I have heard so many good things about! Unfortunately, we got there muy late no thanks to the worse than usual traffic on 24. So we kind of missed the flea market. Not to worry though, we got a fantastic tour of the whole dang city!

Hat: Urban Outfitters, Sweater: H&M, Ring: Forever21

The main reason for our trip was to meet up with Matt’s parents for dinner at the one and only Peter Luger Steakhouse! yum, yum! Before we met for dinner we stopped at this adorable little bar, Dresslers on Broadway, basically across the street from PL. (yeah, I’m cool, I abbreviate it). We had some time to kill so we thought we’d stop in for a cocktail or two. The place was amazing! Such a great atmosphere in there and the bartenders were the friendliest people! And they make delicious cocktails as well! How can you beat that? I had a Raspberry Beret, which was a delicious mix of Prosecco, St. Germain, and fresh raspberries. And it was a pretty shade of pink. It was overall the most wonderful drink I have tasted in quite some time. Matt got the usual dirty martini and Brianna selected a drink that was pretty much a plethora of herbs and spices and alcohol hah. It was some mix of tequila and jalapeno peppers and cilantro amongst other things. I could do without the produce section in my drinks, but she was pleased. Matt and Brianna snacked on some raw oysters before we headed over to dinner. I did not partake in that activity for fear that I may vomit. There were oysters on the plate that looked like the pig ears we used to buy my old dog to chew on. I simply could not stomach it. But based on the rest of the menu and the way these two reacted to them, I’m sure they were fantastic if you are an osyter fan.

Basically we had to tear ourselves away from the bar stools to make it to dinner because we liked this place so much. They do a wonderful Sunday brunch that I just may have to get up early for one weekend. If you’re a frequent BK visitor, or one of my many friends that currently lives in Brooklyn, have you guys been here before? What’d you think? If not, I recommend it! GO! Eventually we cross the street and make our way to Peter Luger’s, which is pretty much like walking into a time warp. It very much reminds me of something you would see on Boardwalk Empire walking in and seeing the front bar. We sit down and Brianna has our order memorized because apparently it is “frowned upon” to ask to see a menu. We got an appetizer of bacon and tomato and onion, which you’re supposed to eat together. It was beyond yummy. Our dinner consisted of one steak for 4. Observe:

I think that everyone could have split this steak. (Matt’s mom got her own mini steak to herself). At the end of the meal Matt and his dad were literally forcing down the final pieces because we are certain it is also “frowned upon” to leave anything behind. We ordered a side of creamed spinach (I tried it, but I don’t love it) and German potatoes (which were excellent). Truth be told… I literally hadn’t eaten all day before this. I had an iced coffee from Dunkin around 11 and a piece of a pumpkin cupcake around 1 and that was it for the entire day. By the time we were ready to go to Brooklyn Matt wouldn’t let me eat anything because it was too close to dinner and I would ruin my appetite, haha. So I had to beg the bartender at Dressler’s to find me some bread which he said had to be “expedited” because it was too early for the dinner crew. And ya know what? He found me bread! I don’t know where it came from but it was damn good. See… nice people! Anyway, back to my point. I hadn’t eaten a thing so I quickly became a little tipsy and it made my whole meal that much better. The wine at Peter Lugar’s was every bit as good as I thought it would be. We had many good laughs with each other and our outstanding waiter, Martin. He’s basically the man.

Overall it was a fantastic night and I highly recommend hitting up Brooklyn sometime soon if you are in the area! Everyone puts so much focus on Manhattan, which I also love, but it’s time to branch out people! If you get the chance to visit Brooklyn or if you have before, let me know some of your favorite spots so we have new places to venture next time we visit! Thanks love you bye.

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3 states, 2 tours, 1 day.

So as everyone can see from my last post, Matt and I had high hopes to see the botanical gardens this weekend. We got a good night’s sleep on Friday and planned to start our day early on Saturday. So we woke up early only to have our hopes and dreams crushed; there was a craft fair at the gardens. That could have been fun, but we weren’t really feeling it so we had to find other plans. Somehow we ended up flip flopping between Greenwich, CT and Sleepy Hollow, NY. Matt & I are both huge fans of scary movies and, personally, Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorites! However, we figured that was kind of more of a Fall spot to explore, so we went with Greenwich. (WHICH, just a side note: should be pronounced “Green-which” it sincerely bothers me that it doesn’t, but that’s just me). Onward. Luckily Greenwich really isn’t that far from us, so we stopped at Dunkin and set off on our little mini road trip. Within an hour and a half we arrived on Arch Street and I immediately fell in love. Arch Street is like a beautiful out door Short Hills Mall, and it’s fabulous. So we did a little shopping…. and by we I mean me of course. We had lunch at a waterfront restaurant, L’escale. To be honest, I wouldn’t suggest it. It’s intensely fancy schmancy and the food is eh at best. We were delirious with hunger so we stopped there. Had we had more time to make a better decision we would have gone elsewhere. Here are a couple pictures from lunch, and also, Matt’s first appearance on the blog! Hi hubbs.

So, after lunch we hit the road to head home and we decided it’s still early enough, why not stop at Sleepy Hollow? It’s on the way home. So we did. When we found Sleepy Hollow we thought we saw the infamous covered bridge that the headless horsemen used to attack his victims (we later discovered that bridge no longer stands). So we were like, awesome! Let’s get out and do the tour. Upon signing up for that tour, we realized we were able to take the tour of Kykuit as well! Which is the Rockefeller mansion in Westchester. So we take the first tour of “Sleepy Hollow” all pumped to hear scary stories about the Headless Horsemen……. not. one. story. They didn’t even mention the words “headless” or “horsemen.” It was all about the owners of this plantation and their slaves. Which, sure, that’s interesting, but I was in the mood for some real life ghost stories! Not a demo of how to churn butter. The most interesting thing that happened on this tour was almost becoming lunch for a pack of wandering sheep. *exciting*

 So after this tour we headed over to Kykuit, which was absolutely breath-taking! The ride up the driveway alone took about 2 minutes… insane right? Here are some of my favorite pictures from the tour below!

Between my phone (which all of these were taken on) and our actual camera I have about 200-300 pictures from the house, including authentic Andy Warhol prints of Nelson and Happy Rockefeller. You really weren’t supposed to take pictures inside the house, but our tour guide was literally pushing 100 and I don’t think she seemed to notice. So if you want to see more you can view them here: http://bit.ly/qVEbvU

This house even had a “play house” which included 2 pools; one indoors and one out (one of which is Olympic size). Two tennis courts; one indoors and one out. A basketball court.. you get the picture. If you’re ever in NY and have some spare time, definitely take a trip out there to see this place, it’s totally worth it. And, between you and me, try to avoid getting Rosalie as a guide… she’s sweet as pie, but the tour will take FOREVER. If you’re like me and you’re more interested in the visual over the history, it can be a bit painful to sit through.

 

To read more about Kykuit http://www.hudsonvalley.org/content/view/12/42/