girls weekend!

my sisters and i went with our mom on a trip to new york last June.

Chloe, my baby sister, is all grown up and thinking of attending NYU next fall.

eeeeeeaaarly plane ride...

a trip of 'firsts' for my sisters!

first yellow cab ride & first NY subway ride

quick shot in our hotel room before heading down to campus for the tours.

Chloe and Hallie waiting for the NYU informational meeting to start.

NYU is a beautiful campus!

this is the view from an empty room near the cafeteria, i think?

we did top of the rock instead of the empire state building.

my mom and i had already gone up to the empire state building.

top of the rock is way cooler, i must say.

i found a gorgeous hydrangea plant in Rockefeller center that i wanted to take home.

(no way that would fit in my suitcase)

my sister had her first NY street vendor hot dog

the three of us being tourists in super crowded time square

we lunched at the American Girl cafe inside the multi-level AG store!

 (we were the only table of adults only, ha!)

AG even has little high chairs for your doll, or doll for the day if you don't bring one.

molly was my doll when i was a child, so i used a molly substitute for our lunch.

we had a good time :)

 the food there is really, really good.

 its tea party style, but with yummy three courses that even your dolls get to "enjoy."

this was my second trip to the store, and third trip seeing the amazing AG empire overall.

i possible may have forced my husband into the store on our Chicago trip, and when we visited NY last February...

 

my first trip to the Guggenheim!

 we also made it to the Natural History Museum

my favorites are giraffes

and of course i had to take them to on more firsts!

serendipity3 for frrrozen hot chocolate

and

pinkberry  for a slightly more healthy dessert

my favorite pictured...chocolate with strawberries, and sometimes chocolate dots or nuts

(okay maybe we went to pinkberry more than twice)

 and one of our last stops was a trip to dylan's candy bar

every child's dream

i somehow only got shots of the main candy station on the entry level, sorry. 

or adults who never really grow up...

this was my fourth time visiting the amazing city.

i don't think i could ever turn down the chance to back!

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the tourist way

park avenue

lombardi's coal fired pizza (longest 30 minute wait that really was an hour and 15 minutes EVER)

first pinkberry taste ever!

we had to make this stop because of the rave reviews i've read here

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play day in ny

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pretty much serendipity

we so JUST MISSED a celebrity encounter at serendipity3

...seconds after jessica simpson & tony whats his face left

friday the 13th

yummy frrrrrrozen hot chocolate with pink whipped cream for valentine's day

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movin on up to the west side

while in manhattan, we stayed comfortably at the hotel belleclaire on 77th & broadway

it was nicely sized and had great water pressure in the shower

the only weird thing was that our room smelled like a pizza kitchen past 11pm...

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baby its cold outside

cheese, its friday the 13th!

times square

we passed through columbia university on our way to try ethiopian food, 'along came polly style'

~this was like number 2 on my must do nyc list

so, we hiked over to massawa, on amsterdam in the upper west side

"Our food is traditionally served with injera and eaten by hand. Injera is home baked flat African bread with no sugar or salt added and made from Teff, which is the smallest wheat grain in the world and is found in the high mountains of East Africa.

our server was super helpful and recommended we just order combo entrees so we could try a lot of different items

our choices included:

Tsebhi Derho ~ Braised chicken simmered in a berbere sauce and exotic spices {favorite!}

Tebsi Derho ~ {no desciption on menu, i think this was like pulled chicken}

{a chicken leg in some sauce was also not on the menu, reid ate it}

Shiro ~ Chick peas cooked with ginger and seasoned with a hint of spice

Alitcha~ Potatoes, broccoli, carrots with spices

Tsebhi Hamli ~ Collard greens cooked tenderly with garlic

all eaten with the flat injera bread, which was almost like scooping everything into stretchy, spongy, tart pancakes. good but definitely weird.

i also had the best honey wine i've ever tasted & reid had an ethiopian honey beer that i think he would have traded for something with more flavor.

the camera we took on the trip conveniently kept dying when i needed it most, so we have no photographic evidence of this new experience. i am very sad about this.

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