NYC Day 2

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Hooray for more pictures from my New York trip!!

I had such a ball exploring the city with my friend Shawn from the blog I Wash You Dry. You can see my recommendations from our first day here. I’ll talk about what we did through the day in between these photos, but real details like addresses and phone numbers are at the bottom of this post, so keep on scrolling 🙂

Since we knew we had three full days to get see the city, we divided our days by geography as best as we could. A lot of these stops are in close proximity to one another and that’s why we did all of these things in one day. It was a long Wednesday, but a super fun one!

We started the morning walking from our hotel to Central Park to rent some bikes. The weather gods were smiling down on us so we took full advantage of the sunshine by biking around the entire Park.

Photo courtesy of Shawn.

I loved that there was so much space and relative peace within the park. The hustle and bustle of the city can really get to you if you’re not used to it, so this is just what I needed! A leisure ride around the 6 mile loop with the occasional stop to take in the views.

Not far from the park is a restaurant called The Smith which had amazing reviews online. We didn’t have reservations, but were lucky and got seated immediately.

Everything we ordered was amazing, but our favorite thing off the menu? Hot Potato Chips with Blue Cheese Fondue. We finished this bowl! Highly highly recommend these chips at this place.

On our way to Levain Bakery, we enjoyed some shopping and beautiful tree-lined quiet streets. I never thought I’d see a quiet street in New York, but there were quite a few as we walked through the Upper West Side.

We also passed this beauty. Hiiiiii temple!

Sweet glorious cookies. Levain bakery was on one of these quiet, tree-lined streets and totally worth the walk and definitely exceeded our expectations. I’ve never had a cookie as good as these.

Be sure to ask for them to warm up your cookies!! You will DIE.

Our adventure in the Upper West Side came to a close and we took a Lyft {like a cheaper Uber} over the Chelsea Market to explore and see what we could see. If you love food, this is a fun stop! Down the street a few blocks from Chelsea Market is the Sugar Factory which has lots of fun sugar-laden drinks and food. We got some milkshakes there, but also stopped at Black Tap too for more milkshakes and they were much better 🙂

Do you see how fun these ridiculous milkshakes are? Oh em gee. I got the chocolate one and Shawn got this crazy colorful one below. Apparently the food at Black Tap is good too, but we just got the milkshakes.

After Black Tap, we took another Lyft to Macy’s at Herald Square. I think we could have walked it, but it was getting dark and cold, so we quickly zipped over there to do a little shopping. This Macy’s was HUGE. So many floors of clothes and bags and shoes and makeup! It’s literally a one stop shop for anything you could possibly need.

Just down the street from Macy’s {1 1/2 blocks} were a few food carts. We didn’t want to have to wait for a reservation and we were cold and hungry, so this was heaven-sent. Lots of great food options and hardly any lines. It was PERFECT.

And these loaded fries were RIDICULOUS. I’m not sure if it was because I was starving or because these fries were actually amazing, but oh mama. We got one order of fries and devoured them so quickly that we ordered another! They were THAT good.

All the details {+links} about our second day in the city below!

Recommendations

Central Park Bike Rentals-117 W 58th St. New York, NY 10019

This is, in my opinion, the best {and quickest} way to see what you want to see in Central Park. We rented out bikes for 2 hours and that was the perfect amount of time to stop at all the places I wanted to take pictures of and make it back in time to return our bikes. For $25, I thought that was a steal. Keep in mind: some parts aren’t an easy ride {read: hills!!} but we made it and it was really really great. I’d highly recommend this. Our self guided Central Park bike ride was one of my favorite parts of my trip to New York.

Be sure to see: the Mall, Bethesda Fountain, the Bow Bridge and the Sheep’s Meadow.

 

The Smith Restaurant- 1900 Broadway New York, NY 10023 (212) 496-5700

Very good food! Everything we ordered was great! The bathrooms were pretty unique too 🙂 Be sure to order the Hot Potato Chips with Blue Cheese Fondue. They were SO freaking DREAMY!!

 

Manhattan LDS Temple– 125 Columbus Avenue New York, NY 10023

A beautiful building in a nice part of town. I liked seeing something familiar to me in a very unfamiliar city. Not a super applicable recommendation if you’re not LDS 🙂 But it still is a beautiful building to see! And you’ll pass in while walking to…..

 

Levain Bakery– 167 West 74th Street New York, NY (212) 874-6080

Holy moly, these cookies are as good as {if not better than} their reputation. RUN here. There will most likely be a line. There were probably 7 people ahead of us when we arrived. After we got our cookies, we left and the line was down the street. My favorites were the original chocolate chip walnut cookie and the chocolate peanut butter chip one. Be sure to ask for your cookies warmed up!! There is nothing like it.

 

Chelsea Market– 75 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011

A really fun stop to make in the city if you are a food lover!! Be sure to pop into the Doughnuttery {mini doughnuts} and Eleni’s {adorable cookies!}.

 

Black Tap– 248 W 14th St New York, NY 10011 (212) 675-7236

Ridiculous milkshakes here!! Seriously fun and quite the experience. Apparently the other food found here is good too, but we only had milkshakes. Honorable mention for milkshakes would be Sugar Factory {which is only a few blocks from Chelsea Market.}

 

Macy’s at Herald Square– 151 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001

SO HUGE! The beauty department and shoe department are legit. So fun to go here and say you’ve been to this iconic store! Just a block and a half from here is…

 

UrbanSpace Broadway Bites–  Greeley Square – Broadway, between 32nd and 33rd Street.

A lot of fun food carts here! This is exactly was I wanted for dinner! Perfect little bites from random carts. Not to be missed: the Loaded Fries from Black Iron Burger {they were amazing!} and anything from Bunk Sandwiches {the Portland girl in me jumped for joy when I saw this one!!}

 

Don’t Miss NYC Day 1 here.

Be sure to download the Lyft app and link it to your PayPal or bank account for quick and easy rides. Use my referral code for $10 off your next ride.