Weekend In My Life - 24 Hours in the Big Apple!

Hi! 

It's been a minute ... heck ... it's been FOREVER since I've posted on here. But life has been hectic and also at sometimes boring. Funny how that works. 

But anyways! I'm back to share a recap of my weekend in NYC! I had the pleasure of tagging along with my mom to the city that never sleeps and it was glorious. The weather was PERFECT. Probably the one time I've gone to NYC that it wasn't rainy, humid, or extremely windy and cold. 

The trip started Saturday morning. My boyfriend and I accidentally overslept past our alarms, putting us an hour behind schedule. We had to drive to my mom's in Maryland and from there we started our trek! Not before stopping and fueling up with some good ol' healthy breakfast from Bojangles (if you couldn't tell, I'm being sarcastic ;)). Once we had our breakfast, we were on our way! The GPS took us a scenic route through Maryland and Delaware, seeing places we had never seen before. The drive wasn't bad at all, it wasn't until we were close to the city that we started to get some traffic. 

Once we got to the city, we parked in a garage not too far from the hotel, maybe all of one block over and one block up. I used SpotHero to book the parking garage and for 24 hours it was $55. Then we walked to our hotel on 43rd St. We stayed at the Westin hotel which was quite lovely and clean. A nice place to pretty much just put your head down for the night. 

After checking into the hotel we went and met my mom's coworkers/friends for lunch as they were visiting NYC from Seattle! It was really nice being able to meet people I hear my mom talk about constantly. We went to a restaurant called Obao in Hell's Kitchen. One thing I must warn if you are planning to go to NYC anytime during the pandemic probably, you must have a vaccine card and ID to dine inside places! I completely forgot mine but was able to retrieve a picture of it I had stored online. 

Shrimp Pad Thai

At Obao, I had a Thai Iced Tea and the Shrimp Pad Thai. Overall, the food was delicious, the atmosphere was enjoyable with ambiance jazzy music playing, and I felt safe! 

After eating at Obao we had to go to Macy's on 34th St. for my mom! Knowing that it was such a short trip, I didn't have many items to check off my list. Over the years I've been able to go to NYC plenty of times and I don't really care so much for tourist things as I've been able to do a lot luckily. I just cared to have fun, be safe, eat good food and have good drinks and just make some memories. At Macy's my mom secured some Stuart Weitzman boots! One day when I "grow up" I'll be like her ;). But as for this trip, I just wanted to go to the Muji store and maybe try a unique bakery/cafe! 

After Macy's we went back to our hotel so she didn't have to haul the boots around all day and then we went to Muji and some stores in Time Square (which is not a place I prefer to hangout around in). In Times Square I just cared to see the Disney store mostly :). We also went to MAC and then we were on our way to our dinner reservation at a Cuban restaurant in Times Square called Havana and honestly the drinks and appetizers there were pretty filling.

Passionfruit Mojito!

At Havana, we had mojitos galore! I got a passionfruit one and then a pineapple one. We also had empanadas and Mexican street corn. I decided I was quite full from the drinks and apps and just wanted a Guacamole salad with shrimp. Unfortunately I didn't realize 9 shrimp on my salad would turn it from a $9 salad to a $27 salad! That's roughly $2 a shrimp which I found quite ridiculous. Nonetheless the food was good and so were the drinks but just be warned. Eating in NYC can be expensive, I have found though that the more you stay out of the Times Square area the cheaper the food is so keep that in mind. 

Radio City Music Hall

After eating dinner we decided to take a stroll up 5th avenue all the way to where Central Park begins. After our walk we decided to start walking back down and took a quick stop in Duane Reade. I needed a toothbrush and we stopped to buy some bottled water and other necessities. Once back at the hotel, we all just got ready for bed and hit the hay. I'm not the type of person who likes sleeping under the covers so I was freezing cold for most of the night until I put one of my cardigans on!

The next morning we woke up and tried to work out a plan for what to do with the less than 3 hours we had left in the city. We decided that getting some coffee and tea was a good start. I found a place called UT47 which looked really cool so we decided to head to that. It's located in Hell's Kitchen off 47th St. 

Once we got there, it was definitely a popping place. They had mochi, boba, macarons, coffee, tea, breakfast, you name it. They even had some Vegan options! My mom decided to get some macarons and I had the iced maple latte with oat milk and it was delicious! 

They can their iced beverages! It was so bizarre but cool!

As we moved onto our next food location, I sipped on my maple iced latte. My only concern was that people were going to think I was drinking beer at like 10 AM. We decided to get some cookies from Schmackary's. At the time that I'm writing this post, I only tried the Hummingbird cookie my bf got. Everything looked good and they had lots of options! 

After getting Schmackary's I made my way to the Muji behind Bryant Park. Both stores were kind of a bust with not nearly the same amounts of stationary and pen inventory that they had pre-pandemic. I have resorted to probably just trying to look online for stuff.

After we left Muji we just walked down 5th Ave. to 34th St. I decided to take some pictures of the Empire State building as it's one of my favs! 

Empire State Building

Then we decided to try to find a boba place that wasn't a chain that we have back home in Northern VA! We decided to try out Yifang Fruit Tea which was located on 6th Ave. (Also, I'm just now seeing that YiFang is a chain and there are some locations somewhat close to us *facepalm*).

Passion Fruit Green Tea

I had a passion fruit green tea and it was perfectly sweet yet tangy! I would definitely recommend giving it a try. 

After getting our Boba tea, we decided to go to Joe's Pizza to get some authentic New York style slices for on the way home. We got a Supreme pizza and the store was packed. I really enjoyed looking at the pictures on their walls of all the celebrities that have come before!

Once the pizza was secured, we made our way back to the hotel but the Carlos' Bakery on 41st St. was just calling my name so I decided to stop to get a chocolate cannoli and a lobster tail pastry! Then we raced back to the hotel to collect our bags, say goodbye, and we were on our way. Of course we couldn't end the road trip without a stop to Waffle House and having some yummy breakfast for dinner!

Overall, it was such a sweet weekend and I couldn't have asked for more. If you've made it this far I just want to say thanks so much for reading! Down below I will recap the food places we went to and that I recommend. 

• Obao of 9th Ave. 
• Havana Central off 46th St. 
• Ut47 Kitchen off 47th St. 
• Schmackary's off 45th St. 
• Yifang Fruit Tea off 6th Ave. 
• Joe's Pizza off Broadway 
• Carlos' Bakery off 8th Ave. 

Well that's all for now folks and friends! 

Until next time, 

XOXO, 

Chynna

Welcome to New York, it's Been Waiting for You!

Hey guys!

So I'm finally getting around to posting about my trip to New York. Last Wednesday my boyfriend and I left for New York for our one year anniversary. We caught the train (I live outside D.C. so we left from Union Station) and it was my first time ever going on the train! I napped most of my way there until the train stopped in Philly and that's when I started to get excited. Going into my trip to New York I knew I wanted to do touristy things like go to Top of The Rock and the Brooklyn Bridge but more than ever I wanted to AVOID Times Square. Don't get me wrong, I think Times Square is awesome but the food is usually extremely overpriced. So for this trip, I had a few places I thought I wanted to check out food wise but didn't get too much time to do that as we tried to squeeze in all the stuff we wanted to see (and we walked almost the entire trip - it was exhausting but so much fun).

On Wednesday we got there and checked into our hotel (we stayed at Yotel). Honestly I was so excited to stay there but it did not live up to my expectations. There were certain parts of our room that weren't necessarily the cleanliest to look at but it wasn't anything major. On top of that the people who help with checking bags were acting extremely sketchy. The Yotel hotel uses what they call a "Yobot" to check bags if you can't get into your hotel early or need your bags held somewhere if you had to check out before you're leaving the city. It's completely automated by a robot so there's really no need for "assistance" and the employees there were pretty much telling us we had to pay $2 per bag to check our bags the day we were leaving (we had to check out at 11 but our train didn't leave until 8 PM). To me this raised an eyebrow, as there was no policy stated we had to pay that amount (the Yobot machine did not ask for us to deposit any money) and they said it had to be in cash. I had a pretty great time our whole trip but that last day left a bad taste in my mouth for the hotel and I probably would not stay there again. Additionally, besides the fact that they market that they're in Times Square, they are not. It's about a 2 block walk away from Times Square and they are actually located in Hell's Kitchen (which I did not really mind that much, Times Square is over crowded to me and I cannot stand when people stop and gawk or when there's multiple people trying to beg me for money or get me to go to some trip or sightseeing bus).

Moving on from the hotel, we checked in and got rested up a little bit. I switched out of my UGGs and into my tennis shoes (UGGs make my feet hot and I only wore them to be comfy on the train and in case it snowed). Before going to pick up our New York Pass (I used their pass when I went to New York in December and greatly appreciated it this time as well), we went to Otto's Tacos

Chicken and Shrimp Tacos

They were kind of pricey for the amount of food you get ($3 for chicken, $4 for shrimp) but they were pretty tasty.

Here's my advice about sightseeing passes in New York: if you want to have a cheaper option use The Sightseeing Pass, you can choose 10 attractions to go to. I wish I would have gone with that one cause I thought we'd do the New York Pass to be able to go on the busses every day (but we ended up walking most of the time and could not see everything we wanted to see).

After getting our passes we pretty much walked all around. We decided to go to M&M world to get custom M&Ms for our anniversary (we waited 40 minutes while they had to clean the machine that customizes them - I'll just order them online next time but it was a fun experience!). We went to Barnes & Noble on 5th Ave. and H&M in Times Square. We even made our way to Whole Foods and got some really good San Pellegrino and snacks. After we were ready to head back to the hotel, we stopped for some food (I got Chipotle and it was way overpriced in comparison to where I live in VA and my boyfriend got pizza from Two Boots). We pretty much rested up for the big day ahead of us.

Empire State Building at night

On Thursday we woke up kind of late and set out for the Brooklyn Bridge. We caught the bus and hopped off at the stop. We walked all the way across which is how I got some pretty amazing pictures of the Empire State Building and the skyline!

After walking back we made our way to Chinatown. My boyfriend ate there and then we went into the Canal Street Market. I had a Horchata Boba Tea from Boba Guys (it tasted great!).

Then I set out to find some murals to take pictures of.

Then we finally made our way to Cookie Dō. I loved the Oatmeal M&M so much it was my favorite!

Then we sat in Washington Square Park and ate our cookie dough and I enjoyed looking at the shops as we walked through SoHo. When I go to New York I try not to buy anything as it's hard to stuff my suitcase enough on the way there and the trip in itself is not cheap so I just window shopped.

As we walked back to our hotel, we made sure to cross paths with the Flatiron Building and I stopped at Lenwich because I was craving an Italian sandwich. We also got pizza and stayed in our hotel once we got back for the rest of the night.

Because of how windy it was most days and how tired we were, whenever we got back to the hotel we usually did not come back out. So many times we said "we'll come back out for the Empire State Building" but I could not do it.

On Friday we were determined to tour Uptown so we stopped by Top of The Rock first and I was so happy because the last time I went in December it was raining so I saw NOTHING.

The views were incredible! If you have never gone to Top of The Rock I highly recommend you add it to your list for your next trip to New York!

Then after we finished soaking up the views we made our way to Black Tap for lunch (if you have a smaller group and you want to go there I definitely recommend going during lunch, the wait is much shorter then).

We had to compromise and I did not end up liking the shake we had, it was pretty plain and boring. The burger we had (just a normal burger) wasn't astonishing or out of this world either.

After we filled our bellies we walked through Central Park and to the museums.

"Dum dum I want gum gum" - Night at the Musuem 

Me pretending to be Blair Waldorf getting a Gossip Blast on the steps of the Met

I need my headband, yogurt, and tights

Cool lighting at MoMA

Fun fact - MoMA is free on Fridays (I don't know how long that will last though) so if you plan a trip and you want to go and you can handle the crowd, I'd recommend going then (make sure to look it up before hand though). It was my first time going to the Smithsonian (no offense but I live in the D.C. area with tons of Smithsonian museums and the one in New York does not live up to the name) and The MET (I liked the MET a lot but there was so much to see and my feet could not take all of it.)

I had been to MoMA in December and I loved it, this time I could not really be bothered though just cause of how crowded it was and how much my feet were hurting. When we left MoMA we stopped and got food at the 30 Rock shops (I ate Potbelly and a shake) and then we went to the Nintendo store. After going to the Nintendo store I wanted to go to Muji (I love pens, how about you?).

My Muji pens and notebook, laptop, and laptop carrying case (it's Kate Spade)

Then eventually we went back to the hotel for some much needed rest!

Finally, it was our last day and by that point I was just ready to go home and be in my bed. It was St. Patrick's Day so everyone was running around drunk at 9 in the morning. We wanted to catch the Uptown bus to the Guggenheim but because of the parade the uptown bus was cancelled. Instead we went to Drink inside of American Eagle in Times Square

It was super sugary so I could not finish it all but it makes for a good Instagram picture and it tasted better than Black Tap to me (and it was cheaper).

After that we went on the Downtown tour and just let our feet rest as we took in the sights. When we got back we decided to go to Madame Tussauds and check that out. Eventually we were ready to just be done and go find food before getting our bags and going to the train station. We went to Yum Yum Too for linner and had some Thai food and drinks.

Eventually we got to the train station about 2-ish hours before our train arrived and started boarding but the time went by fast and we were just happy to rest.

Overall I had so much fun and I hope this helps you determine any places you'd like to go on your next trip to New York!

I know that next time I go I will probably stay downtown as most of the stuff I wanted to see was there and that I'll go when it's much warmer.

Where is Spring my East Coast followers? It's been snowing almost all day for me here in Northern Virginia.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this lengthy post.

Until next time.

You know you love me.

XOXO,
Candidly Chynna

A Day of Adventures in Annapolis

Last Sunday I was lucky enough to go on an Annapolis adventure with my better half. We circled around for about 20 minutes looking for parking. I was defeated and ready to go home, but he pushed me through it. We started off by walking through the First Sunday Arts Festival, there were so many cool things that were being sold by local vendors, and if you're ever in Annapolis on the first Sunday of the month I highly encourage you to check it out. We checked out the houses and the shops and eventually sat down for some food. We always struggle to come to an agreement on what to eat unless it's sushi. I had the Annapolis roll and some Shrimp Tempura and Chris had a lunch special that I don't quite remember exactly what it was. Afterwards we satisfied our cravings for Bubble tea and I got to go to the Tervis store and Alex and Ani. Photos of my purchases will be coming soon!