I wanna begin this post by saying this was most definitely our busiest day in the city. We saw so much and for that, I think it was probably one of my favorite days ever! So thankful to have a mom that doubles as a best friend and took me on such a fun trip "just because." Love you mom!
Saturday morning, we started our day by taking an uber to the TKTS stand at Seaport to buy tickets for that night's School of Rock show on Broadway. We decided to go to this one since we had been told that the stand closer to Broadway always has really long lines (understandably) and we were pleasantly surprised to find no line at this one and we got a great deal on orchestra seats. After grabbing our tickets, we had a lovely brunch complete with delicious bloody mary's at Fresh Salt in Seaport. We walked a little bit around the Seaport area after and both really loved it, it reminded me a lot of the Navy Yard area of DC in a weird way which is my fave!
Next, we walked to the financial district to visit the 9/11 Memorial. My mother and father made an anniversary trip to NYC in September 2002 and were here to see the rubble left from the fallen towers, so it was really important to my mom that we get to see the memorial. It's even moving just writing this post and looking over these photos but the reflection fountains are breathtaking. Like literally take your breath away. I've seen photos so many times but I never expected them to be so large, they really are beautiful.
I started tearing up when I learned that everyday, a single white rose is placed on the name of victims who would be celebrating birthdays. We also learned that even though many buildings next to the towers burned, St. Paul's Chapel across the street remained untouched even though it was built in 1766 (before the U.S. was even a country) and still stands today! 9/11 shaped our generation a lot and it's hard to realize since I was so young when it happened but visiting the memorial really had me thinking about it.
Like mother...
Like daughter :)
After visiting the memorial, we took the subway (omg first New York subway experience!!) to the south end of Central Park. We spent the afternoon just wandering around the park because the weather was so beautiful and these two gals love walking haha.
Angel fountain.
The entire time we were in the city, I kept saying to my mom "omg a scene from Gossip Girl was filmed here" and she totally got annoyed by it because she doesn't really like that show but oh well. Of course, Blaire and Chuck are goals so I freaked when we came upon this building in the park where they (ficitionally) got married! Can I please have Blaire's wedding dress by the way?
My favorite thing about central park was how familiar everything looked. So many tv shows and movies came to mind and I loved seeing all the little iconic bridges and the Boathouse restaurant. The pond with the sailboats gave me total Stuart Little flashbacks!
And on to Gossip Girl site number two: the infamous met steps! I mean, not gunna not take a picture. For anyone wondering, the met is technically part of central park and is on the east edge of the park so it worked out really nicely to just walk north in the park and have this be our end point. We then walked through the Upper East Side (swoon) and took a subway back to Grand Central Station near our hotel.
Gossip Girl site three: Grand Central Terminal steps from the opening scene! Grand Central is actually huge and I had no idea the subway ran through it as well so after we got off the subway, I made my mom walk to the famous terminal just to get a look and again, it was so cool to see something you've seen a million times before on TV. Sadly, did not spot Serena van der Woodsen or Lonely Boy.
On the way back to our hotel, we were ready for a late lunch/early dinner and decided on poke burritos. I absolutely love all things Hawaii, poke included, and have been wanting to try a sushi or poke burrito for months so when I found this place (Pokeworks) just a block from our hotel I died! I got the tuna in spicy sauce and it was honestly one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life, well worth the wait (can't you tell how excited I was from that silly photo)!
Once we got back to our hotel, we rested a bit then began to get ready for our 8pm show of School of Rock at the Winter Garden Theater. Once again, just want to add that the Renwick Hotel was awesome and we would 100% recommend it! Waiting for our uber we took some classic ootn pics, mom included!
{top: tj maxx, jeans: american eagle, bag: michael kors, hoops: francesca's}
We were almost late, but got into our seats at like 7:57 or something like that. Then it was show time! School of Rock was one of my favorite movies growing up because I thought Jack Black was so hilarious and it was one of the only movies my older brother enjoyed watching with my little sister and I too. This show did not disappoint! The kids were amazingly talented and play all their own instruments as good, if not better, than professionals and the actor that played Dewey was so funny and eccentric. I don't think I've mentioned it on here before, but I was in musical theater in high school so I was super excited to see another show on Broadway since I hadn't seen one since Wicked in 9th grade!
After the show we were starving and wanted a really nice Italian dinner. We ended up at La Masseria which was perfect and probably the nicest dinner I've had in my life. If you love Italian, you have to come here the next time you're in the city and hopefully they will have the burrata as a special again because thanks to that dish, I am now burrata cheese's number one fan if that's a real title! I think I had pasta with mussels which was delicious as well, but I've been dreaming of that burrata for months now!
Post dinner, we started to walk back in the direction of our hotel and passed by Rockefeller Center. We could see a line forming outside of the Raindow Room entrance and immediately remembered it was Saturday Night aka SNL was on! We got in the line and met some really nice college age girls that were die-hard SNL fans and they let us know they were waiting for the end of the show when some of the cast members come out to sign autographs and take pictures. We used to be really big into SNL, but haven't been watching as religiously recently. Still, we decided to stay and get our celebrity fix!
First, Andy Cohen hopped out of the doors who was apparently in the show's audience (huge Bravo fan so I loved that)! Then came the most embarrassing/exciting moment of my life. I absolutely LOVE Aziz Ansari and Parks and Rec and Master of None are two of my favorite shows, so when Aziz walked out I think I momentarily lost consciousness. I was just so caught off gaurd! No one else in line had noticed him yet and I proceeded to scream "OH MY GOD IT'S AZIZ ANSARI" in the worst voice imaginable. He looked up at me, awkwardly waved, and literally ran away. Womp, womp. What a shame one of the cutest and funniest men on tv is now afraid of me. Anyway, we stayed out a little longer and got to see some actual SNL stars including Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones, and...
Aidy Bryant!
And Alex Moffat!
After we got our excitement in, we walked around Rockefeller Center and called an uber back to the hotel to get a good night's rest! Seriously such a fun day with my mother, I wouldn't trade it for the world. Day three still to come!
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