I’m still missing NYC and it’s been a week and a half since we were there…not that I’m counting or anything :] New York City is one of our favorite places…probably actually my favorite place in the whole world! I grew up taking trips to the city and seeing Broadway shows, and I’ve dragged David into that obsession over the years we’ve been married. There’s something so special about the city. So many dreamers, so much possibility, so much diversity. All things that we desperately crave when we’re in Radford for too long! We love our little town, but we love it for the people and not quite as much for the options it offers 😉

This past Christmas, David surprised me with Hamilton tickets and I about lost my mind. Today’s actually exactly one year since I first stumbled upon the magic of Hamilton and I became obsessed with it immediately. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d get to see it on Broadway so soon! But David pulled out all the surprises and saved a slim box in my stocking for very last and I was in such disbelief when I opened it. Like in shock. Tears welled up in my eyes (yes, I’m that girl) and then I noticed the tickets were for our anniversary! And so the planning began :] We’d talked about doing some type of trip since it would be our 5 year anniversary and seeing Hamilton was (more than) the perfect thing to do! We decided to extend our trip into a few days to really make the most of being there, especially since Ollie wouldn’t be with us!

We packed a LOT in to 2.5 days. We were exhausted by the end of the trip, but it was so worth it. It was so different to spend so long away from Ollie. Our life revolves around him because it has to and walking around NYC untethered felt just like old times. But okay, yeah, we did talk about Ollie a lot of the time we were there. It actually reminded me a ton of the last time we were in the city, almost 2 years earlier, when I was still keeping our pregnancy quiet! We got a chance to just be us and focus on each other and it was 100% worth the driving, scheduling, money, and stress that NYC traffic brought David 😉 We’ve been missing it ever since! And I think I may have opened up the possibility in David’s mind that we could live there. Baby steps.

Here’s a recap of our trip for all of you who told me they were living vicariously through our instastories :] We stayed in Astoria through AirBnb and once again, it was the perfect place to lay our heads. Super chill and friendly neighborhood, a 5 minute walk to the train station, and we felt like real New Yorkers by keying in to “our” third floor walk up. The first night, we headed to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate and it totally lived up to David’s praise over the past 8 or 9 years. When asked, the waiter said the mint version tasted like girl scout cookies and I was obviously sold. (we were a little thrown off when there was no line and we were seated immediately though!)

I had a crazy long list of things for us to do, but we got way overwhelmed by the possibilities and the subway so we opted to walk around Times Square the first night. We waved hello to the Richard Rodgers Theatre aka Hamilton and strolled hand in hand for a bit. Then we headed back to battle plan for the following two days.

Thursday morning meant grabbing bagels from a spot around the corner and then heading to Chelsea Market for the first time. Here’s the big bummer of Thursday…it was POURING rain. Like we were soaked and SO so glad we’d brought umbrellas. It wasn’t cute, misty rain, it was angry rain. So we opted for indoor activities. Chelsea Market was so fun to look around and had such a cool vibe.

Next stop: Grand Central Terminal. We’d never been and wanted to check out such an iconic location!

Same goes for the New York Public Library. It was STUNNING!

And you know, while we’re at it, we might as well check out the NBA store. David had a blast looking around…and taking a selfie with “Lebron.”

We ate a big late lunch at Eataly…which was overwhelming in the best way and that was when I started tipping the scales towards spontaneity.

On the drive up, I’d been continuing my mission to convert David into a Dear Evan Hansen fan. I’d been listening to the soundtrack every day since March and the show was racking up all types of Tony nominations. I’d been watching videos and interviews and stalking the cast’s instagrams and I was just over the moon in love with this show. If you haven’t listened to it…look it up on Spotify. It’s on track to become this year’s Hamilton. (except Hamilton’s going to run forever, and this probably won’t…but there’s similar buzz) ANYWAYS. We were going to New York. Yes, we could see the show in a year or two but WHEN would we ever get to see a Tony nominated original cast?! And so, because it had rained all day…and because we were already in New York and our minds were becoming a little hazy with joy…we bought last minute tickets to see the show! We watched as the stubhub tickets went down in price and snagged them in a bit of a splurge. And one song into the show we looked at each other with excitement because we’d clearly made the right decision.

I wept. And laughed. And marveled at how the cast could engage so emotionally 8 times a week. And David and I just have been singing this show’s praises every since! So wonderful and raw and honest. We never splurge and we’re never spontaneous and this was the perfect time to break our norm.

We headed to Stardust Diner (with the singing waiters) afterwards to revel in the post show glory.

Day three was BEAUTIFUL out, thankfully. And we finally felt like we knew a little bit of where we were going. And finally figured out we’d been getting off at the wrong subway stop every night… This day was our actual anniversary and we were pumped!

Started off year 6 with the famous Brooklyn rainbow bagels! This shop was a little hole in the wall and it was delicious. We trekked a little bit to find a park to eat in and watched puppies play and parents meet up with their children in tow and we agreed, we could totally make it as New Yorkers.

Next up? Walking the Brooklyn Bridge! Neither of us had done this before and we loved it! It was the perfect spring day for it and it was sweet to be able to walk hand in hand.

Brooklyn Bridge Park gave us the best views ever!

And it meant that David could see this famous outdoor basketball court.

We headed back to Chelsea for lunch and walked the High Line together. And then David fell asleep on the subway :]

Then the moment had finally arrived! It was time for Hamilton! I think we may have been just a little excited.

Or a lot excited.

Can you tell in my crazy eyes that I had just been crying with joy?!

It totally lived up to the hype. All that we’d hoped it would be. (but also, dear evan hansen was almost as good!)

Last stop in Times Square for some delicious belgium waffles!

And Saturday morning :/ We were happy to be in our new Hamilton apparel, but sad to be headed home. Thankfully, we had a cute baby boy to get home to!