NYC Day 2

Oh my goodness, y'all! Doing these recaps of my trip makes me wish I was still there! If you haven't read yesterday's post (which I suggest that you do), I spent last weekend in New York City with my mom to celebrate my seventeenth birthday a bit early so I have been recaping my trip for y'all!

After getting ready for the day, we grabbed a cab and headed up to the Upper East Side. Our first stop of the day was Maison Kayser for breakfast. We had it to-go as my appointment at the Dry Bar was in a few minutes of when we arrived. I had a chocolate croissant and a coffee and the chocolate croissant was easily the best I ate during my trip!

If y'all are familiar with my 101 in 1001 list, you know one of my goals was to get my hair blown out at the Dry Bar. I have seen so many Instagrams and heard so many great things about it so I knew I had to make an appointment for when we were in the city. I had the Cosmo (they have several different blowouts on their "menu") and it was great- literally lasted until Monday! The atmosphere was so fun and I will be definitely be back the next time I'm in New York as we unfortunately do not have one in Charlotte!

After my appointment ended, my mom and I walked south for a little bit and came across the Vineyard Vines. I was very impressed by the location as it was very cute and I wound up buying this top, which was funny as one of the sales girls was wearing that top with a pair of Vineyard Vines pants that I already own (and styled in this post)!

My aunt and grandfather gave me a Bloomingdales gift card for my birthday so after Vineyard Vines, my mom and I ventured into Bloomingdales. We were both very impressed with the store and had a lot of fun wandering through the main floor as well as the floor with all of the women's clothing. I wound up using my gift card on these Kate Spade sunglasses, which I am so excited to wear and unfortunately for me (but good for y'all!) they just went on sale!

We had a noon reservation at Serendipity, which was amazing! They are famous for their Frozen Hot Chocolates but my mom and I both loved the burgers we had (the fries were great as well). We spilt a Frozen Hot Chocolate for dessert (I recommend having it for dessert rather than before your meal as well as splitting it as the thing is huge!), which I may or may not still be dreaming about! It was such a fun experience and I'll definitely be back! If you wind up going, I would definitely make a reservation as it gets fairly busy in there!

After lunch at Serendipity, we were right by Dylan's Candy Bar so we stopped by to pick up some treats for my siblings. There was so many sweet treats in there, it was insane! I also picked up a candy bar that said Super Kid on it for the superhero-obessessed little boy I nanny!

My great-grandfather founded his own grocery store in the city a long time ago. Our family has since sold it off but it still has the same name. My mom wanted to stop by and take a picture to send our grandfather and I snapped a picture of all the pretty flowers they had outside!

Our next stop was the adorable Jack Rogers store! They only have 3 locations: the Upper East Side, Atlanta, and then in the Hamptons during the summer. It was such a treat to be in store and they had so many Jacks it was insane (I usually buy my Jacks at Nordstrom or in local boutiques). I treated myself to a pair of navy and white Jacks that I can't wait to wear this spring and summer!

There was quite a walk to our next stop but I loved seeing all of the gorgeous buildings and townhouses on the Upper East Side. #lifegoals- am I right?

I wanted to stop at the Steps of the Met to take a picture a la Gossip Girl so on our way behind Jack Rogers and Lilly Pulitzer we stopped at the Met so I could take a picture. It was funny as we saw some other girls taking pictures on the steps too!

Next up was one of my most highly anticipated parts of the trip: visiting the Lilly Pulitzer flagship on Madison Avenue. I have seen so many Instagrams (be sure to follow me here!) and pictures of the store so I just couldn't wait to see it myself. And it, of course, did not disappoint. As with any Lilly store, it was amazingly detailed and every inch of the two-story store was very Lilly. The store was so gorgeous and I would up buying this dress and this top (the top was on sale- call a Lilly store to see if they have it in your size as the website doesn't have sale items!).

One of the places I was dying to visit after watching Gossip Girl was Ladurée for their macarons. I tried the Chocolate, Vanilla, Pistachio, Coffee, Salted Caramel, and Lemon macarons and they were all so amazing (my favorites were the Chocolate, Vanilla, Coffee, and Salted Caramel though). The decor in the shop was cute as well and I will be keeping the box the macarons came in to use as decor in my room redesign.

My mom and I then went into Tory Burch, which was amazing. Our local Tory Burch in Southpark Mall is great but the Madison Avenue exceeds in tremendously in size. It has three stories (one for purses/jewelry, another for clothes, and then one for shoes) but my mom and I spent the majority of our time in the purse department! The sales associate who was helping us, Claudia, was wonderful and made the experience great for my mom and I. She even had the purses we bought shipped back home so we didn't have to bring them on the plane and so we could pay North Carolina's tax rate, which is lower than New York's.

Our final store of the day was the Kate Spade flagship. My mom and I kind of labeled Kate Spade as a "window shopping" store as we both had done quite a bit of shopping already but we both walked out making a purchase! The decor in Kate Spade was amazing as well and I loved how they used pieces of their home collection as decor in the store! One fun aspect of the store is the balcony on the third floor that has gorgeous boxwood (I think?) plants. Our sales associate, Hanna, was great as well.  Kate Spade actually has four floors with the third being clothes and the fourth being bridal and home decor. It was all so fun to look at and I wound up buying these shoes and my mom bought this scarf.

We then walked back to our hotel to get ready for dinner and to relax for a bit after a busy day of shopping and exploring the Upper East Side!

Our hotel actually offered us a free appetizer in their little bar as we were there for my birthday so before dinner we went downstairs to enjoy a Barbecue Chicken Flatbread, which was delicious!

My aunt actually lives in New York so we met up with her at a restaurant called Quality Meats. It was nice getting to catch up with her and of course, eating some good food (my mom and I spilt a Filet Mignon- yum!). We had the chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert and it was amazing!

After dinner, we said goodbye to my aunt and headed back to the hotel. We packed up all of our stuff and then headed to bed!

Stay tuned for a recap of Day 3, our last day in the city tomorrow!