​One thing I was really looking forward to this trip was eating at this breakfast spot I read about on Yelp called Clinton St. Baking Company. Clinton St. Baking Company is known for a couple things: their pancakes and their really long wait times. So to avoid the wait, we got to the restaurant before it opened to secure a table. We were seated as soon as they opened and ordered their Banana Walnut pancakes and their Huevos Rancheros to split. The pancakes were so soft and fluffy and the maple butter was heavenly. The Huevos Rancheros were also delicious and helped us balance out all of the sugar from the pancakes.

​After breakfast we hopped on a subway to visit the 9/11 Memorial. The last time I was in NYC the memorial was a paid attraction and you had to go through a ton of security lines (understandable), which made it take about an hour to actually see the two pools. They have since made the two memorial pools open to the public, so all you have to do is walk up and visit them. It’s a really sad place to visit, but a must see if you have never been.

Our next stop was Brooklyn, where we planned to spend the rest of the day. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to Main Street Park to get some photos of the bridge and skyline. I love this spot because you get to enjoy both the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.

​We were hungry again at this point and went to go grab pizza from Juliana’s, which was recently ranked #1 in the country. We waited in a short line outside before getting a table, but it was worth it for the amazing pizza. We split a Margherita pizza that had 8 slices and I inhaled my 4 slices within 5 minutes. It was definitely the best pizza I have ever had.

 We spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the water by the Brooklyn Bridge and through the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood.  We quickly began to love Brooklyn and understand why our New York friends all live there (besides the cheaper rent).

​We had some time to kill before dinner with friends, so we went to visit Prospect Park, which was beautiful and full of fall colors and people playing various sports. Our feet were so tired and we were super cold, so we moved along quickly to our next stop, which is the food destination I was most excited about: Ample Hills Ice Cream.

Ice cream is one of our favorite desserts and when I heard about Ample Hills, I knew we had to go there. Their flavors are so unique and the quality of the ice cream is top notch, so much so that they just got $4 million in funding to build a factory. They also recently launched two Star Wars ice creams in collectible pints, which has received a lot of buzz. The reason I was most excited to try Ample Hills though is due to a menu item called a “flight,” which is 6 small scoops of ice cream (whichever flavors you want) for $8. Not only is that a steal, but it also would let us try more flavors without eating a ton of ice cream. The six flavors we chose were: Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, Nonna D’s Oatmeal, The Munchies, Salted Crack Caramel, Sweet as Honey, and Snap Mallow Pop.  We loved them all and devoured them very quickly. Crossing my fingers that Ample Hills gets their ice cream in HEB stores soon, because they are officially my new favorite (I still love you Blue Bell!).

The rest of our evening was spent with three of our good friends who all happen to live in Brooklyn now. We hadn’t seen them since the Spring and Summer, so it was super great to catch up. We even got to see our first ever New York apartment, which was pretty neat. 🙂

​Our last day in New York was a short one due to having to head to the airport around 2, but we tried to squeeze in as much as we could.  We were exhausted, so our first stop was Brooklyn Roasting Company for some lattes. My best friend recently went to NYC for work and told me about this place and insisted we get the Maple Shay lattes. They were amazing and we both agreed that they were the best lattes of our trip. The coffee shop was right next to the Flatiron building, so we headed over there real quick before trying to get on TV at the Today Show.

On my first ever trip to NYC, my mom and I got up super early to get on the Today Show. We made a poster and I got 15 seconds of screen time and got to meet some of the news anchors. Since it was cold this trip, we decided to just quickly walk by the show to check it out and wave our hands in the background. I am not sure if you could see us at all, but it was fun pretending. 🙂

​Because we love Shake Shack so much, we knew we had to try their breakfast while we were in town, which is served at their Grand Central Terminal location. I had been eager to try their breakfast for a year and it did not disappoint. We also tried Stumptown’s Winter Cheer cold brew coffee drink, which tasted just like the holidays.

Our next stop was Yankee Stadium. We were going to do a tour, but decided to save time and money and just go see the outside of it ourselves. Adam has a goal of seeing every MLB stadium in the country, so he was excited to check this one off of his list.

​We headed back to Manhattan afterwards and went to the Chelsea Piers. We didn’t want to do any activities at the piers, so we just walked around real quick and then headed to the High Line. The High Line is an old elevated freight rail line that has turned into a park and walking path. It is such a cool concept and was fun to walk around on. The views were also pretty sweet.

Our second to last stop of the trip was the Chelsea Market, where we ate lunch and shopped around. I absolutely loved the feel of this market. The design was super neat and it had tons of food options. We settled on Los Tacos No. 1 for lunch, which were some of the best tacos I have ever had in my life. We got 2 steak tacos, 1 chicken taco, and 1 pork taco and split them. The green sauce they put on them was incredible and all of the meats were cooked to perfection. We also got some chips and salsa (my favorite food), which was some of the best salsa I have ever had, and a delicious horchata.

​Because we were on vacation and on a dessert spree, our final stop was to get doughnuts at Dough.  We got the Café Au Lait and the Dulce de Leche doughnuts, which were both delicious, but we both agreed the Café Au Lait was the winner. After stuffing our faces with the massive and sugary doughnuts, we rolled on back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to the airport.

​We had such an incredible time exploring NYC together for the first time and cannot wait to make it back in the warmer months to experience even more of what the city has to offer. Thank you NYC for all of the holiday cheer, Fitbit steps, and memories!