New York City: Day 1

After getting our photo books from Blurb I got all nostalgic for our New York city honeymoon last year. I’ve been waiting for the “right time” to post our trip recaps here, but really, any time to talk about NYC is the right time! I was also motivated by the fact that Christine over at Just Bella is thinking about going to NYC and I sent her a few of our favorite moments to convince her that she was making the right decision, hehe. So without further introduction, welcome to Nic & Nate’s NYC Honeymoon Extravaganza, Day 1!

We took a red-eye flight from Edmonton through Toronto, to LaGuardia Airport. By the time we arrived in NYC it was 11am and we were exhausted. Our first authentic NYC experience involved an insane taxi ride from the airport to our apartment on Elizabeth Street between Spring and Kenmare, smack dab in the middle of Nolita. We rented our apartment on VRBO. I’d share the apartment link but it’s not listed anymore unfortunately. Our taxi ride was frighteningly comparable to the old arcade game Crazy Taxi.

NYC tip: When riding in taxis in New York, don’t give an actual street address to the cabby, as this is a dead giveaway that you’re a tourist! Instead, refer to the street that your destination is on, and which two streets it is located between. So instead of “166 Elizabeth Street” you’d say “Elizabeth Street between Spring and Kenmare”.

Our home away from home: a 4th floor apartment at 166 Elizabeth Street

The stairs we climbed, everyday

Once we arrived at our apartment building, we walked up four flights of extremely sketchy stairs (this became a great way to work off all the pizza we ate throughout the trip), took a quick look around at the cute little one bedroom studio with exposed brick walls and promptly collapsed into bed for a quick power nap. We woke up and we were starving, so we ventured out into the neighborhood and had brunch at Spring Street Natural Restaurant. Then we walked over to Broadway in Soho and started shopping! Soho is an amazing neighborhood filled with bigger retailers and smaller boutiques alike, and I recommend wandering every square inch of it! For our first Soho visit we stopped in at a bunch of stores:

• J Crew for men where Husbie bought a pair of pumpkin colored shorts.
• C Wonder where I picked up a gold letter “N” necklace.
• Topshop where Husbie picked up a fun sweater and some socks covered in fun patterns (telephone booths, cheeseburgers and mermaids).
• Brandy Melville where I picked up a necklace with a teapot charm.
• Chill where I picked up a cute dress with an orange top half and a black and white chevron bottom.
• All Saints Co where we marveled at the exhibit design featuring vintage Singer sewing machines, old spools and shoemakers forms, surrounded by exposed brick and industrial elements galore. We also gawked at the beautiful clothes tagged with high prices and walked out with empty hands.

Power shopping always tends to tire a person out, so we picked up a few pizzas from Lombardi’s, a few beers for Husbie and ciders for me at the local corner store and retired to the apartment for dinner!

It was a pretty low-key beginning to our trip, with a great introduction to shopping in Soho and New York pizza!

Lessons Learned: Walk briskly like you know where you’re going and stop being such a polite Canadian. THEY KNOW!