Lucky 7 + NYC

This year marked lucky 7 for us. In previous years, we visited Nashville, Austin, Savannah, L.A., Charleston, and Destin. All super fun places for a girlfriends getaway—-well maybe except Destin. Destin is amazing for many reasons but we learned quickly that it is no place for a girls trip. It’s more of a family beach destination. We always manage to squeeze the maximum amount of fun, laughs, and even an occasional thug tear out of our time together, so we made the most of it, but we knew that the destination for Lucky 7 had to be epic, and decided NYC was the place to be. And oh, New York. Even though you shocked our southern systems with your cool, below 70 temps & 1.5 days of relentless rain, you were so good to us.

We sacrificed our beauty sleep for early flights from Atlanta and Dallas on Friday. We all arrived before 11am which gave us the whole day to explore.

Our hotel was gorgeous, tiny, and expensive. Which apparently is the case for all hotels in Manhattan. After we got over the shock of sharing tiny full-sized beds, we ventured out to a magical popup museum called The Color Factory. A fellow blogger babe who lives in the city told me about it and I knew I had to go. The challenge was convincing the others that we needed to squeeze it into our agenda. They appeased me like real friends do sometimes and we all ended up loving the experience. The bright colors, the fun color facts, the personality assessment, the sweet treats throughout, and the ball pit towards the end—so fun, y’all. An absolute play place for grown-ups. The only thing that would have made the experience better was not having to deal with screaming kids everywhere. Don’t get me wrong—I love the kids. But why can’t we have our own playground? At any rate, if you plan to be in NYC this month, I recommend it. Definitely a fun experience—even with the screaming kids.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Greenwich Village and checked out the apartment building that Friends was filmed before heading back to our hotel to rest our feet.

We ventured out again later on looking for food and stumbled on a nearby outdoor market with trinkets and local street food. 2 of the 4 of us decided to go for the street food because when in NYC, you eat street food, right? I settled on THE most delicious burrito bowl concoction and prayed it wouldn’t give me food poisoning. And it didn’t. Thank you, Jesus.

We ended the night at a lounge that played [almost] all of my favorite 90’s and early 2000’s hip hop + R&B hits. And we danced. And laughed at the random bathroom set-up in that place. And danced some more.

Day 2 didn’t disappoint. We grabbed coffee then ended up at a restaurant in Grand Central Station. I’ve been to Grand Central Station before but obviously forgot how beautiful it is. So gorgeous inside and out. Next time you’re in Grand Central Station, go to Art Bird & Whiskey and order the grits. You will not be sorry. Best grits I’ve ever had. Ever.

We managed to find a MAC store and all ended up buying new makeup. I’m confident that I didn’t need a new lip stain or eye shadow palette, but who can resist?

Next up was our spa appointment at Oasis Day Spa. When it comes to self-care, a pedicure and a new outfit fill my soul. Yet every time I go to a spa, I’m reminded that I need to invest my dollars in a massage and facial more often. Few things get me more excited than having black heads extracted from my face, lol.

We made a quick pit stop for a late lunch, then headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. And guess who we saw having a full on photo shoot in the lobby? Deborah Cox!! I asked her if she was THE Deborah Cox and she said “yes”. We debated about asking for a picture and decided against being groupies. But not before I belted out—Hoowww did youuu get here...??—as the elevator doors closed. Of course, my friends were horrified, but yolo, right?

We ended up at the R Lounge at Times Square for dinner which lived up to its promise of amazing views of the obnoxiously bright, highly congested, yet beautiful tourist attraction.

We finished up dinner then headed over to the Sugar Factory in the Upper West Side. There are 2 Sugar Factory locations in NYC and the one we really wanted to go to [in the meat packing district] was not taking reservations which should have been a sign. When we arrived for our reservation, we were seated quickly, which ended up being the only positive aspect of our experience. Mind you, since we’d already had dinner, we only planned to try their fun drinks and maybe some dessert. I won’t bore you with specifics, but it’s important to note that our server was horrible, the drinks were mediocre at best, and we had to hunt our server down after the restaurant closed for our bill—-yet somehow that experience was one of the highlights of the weekend, lol. We laughed for the rest of the night and into the next day about our bootleg server.

While the cold rain threatened to kill our day 3 plans, we didn’t let it. After a mix up with our Uber, we headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge for brunch at the River Cafe. The restaurant is gorgeous, very intimate and right on the water. The service was impeccable and all was right with the world until our server handed us menus and we realized that all of that beauty and impeccable service came with a hefty price tag—as in a $60 per person fixed price for a 3-course brunch. And naturally everyone looked at me with side eyes because—yep, you guessed it—-I made the reservation and somehow missed the memo on the expensive menu. BUT we decided to not be ghetto and leave, lol. Plus we felt we owed ourselves a nice meal and dining experience after our awful experience at the Sugar Factory. While I definitely think $60 for breakfast food is a bit ridiculous, I have to admit, the meal matched the service. It was everything. So, so yummy.

Next up was an Off Broadway musical called Sistas. The musical tells a story of 5 women grieving the loss of their grandmother. They share the history of black womanhood through song—covering popular music from Aretha Franklin and Bessie Smith to Beyoncé and Jill Scott. We didn’t know what to expect and it started a bit slow but it was so funny and I could relate to many of the experiences shared. I loved it!

After the musical, we made the trek through Times Square for a little shopping before landing at Eataly for dinner. You guys—-I don’t know how locals feel about Eataly, but we LOVED it. It’s an open Italian food market—almost like a fancy food court—with different Italian restaurants, wine, fresh produce and meats, desserts, and Italian coffee and ice cream. It was the perfect cap to our weekend. I will definitely be going back to try some of the other restaurants at Eataly next time I visit NYC!

I have realized that this highly anticipated annual trip with the same 3 women [that I have adored since college] is uncommon. Apparently women—especially moms—don’t, won’t, or can’t commit one weekend a year to themselves. Other commitments, conflict with one another, kids, and finances are barriers. But I’m telling y’all...don’t let those things get in your way. There are few things more necessary than unplugging from your busy life and spending unhurried time exploring new cities with women you love + admire. Find your annual travel tribe. Put a date on the calendar and GO. It’s one of the best forms of self-care.

Until next year!

P.S. I have to share a tip that will help you keep finances OFF the list of reasons NOT to travel each year. Once you find your travel tribe, pick one person who will be the keeper of the funds. A couple trips ago, my girl Beth had the brilliant idea of opening a checking account just to hold money for our trips. We each Venmo her money each month and it sits in the account until it’s time to book flights, hotel, etc, and then she pulls the rest out right before the trip and disperses the remainder, accordingly. Genius, right?