Hi Friends! I’m Natalie Mason. I live in Charleston, SC and I am mom to Sterling 12 , Frances Moon 8 and our mini golden doodle Dolly.

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Our NYC Trip

Apr 5, 2023

Two weeks ago on a whim we booked a trip to NYC for my birthday. We stayed for 3 nights and it was the perfect getaway. I hadn’t been to NYC since 2019 and I was reminded how much I enjoy visiting the city but also how much there is to see and do there as well. I honestly wish we had had one more day because we couldn’t fit it all in! I thought I would share what we did and at the bottom of this post I will share the recs we didn’t get to do. In addition to the places below we shopped quite a bit and just explored the city!

S T A Y | The Langham

We stayed at The Langham Hotel and loved it. Such a great location and the hotel is really so pretty. Our room was spacious as was the bathroom. We got a room with a King bed and sleeper sofa and then got an additional rollaway bed for Frances. I would absolutely stay here again. Service was amazing and we also enjoyed the hotel restaurant and bar.

D I N E

We usually ate low key breakfasts and then grabbed a fun lunch to split up the day and walking. We did room service the first night we go there because we were tired and my kids love room service.

ABC KITCHEN– I had dined here years ago and loved it and still did. They have really fun cocktails and a seasonal menu. I will say this probably isn’t the best spot with kids. Sterling loved it however Frances just ate bread and calamari for her meal. Sometimes it is hard to please everyone on a trip. I highly recommend the carrot avocado salad!

C A T C H – Another spot I had dinner at years ago and knew I needed to return especially after I saw their brunch menu. It was fabulous. Everyone loved this spot. We shared the crispy shrimp which was so good and ended up ordering 3 Catch rolls because everyone loved them so much! Frances had the lobster Mac and cheese and Sterling had a fried chicken sandwich. I had the grain salad and not only was it gorgeous but so delicious. Evans had crab cake Benedict.

Joe’s Pizza | This came highly recommended and was such good NYC pizza. We actually had this uber eats to our hotel room because we were so tired after our long day.

T O D O |

We had so many recommendations for this category and just didn’t have time to do them all. Plus traveling with a 13 year old and 9 year old they have different interests. As far as kid museum recs the top 4 were : Museaum of Ice Cream , Color Factory, Slo-mo, and Candytopia. We let the kids vote and they choose the Museum of ice Cream.

MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM| When we first walked in I thought this was gonna be a bust but the kids warmed up and actually had fun exploring all the rooms. Lots of cool photo ops and they both loved the sprinkles pool. It brought me joy to see Sterling so childlike in here and loving it as he is so grown up these days. They also serve ice cream on each floor.

One Vanderbuilt | SUMMIT– This was what I was most terrified of, an elevator that take you up 94 floors with sweeping views of the city. But it turned out to be something we all loved. It is a short elevator ride thank goodness- there is an option to ride in a glass elevator which we all declined-haha. Once you get up top it is 4 floors to explore with amazing views and a rooftop bar! I highly recommend this and book tickets ahead of time. We went at 5 to try and catch part of the sun setting.

HIGHLINE | This is such a cool part of the city to walk around above ground and see gardens, art and architecture.

Highline Hotel | I am including this because it was such a gorgeous spot to stop and take photos and this arch was all fresh flowers. Incredible to see.

We also did FAO Schwartz, American Girl Doll Store, Saks, Times Square and lots more shopping!

RECS WE DIDN’T GET TO:

Broadway Show- highly recommended Lion King, MJ Musical and Peter Pan

Color factory

Walk the Brooklyn Bridge and have pizza underneath it

Central Park Zoo

Natural Museum of History

Chinatown

Etaly

Food Court at Central Station

The Rock

Chelsea Market

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