The Brimhalls: girls trip to NYC

It had been 2 whole years since all three of us had been together, so we were due for a girls trip.

And ever since Jamie's move to Philly 4 years ago, she has been begging us to fly out to her place and then train into the city for a girls weekend in NYC...so we decided we better make it happen before we all get knocked up and start having more babies!

So Ali and I both flew into Philly and after crashing at Jamie's place for the night, we caught the train the next morning into Penn Station.

We checked into our hotel right in the middle of Times Square (thanks to Jamie's brother for the sweet hotel hook up!!) and then we were off on our first Subway ride of the trip...to Levain Bakery and then Central Park to eat lunch at The Boathouse...

After lunch and a stroll through Central Park, we made our way to Fifth Avenue for some shopping.

And then we shopped so hard we worked up an appetite and headed to Grand Central Station to eat at Shake Shack...

And you guys, Shake Shack blew my mind!

And to be honest, I was kinda surprised it blew my mind!

I'd heard lots about it, of course, but I kinda thought it was probably overrated.

I mean, I've had some damn good burgers and shakes before so how much better could this place be!?

But it was amazing!

I had the Shack Stack and it was a burger with a deep fried portobello mushroom on it stuffed with cheese and it was insane!

And the cheese fries and salted caramel shake were incredible too.

But man, that burger...

The next morning, we got up first thing in the morning and rode the subway to Chelsea Market.

Chelsea Market is basically an upscale indoor farmers market...I don't know how else to describe it. It was in this really cool industrial building and the corridors were just lined with different little gourmet places to eat and we basically ate our way through it...

lox and bagel, mini doughnuts, lobster rolls, pizza, cheese, chocolate, gelato, sushi, tacos, burgers...they had everything!

And everything we tried was insanely good!

Once we ate ourselves sick through Chelsea Market, we hopped on the Highline nearby.

The Highline is a new outdoor park in NYC.

It used to be an elevated train through the city, but they developed it into a park with walking paths and benches and beautiful trees and flowers along the way. It gives you some pretty great views of the city and the streets below and the gorgeous little neighborhoods.

It was really unique and really cool!

And the weather was absolutely gorgeous!

We couldn't have picked a better day or time of day to do it.

After a stroll on the Highline, we subway-ed even further to Brooklyn.

Then we walked the Brooklyn Bridge back over to Manhattan...

Once we were back on the Manhattan side, we took a cab to a famous ice cream place called Ice and Vice.

It was so good!

Really unique flavors and so tasty!!

One of my scoops was called Champagne and Coffee and the other was their signature flavor, Milk Money.

By the time I remembered to take a picture, I had already scarfed half of it down!

After our jam packed day, we headed back to our hotel to clean up for our dinner reservations and Broadway Show.

We ate dinner at the cutest little Mexican restaurant in Midtown called Toloache.

(Thanks for the restaurant rec, Mom! We loved it!)

We shared their guacamole trio, the best quesadilla I have ever had with manchego cheese and truffled mushrooms on it, and chicken enchiladas.

And for dessert, mini churros with chocolate and dulce de leche dipping sauces.

After our delicious dinner, we had a little time to kill so we did some shopping in the middle of Times Square and then our show, Finding Neverland, was just off a side street, right next to Times Square.

Finding Neverland was so good!!!

And I left the theater kinda regretting that we hadn't booked tickets to see a second broadway show while we were in town!

I just love the experience of a Broadway show in NYC, there's really nothing like it!

After the show, we were exhausted from our long day and went back to our hotel to kick off our shoes and rest.

But all the sudden we realized we were all starving since we had eaten such an early dinner before our show...so we put on our leggings and sweatshirts and comfy tennis shoes and literally ran three blocks to the nearest pizza place that was still open at midnight.

It was a hole in the wall, and I was super skeptical at what the pizza might taste like...but it was so good!

And then we ate Magnolia Banana Pudding for dessert, of course :)

The next morning, we woke up for brunch reservations at Sarabeth's.

We had delicious smoked salmon benedict and toasted coconut waffles.

This was our last day in the city, and it basically rained all day long.

But thankfully, we came prepared with rubber rain boots and umbrellas.

We weren't gonna let a little rain ruin our last day in the city...

We spent some time shopping in Times Square that morning, buying some souvenirs for our kids.

And then we took the subway down to Soho to shop and eat some more.

We attempted Black Tap, which is mega famous for their burgers and shakes, but it was a 2 hour wait in the rain, so we opted out.

Instead, we ate lunch at a little spot in Soho that one of the shop security guards recommended to us called Delicatessen and then we grabbed not one, but two desserts...

First up, was a frozen s'more from Dominique Ansel Bakery...it was incredible!!!!

I've never had anything like it in my life!

And then we grabbed cupcakes at Georgetown Cupcake...

After that, we basically couldn't fathom walking one more step into a store or eating one more meal.

We did it all and we were worn out.

So we picked up our luggage from our hotel and caught the next train out of Penn Station back to Philly.

The next morning, after a major shopping spree at Target, Jamie gave us some options for one last meal together before she dropped Ali and I off at the Philly airport to catch our flights home.

And guess what we chose...