April & Heather's NY Adventures - part one

April came to visit me for a weekend while I lived in NY this summer. It was her first time visiting NYC, so I knew we had to make it super special. Not only did she have a great time, but I did too, and it is one of my best memories of my time living in Manhattan. 

We started things off with a bang by grabbing a late dinner at The Smith in Midtown. The place was buzzing with a smartly dressed business crowd as we saddled up to the bar to grab a pre-meal cocktail. The cocktail menu was expansive, and we each tried some delicious concoctions. For dinner, we feasted - cheesy tomato soup and scallops to start, followed by steak, mussels and frites.

Before we left, we headed down to the bathroom - a unisex hall of subway tile, old barber chairs, and a vintage photobooth. Love the pictures we got out of the photobooth - they are framed and are some of my favourite souvenirs of NY.

On our walk home from The Smith, we noticed the street in front of us was moving...rats! A dozen or so rats were swarming the sidewalk right in front of us. We screamed (obvi), and turned to run back down the way we came, only to be stopped by a crowd of young men willing to scare those disgusting beasts away. Ugh, New York...you can be wonderful, but you can also be a pretty dirty place.

The next morning we took a cab over to Chelsea for a brunch reservation at The Park. As we were a bit early, we decided to take a little stroll along The Highline. The Highline is a converted old railway, that is now a beautiful above-ground city park. Truly a unique place to visit, but I would recommend going earlier in the morning, as it started to get busy at around 11am.

The Park is a converted old taxi-cab parking garage - an expansive space with eclectic decor and an industrial vintage vibe. The meal was yummy, and they even served a freshly baked mini-loaf of banana bread (instead of a usual bread-basket). Such a cute idea.

We spent the rest of the afternoon traipsing around the West Village, the Meatpacking District, and Chelsea. The West Village is full of cobblestone winding streets (below the grid), people on bicycles, tiny independent shops selling eclectic goodies, and sidewalk cafes. If I were to move back to NY, it would definitely be to the West Village.
 

 Of course, our day was just getting started...but that's a story for another time!