New York Staycation

This year, Valentine's Day and my birthday fell on the same long weekend -- and Lee surprised me with a New York staycation! On Valentine's Day morning, he told me to pack a weekend bag, and we left our apartment for an unknown location. We took a very short subway ride to the Chambers Street stop, and thus commenced our Tribeca staycation weekend.

We had lunch at The Soda Shop -- an adorable little place that is very similar to the Peninsula Creamery in Palo Alto. It has a huge old-school candy selection and delicious brunch, burgers, sandwiches, and milkshakes. After checking in at the Duane Street Hotel (which is, interestingly, a Robert DeNiro establishment), Lee finally revealed the surprise -- a series of personal shopping appointments at Calypso, Aloha Rag, and Big Drop! The weather was actually relatively nice that day, so we had a nice time walking around from store to store and looking at the fun clothes each boutique had to offer. For Valentine's Day dinner, we decided to play it by ear, which was probably not the best idea in a city like Manhattan... after passing by several packed restaurants and a failed attempt to get a table at Bouley Upstairs, we ended up wandering into a random restaurant called City Hall.

The Soda Shop = Candyland!






Some nice retro-style touches to the Soda Shop:


Our cute hotel room:


The following night, we had a fun birthday dinner that Lee had organized for me at Blaue Gans. The theme was "Project Birthday Party," and prizes were promised for the following categories: Most Stylish, Most Creative, and Wackiest. It was a really lovely dinner party with good food and wonderful company. And my awesome husband baked me a birthday cake from scratch!

My birthday cake!


Christine, Matt, and Charlotte. Quote of the night was from Charlotte: "I tried to dress for the 'Most Stylish' award, but I think I just ended up looking up skanky. My bad."


Astrid, who dressed up as a LES hipster, won both the "Most Creative" and "Wackiest" awards. I won for "Most Stylish" -- haha, gee, wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that it was my birthday?

Here we are with our prizes:


After a Tribeca-filled weekend, we returned to our apartment and enjoyed a day off of work. My good friend Ann and I spent my birthday perusing the goods at Saks, and then I returned home for the perfect at-home birthday dinner: ordered-in fettucine with meat sauce from Max (my birthday meal since the day I turned 18, no joke) and a bottle of champagne!