Weekend in New York - all the family, all the bagels, the best flight, things I miss from the USA.

That was a much longer blogging gap than expected but I am finally here to recap my trip to New York!

SATURDAY

My flight out was at 7:45am, so I arrived at the airport at 4:45 because I like being early. I was super incredibly lucky on this trip because my frequent flier mom had used some upgrade points and I was upgraded to business class for the flight out.  

Before boarding I gave myself a little pep talk about how I was not going to look like a podunk fool when I got on the flight, and that I knew how to do nice things like be in business class.

We boarded the plane and I immediately clearly did not belong there when I asked "umm where is seat 4?"

I was so so excited to see my seat!  What a dream to spend 7 hours alone in my own space.

Some other people started to board including a guy in front of me who saw me grinning and looking around and asked what I was smiling about.  I said "OMG I have never been in business class this is amazing!  Do you do this all the time? And if you do, do you think "OMG is this amazing" every time you get on a flight?"

He took that well and said "I do try to remember how lucky I am" and then he helped me put the mattress on my chair because the chair was also a bed.

Anyways, I'm so far into this post without even being in new york yet.  The flight was so amazing, people brought me food while I watched TV!  I decided to watch The Paper (which is The Office reboot thing).  It was cute.

I slept a few hours as well, on a fully flat reclined bed.  I moisturized my face and I drank loads of water and I felt so human the whole time.  

When we started to land I told the flight attendant I did not want to get off the plane and wished the flight was longer.  Sadly they did not let me stay on the plane, but I also had a wedding to get to.

I went through customs, and it was the first time I had been back to the states since 2019, and it was a bit jarring just how big and diverse and also gun-y (ie police and customs) Newark airport is.  I hope that's not a weird political thing to say?  

The customs person asked where I was visiting from and I said "The UK" and he asked "how long have you been there" and I said I live there and then he stamped me through.

I met my mom at our AirBnB in Prospect Park (Brooklyn) and we went to the local coffee shop to get a coffee.  

Cold Brew with half and half! I LOVE half and half and they don't have it in the UK.  I also love cold brew, which they also generally don't have here (or at least I haven't seen it).  You can get iced americanos, but it's just not the same.  I am fairly sure I spent $30 at least on cold brew over my 3 days in New York and it was worth it.

Also look at all these cakes!  The Coffee Shop was called Der Pioneer and it was incredible

In the afternoon I walked around Prospect Park with my aunt, and then my sister arrived and we all went to a bar to meet my cousin as part of the wedding activities.  At around 7 I was ready to fall asleep on my feet, but I stayed awake until exactly 9pm and then was asleep within minutes.  I slept all night and it was glorious.

SUNDAY

I woke at 5:30am (8.5 hours of sequential sleep <3) and googled some things to do during the short visit.  The coffee shop opened at 7am and I snuck out for a coffee and some reading:

I was alone in the courtyard, the weather was perfect, and I was so fully content.  Plus I was excited to start thinking about planning!

Later that morning I walked through Prospect Park with my brother and mom - that park is HUGE!  There were so many people out running and cycling and enjoying life.  We went to a local farmers market where everything looked amazing:

We split up at 11 because I *really* wanted to go to a stationery shop.  There was a shop about an hour away doing a Hobonichi planner launch, which are a Japanese planner I have never seen but heard about from Best Laid Plans.  I decided it wasn't worth a 2 hour round trip, but there was also a stationery shop 15-minute walk away.

I walked by some classic Park Slope brownstone buildings:

And then remembered that this area is the setting for Kate Clayborn's Love Lettering!  

I finally made it to the Analogue Stationer which was super cute.  

I tried lots of pens and bought myself a Zebra Sarasa and a Good Pens pen, which were not expensive but are fun.   I also saw what a Hobonichi planner is, and they did look very cute:

We headed to Miriam for lunch with my family.  The food was incredible - my brother and mom had the Latke Benedict (eggs benedict on a potato latke), my aunt had watermelon salad, and my sister had another incredible salad.  I ordered chicken shawarma tacos with Za'atar fries and it was the best thing I've eaten in... a very very long time.

After my giant salty lunch it was time to get dressed for the wedding!  It was an afternoon outdoor wedding.  I think ChatGPT really came through with my wedding outfit:

The wedding was at Prospect Park and it was the most perfect day.  My cousin looked gorgeous, her friends were great, her husband is lovely, and the whole wedding felt truly "them".  I'm so glad I could be a part of it!

My brother and sister and I got home late, snacked on some New York bagels, and then went to bed.

MONDAY

I woke up in time for a coffee, and a $1 loaf end:

My mom joined me for this one, so it wasn't the same at the reading morning.

Then we went to a brunch with my cousin at her community garden, where I ate more amazing bagels (I have not listed all the bagels in this post but it was at least one a day).  We said goodbye and headed to the place I miss most from the USA...

TRADER JOE'S

I was so excited.  Sadly I only had a carry-on, so I took photos of everything I would have bought.  It was like my own fall Trader Joe's spree.

I did buy a few things though - these came back with me:

My mom and I took the subway (our first subway of this trip)

And from Penn Station we took a train to Newark.  I was able to catch an earlier flight home (5pm vs. 7:30) which was lucky because the 7:30 flight was cancelled.  Unfortunately these flights were full so there was no upgrade, and it was not the glorious experience of my travel out.  The flight ran out of food (is that a thing?) and I was in the back, and I didn't really sleep, and it was only 6 hours anyways.  

We left at 6:00pm New York time and arrived in Heathrow at 5:45am on Tuesday.

It was a truly incredible trip and I realized how much I love travel and how much I miss alone time.  I know this stage of 4 kids between 2 and 7 is a stage, but it is a busy stage.

Also, I thought about the guy on my flight out, and how mundane the experience of business is for him. He seemed reminded how cool it is to fly business by watching me excitedly explore a fancy airline seat.  I think maybe this stage of parenting is similar...  4 young kids is my mundane reality... but from an outside observer it's possibly pretty cool.   I would do well to remember this is highly time limited,  and perhaps try to approach my twin cuddle mornings with the same joy I approached my solo airplane seat.