Always, Misty: Planning the Perfect Girl's Trip to the Big Apple

A few months ago my best girl Taylor and I got a wild hair while at the gym and decided to plan a trip to NYC! We both adore the city that never sleeps and even more so in the fall. We've both been several times before so planning on a whim was fun and spontaneous! Here are my tips for planning the perfect girl's trip to NYC...

{1} Find a friend you can travel with

This person should make you laugh until you pee a little and should be willing to cry over pasta in public if the conversation gets that good. For me, that's this girl.

{2} Be a tourist, but get off the beaten path, too

Since both of us have been to NYC multiple times before, we wanted to find things that neither one of us had done before. A total touristy thing that we did was eat lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner where the wait staff sings! Several friends recommended this to me and it was so fun! Later that day we got off the beaten path to catch the Carolina game at a bar called the Mason Jar. It's where the NYC Gamecock Club gathers and fans living in and around the city, as well as visitors like us, come to "tailgate." Our moscow mules were served in mason jars of course!

{3} See a Broadway show {or two}

This was the first time either one of us had come to NYC without buying show tickets ahead of time. We decided to take our chances at the TKTS booth in Times Square and saw both shows for under $100 each. We stood in line maybe 30 minutes the first time, but one thing we learned is that if you have a ticket stub from TKTS and return the next day to buy another ticket you get to skip to a special line all the way to the front! We saw the very popular Kinky Boots and a broadway classic Chicago. Walking away from Kinky Boots we agreed that it was just ok, but we enjoyed the $18 glass of champagne and the Shake Shake burgers we inhaled late night! After Chicago, we wanted to abandon our lives in SC, move to Manhattan and audition for broadway! Plus Rumer Willis was playing Roxy so that counted as our celebrity sighting!

{4} Eat Brunch

We "brunched" both Sunday and Monday. One place we had both been to before, West End Grill and the iconic Loeb Boathouse in Central Park was new for Tay. We shared most of our food the entire weekend because everything looked so good! This was the BEST. French. Toast. Ever. and my crab cake at the Boathouse was ah-mazing

{5} Take the Subway

After cabbing it a few times, we got brave on Sunday and decided to take the subway. We learned that sometimes using the subway on Saturdays and Sundays can be tricky because this is when they do maintenance and close down certain lines. It all worked out and we lived to tell about it.

{6} Visit the 9/11 Memorial at dusk

There really are not adequate words to describe the mood there this time of day. It almost felt like we were the only people there and seeing it with the lights was something else. The weirdest thing happened though...immediately when we walked up, the first name I read was someone with the last name Burton.

{7} Eat in Little Italy

We asked someone working around the memorial how long the walk was to Little Italy from there. She said 15 minutes. She was a liar. 45 minutes later we were restaurant hopping until we found THE PERFECT atmosphere and best menu. We both had this certain image in our heads of how this dinner was going to feel. We then proceeded to have the best meal of our lives. Homemade pasta has changed my life. I will NEVER visit the city again without having at least ONE meal in Little Italy.

{8} Go to the Today Show taping and Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral

We had originally planned to do the Top of the Rock, but it just didn't happen this trip. We didn't make it to the Today show super early so we missed most of the action. This, however, did not stop Taylor from jumping over a man's head to get on tv. Don't worry...we didn't have signs so they probably thought we were from Ohio or Alabama.