Tag: Road trips

Travels

How To Spend A Couple’s Weekend in New York City

Janice Persico

My husband and I just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary! We left the kids with Grandma and drove into New York City for two nights. I didn’t feel as though the city was as crowded as prepandemic times. It felt lively and energetic, ready to get back to usual.

Went stayed at the Moxy Chelsea hotel in the flower district. I loved walking out the door and seeing flowers and plants all over the sidewalks. The room was definitely on the smaller side but we had everything we needed for our weekend and I slept comfortably.

  • We had an Empire State view!
  • The lobby

Our first night we ate at Serra by Birreria, the rooftop bar/restaurant. The food was delicious! I loved all the floral decor.

For our one full day in the city we ate brunch at The Little Owl in West Village. Walking around the streets of West Village feels as though you are in a different city. It was quiet! I felt as though I could be walking around in Charleston.

From there we walked to Washington Square Park, somewhere I’d never wandered to while in NYC in the past. I wanted to see the arch! I created a reel about the park, on Instagram, if you want to check it out.

I’m writing a separate blog post about what I wore while in NYC.

We went back to the hotel for some siesta time after that. I was sweating and needed a breather. We grabbed a late lunch near the hotel, nothing special, and relaxed before heading to Yankee Stadium for the evening. I wanted to visit The High Line but with the heat we didn’t end up going. Another time 🙂

We sat in the Delta SkyView area of the stadium, it was awesome!

Sunday morning we slept in for as long as two parents possibly can after years of early rising with kids, got some New York bagels (the best!) and headed home late morning. Driving around the city is a little nutty, we felt comfortable taking the Metro a few times on Saturday since we are vaccinated, but driving home felt like it took forever. Always does I guess.

Since we only live about an hour and a half outside the city it was easy to skip the major NYC attractions we’ve been to or want to take the kids to in the future. If you are coming from further away, seeing the World Trade Center site is always amazing and of course the Statue of Liberty. I feel like Times Square isn’t anything great but you should see it at least once in your life. Rockefeller Plaza is fun to see in winter.

There are many rooftop eating options that give you a great view of the city, instead of paying for tickets to go to the top of the Empire State Building or others, book some food reservations before you go. I knew we would have a city view from our hotel and I’ve been to the top of the Twin Towers in my childhood, so I did not worry about making sure we did extra views on this trip. When Broadway reopens seeing a show is a must see! I’ve got tickets for October for Hamilton and am overexcited for that.

Here are some other of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

What are your must see places in New York City?

Travels

How To Spend One Day in Newport, Rhode Island

Janice Persico

I decided for Mother’s Day this year I wanted a day trip with my husband and three kids. My oldest only has a couple of years left with us before college days and I want to soak in the family time as much as I can. I spent many of my younger days in Rhode Island but realized I never took my kids there so off we went.

Make yourself a mental note, find out ahead of time if colleges are graduating the weekend you are going. It didn’t even dawn on me but University of Rhode Island and Salve Regina were having some ceremonies and it was busy in the areas we went. Not ideal. We were still able to park where I wanted early in the day but had trouble once mid afternoon rolled around.

We started our day with brunch in Washington Square. I’m a sucker for a cobblestone street (there are none in Connecticut!) and was overjoyed to take some pictures walking down one.

We ate a delicious brunch at Stoneacre Brasserie. I realized my life lacked mimosas made with fresh squeezed orange juice. I’ll never be the same! We loved the smoked trout deviled eggs and the kids ordered seconds of them.

Next we drove to the Cliff Walk area and parked (for free) at The Breakers Mansion visitor parking. With Salve Regina’s graduation parking was limited but luckily even without tickets to go inside The Breakers we were still allowed to park there. I would have loved to tour inside the mansion but I knew we didn’t have a lot of time to add that in and with the children not vaccinated we decided to exclude it. I have toured mansions in the past and highly recommend seeing one at some point in your life 🙂

We walked to one of the entrances to the Cliff Walk and explored part of it, knowing we weren’t able to do the entire walk I knew I wanted to head south once we reached the water. I recommend ahead of time deciding which areas of the cliff walk you’d like to see. It was quite windy and cooler by the water and we didn’t even make it all the way to the Marble House before deciding to take the road back to the car to warm up.

I had my hopes on visiting the Castle Hill Lighthouse and when we drove to Castle Hill Inn to see it they wouldn’t let us in 😦 Since the pandemic started they were only letting patrons of the Inn on property, rightfully so I think, but something I did not read online anywhere ahead of time.

We drove by Fort Adams and along Thames Street, making some stops for me to admire the seaport area. The wharf area of Newport was our next stop but alas the parking was nonexistent and when I saw the crowds of people I decided to look for dessert outside of Newport. Walking along the wharf is beautiful and I recommend it if you can!

  • Old fire station
  • I love old architecture

A day to Rhode Island without a doubt has to include a Del’s frozen lemonade. I lived in Rhode Island for several years as a child and have fond memories of clam cakes and a Del’s. Luckily finding a Del’s outside of Newport wasn’t too difficult 🙂

I had a perfect Mother’s Day in Newport!

Travels

Visiting Magnolia Plantation and the Beaches Near Charleston, South Carolina

Janice Persico

During my week in Charleston my family and I spent an enjoyable day walking around Magnolia Plantation. We bought general tickets for the plantation and also elected to do the Slavery To Freedom tour. Highly recommend! The kids of course loved the small animal petting zoo. I had packed us up a lunch for the day and we did buy snacks and drinks at the plantation.

  • Inside one of the slave homes

We visited Kiawah Island beach, Sullivan’s Island beach and Isle of Palms beaches over the course of the week, staying the longest at Kiawah Island. I thought Isle of Palms was the most beautiful.

Isle of Palms
  • Isle of Palms
  • Lots of shells at Isle of Palms
  • Sullivan’s Island
  • Lighthouse on Sullivan’s Island
  • Kiawah Island
  • Very small crowd at Kiawah!

At Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island we parked on the road and used a walk way to get to the beach. I did not see any restrooms; the public beach accesses were closed at that time. On Kiawah Island we paid to park at the public beach and the facilities were open. I had read the water would be too cold to swim but being from the North we felt differently! We swam.

Have you been to the Charleston area?