May 30, 2014

Food & Art: A Day Out with Bianca in New York City

My best friend Bianca has been in New York for the past two weeks (ish)! Bianx is one of my oldest friends. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that we’re second cousins who were both born around the same time in the good ol’ US of A. But we really became close when I moved back to the Philippines in 1998, and have been the best of friends ever since! We’ve really gone through ups, downs and everything in between, but it really pleases me to be able to say I’ve known this girl forever and love her, good, bad and everything in between.

On the last day of her visit, we decided to combine two of our favorite things on a whim: culture + food!

Our first stop that day was Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. The first notable thing that happened as we joined the line? We nearly ran into (literally) Neil Patrick Harris + his adorable family. We waited in line for about half an hour before grabbing our food (Shack Stack + cheese fries + strawberry lemonade) and positioning ourselves on one of the open lawns. The glorious weather was perfect for an impromptu picnic!

After we had eaten our fill, we traipsed on over to the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd St. I’ve lived here for nearly four years, but this was my first visit! Highlights included seeing works of art created by Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh + Warhol.

We then made a quick pit stop at ATT (where Mel and I picked up new phones!) and Starbucks for a caffeine fix, before heading on up the Upper West Side to visit Levain Bakery. We made it just in time to grab a chocolate chip walnut cookie and a chocolate chocolate chip one, and they were delicious. 

After a bit of chatting about life and “might have beens” and “what ifs”, we made our way to Times Square. Bianca wanted to catch her favorite street artist in action (which you can see below) and Mel and I wanted to take her to Forever 21 in Times Square so we could take advantage of the photo booth (which you can also see below.) We ended the night with drinks and dinner at Dallas BBQ!

Bianca left on Tuesday, and I already miss her! She’ll be in LA soon, so hopefully I get the chance to go and visit her… or she comes back to visit again. I’m so glad our last day together was fun, relaxed and pretty “full” too.

4 Comments:

  1. Looks like your day was full of fun, Alexa! It's pretty cool that you had a (near) chance encounter with Neil Patrick Harris, too.

    I haven't been to the MoMA either but I'm glad to hear that it was lots of fun! I definitely have to go sometime soon (and to Levain Bakery, too)!

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  2. Alexa, I love your black & white top & I would love a cookie.

    Thank you. :)

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  3. Way to eat my comment, Blogger!

    Seriously, Alexa, you make me want to step up my game & get my lazy butt out the door (PLEASE tell me you have days where you stay in pjs and barely move from the couch)! You're constantly doing the coolest things and going to the neatest events - and omg MoMA!

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  4. Awww, I love all these pictures! Looks like you guys had a blast and YAY NPH!

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