For those of you who have been reading along for a while, y’all know how much I love New York City. It’s a place where *healthy* family memories were shared with *healthy* family members of mine. My favorite cousin used to live there as her family was located in Tarrytown, but I haven’t visited since Katy moved away in 2023. Last weekend, Alex and I *finally* flew together for the first time to visit our friends, Amy and Danny. It was wonderful to make new memories in the city, although I did miss Katy’s quality time very much.

Amy and Alex have always had a brother/sister-type friendship. It’s been lovely getting to know her and her husband even though we’ve been ships passing in the night (I moved to Atlanta in September of 2023, while Danny and Amy moved to NYC two months later). Alex and I have wanted to visit for a while now, and all our schedules finally aligned.

While Linley was living it up at our aunt’s and uncle’s house with his pup cousins, Alex and I arrived at the airport early on Friday morning. We were tired but excited, and quickly woke up when we felt the energy of the city (for example, the traffic controller in the rideshare lane was yelling and insulting all the drivers, which we personally loved)! We stayed in Chinatown and ate on the border of Little Italy for lunch, where I enjoyed gluten free mozzarella sticks and cacio de pepe. Alex and I also enjoyed some delicious mezcal cocktails, which was an excellent way to kick off the weekend!

After our amazing lunch, we strolled through Dumbo and walked the Brooklyn Bridge. We also ended up at an outdoor bar called Jury Duty, which was ironic because not only did we see a few brides and grooms walk by from the courthouse, but it was also the day of Luigi’s “not-guilty” plea. Talk about a wild coincidence haha!

We strolled back to our hotel and met up with Amy and Danny for family-style Thai seafood dinner. We laughed and caught up while I tried a fish eye for the first time. It was so nice to try new places and celebrate Danny’s new job, Amy’s birthday, our recent marriage and my official last name change. So much to celebrate! The kindest thing that Amy said was, “You’ve meant so much to me because of how happy you make Alex.” That meant the world to me, and it’s been great to grow our friendship, too!

After dinner, we kept the conversation going at a really cool speakeasy bar. It was fun to people watch and talk about travel, how we all met and just overall continuing to catch up. Even though we don’t see each other as often, it always feels like no time has passed—a good sign of a great friendship!

Saturday morning was fun and full of exploring Chinatown more. I’d only been once but it was fun to revisit with someone who is actually Chinese! Alex was in heaven. With hotel coffee in hand, we strolled to a congee place called Big Wong where Alex enjoyed some pork dish that could’ve been a dinner, and I tried shrimp congee for the first – but not last – time. Good thing we had an hour wait for brunch with Amy and Danny, because we definitely over ate!

Once Alex grabbed some food from a bakery and another market, we made our way back to the hotel, and finally brunch with Amy and Danny. We had an hour-long wait, which was okay because the people watching outside was prime, and we had time to grab coffee from a nearby spot. I loved all our conversations and seriously miss Amy and Danny already! For lunch, I had a whitefish sandwich and banana bread, all gluten free. We also had fun navigating the subways after as we ventured to Central Park. The flowers were so beautiful and it was Alex’s first time walking within the park itself. We all majorly needed a nap before heading back out for dinner and our nighttime comedy show!

Our dinner was lovely as we enjoyed more pasta, and Alex and I enjoyed mezcal espresso martinis! After dinner, we had the best time at our Gotham City comedy show. I’ve always wanted to go there and I’m so glad we finally did! The host and all five comedians were absolutely hilarious and the jokes and laughs kept flowing. We stayed up wayyy past our bedtime but it was so worth it!

I hope y’all enjoyed this break from the honeymoon posts (which will resume tomorrow…) but in case you missed him as much as we did, here’s what Lin was up to while we were away:

Media taken Friday, April 25 – Sunday, April 27.