Our last day in New York started bright and early. Because hey, the early bird gets the worm, right? Maybe, but in our case, the early bird gets the bagels…Ess-a-bagel. 
A trip to NYC wouldn’t be complete without a serious bagel run – we enjoyed a few for breakfast and packed up way too many to bring to my in-laws to enjoy over Christmas too.
After a hearty breakfast of bagels (and cream cheese) (and black and white cookies) we hopped on the train and took it out to the Bronx to visit the New York Botanical Gardens and see the Holiday Train Show. All aboard!
The Holiday Train Show is mostly geared towards the enjoyment of children, so of course, it was very fitting for us to have a great time as well.
grand central station
The truth is, it’s really pretty awesome at any age – the mastermind behind this project has created a whole miniature New York City out of things only found in nature – sticks, flowers, moss, leaves, grass, etc… There are rooms and rooms filled with these buildings and trains running through them or by them.
midtown / statue of liberty
Brooklyn bridge / public library
Somehow watching the trains roll by really helped us to work up a hunger. So, we hopped a train back downtown, stopping roughly in the neighborhood of Chinatown, but not for Chinese…for fried chicken.
fried chicken sandwich & ben-yay’s from Cheeky’s
There is nothing about Cheeky’s that isn’t amazing – everything is homemade, and you can taste the difference…the biscuit, the gravy…the ben-yay’s! Cheeky’s has made it on our official “must go to when in NYC” list, and I highly suggest that you put it on yours as well.
Our time after lunch started to become a bit of blur, but not because we were in any sort of fried chicken food coma. Our plan was to just walk, walk, walk…but unfortunately the weather didn’t exactly work in our favor. It started to rain, and not San Diego “rain” – it was really coming down cats and dogs. Regardless, we still made the best of it and walked all over the city, making sure to pop into the all of the stores that we had wanted to visit.
the cutest vintage cookbook shop
the new york public library provided us with a few dry moments
we made a stop at dominique ansel for the famous cookie shot & kougin amann
a christmas toast at rolf’s
After many hours of cold, wet feet, we were ready for the last check-in of our trip at the Library Hotel. (Another wonderful invitation that we were quite excited about.)
We quickly got settled into our cozy “math” themed room, and decided that the best plan for the night was to get into our pj’s, pop some bubbly and order take-out. Our cold little toes quickly defrosted, and with the sound of the rain pounding away outside, it was the perfect way to end our time in New York.
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This post was written in collaboration with both the New York Botanical Gardens and the Library Hotel. Although the experience and hotel stay were complimentary, no financial compensation was received. All opinions expressed and written here are my own, and are an honest account of our experiences.