After several failed attempts, I finally made it up to New York this weekend to visit Jessey and Olga! The weather wasn't the world's greatest, but we persevered and had a blast anyways. :)

Friday evening I hopped on my plane and made the trek up to the city. A short cab ride later, and I was happily chatting away on the couch in Jessey's very cool apartment on the Upper West Side. We donned our scarfs and coats and headed over to Cafe Lalo for some coffee and sinfully rich Irish Cream Pie. When you haven't seen your friends in such a long time, you tend to want to talk a lot, so we didn't head to bed until the wee hours of the morning.

Despite the late night, all three of us popped awake by about 8:30 the next morning! Our brunch destination for the day was a little place called Sarabeth's Kitchen. They served excellent coffee and very unique brunch options - mine was a pumpkin waffle topped with pumpkin seeds, sour cream, and honey. It was incredible. :)

The rest of Saturday was spent wandering around NoLiTa, poking around in all the varied stores and shops. Olga also brought us to a funky little store called Lunette et Chocolate, which means sweets and glasses, that served up thick, rich Marie Belle hot chocolate in tiny cups. I was also able to go into my longtime favorite store - Kate's Paperie - to pick up some cards and general drool over everything.

We were understandably exhausted after our long day of walking, so we made the short walk to Joya near Olga's apartment. The restaurant was fun and casual, and we had a cool bartender who gave the more indecisive of us tastes of several different martinis. Afterwards we wandered over to Olga's neighborhood bar - the Zombie Hut - to grab a drink and hang out.

For some reason Olga and I woke up quite early Sunday morning, so we geeked out for a while and installed Movable Type in her new hosting account. Once Jessey was awake, we walked down Smith Street to Bar Tabac, an authentically French bistro with live jazz and amazing fries. No freedom fries there! :)

After brunch we explored a little bit more of Brooklyn, during which time Jessey and Olga kept giving eachother funny looks and speaking in hushed voices about secretive things. Every time I asked them what was going on, they insisted they'd have to kill me first. Turns out they were taking me to get the world's most amazing birthday cupcakes at Downtown Atlantic! And I do mean amazing cupcakes. The kind that are so big you can't finish, and are covered with thick frosting that is just the perfect amount of sweet without being cloying. Yum. :)

And then it was time to head home. An impromtu stroll through Living on Smith on the way home netted me a cool souvenir vase from my trip, and then I hailed a cab to the airport! It was a wonderful weekend, filled with lots of good food, catching up with good friends, and soaking up the atmosphere of the City. Thanks guys!