springtime in new york

Since Richard has to work on his birthday Sunday, we decided to celebrate early with a little trip to New York/Hoboken. My brother Will lives in Hoboken, so instead of staying downtown, we stayed at the W in Hoboken. It was a super nice hotel and was much more reasonable than the hotels in the City. We were just a few blocks from Carlo's Bakery, featured on TLC's Cake Boss, and Richard wanted nothing more to try out some of Buddy's offerings for Saturday morning breakfast. 

Hoboken residents get to cut the LONG line to get into the bakery, so Will flashed his ID and we were assigned our own personal bakery attendant. We ordered cannoli, cupcakes, crumb cake and brownies. So indulgent, so delicious.

Richard listing out all of his selections

Caitlin, me and Richard at Carlo's 

outside Carlo's Bake Shop with Will and Caitlin

box of goodness

best crumb cake I have ever tasted

Will works for L'Oreal in Clark, NJ, and we went over to his office to see where he goes every day. He does packaging for their luxury hair care lines, and he posed with all of the products he has worked on. I'm so proud of him!

After coming back from Clark, we enjoyed the Hoboken waterfront and the view of New York City. 

We had dinner at Nougatine at Jean Georges, then walked down Broadway to see Evita with Ricky Martin. I loved the movie Evita with Madonna and Antonio Banderas, so I was excited to see the stage production. Ricky Martin was incredible, and the latin choreography was amazing. I left wanting to learn how to tango!

Richard and the most delicious butterscotch pudding I have ever tasted

Happy Birthday, husband!

Columbus Circle- I loved getting to wear this orange Elizabeth McKay dress I found on Rue La La a few weeks ago!

in the middle of busy Times Square

posing with the colorful posters after the show

We had gorgeous weather on both Saturday and Sunday, so we decided to go to Central Park Zoo on Sunday afternoon after brunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. The Central Park Zoo is not the most impressive zoo in the world in terms of the types of animals there, but it's pretty neat to have this green space with polar bears and snow leopards in the middle of the city. 

zoo clock with dancing animals

penguins!

beautiful day

sleeping polar bear

We also went to the Children's Zoo, and I got to feed an alpaca. The alpaca sure was sweet and thankful for a little bit of food.

the cute little hands and head peaking out at the bottom of the picture belonged to an adorable little guy who turned to me with both of his hands out after I finished with the alpaca- he was so disappointed I didn't have any feed to share!

Richard liked this bear fountain

We eventually left the zoo and got on the road back to Maryland, with plans to stop at the Cracker Barrel on the way home. We don't have any Cracker Barrels close to us, so it is honestly a treat to get to go! There is just something about their "home-cooking" that is extremely comforting. And I accomplished what is perhaps one of my greatest feats to date....

Only one tee left! With no cheating! I was so proud, I had to take a picture. It may never happen again. A triumphant end to a happy weekend.