The end of February marked my one-year anniversary with my girlfriend, Brena. To celebrate, we took a weekend trip to New York City. We truly packed things in and got to almost everything we wanted to do, which made us feel quite accomplished. Every time I visit New York, I leave knowing there are so many more things I want to do and see, and this visit was no exception, but for the most part we hit everything important and really enjoyed our time.

We stayed at Hyatt Grand Central, which suited our needs quite well. It was in a convenient location, our room was spacious and clean, and we got $15 free each day at the hotel’s overpriced little market. No complaints from us!

Though we arrived Friday night, Saturday was when our vacation really started. We navigated the subway successfully to Greenwich Village, where we needed to try the TikTok-famous Popup Bagels. These fresh-from-the-oven bagels did not disappoint. Our favorite was the salt bagel, but Brena also tried the everything bagel, and I tried the plain.

We did some book shopping at McNally Jackson in SoHo and saw a celebrity also shopping there — my first in-the-wild celebrity spotting! I was quite excited because it was someone whose work I really love, but I didn’t want to bother her. I purchased North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li, and I’m excited to dive into them.

We then headed back up to Midtown to catch a matinee of The Book of Mormon, which my mom kindly bought us tickets to, grabbing slices of pizza on our way. We both enjoyed the show, and the whole audience was laughing the entire time, though I do have to say it might rank in the bottom half of the (admittedly limited) list of Broadway shows I’ve been to.

We took a much-needed hotel nap break after the show and before our reservation at Canto, an Italian restaurant in the West Village. It was absolutely delicious. I had a true spiritual experience with my pasta, and Brena felt similarly about her Caesar salad. The restaurant was cozy and ambiently lit, though it was a little loud and hard to hear each other. I realized we were right near Cornelia Street, a Taylor Swift song namesake, so, as a dedicated Swiftie, of course I made Brena walk the 10 minutes with me so I could get a picture under the street sign.

We were tired from such an eventful day, so we headed back to our hotel for a cozy night in before catching New Jersey Transit home on Sunday.

— Hannah Gruen, administrative coordinator