On a recent trip to New York City with my girlfriend for our two-year anniversary, we spent a Saturday wandering around the SoHo and Washington Square Park areas.

On our last trip to New York City we discovered Popup Bagels, a shop that serves always hot, always fresh bagels with rotating selections of butter and cream cheese. Last time we were less than enthused about the miso butter, so we had to spend $8 at a CVS around the corner to buy normal butter. We came prepared this time with our own stick, but it turned out not to be needed! The butter selection was browned butter, a perfectly salty and creamy topping. We got four salt bagels and went to sit in Washington Square Park to eat them (saving two for later).

It was an unseasonably warm morning for the end of February, about 60 degrees in the sunshine. We sat with a view of the dog park and munched on our perfectly warm and fresh bagels. Since it was one of the first nice days of the season, absolutely everyone was outside, so the park was crowded, but that meant we got to see lots of cute dogs.

After enjoying our bagels, we went to McNally Jackson SoHo, one of my favorite bookstores. I could stay there for hours. Their fiction selection is so vast, and I always find new recommendations from the display tables. Brena and I ended up walking out with five books between us, which was definitely more than we planned; but when on vacation, I can’t deny myself any material pleasure possible. I purchased Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis, Commonwealth by Ann Patchett and The Wren by Anne Enright. Brena got In Thrall by Jane DeLynn and another book I can’t remember the name of.

We stopped in at Greenwich Letterpress next, a small and cozy stationery shop that Brena discovered on Instagram. The store is so small that about three customers can be in there at one time comfortably, so we had to leave quickly just because it was so cramped and more people kept entering, so it felt like a reverse clown car. Despite that, just looking at pens, notebooks, stickers, cards and paper of all types is a fun activity for me (I’m a Virgo). Brena got a great gift for my mom that I’m mad I didn’t think of first, and we got a postcard of NYC to put in our scrapbook. The store is run by sisters, and they create custom stationery and invitations for all occasions, so we might hit them up should we ever have an occasion that calls for fancy personalized stationery.

By the time we left the store, the sun had disappeared and a wind had started up, dropping the temperature significantly. I was suddenly shivering in the light jacket I had chosen with optimism that morning. We found the nearest pizza place on Google Maps on our route back to the subway so we could sit inside and have a slice for lunch (when in Rome). We caught the subway back to our hotel in Midtown, and by then it was downright freezing outside, and we foolishly had brought no hats, gloves or even real coats. The eight-minute walk to the hotel from the station felt like the march of the penguins. When we finally got inside, it was time to have an afternoon lie-down and warm up before our planned activities for that night!

— Hannah Gruen, advertising & events coordinator