I’m back and I’m happy to report that Peter Luger didn’t catch on fire this time and I finally tried Pink Berry and Carnegie Deli’s! The steak was crispy (not burnt at all) and deliciously juicy, but the yoghurt was not that wow. I failed to see the difference between Pink Berry and Berry Chill (which has cooler bowls and spoons). The cornbeef sandwich was not bad, but it was ridiculously huge. The primary purpose of this trip was to actually do touristy/culture stuff and just to have girly bonding time since HG and I haven’t seen each other in forever.

On the touristy/culture stuff, we went to the Met and to watch Lion King the musical. Finally, after blogging about it for so many years, we made it to a costume institute exhibit. This year it is the Model as Muse. I really enjoyed it. Instead of just costumes on mannequins, they showed the photos when the costumes were originally shot, which really puts them into context. They organized everything by periods. It started with the 20’s (I think) and as you walked along you slowly moved through the decades. The room decor and background music were also designed to reflect the mood of each period. Magazine covers/photoshoots were lined up on display, showing works of various supermodels with mini bios etc. It was all incredibly interesting and educational. If I lived in NYC, I’d definitely go again and spend another hour or two there absorbing everything and reading every small script! If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s not too late. The exhibit is on until August 9th.

 The Lion King was also quite amazing. I am still super impressed by the stage costumes and set design. They looked so real, that if you exercised your imagination just a smidge (or squinted your eyes a bit), they’d actually look like real animals on stage singing and dancing around! Though it did take HG and I 4/5 of the show to realize that a certain character is actually a baboon.

Of course we still managed to squeeze in some shopping in our primarily “touristy/culture stuff” trip. After all, what is a trip to NYC if one doesn’t visit the only shoe department with it’s own zip code? With that in mind, we pulled ourselves out of bed early on Saturday morning and made our way to Saks at 10.30am to beat the crowd so then we can tour around with ease. We weren’t really expecting to buy anything, since it is almost the end of the sale season and all the good stuff are gone, but it’s still always fun to sit and try on shoes. So we randomly picked out a few pairs and tried them on- one of which are the Prada sports nude pumps above. I tried them on, peeked at the price tag and knew I had to have them! Perfectly pointedly rounded, at just the right height in a nude shade with the signature Prada rubber soles, they are the epitome of summer classic pumps. They are also so comfortable that I can jump in them with joy(and in fact I did, right there at 10022-SHOE!). It also helped that HG was there to give me immediate feedback, thus eliminating one of my regular shopping steps of going home, showing and analyzing them with her before making the decision. Did I mention that they were originally ~$400 and are now less than $180?? I happily carried it around midtown/upper east side for the next 7 hours of sightseeing 🙂