NYC 2026 - Day 2

Day 2, and we’re well rested. We’re starting the day doing brunch with Michelle. We haven’t seen her in 8 years (since our wedding). I wake up early to take advantage of the hotel coffee. After taking a shower, Wincy tells me that Michelle’s train from NJ into NYC got cancelled, so need to defer by an hour. Wincy took advantage by getting another hour of sleep. So I go down to the hotel lounge for coffee, and hangout there for a while so she can get some sleep (remember our really tiny room? 😝)

After getting ready, we head out to meet up with Michelle. We’re heading to a popular brunch spot called Bubby’s. This spot was also featured in the Devil Wears Prada movies, which may have added to its popularity. After lining up for hour, we’ve finally got a nice corner table. Food looked very good

But meeting up with friends is always better!

After lunch, we go for a walk around the area. Wincy had been eyeing this pop-up by Skin1004, where they’re offering a freebie. So we head in that direction. On the way though, we see this Ghostbusters Headquarters. Nothing really to see here, but the exterior was unique

Then we get to Skin1004. Possibly because it was another rainy day in NYC, the line wasn’t too long.

After obtaining our freebies, next stop was the MoMA design store.

And then this thing! It’s so cute, so we bought one. Look at em all bouncing 🙃

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Then our last stop with Michelle (She had to catch her train back to NJ), we stop by Blank Coffee.

Now that we’re on our own again, where to go next? We decided to head towards the Woobles pop-up store. On our way, we walk through this street carnival. Even in this poor weather, these poor vendors were trying to make the most of things

But we happened to find l’Industrie Pizza. From TikTok, the recommended slice is the Burrata. This was a good recommendation. We got lucky when we got here. The shop was packed! Likely cause it was pouring rain outside. But we managed to find a great spot right next to where they make the pizza’s. Need to add, their chili oil was also fantastic! If we still had the stomach for another slice, we would’ve tried a slice of Fig as well.

After the pizza, we finally make it to the Woobles shop. They’ve got many cute designs!

After walking around a bit here, we make our way to Jin Mei Dumpling. We decided to share an order of pork & leek potstickers, and managed to find a spot out of the rain to eat them. They were super hot and looked great, but the skin was too thick for my liking.

After the dumplings, I think we were done with this area of NYC, so back to the hotel we go to freshen up. As I’m writing this blog entry, noticing that returning to the hotel seems to be a trend in this trip. It’s very needed though, with the rain.

Back at the hotel though, time to try something new I picked up at Trader Joe’s. I saw this Espresso Tonic, and Gemini mentioned it’s a popular seasonal item. So I had picked up a case to try. This was quite delicious! Hopefully we find our way back to another Trader Joe’s before the end of the trip so I can buy more!

Now, lets go check of FAO Schwarz. This is a big toy store! As we walk in, also see that they’ve got the Jellycat Cafe here! Even though we didn’t have a reservation to partake, we were able to watch as others went through. The staff are very into their roles, and make the Jellycat Cafe a fun experience!

Then we head up to the second floor, to check out more Jellycat’s. Aren’t these the cutest?

Now into Times Square we go. Let’s go to the M&M Store!

Then we found an inflatable pig on a jet ski?

Then into the Disney Store

And now we’re tired, and time to get some dinner. But on our way to get dinner, we walk past I’m Donut, so we stop in to try. We wanted to try this in Tokyo, but they had run out. It was a little too eggy for us. Reminded us of a Malasada in Hawaii. Maybe if we had gotten one with a filling, we would’ve liked it a bit more.