Ok ladies! Pour yourself a glass of wine and put your feet up – this is a longer post than usual!

It has become a tradition of sorts for Peter and me to spend a weekend in NYC every summer…we plan it well in advance with no thought to the weather, simply focused on what show to see and what bars/restaurants to hit. Well! This year we just happened to pick the hottest weekend of the year with the heat index between 100 and 110 each day. When I heard the forecast I wondered if it was crazy to still go, would we be miserable??? (Would you have canceled??) Despite the brutal heat, we had a blast!

So! What did we do? And – more importantly, what did we wear? Let’s start with Friday night…

We had tickets to see Waitress (more on that in a bit) and planned to hit a restaurant or two for drinks/dinner…I went for an urban, edgy look in black leather shorts by Tibi, a lightweight Citizens of Humanity shirt that I tied up for sexy coolness, and high lucite heels (we took taxis!)…I love balancing a loose, masculine shirt with shorts and killer heels – it’s a fun, unpredictable look that is sexy, but not slutty…as for Peter…

Doesn’t he look great?? White jeans, his red striped cotton shirt by Cremieux, and a cornflower-blue linen unlined Ralph Lauren blazer – yes, even in the heat! Perfect summer style; casual, upscale, and also sexy! Just because you’re a ‘Papou’ doesn’t mean you have to look like one. 😉 The blazer was good to have in the chilly theater and restaurants…

A few words about the show: It was HILARIOUS! Waitress is a musical written by Sara Bareilles, about a woman in an abusive marriage who works in a diner, loves baking pies, and dreams of a better future. The show has heartwarming moments, beautiful music, and comic sex! OMG. I loved the show and would definitely see it again if it comes to Boston…each actor was enormously talented and ‘over the top’ funny.

Ok, now where are we? Back at our hotel for drinks, a burger, and a few games of pool (Peter won)…here you can see the beautiful fabric of the linen blazer…:-)

Moving on to Saturday, the hottest day of the weekend. We got dressed and headed out for breakfast…I wore a sleeveless navy cotton fitted dress with white sneakers. BIG mistake.

In less than five minutes I knew I could not wear this dress walking through the city; my thighs were sweating, rubbing together, seriously uncomfortable. Oh no, I didn’t bring other options, what am I going to wear? Wear what you wore yesterday, Peter suggested. The SAME OUTFIT TWO DAYS IN A ROW??? OK. Nobody will know. I need to be comfortable.

Comfortable, cute, and cool! Navy ruffled shorts (nice and loose), a gauzy Free People top (no bra), and flat gold sandals. Whew!

Out of my desire to be a good sport I agreed to do something different before we went shopping in SoHo…we headed to the HighLine Park, but upon arriving we were instantly drawn to the dramatic towering staircase at Hudson Yards…

It’s called ‘The Vessel’, and you need to make a reservation (free) to enter. It’s about eight flights up, there are 154 interconnected flights of stairs and 80 landings where you can take in the view, breathe, and take selfies… Despite my initial protests – are you kidding? – in this heat? – we climbed all the way to the top…

Sure, that’s a great view of the Hudson River, but all I could look at were the lucky folks in the rooftop pool! (It was an Equinox Club) We took our sweaty selfies then made our way down…

Glad to be back at the bottom and out of the sun! This is another structure at Hudson Yards where you walk through strings of plastic strips that light up when touched – fun for picture taking, I bet even more so at night…

Well. I would say that was enough non-shopping activity for one day, wouldn’t you??? Off to SoHo!!! 🙂

Always remember: Men do much better shopping with a full stomach. (A dear friend taught me this years ago when Peter and I went diamond shopping. She was right.) We started out by getting a bite and a cocktail, this made everyone happy. In the course of the day we hit a French bistro, a corner pizza shop, and discovered a new favorite place, Lure Fishbar on Mercer Street – yummy oysters in a remarkably beautiful nautical setting…eat, drink, shop, eat drink, shop, shop, shop, shop, shop….Hahhahahaha!

Yes, we were both carrying bags at the end of the day…several fun purchases and one dress that I actually wore to dinner that very night. It’s unlike me to do that but it was SO HOT that this little neon dress seemed like the perfect choice…

The dress is by Pinko, simple style, but anything but subtle (the color in person is quite bright)…while I did have gold/tan heels with me, I wanted to style this in a more casual, trendy way, so went with my white JSlides…OMG, it was sure a pleasant change to be in sneaks at night, especially with significant walking…

This is where we had dinner – Grand Banks, in Downtown Manhattan at Pier 25…It’s a casual oyster bar on a historic wooden schooner…for a hot summer evening, it was an absolute, picturesque delight! You need to make reservations well in advance, they book up quickly…

While the menu is quite limited (lobster rolls, ceviche, oysters, etc…), the drinks are great and you can’t beat the glorious waterfront setting…it truly felt like we were somewhere far, far away…

What was not too far away was more fun – and more food! We headed to Greenwich Village, enjoyed a terrific jazz band, then topped off the night with pizza (who am I???)…So, as you can see, the intense heat did not hamper our summer weekend in NYC.

You might be wondering two things: Where did we stay and what did we buy?

We stayed at The Edition in the Flatiron district…it is a Marriott property so I was able to book the room using points, thanks to all my nights at The Courtyard. However. Points or not, I LOVE this hotel – it is very modern and sexy, has spacious bathrooms, a fun bar, and great people watching. It is also just 2 miles from SoHo. 😉

As for what we bought, let’s save that for another day….;-)

Work hard, play hard, enjoy every day.