Birthday Week Recap: Part II

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

The second part of my week started with the morning of my birthday. If you caught Part I of this post, you know that Nathan had planned a trip for my birthday.  He had decided not to tell me where we were going, but had given me a weather forecast and outlined the weekend for me in terms of what required casual and dressy attire.

So, when I woke on the morning of my birthday, I had a little packing and final items to take care of before we left town.  We were ready well ahead of schedule and opted to go to breakfast at Printworks Bistro.  We had never eaten anything but dinner there, and we thoroughly enjoyed our meals.  I had Eggs Norwegian (challah, smoked salmon, poached eggs, hollandaise) and Nathan had steak and eggs (poached with hollandaise).  Both were excellent!  We were well ahead of schedule by this point, so we enjoyed an extra cup of coffee before we headed to the airport.

When we got to the airport and Nathan began checking us in, I finally discovered our destination–New York!!!  We headed to the gate and relaxed for a while as we waited for boarding.  At that point, Nathan explained to me that he did not attend to tell me any other details of our trip.  He would let each event on our agenda reveal itself as we got to it.  You have no idea the excitement I felt!

Upon our arrival, we grabbed a taxi to our hotel and were quite fortunate to be able to check in early.  We did a little research and found a gastropub about 10 blocks down for lunch.  The menu was enticing, so we decided to get two different sandwiches and split them.  We had a club wrap that had turkey, avocado, goat cheese, and some other goodness, and a grilled chicken sandwich. The grilled chicken was the real star!  It was sliced thinly before grilling and was topped with roasted carrots and parsnips.  It also had some goat cheese and sun dried tomato spread on it.  It was served on foccacia.  DELICIOUS! To drink, we had Ommegang’s Adoration, which we both enjoyed immensely.

After heading back to the hotel for a nap, it was time to get ready for dinner.  All Nathan had told me was to dress up.  So, I got dressed and we enjoyed a leisurely stroll to the restaurant.  Print. is a farm to table restaurant on 11th Avenue.  For a starter, we had a lovely gnocchi that was mixed with cauliflower and shredded Brussels sprouts.  The cheesy sauce on this was delightful!  For our main course I had coq au vin served over polenta and Nathan had duck served over turnip, kohlrabi, and farro.  We intended to split their chocolate bread pudding for dessert, but when our server got wind of it being my birthday, he also brought out a small chocolate cake for me. Can you say stuffed?

When we finished dinner, we started walking towards Broadway.  By this time, Nathan had told me we were seeing a show, but refused to tell me which one.  I named several we have talked about fairly recently, but for some reason it never crossed my mind that we would see Wicked.  I was thrilled, delighted, and surprised!  The show was amazing!

By the time the show was finished, it was 11:00, so we started walking back towards the hotel.  We were both kind of beat.  But, as we approached the turn for our hotel, Nathan suggested we walk down 9th Avenue and check out the Lincoln Center at night.  It was awesome!  The fountain there is gorgeous and seeing the  various venues lit up in the evening is quite a sight.

After we explored a little bit, we returned to the fountain to wrap up my birthday.  At that point, Nathan informed me that he had one more gift to give me and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. What a perfect moment!  I said yes without a moment’s hesitation and he slipped a truly gorgeous ring on my finger.  We hurried back to the hotel for a celebratory drink and to start sharing the good news with our families.

The rest of the weekend was a blur.  We ate a lot of great food, we visited MoMA, and we spent a good hour walking around Central Park on Sunday morning.  I can’t think of a more perfect way to spend my birthday weekend!