It's Time To Give Winter The Boot

Have I ever mentioned I happen to be the jealous type? I wanted to surprise my daughter with a new pair of boots because, hello, living in Minnesota a girl always needs a good pair of boots in the winter! That's where Lugz come in. You already know how much we love them in our house so I was excited to partner with them again to share a gorgeous pair with my daughter.

Last month I made a last minute trip out to frigid Minnesota. My aunt wasn't doing well again, and I want to make the most of the time with her that I can. I made sure to schedule some time with Sarah and the boys. With the little time that I had, we only got to see each other during dinner.

I was able to give her the Lugz Women's Convoy Fold Fur 8 Inch Boot. They. Are. Gorgeous! Here's why my "jealous type" comes in. It was a good thing she is a 9 1/2 because if she'd have been a 7 1/2 I'd have been tempted to keep them for myself! I actually went back and forth on which color to get her. I would've asked her which she liked best, but these boots were going to be a surprise.

These Convoy Fold Fur boots are the kind you want in more than one color. I went with black because she could wear them with anything. Ok, she could wear the golden wheat tan ones also, but I had to pick one and it was basically throwing a dart and it landed on the black. Seriously, you can't go wrong with either and should actually have both! Go for the gold ladies.

Meeting Sarah for dinner didn't give us the opportunity to take pictures because in Minnesota it's dark until 7am and get dark by 4pm in the winter. lol Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but sometimes it feels like it. It was SO cold the week I was there we couldn't meet during daylight hours to take pictures. You want to know how cold it was? They even shut down the Ice Castle and the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. lol While the weather was terrible, the boots definitely came at the right time for my daughter.

Let's talk a bit about the boot, shall we? They come with a soft, faux fur lining. What I like is that they can be worn folded down or left up for a bit more warmth. And who doesn't love a padded insole? I think every pair of boots should come with them. The Convoy Fold Fur has a synthetic nubuck upper, and I have to tell you, they're so soft you'll want to pet them every time you put them on. I dare you to try to put these boots on and not give them a stroke or two. :)

I may live in Maryland, but if I had a pair of these boots I'd probably wear them nearly every day throughout the cold months. I would have to say they're an essential for colder states! Fashion and function. What more could be better? Trust me that you won't meet a pair of Lugz boots that you won't like!

Day Trip To New York City

For Christmas Fred surprised me with a day trip to New York City! Not only were we going to NYC, but we were going to take a carriage ride!! I could hardly believe it. He knew that Hallmark had been showing all kinds of scenes of carriage rides and I tweeted about how romantic it was. What's really romantic is Fred paying attention and then making this experience come true for me. The plan was for us to take Amtrak up in the morning and then back again around midnight. What a fabulous gift amiright?

Having never been to NYC right after Christmas I had no idea what the city would hold for us. Instead of planning what we were going to do up there, I just mentioned a couple things I wanted to do and figured the rest of the day would unfold however it was meant to. The only thing I did last minute the week before we went up was make a reservation at Tavern on the Green for dinner. My initial plan was to  visit the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and maybe the Statue of Liberty. Oh, what foolish thinking.

As soon as we got off the train we made a beeline for the Empire State Building. The line wrapped around an entire NYC block by 10am!! Isn't that crazy?! Scratch that off the list. We meandered our way over to the New York Public Library. I was excited to walk through this historical building. I was actually surprised that there weren't as many books that we could get up close and personal with. It didn't disappoint in its beauty though. If you get to the City, you should definitely take the time to take a walk through.

Having never been to Rockefeller Center I definitely wanted to get a photo by the ice skating rink. I thought it would be fun to go skating, but holy smokes the cost of that was outrageous! We weren't sure where we wanted to eat lunch, and I really wanted to eat somewhere the locals love, a place that had a great reputation, or somewhere fun. Unfortunately, we ate at a burger place in Rockefeller Center and were very underwhelmed. Next time I ask local friends before we head up.

We found out going to the Statue of Liberty was out of the question. My boys were up in NYC as well that weekend with their dad's side of the family. They were going out to it and were told it was a 3 hour wait for the ferry. lol So glad we didn't have our heart set on that. We also found out Ellis Island was closed. Because of that we headed over to Central Park.

I always had an idea of what Central Park looked like, and it didn't match up to what we saw. I thought it was This long, grassy area with trees lining the path. Boy was I so wrong. There were hills and large rocks jutting out, and paths that went all kinds of directions. You have NO idea how long it took for us to find the zoo. There were absolutely zero signs to point us in the right direction and the map we were trying to use wasn't very helpful either.

When we finally ended up at it, we bought tickets at the kiosk. At least that was up-to-date. Maybe they should considering putting in a few signs to make finding them easier. Ha! Anyhow, we started off with the sea lions which are smack dab in the middle of the zoo. It was incredible to see them so close up. Then we saw all of the rest of the animals. I couldn't get enough of the bears. The snow leopard was beautiful. It took a little bit for everyone to figure out where it was and once we had an eye on it, it jumped around to where most of us couldn't see it.

The rest of the zoo was fun, too. The harbor seals were playing which was fun to watch. I have always loved watching penguins, but I wish the windows to view them was better. We ended up our time at the zoo watching the very end of the sea lion show. I was so excited to have spent some of our day there.

We walked around Central Park and then went to a coffee shop close to Tavern on the Green because we were a bit too early to show up for our reservation. I was really excited about dining here because it's such a landmark. I had gotten reservations at the bar so I was sure how great the service or seating would be, but I held out high hopes. Let me tell you, I wasn't disappointed. The seating was perfect and we were only in the vicinity of the bar. If our section was so nice, I wonder what the regular seating was like! Our server was spectacular. The shrimp cocktail we got as an appetizer had the largest shrimp I've ever had! It didn't disappoint. I got the roasted organic chicken and Fred got the chardonnay braised short rib of beef. Both were absolutely scrumptious. For dessert I went with the carrot cake and Fred had the seasonal eggnog creme brûlée. I really wanted to come home with something from eating there so we went to the shop and bought the Apothecary Jar of Matches. Here are 2 things that are funny about that: 1) when I was on the site before we went I thought it was a bottle of q-tips 2) I thought it was a super small jar. Nope, they are matches and the jar is really large which I loved!

From there we made our way around to the other side of the Park to catch our carriage ride. Now, here are some things to think about when considering a carriage ride. If you go during the day there are going to be a lot of people walking through the park so that might hamper your experience. The plus side is you can see all of the landmarks your driver points out. If you go at night, there's pretty much zero foot traffic and you have the Park almost to yourself. The downside is that you can't really see much and in the winter it's pretty chilly.

Our driver was delightful. If I remember correctly he was from Turkey. Henry was driving Dennis who was pretty much taking our route by memory. I was even able to take the reins for a few minutes. It was an incredibly relaxing ride and I'd definitely do it again in the future. The only part that gave me concern was at the end when Henry had to make a u-turn with Dennis in the middle of the insanely busy street with a ton of traffic. I don't know how they do it.

We got done early because we'd been able to start our ride about 30 min early so Fred and I decided to high-tail it back to Penn Station to see if we could get on an earlier train. If we couldn't we would've had to wait 2 more hours to catch our scheduled departure time. We had to walk through an incredibly busy Time Square which was PACKED with holiday tourists and the city getting ready for the New Year's Eve countdown. We got to the train station, Fred was able to get us new tickets, and we were on the next train leaving for Maryland! We got back around midnight instead of 2am which was an awesome bonus!

If you are able to spend a day in NYC, no matter what the season, I would say go for it! You won't be able to do absolutely everything, but you will have a fun time no matter what you end up doing. It's the city that never sleeps and there's always something to do there. I've made a list of where I want to go over the next 1-2 trips we might make in the future:

Bronx Zoo
Coney Island
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
Empire State Building
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Top of the Rock
Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center)
Castle in Central Park
The Cloister
Babeth's Feast for a meal