Mads is a huge Gossip Girl fan, so when we had the opportunity to go to New York this summer we dedicated a day of following the footsteps of Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf. I did the location and mapping research, she narrated Chuck and Blair’s romance through out the city. There are several Gossip Girl tours available however, the day we had available they were not operating. So we made our own. We probably spent more money doing it ourselves because we made purchases along the way. None the less it was a memorable day for us both.
Our first stop was the Museum of the City of New York. After purchasing my ticket ($10, she was free as a student) we wandered the gift shop and the first floor. As I started heading up the stairs I was informed she was ready to go. Silly me I thought we were going to actually go inside all of these locations. I am usually pretty careful about picking my battles and I was only out $10 so I made her take a few pictures and then we headed out to the front steps.
Our next location was Central Park, we walked along the inside of the park until we made it to The Met. Now as I heard it there were several episodes shot at the Park, specific importance and pictures were not required here. However, I did get a brief hand hold as we walked in the shade on the beautiful sunny day. Once we made it to The Met, I knew we were not going in. (Although I vow to return to tour it, maybe with my own Mom) Here we saw several of
the same girls from the steps of the Museum of the City of New York. We patiently waited our turn to take a pic on one of the preferred steps, not too high, not too low. Blair always sits one step up from everyone else.
No self respecting YA show that continues past high school is complete with out at least 1 wedding. Of course its better if there is 1 ill fated nuptials followed by a wedding with the one that was supposed to be. Which is what took us to Vera Wang. We peeked in the windows and snapped a few shots but that was the extent of wedding dress shopping.
Our next planned stop was a bit of a walk so we wandered in and out of stores along the way. We discovered the famous pink cups of coffee from Sant Ambroeus. You know the ones they drink out of while sitting on the steps of The Met! This tidbit came from the sales person at NARS, she was so sweet. Turns out she was born in Michigan and she was also a Gossip Girl fan at one time. She totally played along with the teen who really wanted to buy something there but did not want to spend too much. This would be her first purchase of the day and the first is always the hardest. She landed on a shimmery eye shadow in case you were wondering.
Back in my day when you were heartbroken one would eat chocolate ice cream out of the container. Thanks to Gossip Girl the break-up treat is now the french macaroon. The best place to get them is Laduree, they had a gorgeous selection of macaroons in all sorts of flavors. I think picking them out was a bigger treat than eating them, which is a process. First you pick out your box, there are different sizes and then several designs in each size. We went with the 7 Macaroons in the purple box. Then we painstakingly asked about each flavor, and debated. Once we finally landed on our final selection they were neatly boxed up, put in a tiny shopping bag. Of course we did not immediately eat them, we saved them to be shared with my foodie family that we were meeting up with later that evening.
You can’t really have breakfast at Tiffanys, it is not a real thing,except for Rachel Berry and Kurt Hummel. However, wandering around in Tiffany & Co. is a real thing and it is very much what you expect. Of all the high end stores we visited, this was my favorite as the people who work there get it and are very hospitable. Mads was pretty sure she needed to walk out of the store with a little blue box. Truth be told I was right there with her, I just kept it hidden a little better. We explored the first floor discovering the beauty and fine details, behind each counter was someone willing to answer any questions, even those of a 14 year old in overall shorts. Eventually we decided that we were not going to find anything affordable for a 14 year old on that floor. So we hopped in the elevator, that has an actual living and breathing elevator operator who calls out the contents of the floor as the doors open. “Floor 3, Sterling Silver & Gifts” I grabbed her hand and we hopped off. As I mentioned earlier, we both wanted a blue box so while she was looking at silver bookmarks I wandered over to the necklaces. Now if you go and recreate this trip, do not feel obligated to repeat this part. This is just something I wanted to do. I will say, it was super fun to splurge on a luxury item, I felt a little Blair myself, well more like Blair Warner but still I had a little Blair in me. After purchasing our matching tiny double heart Return to Tiffany necklaces, in little blue boxes ties with pretty white ribbon in the signature shopping bag we were on to our next stop.
Henri Bendel is a regular shopping spot for the ladies of Gossip Girl, this is where THE headbands come from. It is no longer a full department store, it is just accessories. They were having a giant sale, everything was 40% off. So we picked up some cute wallets and had them monogrammed. Nothing says fancy schmancy like a monogram.
Harry Winston was our next stop, this is where our portrayal of the Blairs ends. We purchased nothing here. However, everyone in the store was very polite, I am sure we were not the only slow walk through of the day.
Today was not going to be a day of good eating (I wish I packed a protein bar at this point. I highly recommend you do and plot out a stop before you get hangry with each other.) We assumed we would grab a bite near the New York Palace Hotel where Chuck Bass had redesigned the whole hotel. We wandered around inside, there is an appointment only mens wardrobe service. We stumbled up on because they had a nice lobby with cushy seats. I was looking for a restaurant on my phone Mads popped a squat. We were not really welcome which was fine, we were there long enough to look around and cool off in the AC. We finally found a Chipotle, not sure it was just regular delicious, super delicious because we were starving. It recharged us for the end of our tour.
Dylan’s Candy Bar is a must on any NYC tour really but in relation to Gossip Girl fans, this is where the candy at Jenny’s birthday party came from. It truly is a sweet stop and shouldn’t be missed.
Grand Central Terminal was actually a drive by. We were in the cab headed to meet up with my parents. But we were able to check it off the list.
My Tips:
- Plan to eat somewhere! Add a lunch stop in your route, I wish we had.
- Have a snack on you in case, hungry toddlers are bad but hangry teens are unbearable!
- Bottle of water is critical, especially if it is summer.
- Comfortable shoes, really goes without saying until your daughter says something stupid like, “beauty is pain.”
- Let them lead the way. Giving up control of the map is a big step for the both of you.
- Quit when you are tired or done. I had more stops on my list but we just didn’t make it. Even if we made all the other stops, I don’t think it would have made it any more fabulous. In the blink of a eye it could have turned ugly if someone was too tired, too hot or too hungry.
- Be a Gossip Girl with us and use our map.
- Come back and tell me how it went.