Cheryl Shops

I never turn down a trip to New York City, even if it's cold and snowy. Sean had a work trip starting on my birthday, so we left a few days early for a weekend getaway celebration. NYC has been having a rough winter, and while signs of spring were on the way—the sun was shining and the snow was starting to melt while we were there—I still needed to break out my winter gear. Here's how I layered for the weather. 

I just got back from a weeklong trip to NYC, which felt like such a luxury. While it's been almost 12 years (!!!) since I've moved away, we tend to go back to visit at least once a year, however those trips are usually much shorter—I'd say three or four days on average, usually for a long weekend or a quick work trip. The pace of this stay felt much less intense, as I didn't feel the need to rush around and see everything on my list, although New York was its energetic, vibrant self as always. According to friends, it was also the first stretch of good weather they've had so far this season, and while it rained several days when we were there, it was so nice to be out walking around in the sunshine—walking is always one of my favorite things to do while I'm in NYC, and I averaged 18,000 steps a day(!). That said, packing for this trip was somewhat of a challenge due to the changing weather, so I broke one of my travel rules and decided to check a bag (it was a direct flight so I wasn't worried). I ended up overpacking a bit, but it was good to have options, and even better to have room in my suitcase for all the shopping I did. Here's what I wore on my trip to New York. 

It's wild to think that a little over 10 years ago, I left NYC after 14 years to move to San Francisco. In those years since, I've been back to visit at least once a year (even in 2020, before the pandemic), although usually in summer or fall; I am the first to say that living in California for the last 10 years has definitely made me much less tolerant of actual winter weather (I do not miss it in the least). That said, I will never turn down a free hotel room in Manhattan, so when Sean had a last-minute work trip come up, I decided to join him. What was meant to be a super-quick 2-day trip turned into a really regenerative 4-night trip (thanks to Alaska Airlines for canceling my flight home!), and in spite of the COLD AF weather, we had one of our best NYC getaways ever. Here's what I wore in New York City in January. 

A very dear friend of mine always jokes that she never makes it into my IG stories whenever I visit New York, and I always respond that it's because I'm so present and having so much fun with her that I don't even think to pull out my phone and take pictures. The same thing goes for this post—I had every intention of shooting a different outfit every day of our five-day trip last week, but...we were having too much fun and kind of forgot to. The good news is that we did manage to capture two of them (I'll re-create the others sooner or later), and coincidentally enough, they both kind of reflect the areas of the city in which I wore them. Here are some of the things wore last week in NYC.

Have you ever meticulously packed for a trip, only to arrive and experience a sudden change in weather? That's what happened to me last week. I had been checking the forecast for a week and having lived on the East Coast for years, knew I was in for humid, mid-80s temperatures with lots of sunshine. Except I forgot the biggest rule of East Coast summertime weather, which is that it can change at any minute, and that's exactly what happened, whoops. Thankfully I did bring layers and a few warmer things, so while this outfit didn't turn out quite like how I had planned it—in fact, it shares over half of its elements with what I wore in this recent post—I'm still pretty happy with it. Here's how it all came together.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I used to live in NYC for a long time (13 years, to be exact) and it will always have a big part of my heart. I normally go back for a visit at least once a year, but thanks to the pandemic, I hadn't been there since January 2020. When I've been gone for too long, I can almost feel it in my bones; spending even a couple of days in New York is like a defibrillator for my soul, in the best possible way. Even though he's never lived there, Sean loves NYC as much as I do, so convincing him to go there for a long weekend in celebration of his birthday required only minimal arm-twisting. Of course, after having been away for so long, I had no idea how New Yorkers were dressing, and if you've been reading my newsletter, you know that I've been panicking about what to pack. I may not have totally blended in—I've been a West Coaster for 8 years now, after all—but I could at least hang in this outfit.