Central Park Carriage Ride, Serendipity & Jellycat Dining Experience {NYC Trip Recap 5 of 5}

We are on Day 5 of 5 of the New York City vacation we took in June/July. If you missed my first post, you can find it HERE. Today’s post will cover Ralph’s Coffee, a carriage ride in Central Park, lunch AND dessert at Serendipity, FAO Schwarz and Jellycat Diner, Nintendo store and our last dinner in NYC at Ocean Prime.

I was excited to order my first coffee from the Ralph Lauren coffee truck. Such a cute truck and coffee cup! There was practically no line and the coffee was delicious!

I booked us a carriage ride in Central Park with New York City Horse Carriage Ride. They had a few different packages with different lengths and with 1-3 photo stops. I selected the 3 photo stops, because I love photos!

This is a great way to see Central Park while relaxing! Our carriage ride went through the same area that Nathan and I ran the day before, so some of this was a repeat for us!

One of my favorite things about Central Park are these huge rocks jutting out of the ground everywhere. These rocks are made of Manhattan Schist, a metamorphic rock formed from ancient sediments. They’re just so pretty and it just goes to show that all these skyscrapers were built on some sturdy land!!

They had the Central Park Carousel decorated for the 4th of July week.

Our first photo off the carriage was at one of the largest fountains in NYC. This fountain is called Bethesda Fountain. It is also known as the “Angel of the Waters” fountain because of the bronze sculpture of the angel that sits atop the fountain.

Cherry Hill Fountain, designed by Jacob Wrey Mould in the 1860s, is a beautiful and historic landmark in Central Park, originally intended as a watering trough for horses. The famous fountain seen in the opening credits of the sitcom Friends is often mistaken for the Cherry Hill Fountain in Central Park. However, the fountain in the show was actually filmed at the Warner Bros. Ranch Lot in Burbank, California.

Our last photo stop on the carriage ride was in Strawberry Fields, where many come to pay tribute to John Lennon. This black and white mosaic memorial is dedicated to John Lennon, the Beatles singer assassinated in 1980.

After the carriage ride, we were hungry! Serendipity is famous in NYC because it’s a long-standing, iconic restaurant and dessert destination, known for its whimsical atmosphere and the famous Frrrozen Hot Chocolate.

I ordered a Cherry Limeade, but I was really tempted to get their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate. I decided to get ice cream after my meal instead! They have a list of Guinness World Records, such as a $1,000 Golden Sundae with EDIBLE gold!

The food was phenomenal, but there was A LOT of it. I ordered a hot dog with Mac and cheese and fries and then for dessert a brownie sundae.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit. Then, later than evening we headed to FAO Schwarz. We got a fun photo out front and then Nathan and I got to dance on the massive floor keyboard! So, so fun!

Our main reason for going to FAO Schwarz was for the Jellycat Dining Experience. Autumn (and almost every teen girl) loves the cute jellycat stuffed animals and they have a really neat dining experience set up in FAO Schwarz right now. It was hard securing tickets, but we got them!

It was set up nicely and we didn’t have to wait long at all for our experience. I’ll be sharing a video of the experience on my Instagram Stories (and I’ll highlight it).

They had a HUGE life size jellycat in the store and I got a photo of myself with it (as did Autumn!!). It so turned out that I picked the milkshake for my jellycat through the dining experience, so it was fun to match it!

After FAO Schwarz, we walked around for a bit and went in some stores. Nathan was excited about the Nintendo store. A storm started to roll in, so we headed back to the hotel early.

We had some snacks at the reception hour at the hotel, it was Mexican themed.

Then we had our LAST dinner in NYC! I was wanting to close out the trip with some yummy seafood, so we went to Ocean Prime. It did not disappoint!

You know it is going to be a GOOD restaurant when the bread bowl is overflowing and delicious. We started with crab cakes as an appetizer.

I ordered scallops and risotto for my main dish and finished with a warm butter cake. I was stuffed silly afterwards!

The next morning while waiting for our flight home, I enjoyed one last yummy treat from NYC… Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding! IT WAS SO GOOD!

That’s a wrap on the fifth day! I’ll be back on Thursday with a 5K that I raced during a severe HEAT warning in St. Louis. It was like running through hell. Ha, ha! Stay tuned! Another 2 post week!