Sometimes Multi-tasking Can Be Awesome

This past weekend, I found my crunchy granola Bay Area self far, far away in New York.  When I found out I was going on a six week travel binge for work and New York was one of the stops, I HAD to visit Mari of Namaste Mari- a dear friend who I have never seen in person but have had the pleasure of getting to know over the years. 
I was also excited to meet two of my other favorite bloggers, Missy of Missy Maintains and Gabriela of Une Vie Saine. See? Multi-tasking.

Mari and Missy were sweet enough to pick me up from my hotel, (clearly anticipating my lack of direction) and escorted me through the subway system to Spring Street Natural, a cute sustainable restaurant in SoHo, one of my favorite parts of the city.  The restaurant was fabulous- and the company was even better. 

We started with a beautiful basket of bread that was brought to our table before we had a chance to even sit.

The menu was amazing- I would have ordered almost everything on it, but I finally settled for the same thing as Mari- Pumpkin Ravioli. The cheese and crunchy hazelnuts made this dish.

Even better than the food was the company. The girls were just as eloquent, sweet, and witty as their blogs and I was so glad they each took time out of their day to come to lunch.  Since this was my first official blog meet-up, I wasn't sure what to expect, but the conversation was amazingly less focused on food, and more focused on normal conversation- except we paused to take pictures of our meals before we ate. 

Gabriela was the group photographer, with her fancy new camera. 
Missy and Mari:

Gabriela and I:

Group shot:

As we parted ways from Gabriela, Missy and Mari took me through the scenic route to get back to my hotel.  Some would call it lost, but I enjoyed walking through Greenwich Street, West 4th, and through Tribeca.  We stopped along the way for some pictures, mastering this whole multi-tasking thing.

When we got off the train, Mari and I continued our hot date and took an extra long walk to Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes.  Oh my word- these were fabulous.  I'm not sure if it was the chase of circling the block to find the place, or my excitement over my potential sugar coma, but I found these to be some of the best cupcakes I have ever had.

My hot date also treated me to mine, and it was just as good as it looked.

I killed mine, and Mari shared hers with the evil pigeons- but first a cute picture:

I am so glad that I stayed an extra day to meet up with these girls.  Of course no blog meet-up is complete without food and I'm enjoying the Godiva from Mari as I type this post.  Multi-tasking is fabulous.