Is there anything better than a wine night with your girlfriends?! I don't think so! Luckily thanks to the awesome team at ANEW Wine I got to treat some of my best friends to an evening of just that!

I was really excited to try out their wines too because the it's actually from my home state of Washington! Shout-out to the Columbia Valley! Bringing all of my favorite things together for one night -- home, friends, and wine <3

We got to try the ANEW Rosé and the ANEW Pinot Grigio, both wines from 2014. I tend to favor wines that are light so both of these appealed to my palate. ANEW's wines are described as refreshing and rejuvenating and I would say both fit that description well. They were the perfect combination of being crisp with fruity notes. I can be a little picky about Pinot Grigios and I have to say I really enjoyed theirs. 

Of course no party is complete without some fun decor! I had fun making some prints to match with the vibe of the wines. You know it's going to be colorful if it's coming out of my studio!

The weather for our evening really couldn't have been much better. You never quite know what you're going to get in August in NYC so we lucked out on the perfect summer temps. To make sure our wine stayed the perfect temp too, I popped a few frozen grapes in each of our glasses. I picked up this tip from Pinterest and love it because it doesn't affect the taste of the wine and keeps the wine chilled just right. It makes the glasses look kind of pretty too!

Some of the ladies enjoying their wine!

Even Scoots joined in for our fun, sans wine of course, he has a few more years before he hits the legal drinking age ;-)

For the evening's pairings I picked  a wide array of cheeses, fresh fruits, crackers and some other tasty bites. If there's one thing I've learned from various wine tastings, it's how much of an impact the food pairing can have on the taste of the wine. I always think it's fun to compare the differences between the taste when paired with different items. The pairing suggestions (see below) also suggest trying the wines with seafood or cream-based dishes, which I'm sure would be totally delicious! You have to try the Pinot with strawberries or the Rosé with the brie or the gouda. LOVED those combos!

We had such a fun evening! I'll definitely be picking up some of their wine for future wine nights, especially with Fall TV nights just around the corner ;-) The prices are super reasonable too, which is always a plus! 

All of my friends were super excited they got to head home with a little goodie bag too! Cheers to ANEW Wine! Thanks for such a fun evening :)

Make sure you check out their website for more information on where you can pick up some of their wines and make sure to "like" their Facebook page!

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**Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. ANEW Wine provided me with wine and other promotional materials in exchange for a blog post. This post and all opinions stated are based on my own ideas and honest experience with the products and have not been influenced based upon the sponsorship.

I'm a little behind on writing this series, but my life kind of exploded last week, almost literally so I had to tend to some other things before making it back. That's for another post though.. #PositiveVibesOnly

The good news is Little Duck and I had the BEST time together in the city during her visit. So much fun it's going to take me alllll week to talk about all of the stuff we did! So let's get to it!

Fresh off a red-eye flight, Little Duck and I reunited at the airpot and wasted no adventure time making it back into the city. I tried to play it a little low-key on the first day -- she did fly across the country all night and all -- but because I had to work during the week while she was here I wanted to make the most of the weekend. Spoiler alert, there was definitely a lot of walking that happened. Visitors beware, I'll make you walk.. a lot!

After dropping her bags it was off  for a delicious treat at Alice's Tea Cup and off to Central Park! There was a big water fight happening which started quite the controversy earlier in the week, which ended up getting me featured in the amNewYork and on TV! Yep, really! You can watch that right here --> NBC New York "Planned Water Gun Fight at Central Park Moved After 64,000 People RSVP"

And once you've been quoted in the media about something obviously you have to go! And so we did just that! We made it to the park a little early to enjoy the sunshine a little, eat some of the treats we picked before the crazy started to unfold. 

A little bit before the fight was set to start people started going at it outside of the Great Lawn. The Central Park Twitter account had vowed that the event would get shut down and well, after about 5-10 minutes, the Parks Department showed up to crash the party. "Vacate the premises the water fight is now over" was broadcasted through their megaphones.

Just as soon as the Parks Department shut down the first fight you could see a crowd of people walking in the Great Lawn from the north. Then just like a movie scene all of the people who had been broken up rushed the Great Lawn and headed towards the middle.

I don't think the Parks Department was very pleased, but as soon as everyone made it into the center of the lawn there was no shutting it down. Now that is a water fight! Besides, the grass needed some watering on that hot day anyways!

"Look moms, we didn't get arrested at the water fight!" Our parents' one request for our first adventure.

After the water fight, we spent some more time in the park walking around and seeing some of the different views.

By the mid-afternoon we figured it was time to start to wrap up our day adventures and we headed through a food festival to pick up one of Little Duck's favorites, mozzarepas. I don't know what it is about those little cheesy delicious guys but you definitely don't see them in the PNW so it was definitely a NYC trip bucket list item. From there we made one more stop at the Union Square Farmer's Market and then it was back uptown for a low-key evening of BBQing on the balcony and getting off our feet. I know I said it was a chill day but while I wasn't wearing my Fitbit there's no doubt that we walked at least 10 miles. Little Duck is a trooper though and even after traveling all night she made it all the way until like 10:30pm! 

The next day we headed back to the park for a different adventure.. brunch at the Loeb's Boathouse. If you're looking for a very New York brunch, I totally suggest going to the Boathouse. Sometimes the wait can get a little long, but the view is so pretty and it totally gets me in the mood to watch some of my favorite chick flicks that it's featured in. 

I'm a big fan of their macaroni and cheese too. Definitely a solid choice if you check it out!

Oh heyyy duckies! Thought this was kind of perfect for our #DucksTakeNYC trip ;-)

Post brunch we headed out of the park to be extra touristy and hop on a double decker bus. I had actually never done one here so I thought it would be a fun thing to do and you totally always learn cool things about the city on them. Plus I thought it would be a good way for Little Duck to get a little bit more familiar with the neighborhoods. I told her by the end of the week she was totally going to be a NYC pro and I think she'd agree that she made the rounds on her trip! We ended up getting tickets for the Go NY Bus Tour and had a really great time! We took the downtown loop that took us through most of the high-trafficked neighborhoods with most of the notable landmarks. 

Our tour was a hop-on hop-off but we just ended up staying along for the ride to get the full tour. If you were looking for a tour that offers good transportation options though I'd definitely recommend them. Our second tour guide was super awesome too! Some of those guys are so entertaining!

Once we did a loop and a half, we decided it was time to cool off a little. So we headed to the East Village for some Big Gay Ice Cream. When you're visiting you have to make the most of every meal!

Stay tuned tomorrow for where our #DucksTakeNYC adventures took us next!

I have been busy all week getting ready for a very special arrival tomorrow... Little Duck! I've been looking forward to her trip all summer and I cannot wait for some of the fun we're going to have! I'd spill some of the beans, but some things need to be kept a surprise! Now hopefully the weather will cooperate with us... I'm going to be busy playing tour guide so I probably will be taking a little break from blogging for the week but stay tuned for some highlights from our fun. You can also follow along to some of our #DucksTakeNYC adventures on Instagram!