Back in the Borough: Memorial Day Weekend Madness

Hi friends!

As the holiday weekend fast approaches (which I will gladly take after having JURY DUTY this upcoming week!), I’m getting excited for the plans Chris and I are making. On Friday night we’ll be heading to the Mets game (complete with a fireworks show!) with friends.

(P.S. We did this last year as well):

 

Then we’re renting bikes to ride in Central Park on either Saturday or Sunday and heading to a Brooklyn barbecue on Monday (also something we did last year, as well).

Hope you guys all have some fun plans for the holiday weekend, too!

Bis bald!

Back in the Borough: A Walk on the West Side

Hi friends,

So yesterday was my sister’s boyfriend’s birthday, and they took a little day trip into the city to hang with us. Chris and I wandered through Central Park, across the Reservoir, to get to the West side, where we met up with the pair at The Boat Basin Cafe, an open-air cafe/bar right on the Hudson River.

After the Boat Basin, we walked down along the river, out onto the docks, and had some sangria while sitting outside at the Pier Cafe. We ended the night with burritos as Blockheads back on the east side, where you can never go wrong.

Some photos from our day:

Bis bald friends! Hope your weekend was just as sunny

London 2013 and Chris’s 5th World Marathon Complete!

Oh hey there, London.

Hi friends!

Oh. My. Goodness. What a whirlwind! So Chris and I just said farewell to his parents who, luckily, we’ll be seeing again for our wedding celebration in Australia in just five months. This apartment always feels so sad and lonely when they leave.

While they were here we took a trip to London, Chris ran the marathon and we headed upstate for a little Magnanini Winery wedding celebration with my mom’s side of the family.

It was a fast and furious two weeks, to say the least!

And that’s why I’m a tad late on my London posting. Of course it’s nowhere near faded from memory yet, but I do like to get my thoughts down on the blog as soon as possible, so I don’t leave any details out.

So about that, it was late last Thursday when we left for our little journey ….

Home Sweet Home

Hi friends!

So we’re back from our little jaunt in England. I’ll have to post later after I’ve downloaded my photos and had a chance to collect my thoughts, but overall the trip was fantastic. We saw Les Miserables at the Queen’s theater (my first time!), caught up with some of Chris’s friends from both London and Australia and had a go-round on the London Eye.

We also rented bikes with the Barclays Cycle Hire for a trip around the city on Monday and very nearly missed our flight back home because we couldn’t find a place to return them. (More on that later!)

Bis bald friends! I’ll be back soon!

With Our Eyes to London, Our Hearts, Thoughts and Prayers Are In Boston

As Chris and I get ready to fly out on Thursday to London so he can run the London marathon, I find myself glued to the TV, watching, listening to and reading everything I can about the senseless bombings that took place at the Boston Marathon yesterday.

Three years ago Chris ran that race. My sister and I drove around like mad women from point to point to follow him throughout the course–to include making a beeline for that last mile to watch him at the finish. As I watched the videos of the attacks yesterday, I couldn’t help but remember what it means to be a spectator. How excited you are for your runner or runners. How you scream and cheer until you have no voice. How your heart bursts with pride when you see your loved ones run by.

The fact that anyone would target innocent bystanders and people fulfilling the personal goal and dream of running a marathon—something people train for months, or even years, for—is disgusting. An 8-year-old child was among the three confirmed dead from the bombings. What right did he or she have to die?

These races have meant so much to Chris over the past five years—he’s now run New York, Boston, Chicago and Berlin. London will be his fifth (and what was to be his last, until they added Tokyo to the World Marathon Series at the beginning of this year)—and they’ve meant a whole heck of a lot to me, as well.

What happened yesterday will not stop us from heading to London on Thursday. It won’t stop Chris from running in that marathon, and it won’t stop me or his parents from running around the course to watch him–nor will it stop what I’m sure are to be the thousands of others who will be there as well.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? Terrorism is disgusting, vile and heartless … but it shouldn’t, and it won’t, stop us from living our lives.

A 30th Birthday Celebration for the Books: Hiking in Breakneck Ridge

Oh hey, Hudson River on a gorgeous, sunny day!

Hey friends!

So someone (ahem, me) just had a birthday, and it was a big one. That’s right, the big 3-0! So in honor of getting older, I decided to do something to make me feel younger–go on a 3-mile long, rock-climbing hike.

The place we picked was Breakneck Ridge in the Cold Spring area. It’s about 2.8 miles in total, and let me tell you — it is strenuous! 

Holy rock climbing!

I have some amazing friends who agreed to go on this hike with me!

Thanks for going along with my crazy idea, gang!

We all packed some food (and my husband packed a 3 liter bag of boxed wine to carry the entire way … what a husband!) and drinks and sunscreen and took off for the day. I would say it took us about 4 1/2 hours to hike it, but that included about an hour stop for a picnic at the top.

A tasty assortment of goodies, including homemade baked cookies by a good friend from college and Trader Joe’s brownies with a birthday candle from a former co-worker.

The 3-liter bag of wine that Chris took out of the box of wine he purchased, which he carried the entire duration of the hike. That’s my man.

There were many points of the hike that provided awesome and amazing overlooks of the Hudson, and it was the perfect day to hike—sunny and in the low 50s. Here’s a little bit of what we saw:

We envisioned this point being somewhere near the end. It was not.

And so, we all made it through, all the way to the end, and I was so proud of everyone…

After the hike, before catching the train back to the city, we stopped at the Cold Spring Depot (which is walking distance to the train stop) for beers:

And so that’s about it, my friends. I had such an amazing time. It felt nice to be outside, we had an amazing group with us and I’d recommend this hike for anyone who’s game for some awesome, strenuous rock climbing.

One other word of note: If you’re planning on catching the train from New York City to Breakneck Ridge, I’m told you can alert the conductor to the fact that you want to get off at Breakneck, and that sometimes they’ll stop there for you (otherwise there are only two stops directly at Breakneck a day). We thought we’d get off at Cold Spring and walk to the trail, but it turns out that’s about a 4+ mile walk. We were not game to do that before even starting the hike, so we had parts of our gang who were driving pick us up. Just something to think about.

Bis bald, friends! Off to London week after next! My lovely in-laws have purchased Les Miserables tickets for us for Friday night when we get there. I love London theater, and I’ve never seen Les Mis, so I’m really looking forward to this!

The Excitement of Upcoming Travel

Hi friends!

Well we’re firmly into the second quarter of 2013 here, and it’s time for me to start getting excited about some of the trips we have planned for the rest of the year.

So let’s see. For starters, my in-laws will be making their way to the U.S. the week after next, and Chris and I will be heading to London with them to watch Chris run the London Marathon:

^^A little flashback to when Steph and I first visited London back in 2010

Then, Chris and I booked a trip out to Arizona to visit an old friend of mine for the weekend of July 4th. Neither one of us has been before, so we’re super excited. We’re going to go camping and hiking, and visit Lake Powell and Havasu Falls:

September will be a big month for us, too. We’ll be heading to Australia to celebrate our wedding with Chris’s side of the family, and then taking a couple-day honeymoon to The Great Barrier Reef:

^^A little memory from our last trip to Australia (written about here and here). That’s Shawn the Koala, the subject of my soon-to-written children’s book series. Seriously. It’s coming.

There will be another trip in September two weekends before Australia, but that’s super secret for now, as it’s a surprise trip in honor of Chris’s 30th birthday. Let’s just say—I’m super excited about it!

And that’s about it (for now)! Bis bald, friends! I’ll catch up with you again super soon …