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

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Down in D.C.

Me and Lise in D.C., circa 2006ish

Hey friends,

So I arrived back from my trip to D.C. to visit Lisa last Sunday and I have to say, I love that girl a whole heck’uva’lot. We actually met back in college when we both worked for our school newspaper, The Breeze, and we’ve been besties ever since. We’ve both moved around a couple times in the, ahem, EIGHT years since graduating from college (good grief), but throughout it all we’ve stayed in touch.

So back when Lise first lived in D.C., we used to do a whole lot of sightseeing when I would come and visit. It looked a little something like this:

Yeah … we’re pretty cute

Anyway, these days there’s almost nothing we’d rather do together than sit around drinking wine, eating delicious food and talking until we fall asleep. We did a whole lot of that on this trip (Guapo’s in Shirlington is one of our fave spots), as well as taking walks, playing with Lisa’s insanely adorable niece and practicing with my make-up for Chris and my wedding party at the end of April. (Lisa’s doing my make-up for that, so I got my make-up done for the first time ever at the Bobbi Brown counter at Nordstrom.)

This trip looked a whole lot like this:

Lisa’s detailed notes from my Bobbi Brown makeover

All the makeup we used to replicate the look back at her apartment. She did a fabulous job, if I do say so myself.

Anyway my dears, that about sums up my trip to D.C. Oh, we also saw ‘This is 40′ at the Arlington Cinema & Draft House, where you can order beer and food while you watch your movie, and Zero Dark Thirty the following day. Lise also lovingly allowed me to visit World Market, since we don’t have a store here in NYC, and we ate at the Nordstrom Cafe before getting my makeup done, which I would highly recommend for it’s deliciousness.

Okay, bis bald, friends! Chris and I may or may not be snowboarding this weekend at Windham, and we’re in the midst of planning a little hike with some friends for my birthday (perhaps here). Plus, before you know it it’ll be London Marathon time in April! Lots to look forward to, my friends, lots to look forward to …

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Back in the Borough: A Sophisticated Placed to Tea

Meeting a friend for tea feels oh-so-sophisticated.

Hi friends,

So I was out with another friend this morning at Alice’s Tea Cup, and I thought I’d throw up a quick post about it. If you’re a lover of tea (which I am not, but luckily the coffee is just as yummy!) or you have kids, this is a really fun place.

There are three locations around the city, but we visited Chapter III, over on 81st St. between 3rd and 2nd Ave. There are really cute decorations, they serve the coffee in humongous mugs …

And the scones are to die for …

Pumpkin and vegan banana scones with whipped cream and blueberry sauce. What?!

I glanced over at some of the tables around us, and the tea comes served in cute little tea kettles, too. We met up around 9:30 and the place was pretty empty, but by the time we left around 11 it was bumping.

Anyway, just a more sophisticated suggestion should you ever happen to be in this beautiful city. (You know, since my last blog post was about beer and pretzels!)

Bis bald, friends!

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Back in the Borough: A Little Bit of Munich Right Here in Manhattan

Hey ya’ll,

Just a super quick post here to let you know that last night a friend and I hit up Bierhaus in midtown, a very fun beer hall that bears an uncanny (if somewhat small) resemblance to the Hofbrau House in Munich. (Which I talk about here, and here.)

It’s essentially one huge beer hall, with live music (including a band that plays all the traditional German Oktoberfest songs), amazing pretzels and humongous beer mugs.

What you get when you accidentally order the large beer instead of the medium.

I see nothing wrong on this plate.

So if you’re ever in the area, and you need a little community beer drinking only the way Munich can do it, I would highly suggest hitting up this fun beer hall.

Bis bald, friends! Oh, and I just booked my tickets for D.C. next week. Wednesday through Sunday, five whole days with one of my best friends. The best.

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A Valentine’s Day Trip to Tarrytown

Hey friends,

Chris and I just arrived back from our Valentine’s Day trip to Tarrytown, a quaint little town about 45 minutes north of the city, and I have to say–I loved everything about it. Since it’s winter it was obviously a bit freezing outside, and some of the stores in the town and some of the historical sites were closed for the winter months, but still, we managed to have an awesome time just the same.

Here’s what we got up to.

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Life Lately: January 2013

Hey friends!
Hope your 2013 is off to a fabulous start. Here’s a little bit of what our life has looked like lately:

We started the year with brunch in our fancy hotel room at The Standard, courtesy of my mom and stepdad. Thanks guys!

We’ve celebrated THREE 30th birthdays so far, and one 100th! (But I’ll get to that later…)

We celebrated married life on our first full day of being husband and wife at the new bar that opened on the corner of our street-The District.

We started apartment hunting, which meant we needed some cocktails to ease our nerves. Working with brokers is scary!

We held Jen’s baby shower at Cake Bistro & Bakery in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.

The mom and proud soon-to-aunties!

My dad got the baby all this Army gear. I think he’s a little excited to have his first grandson…wouldn’t ya say?!

Penny had to spend a day at the vet getting tested for asthma. She spent the rest of the night in her carrying case and wouldn’t come out. I think it’s safe to say she was mad at me…

When she finally did come out, she and Nugget did some bonding.

HUSBAND GOT HIS GREEN CARD!

Grand Central celebrated its 100th birthday on Feb. 1, 2013.

Mom and I tasted some cakes for our wedding party celebration in April. Yummmm!

My husband bought me purple flowers to celebrate our one month of marriage.

We celebrated one month of wedded bliss by getting drinks at The Guthrie Inn, an awesome, tiny little cocktail bar on Park between 97th and 98th. The owner also owns Earl’s Beer & Cheese, the restaurant right next door that Chris swears by.

The view of the Hudson on the way back to the city from my mom’s house.

Bis bald, friends! Hope you have fun plans for February–especially if you’re in love Chris and I have made reservations at the gorgeous Tarrytown House, which just happens to be where we attended a wedding last year, as well.

See ya’ll soon!

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Back in the Borough: The Scream at MoMA

Hi friends,

Welcome to December! So Christmas trees are back at the subway stations, and Chris and I took a jaunt to MoMA today to check out Edvard Munch’s famous painting, ‘The Scream.’

Let’s take a gander:

The tree stand outside of our 96th St. station, where we’ll probably pick up our own little piece of green heaven.

The Scream, Edvard Munch’s famous painting. It really is fantastic in person …

Van Gogh’s Starry Night

Claude Monet’s Water Lillies

A piece by Picasso

We stopped in the cafe for lunch while we were there. I had a delicious salad, Chris had the cheese tort and we shared the marinated olive platter. These were our delicious drinks.

Bis bald, friends! Hope your December is off to a great start, as well!

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Rome–Our Fourth and Final Destination

Well, here we are friends. We’ve arrived, at last, at our fourth and final destination of our little European adventure from a few weeks ago–Rome.

Now, you know my love of Rome. The ancient architecture. The amazing artists. The un-replicatable (is that a word?) food. It’s all just amazing. But you know something that’s kind of even more amazing than all that? Sharing a place that you really love with someone you love.

Awwwww–aren’t I so sweet? No but really, guys–I was beyond excited to visit Rome with Chris and to see if he would fall as in love with it as I did.

And the verdict? Well of course he did!

So let’s go…back to Rome…

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A Hop, Skip and Jump to Munich

Hello, Munich. How I’ve missed you!

Hi friends,

So part deux of our European adventure story starts off in Munich, where we stayed at the Citadines, which are more small apartments than hotel rooms (meaning we had a little kitchen and a living room, but no one to clean the place up when we left for the day.)

The location was perfect for Oktoberfest–it was just a short walk to the grounds where the tents are. It’s not the best location if you’re in Munich mostly for the city center, though, like to visit Marienplatz or stroll through town. (For that type of trip, I’d highly recommend the hotels I stayed in during this trip to Munich a few years ago.)

Lucky for us, we were there for Oktoberfest, and our adventure began that Sunday night …

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Last Thursday, When We Were Berlin-Bound

It’s hard to believe this wall ever divided Berlin. So sad.

Hey friends! So it’s Monday, October 8th, which can only mean one thing–Chris and I are back from Europe.

Cue the violins.

Seriously though, this was one stellar, awesome, amazing trip. In what amounts to 9 full days, we managed to cover Berlin (where Chris ran a marathon), Munich (where we had so much fun at Oktoberfest!), rent a car and drive from Munich to Salzburg to Venice for more than $700 (that story will come later), see Venice in less than 24 full hours and hit up Rome for all the classics.

That’s a lot.

But despite the fact that it was a whirlwind…it really didn’t feel that way. I felt like we were able to spend a good amount of time in each place, and I actually did end up feeling rested and relaxed when we arrived back last night.

So anyway, without further ado, how about I take you on back to last Friday, when Chris and I arrived in Berlin at around 8:30 a.m…

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