Our week was such a blast.  I don’t know about Zach, but I got very little sleep all week long.  We were up extra late almost every single day:  spending time with friends, playing [and observing] late night hockey games, and getting ready for our weekend in New York.

Monday night a bunch of friends came up to the Classic Skating in Layton for a late night game of roller hockey.  It was Iceland vs. Ducks.  The score was pretty even, so we settled the bout with a shoot out.

We had so much fun with this group of friends, we can’t wait to do it again!

Wednesday I had a little swimming lesson with my new “swim coach”:  my dad!  Gary coached for years before I came into the picture.  I think he always wanted one of his offspring to swim, but Blake and I never really got into it.  All of my uncles [there are 6 of them] were champion swimmers.  Literally, records and awards and all kinds of fancy stuff.  I agreed to do a sprint triathlon with my sister-in-law Rachael coming up in September [I know…me…I can’t believe it either] and decided I better get a jump on things if I am going to be swimming in open water.  Within minutes of being with me he fixed my stroke and by the end of our session I had my breathing down.  Thank goodness.  Because I don’t care what my stroke LOOKS like, I just want to survive.  Breathing is a very important part of that, I guess.

He also prepped me for the inevitable: getting kicked in the face.  I have a friend who attempted her first tri and got kicked in the face by some random person within 30 seconds of the swim leg.  Her goggles got knocked off, she swallowed a bunch of water, and quit.  So my dad devised a clever plan.  He would make me swim my laps and out of nowhere he would dive over to me and rip my goggles off.  It totally and completely shocked me every single time, but he taught me how to rotate over on my back and kick, adjust my goggles, and turn back over.  He also taught me how to “sight” in open water, which will be helpful when it comes time to doing this in the lake.

I seriously adore my father.  It was so fun to spend time with him in the pool and watch him do what he is really great at.  He even got out there and swam some laps with me – which at 53 years old still made me feel like a complete amateur.  Two of his strokes = six of my strokes.  Not even kidding.  We plan to make this a regular thing.

Thursday evening I met up with some of my design friends for dinner.  A sort-of picnic dinner.  The weather was perfect and we all met at Liberty Park and brought our own to-go meal.  It was so nice to catch up with these friends, I really don’t see them enough.  We missed you AJ!

Later that night I took the red eye flight to New York to meet Zach.  I really don’t mind flying alone.  I usually read a book or watch a movie on my laptop but I had big plans on this flight: to sleep.  I had had so many late nights previous I was hoping to completely zonk out after take off.  Unfortunately, I sat right smack dab in the middle of the rowdiest crowd on the flight.  Five “twenty-somethings” on their way to the Dominican Republic.  I cringed when they sat down next to me, but it turned out we became fast friends due to a common denominator:  we all had the same neck pillow.  We made a whole thing of it – taking pictures, discussing quantum physics.  The whole nine.  I did manage to fall asleep on my tray table as well…I think it was when they were discussing the “meaning of life” and “reincarnation” and stuff.

Friday morning I arrived to a New York in the midst of a complete down pour.  Zach was waiting for me at our hotel in Times Square. We weren’t going to let the weather dampen our spirits, so we decided to switch our plans around a little.  We rarely make concrete plans on vacation, especially in New York.  Call us crazy, but we have an automatic game plan every time we go to NYC:  sporting events, shopping, and stuffing our faces…with everything.  We did all those things this trip and so we weren’t disappointed with the drizzle one bit.

So naturally our rainy day turned into a Shake Shack for lunch and then shopping in SOHO kinda day.

We managed to hit up all our usuals:  Zara, Supreme, UNI QLO, Madewell, and Topshop…and all before our dinner reservation.  We decided to stop at Cafe Habana for some Mexican grilled corn at the recommendation of a friend.  Zach is a sucker for grilled corn and it did not disappoint.  Especially paired with an old fashioned Coke.  No, this wasn’t our dinner.  Just a pre-dinner snack, if you will…

We wandered through a few more shops before heading back to our hotel to drop off our bags.  That’s when it really started coming down – we even got flash flood warnings on our phones.  The streets quickly starting flowing [with water and people] and we made our way back to Times Square on the subway.  After a quick change into dry clothes we left again for our dinner reservation at JP Clarke’s.

After a really delicious meal [the best fish I’ve had in recent memory] we decided to take a cab to Pinkberry for dessert.  It was like the froyo angels were smiling down on me: they had my favorite flavor, peanut butter.  The last two times I’ve visited Pinkberry they didn’t have it, and I think I scared the server when I squealed for joy at the sight of the little peanut on the flavor board.  I admit it wasn’t the best choice considering the weather, but we both were pleased with our decision.  Even if we were wearing outerwear while consuming it.

The next morning we were overjoyed to see the sun out of our hotel window.  We felt we hadn’t completed our mission in SOHO – so we went back for round two.

Yes, my dream boat of a husband managed to survive nearly two full days of shopping with me.  That’s not all we did, though.  We stopped for a snack break at Georgetown Cupcakes.

It definitely lived up the hype [it was our first time], but Zach still prefers Sprinkles.  I, on the other hand, wanted to buy two more red velvet cupcakes and take them back to the hotel.  I didn’t.  But the frosting.  They would make a killing if they just sold bowls of frosting.

For lunch we stopped at Delicatessan and split one of their famous mac n’ cheese dishes with their ‘award winning chicken thigh sandwich’.  I don’t know what award it won, but it was really good.  The truffle fries were a hit as well.

It turned out to be the most beautiful day and we thought it would be appropriate to head on over to Central Park.

We went to the boat house, dodged the hundreds of bikers and joggers, and observed all of the entertainment.  This included the rollerbladers.

Zach would not takes his eyes off them for a second and couldn’t keep his laughter to himself.  He would bust up every time one of them would fall and would give them stylistic points.  He only took his eyes off of them for a brief intermission, when he got a churro.

Later that evening we made our way over to Chelsea for our dinner reservation at Co.  I had heard great things about their pizza and we made it a priority this trip.  Their margherita, the simplest item on their menu, was our absolute favorite.  No wonder it won some obscure award, it was the best New York pizza I’ve ever had.

We had to walk a distance back to our subway stop and on our way there happened to notice a cookie joint I had spied on a friend’s Instagram feed.  Insomnia Cookies: open until 3:00 am and my favorite treat of the trip.  I couldn’t decide which flavor to get, so we split a s’mores and peanut butter cup.  Let’s be honest, I ate the majority of both, but it was totally worth the stomach ache.  Thank you Lindsey Reese!

Our last day we couldn’t break tradition: we stopped at the Red Flame for breakfast.  We almost didn’t make it due to the Puerto Rican celebration going on.  They had a parade and everything, and it made our meal that much more entertaining.

After breakfast we made our way through the crowds of scantily clad Puerto Rican women and hopped on a train to Queens.  We were lucky enough to find killer tickets on Stub Hub last minute for the Mets vs. Marlins game at Citi Field.  I had never ventured over to Queens on purpose [we’d been on accident once before, but that doesn’t count].

It turned out to be another beautiful day, and I am so glad we spent it cheering on those Amazin’ Mets!

We didn’t come out with a win, but we thoroughly enjoined our ballpark grub and got to see two Taylorsville Warrior alumni out on the field.  [That’s Brandon Lyon out there pitching].  Gotta represent for the Ville.

 

 It was a quick trip, but we couldn’t have asked for a better weekend together.

New York – you are always good to us…and we love you.