NY: Day One

Hey party people! Guess what? I’m back! Visiting New York was awesome but in my opinion it just wasn't as spectacular as I thought it was going to be… I probably only feel this way because after 25 hours of being cramped in the back of a suburban and getting only about two hours of sleep during the entire ride we were greeted with temperatures that teetered in the high nineties the entire time we were there. The house we were staying had no air conditioning, no window units and some rooms didn't even have ceiling fans. It was like a sauna in that place. I was hot and sweaty the entire time and the only extended breaks I got from the heat that was on the subway, train and the Staten Island Ferry.

Now, don’t think I’m some sort of powderpuff, fussing over little heat. I can handle heat…I live in Texas for crying out loud, our summers here AVERAGE 98F (36C). But what I can’t handle is walking around in said heat for hours with a family of well experienced fast paced hikers, wearing a baby in a black mei tai carrier. 

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Since I was gone for a week I have tons of photos to share with you so I’m going to break it all down into day-by-day posts.

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Day ONE!

 Since we were in New York to attend my sister-in-law’s wedding of course we had to see her first! Meet Jess! Jess and her fiancé, Doug (now husband Doug) live in an amazing duplex in Tarrytown. I’ve never seen their home before and I was soooooo impressed with her perfect collection of vintage art and trinkets. She has amazing taste!

 I wish I could have gotten a photo of every little cool thing in her home but there just wasn’t enough time for that.

 We all walked around Tarrytown for a bit and there was lots to see. Tarrytown is about 1/16th the size of the city I live in and there is more to do in one block than there is in alll of boo boo Texarkana.

We stopped in a coffehouse called Coffee Labs Roasters, the place the bride and groom met and eventually fell in love.

Next we visited a super cramped albeit delicious Greek restaurant. 

I’m a very adventurous eater and since we don’t have Greek restaurants around here, eating Greek is well… an adventure. I ordered a lamb stick, fried eggplant and dandelion greens.

I had no idea you could eat dandelion so of course I had to give it a shot. I thought they were pretty good – needed a lot salt though. It tasted like collard greens cooked in black tea and chamomile. It would have been wonderful as a side dish, but that plate was piled with a massive heap of the greens – I’m not eating all of that.

The mei tia carrier was perfect and River didn’t mind being in it, but it was just too dang hot for him to stay in it so after a while me the husband took turns carrying him around. He’s such an awkward size now. Too small to carry on the hip, but too big to cradle – you know what I mean? 

 

And of course, if you know anything about me, I’m all experimenting with beer. I’ve never seen or heard of this beer before but I think this it’s pretty common in the NY area. I wasn’t a fan of this particular beer, but I love how the photos came out with my other sister-in-law (Krista) creeping behind.

  

I thought about blowing my entire shopping budget in the bakery. If my husband wasn’t the cash handler, I probably would have. Learn this about me: I frickin’ LOVE pastries.

  

 

Jess’ husband and friends set up a surprise scavenger hunt for her bachelorette party. All of the clues were  illustrated in this book made by a very nifty artistic bridesmaid. Jess had to decipher each clue to figure out where she was to go next in Tarrytown. At each location was a friend waiting for her – then they joined the party. Figure out the next clue, go to that place, find another friend, they join the party, etc…

This clue means go to the Coffee Labs Roasters Coffeehouse.

One of the last places on the list was a wine store. There the manager had mango-mosas waiting for all of us.

Cheers!

Oh, don’t forget about me!

At the wine store, the last clue was revealed. I think this one was pretty easy to figure out.

“…meet us at the Tapp” The Tapp is the bride’s favorite bar and there my husband, his brother and a few more folks were waiting.

It was all fun and smiles until the girls started to get a little too rowdy for my taste (and no one had even started drinking yet). Knowing that things were only going to get crazier once the drink orders had been filled, me and my husband snuck out for dessert a quiet and elegant Bistro. I’m such an old lady.

So I ended the day with…. FLAN!

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In my next post you’ll get to read about our trip to Manhattan: back sweat, spit-up, punks on a subway and inner thigh chaffing. 
Stay tuned.