new york, new york--day 1

we spent the long labor day weekend in new york city this year.  it was just the two of us and all those millions of new yorkers and hundreds of thousands of tourists. it was incredible, and made all the more enjoyable knowing that our sweet little angel children were in the loving care of their grandparents. our stay was super short, so we squeezed in a ton of stuff. easy to do on a dense little island, but impressive considering we arrived with almost no plans.

on our first day, we went straight to central park for lunch, and had a lakeside salad and drink at the loeb boathouse with a nice view of the boating pond. here's little pond on the way to lunch.


after a stroll through the park on the muggiest day i can ever remember (and a brief visit to belvedere castle), we met our friends ryan and jessica and their super awesome little guy miles. we walked to their place, let miles' and his adorable 21 month old antics make us miss our little james terribly, and then we let ryan and jessica take us out like locals. (miles went out for pizza with the sitter, lucky boy).

we made ryan and jessica do the tourist thing by taking a cab down to the highline park. when you go to new york, please visit the high line. it is lovingly restored elevated train track through the meatpacking and chlesea neighborhoods; the trains used to move meat and product through warehouses to ships. now, in the absence of warehouses, it moves people along a wooden walkway, among well manicured gardens, and offers breathtaking view of lower manhattan and the hudson river.


they made us do the local thing by drinking bitburger german beer at the biergarten below the highline. it was packed, and awesome. they also took us to one of their favorite restaurants in the east village for a delicious dinner. our night with them was an absolute treat of the rarest kind, and we are so grateful!