NYC Photo Bomb

While autumn in DC is indisputably the best time of year, there's something completely special about October in NY. SK and I went up to visit friends this weekend and we had the perfect blend of seeing old friends, visiting family, and being tourists.

We got in Friday night and stayed in at our friend's apartment while partaking in takeout sushi (a rare treat in DC that I love to take advantage of when in NY.) Saturday started with coffee from Marche du Sud and a quick trip to the bagel place to pick up breakfast, which we ate in a local park.

My definition of breakfast joy: Sesame flat, toasted, with veggie CC.

After breakfast we headed over to see the Intrepid. The Intrepid was a Naval Aircraft carrier that served in WWII, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and was used as a recovery vessel for NASA Space missions. To be quite honest, I had no idea that it was docked in NY, but the boys were really enthusiastic about seeing it, so off we went.

Hard to see, but this is a Lego model of the boat (ship?) with a Lego crew member overboard.

My favorite part - at the top of the boat they had crew members who had served their tours on board who volunteered to answer vistor's questions.

After we finished up at the Intrepid, we headed uptown to visit my sister at her apartment on the Upper West Side. Since we had a dinner reservation on the East Side, we took a quick walk through Central Park.

We had an hour to kill before dinner, so we stopped into the Met to do a "Greatest Hits" tour, seeing the Egypt exhibit, the rooftop garden, the European Masters paintings, and the Greek and Roman statues.  Now, normally I would recommend at LEAST half a day in the Met, if not more. I hated to rush through any of the exhibits. BUT! We only had an hour, and I was determined for SK to see at least some of the Met. Since he loved it, I'm seeing this as a prequel to many future visits.

Are you my mummy?

Hey, lion.

View from the rooftop

Van Gogh, a personal favorite

After our whirlwind "introductory" Met visit, we headed to Flex Mussels on E 82nd. They're a seafood restaurant with over 20 preparations of steamed mussels. Since we usually stay with friends when we're in the city it's not often that we get a night where it's just the two of us, but our hosts had a family dinner to attend so we wound up with a "just us" date night.

We both started off with a "Flex-Side" cocktail - Gin, lemon, lime, and lemongrass syrup (that I will almost certainly working to recreate at home). We also shared some delish seafood:

"Burnt Fingers": Fried seafood platter

We shared the Littleneck Mussels: Bacon, Chopped Clams, Red Pepper, Bread Crumbs

Highly recommend. (That is, if you're a mussels fan. They didn't have a whole lot to offer non-seafood eaters.)

Since we did so much on Saturday, we took it easy on Sunday and shared our football spirit with the rest of Second Avenue.

I also met up with former roomie Michelle for a ladies brunch at Ze Cafe. Another great find (randomly selected through last-minute Yelping.) I had the Bruleed Oatmeal (since it's difficult for me to resist bruleed anything) and Michelle had lemon ricotta crepes. A perfect way to start a rainy Sunday.

After watching some truly disappointing football, we headed back to our friend's apartment for some pizza and an early night - we took a 7:30 AM bus back to DC yesterday morning.

What were you up to this weekend?

xoxo,

b