Jersey Shore and so much more

It's summer! Unfortunately being a grown-up means you have to go to work every day, and even on the weekends. Lame. How about we go back to being school kids with summer vacation?! But... in between my 50+ hour work weeks I've somehow managed to find time for fun things :) And now that my computer is fixed (hopefully) you finally get to see evidence of that. In no apparent order...

Memorial Day

I decided that Memorial Day=beach day. Luckily I had some friends who felt the same, so we packed a couple cars and headed to one of their favorite spots on the Jersey Shore. It could have been a little warmer, but we still had lots of fun. I even got in the freezing cold water- only two other people dared get in all the way and the one guy was whining like a baby the whole time. Good thing I grew up going to California beaches where the water is always cold- so I was well prepared ;) It felt so great to just lay out on the beach, walk in the warm sand (warm sand beneath my toes has to be one of my all time favorite feelings), and stroll along the boardwalk.

Lincoln Center

Living near Lincoln Center has it's advantages. I love, love, love going to performances there. And so far I've only had to pay for one... which really makes me love it. It pays (or perhaps I should say it "saves") to have friends with connections. In the past couple months I've had the opportunity to see the Metropolitan Opera and the American Ballet Theater. Both were fantastic.

Chinatown/Little Italy

I'd never been and my friend Sabrina had been craving Chinese food for weeks, so we decided to head down and explore Chinatown after I got off work one Saturday night. We did a little bit of wandering through the shops and looked for some good food. The evening was fun, the food was actually not that impressive- I'm disappointed Chinatown :( Oh well. In our wanderings we ended up at the outskirts- aka the non-tourist area- and discovered a high school football field full of people enjoying a beautiful evening with traditional dancing and other activities. Sabrina immediately joined up with a group of ladies learning/doing this dance and I somehow got dragged in as well. I was terrible, but it was a lot of fun- all the ladies were so nice (or they were just really entertained that we, mostly me, were so terrible and therefore funny to watch). We finally stopped for Chinese food, then wandered back home through Little Italy- stopping for Italian ice and gelato for dessert of course!

Maroon 5

Happens to be one of my favorite bands. Love their music. So when we heard they were going to be here for the Today Show concerts we thought we'd wander down to Rockefeller and see what we could see, or hear at least. We got there pretty early in the morning- 5:30, but you really need to be there at like 2 or 3 to be able to actually get into where you can see them perform. We love Maroon 5, but not enough to give up that much sleep over it haha. So we ended up being behind the stage where we could see half the band every once in awhile but could still listen to the great music! It was fun- and they actually sounded good live... so we'll be keeping an eye out for real concerts in the area :)

Intrepid

The USS Intrepid is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that is now the Sea, Air & Space Museum, docked in the Hudson River. During the summer they put a screen up on the flight deck and show movies. Awesome, right?! We went to see National Treasure- one of my favorite movies, and which also happens to have the Intrepid in the movie! It was tons of fun- I definitely want to go again this summer- but this time I'll be more prepared with a blanket and lots of food :)

Yankee Stadium

A Yankee's game is a NYC must. We headed out to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Tuesday night hoping to get bleacher seats (the only seats we were willing to pay for haha) but unfortunately they were sold out. So we took some pictures, wandered to a nearby bar and watched the game while eating an assortment of not-good-for-you foods. We had fun. We got smarter and bought tickets online that night for Wednesday night's game and headed to the Bronx once again (we're pretty much pros at getting to Yankee Stadium now). I don't know how many years since I've been to an MLB game- probably 10+ years, but we had a lot of fun eating hot dogs and peanuts, chatting, and enjoying the game. We were on the very top row of the entire stadium, which had the added bonus of giving you a view back to Manhattan.

I LOVE NYC. That's all I have to say :)