A NYC Birthday Weekend

Happy Monday!

I hope you guys enjoyed a wonderful weekend. In honor of Bo’s 31st birthday, we put together a fun New York City weekend itinerary including a few of the things on our Summer Fun List.

Friday night our friends Erika and Garrett hosted us for a delicious, homemade dinner while enjoying sunset views of Manhattan. While it’s fun to go out every now and then, relaxing and catching up with friends in the comfort of their home was a welcome treat. We weren’t rushed and instead spent hours planning ski trips, bike rides and sipping lots of wine. 

Saturday morning we slept in later than normal before heading downtown for our favorite NYC workout, Fhitting Room with Emily Cook Harris and Eric. They are the perfect power team, balancing out each others music tastes and enthusiasm for different workouts. Saturday included lots of TRX work, rowing sprints, and box jumps. I love that Bo and I can finally agree on a workout that we both love.

After a quick shower we headed downtown for lunch at Gansevoort Market and an afternoon at the new Whitney Museum. In case you haven’t heard of it before, Gansevoort Market is an indoor market featuring 22 different stands which serve everything from authentic Greek yogurt bowls to New York Style pizza. It’s open daily from 8am to 9pm, making it the perfect spot for any meal or meeting. We ended up grabbing a sunny table and sharing a few different things, our favorite of which were a slice of pizza from Luzzo’s and a ceviche bowl from Mission Ceviche.

We really enjoyed the new Whitney Museum, which due to its size, is able to display numerous works of art which have been in storage or only on limited display due to the previous museum’s small size. We started at the 8th floor and worked our way down, as recommended, but found ourselves a bit overwhelmed and tired by the fourth floor. We enjoyed views of New York and New Jersey in between touring their inaugural exhibit, America Is Hard to See.

  

Saturday night we headed to Brooklyn for drinks and dinner with friends. We had drinks before dinner at The Long Island Bar and Henry Public, both of which I’d recommend. Long Island Bar feels like a diner but serves up perfect cocktails, especially Manhattans and Gimlets. Henry Public’s cocktail menu is creative and unique, serving up delicious cocktails such as the Summer Fancy which included muddled stone fruit, verbena honey and champagne. Delicious!

The main event was dinner at PokPok a small but mighty Thai restaurant located near Columbia Street Waterfront in Brooklyn. This unassuming restaurant has a Michelin star and a menu that will change your expectations for Thai moving forward. While most of the menu is quite spicy, our group was able to find things everyone enjoyed. My favorite item were their wings, which were a delicious combination of sticky, sweet and crunchy.  If you enjoy Thai food, add this to your list of no miss restaurants in New York. It’s an easy subway or taxi ride from Manhattan!

After a busy Saturday, we spent most of Sunday relaxing at home. After attempting to bake without the proper equipment, I was reminded that baking is an exact science. Even though neither my banana bread nor my zucchini bread turned out, it was fun to spend some time in the kitchen.

Sunday night, Russell and Meg hosted Family Night Dinner at their house for Bo’s birthday. Every other Sunday night one of us hosts this relaxing evening together. It gives us a chance to catch up before the week starts. Last night we watched Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt when we weren’t cooking. I’m loving that show – so fun!

The menu included our favorite homemade crab cakes, rack of lamb, squash casserole, roasted fingerling potatoes, and birthday cannoli from an Italian Brooklyn bakery. 

What a wonderful birthday weekend!

Don’t forget to enter to win a $50 gift card to Fresh Direct.