Central Park Zoo

Seal show! (No I did not take this picture.
I actually forgot to take any pictures when we were in the zoo. Fail!)

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I needed to stop being a lazy bum when I'm in NYC on Sundays. And today, that actually happened!

I went to Central Park Zoo!

Kristy's mom was in for the weekend, so she took us there and also out to eat today. My oh my, these free opportunities were EXACTLY what I needed to close out my weekend.

We started out the day by going to brunch at the best place - Lexington Brass. It was decently priced and SO YUMMY. I got pancakes and it was probably the best decision I made all week. (Sidenote: idk why but for some reason I love having pancakes with only butter, no syrup. I personally think that's kinda weird, but it tastes AMAZING I could eat over 100 pancakes like that! Probably not but you know what I mean)

After brunch, we headed over to the Central Park Zoo. It was smaller than I thought it was going to be (I had a work event in a section of it a few weeks ago, so I was really excited to see the rest of it!). But the size was actually PERFECT since I had done so much walking that day to meet up with them. Not taking the subway to a lot of places does have a decent amount of health benefits! Probably the most eventful part of our zoo excursion was the bird room. For some reason, the zoo thinks it is a good idea to let the birds fly ALL OVER THE PLACE and have no enclosings to keep them in. HOW TERRIFYING but we made it through it! Not gonna lie, I was pretty proud of myself for walking through the entire room.

What a fun, productive day! So New York!

<3, Charlotte

Family bonding: drinking on the roof of the Met

Saturday was a very eventful day. Other than getting brunch with my future roomie, I met up with my cousin, Blake, who I haven't seen since I was in MIDDLE SCHOOL. (Yes, we found this hard to believe, too, but when we thought back to all the family occasions we had, that was the most recent one we could remember!). He works for a bank and has been in so many cities - from Seattle to Dallas - I'm surprised it has taken him this long to come to New York!

Anyway, I had NO idea what to expect. I mean, I hadn't seen this kid in so long, and even when we were little he would hang with my brother and I would pal around with his older sister (typical little boy vs. girl interactions, I guess). When deciding where to go, he suggested that we go to the top of the Met because he thought there was a rooftop bar. A good sign, I thought. I was really excited!

View from the top of the Met. Beautiful!

And it ended up being a GREAT time! First of all, I had never been to the Met, and while we didn't go for the purpose of appreciating art, we passed through some exhibits on the way to the roof. He is also SUPER cool, and we are definitely going to hang out more often - it's awesome having fun family there. (Sidenote: he's also going to introduce me to his banking buddies - get at me boyzzz ;)).

The drinks on the Met roof are also AMAZING! I had a mango icee thing with alcohol in it. It was to DIE for. Plus, you honestly can't beat the view. Whether you want to look at the city or the quieter Central Park - it's all there.

I definitely am going to go back there in the future! (And I would HIGHLY recommend you check it out, too)

<3, Charlotte

Central Park = New York City's version of a beach

So today was CRAZY busy! I got lunch with Kati of Spontaneity or Second Guesses which was totally fun! We went to Moonshine Diner and I had the most amazinggg chili fries on the planet.

And then the insane amount of walking started.

I have no idea why I just prefer to walk everywhere in NYC. It's actually getting to be insane because I really need to learn the different subway lines and figure that out, but I just think that summer in the city is meant for exploring and walking around! The walks even go by fast because I'm so busy taking everything in, 20 blocks feels like it only takes 5 minutes.

I walked all the way from 30th St and 3rd Ave to 83rd St and 3rd to meet Kristy (my work friend). She lives in the upper east side, and we wanted to go lay out in Central Park since we've become DISGUSTINGLY PALE from being inside working all day! It took a little over an hour, but I met Kristy and one of her friends at a restaurant where they were eating lunch, and after we walked to the park.

It would have been a totally easy trip, but the Puerto Rican parade was today, which was quite a struggle to get around. It literally took us an extra half hour to get to an area of the park where we could actually sit! I had probably walked at least 4 mile by the time we got to our spot.

So pretty!

We finally arrived, and I was incredibly excited to see that SO MANY PEOPLE WERE WEARING BATHING SUITES! Yes, folks, apparently in the summer Central Park is New York City's beach. Seriously. All it's missing is sand. Needless to say, we are going back next week and are going to be wearing our bikinis. Maybe the summer my tan won't be a lost cause after all...

Anyway, between all the walking and the tanning today, I'm wiped out! I am going to get ready for the work week and watch a movie (well, attempt to watch a movie), before passing out.

Week 2, here I come!

<3, Charlotte