We left New York last time feeling relief, to leave the heat, the chaos the general unpleasantness of being in NYC in July (or, in general). This time, however, we had a pretty great month. A lot of this we owe to where we stayed, the Upper East Side, instead of Harlem. Which furthers our desire to not live in NYC, knowing that quality of life is directly related to where in the city we live (at least, for us). And knowing we can’t afford to be happy in the city. But, for a month, living in a good location made our time more pleasant (minus the subways, hate that necessary evil forever). 

A few days after we arrived my sister came to visit to celebrate turning 21. She spent a long weekend with us eating, and of course drinking. We traversed many boroughs in search for food from Robertas in Bushwhick to dumplings in Flushing, we covered a lot of ground. We also, of course, went on a Lower East Side cocktail crawl hitting up two of my favorites, Amor y Amargo and Death & Co as well as the new Booker & Dax (and realizing all cocktail bar names had “and” in the name). It was so strange to take my sister into a bar, I still feel like she’s a little kid, while of course realizing she is indeed a grown-adult. But, it was so good to see her, we’re lucky that despite our geography we still see each other multiple times a year. It’s one of the things I look forward to when we move back, more sister-adventures. 

Alex and I also got to enjoy running in NYC, being a 4-5 minute jog to Central Park certainly helped. I ran a 10k in the park as a benchmark for marathon training, and logged  nearly 150 miles across the city throughout the month, mostly, in Central Park. 

Alex also got to run with a more relaxed rotation schedule, being super speedy as he is he ran the mile at the Armory track near Columbia, competing with some world class athletes (and holding his own). 

But it was January in New York, so on occasion it got too cold to run outside, so we headed indoors to run on Woodways at Mile High Run Club-a treadmill interval class. It’s the best thing ever. I went six times throughout our stay and was quite sad to leave my last session. Its sort of like soul cycle for runners, though, I’ve never been to soul cycle…but this is what I hear. It’s loads of fun, great instructors and a killer workout. I’ve seen big gains in my strength and speed and I credit these classes, I really, really wish they were a thing elsewhere in the world.

We also experienced one of the worst blizzards New York has seen in a long time. And…enjoyed it. On the day it hit we headed to Equinox for a day pass to get our runs in (and people watch the crowd at the UES Equinox…top notch, as you’d expect). We then went to our favorite neighborhood bar for drinks, then to another bar that served food, eating and drinking our way through the storm. Eventually we made our way to a grocery store and home, passing revelers braving the storm to engage in questionable activities like drinking outside and sledding down Lex. But it was great to be out in it with the rest of the neighborhood, and no cars with their incessant honking. The next day we headed to central park, which is just stunning in the snow to watch kids sled and small dogs romp around in the snow (the.best.ever). It was such a joyful energy to the air, it was so much fun to see the city essentially shut down and everyone out enjoying their day. Granted, we were lucky and had no inconveniences other than ill-prepared shoe choices. It was unexpectedly a highlight of our trip. 

And just like that, our trip was over. We went for a final run over the Queensborough bridge (seen in the distance above), having always wanted to run over a bridge in NYC, ate lunch and headed to the airport for our flight to Dublin. It was a good month, and while I still dread going on the subway (the 6-downtown at rush hour is a battle ground) and hate the lack of outdoor access, the costs, the dirt, the chaos, I still enjoyed my month here. Still, never want to live here, but I’m thankful for the great month we had. On to our last spring in Dublin!