belated birth-date

Last weekend, we celebrated my belated birth-date, now an annual tradition. Our packed day included a visit to the Neue Galerie, the Merchants House Museum (above), and the Skyscraper Museum. In between visits, we stopped for a lovely meat and cheese filled lunch at Il Buco Alimentari. The day concluded with dinner and mini-golf at Brooklyn Crab, my favorite stop of the day - if you haven't been, it's awesome. For more photos, check out my instagram feed (I'm @shoshauna).
©photo by me

philadelphia: cheesesteaks

It seemed almost sacrilegious to leave Philly without getting at least one cheesesteak. Since Jeff and I clearly take our food seriously, we decided our best option was to do a cheesesteak taste test with our subjects being from well-known rivals Pat's and Geno's. The rivalry is no joke - after getting our sandwiches, we had to sneak them across the street to eat. 

The verdict: Cheesesteaks are gross! We tossed them out and got tacos instead. 

©photo by me

philadelphia: magic gardens

One of my new coworkers suggested I visit the Magic Gardens, and for someone who doesn't know me that well, he hit it right on the money. The Magic Gardens are a creation of one man (still living) over the course of fourteen years. The closest comparison I can make is to the Watts Towers, which clearly served as inspiration since creator Isaiah Zagar added an ode to Simon Rodia (see below). Other than that, it's fairly hard to describe - this is one where the photos really do tell the story.

©all photos by me

philadelphia: independence park

After lunch, we headed over to Independence Park, home to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Congress Hall, and Old City Hall among many other important historic buildings. The park ranger led tours were free and fascinating.

©all photos by me

philadelphia: reading terminal market

Reading Terminal Market was the first stop on our tour of Philly (it's very similar to Grand Central Market). Being dorky tourists, we were especially excited to see the array of Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish offerings (below).

After some research we settled on Dinic's as our lunch. Recently, the Travel Channel had declared their roast pork "the best sandwich in America" (below). Obviously, with that kind of credential, it's pretty hard to be objective. While I did enjoy the sandwich, both Jeff and I were hesitant to declare it the best in the nation.

Our final stop was a Termini Bros. cannoli, made to order. I wish there was a way to just get the filling and less of the shell....

© all photos by me

a weekend in philly

To celebrate our fifth anniversary, Jeff and I took a quick weekend trip to Philadelphia. Surprisingly close to New York (an hour and a half by train), neither of us had ever visited the city of brotherly love. Not surprisingly, we spent most of the weekend eating, learning and exploring. More to come!

©all photos by me

sea change

Dear readers (a.k.a. mom),
Sincere apologies for the decrease in posting in the last few weeks. I changed jobs and am no longer working from home. While the change has been good, the hours leave me with far less time to update this blog. Although I'd love to continue posting daily, it has become clear that's not feasible. I'm disappointed, but I've come up with a compromise (yes, with myself). I'll continue to post about my NYC adventures (both local and afar), but that will most likely be it (I'm aiming for 2-3 posts per week). I'll do my best to post more when possible, but this is one of the sacrifices I'm making in taking on new challenges and responsibilities. I hope you understand and welcome this change.
-s
© photo by me

central park zoo

In what must have been the extreme opposite experience of our trip to the Bronx Zoo, we visited the Central Park Zoo on a most picturesque summer day. Although much more convenient, the Central Park outfit rather paled in comparison to the Bronx.

© all photos by me

cabin on the lake

The particular cabin on Lost Lake that we visited has been owned by my aunt for the last 4 years. I loved all the quirky details - most of the furniture and decor were hand-me-downs or found on the street. My kind of place!

© all photos by me

lost lake

Lost Lake is located in Putnam County (about an hour and a half north of the city). The property consists of twenty-eight cabins which surround the lake but are almost entirely obstructed by vegetation. When you are sitting on the dock, it almost feels like the entire lake belongs to you.

© all photos by me

watch hill

My friend Sara had the brilliant idea of going to Watch Hill, a national park on Fire Island. It was beautiful - clean, picturesque and gloriously uncrowded. The weather could not have been more perfect - hot enough to make you want to go into the water, but not so hot that you felt like your skin might melt off. It was a beach miracle!

© all photos by me

we be grammin'

Some grams of late (I'm @shoshauna fyi).

© all photos by me

bannerman castle

Bannerman Castle is located on a small island in the middle of the Hudson river, just south of Beacon. If you've taken Metro-North to Poughkeepsie, then you've seen it from the train. There is a lot of history if you are interested, but basically it's a rich guys fantasy come to life. Unfortunately, the rich guy wasn't an architect, so the structures aren't doing so good. It's a pretty train ride (about an hour and a half from NYC) and you are sure not going to see anything like it anywhere else! 

What the castle looked like in 2009:

And today:

© all photos by me