Weekend Snapshots, Weekly Workouts & Walking the Brooklyn Bridge

(Say that title three times fast. So many Ws!)

Hi friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

I am coming off of a great one, and I’m checking in to share the highlights with you today. I am so glad that most of you enjoy reading about our weekend adventures, because I sure do take a lot of pictures of them.

By the way, my poor iPhone is in dire need of an upgrade. If you’re wondering how I pull off semi-decent photos to share on the blog, it’s because they’re mostly taken with Scott’s iPhone 6s, sent to me, and then edited on my computer before I upload them here. Yup. I guess that’s what you do when you need a phone and camera upgrade. Desperately.

But enough about electronics, how about we dive into last weekend’s happenings?

I’m also including a brief overview of last week’s workouts at the bottom to cover the Weekly Workouts portion of the recap, too. Since I’m currently using ClassPass to try out new gyms and studios all over the City, I think it would be best to save my thoughts and reviews of them for one big recap post per month. Sound good? Good.

Here we go!

 

Saturday

Saturday was absolutely beautiful. It was sunny and hot, but not too hot. I spent most of the day cleaning up around the house, but I got to a stopping point and wanted to take Roadie out for a long walk through Prospect Park to take in some fresh air.

We started on the jogging loop, but we eventually veered off into new-to-us territory. The park is huge and filled with so many different things tucked away at every turn … like this gazebo for instance.

I just love exploring there, and I can’t wait to see what all of the trees look like in the fall.

I bet it’s absolutely gorgeous!

Before I knew it, we had walked about three and a half miles, so I took a look at the map and headed back to our main entrance for us to walk the 0.6 mile home. That adventure through the park took us about an hour and a half, and we loved it!

Scott was scheduled to work on Saturday night, so I made our biggest meal of the day for lunch.

Roasted pork, garlicky green beans, and Parmesan purple potatoes from Blue Apron

It was delicious, but if you follow LIL on Snapcat, then you already know that our fire alarm went off about six or seven times during the process of cooking it. How embarrassing! Does this ever happen to you?

I spent the remainder of my day snuggled up with the fur kids and watched The Notebook and Pitch Perfect on the couch. It was a wild Saturday night, I know.

 

Sunday

Sunday was definitely eventful! Thanks to Scott’s early morning return from work, we slept in and ignored any sign of alarms to wake up. It was glorious.

Wanting to get out and do something fun, we trained Downtown and caught the tail end of the NYC Pride Parade. There were several tributes, signs, chants, and even murals to represent the recent events that happened in Orlando.

It sure was crowded, but we wanted to be there to support our hometown community. It was extremely touching to see some sort of NY loves Orlando sign just about everywhere we looked. New York loves and supports you, Orlando. #OrlandoStrong

We walked the main street down and back for a bit, then veered off to find lunch close by.

Before long, we stumbled upon Tio Pepe on West 4th Street. They had their windows open, and it was the perfect day to enjoy the breeze from the outdoors, good food, and upbeat music. The vibe was great!

The food was really good, but the service could have definitely been speedier. It was pretty busy, but they seemed short on staff, which can affect the overall experience. We sat at a community table, and our waitress disappeared for most of our dinner. Bummer, because everything was really tasty!

Chicken fajitas with beans and rice … (I can’t wait to dive into the leftovers today!)

With extremely fully bellies, we walked back to the subway and went Uptown to run an errand, then back Downtown to Jay Street. Scott expressed an interest in walking the Brooklyn Bridge home, and I thought it was a great idea. Why not?

(The view of Two Bridges from the Riverwalk is beautiful, by the way.)

We took the F train and got off at the Jay Street-Metrotech stop, but we had to walk quite a while to find the River and then entrance to walk by foot. There are much better approaches to get to the starting point of walking the bridge, whether you want to walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn or Brooklyn to Manhattan.

It’s a good thing we were up for the challenge, because our little excursion upped our steps close to 20,000 for the day! Worth it, nonetheless.

It was really neat to walk over the traffic and see both Manhattan and Brooklyn from the middle of the River. Walking the bridge takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on traffic (yes, pedestrian traffic) and how much you want to enjoy the views and take pictures versus speed walk through to get to the other side.

The pedestrian walkway is just over 1.1 miles, so it’s something you can tackle without running shoes. We made it to the half way mark just before sunset, and I couldn’t help but to take it all in with a corny “I’m here” pose.

There were several couples and families taking pictures, but one thing I didn’t expect to see was the collection of earbuds and accessories tied to the sides.

Later, I found out that the act of leaving something behind is similar to the European tradition of leaving a lock on a bridge (remember our trip to Lover’s Bridge in Paris?) to mark your love for someone and that visit.

There were several locks, hair ties, and things that you would find in a purse, but more than anything, earbuds! Someone started the trend by leaving their city sightseeing earbuds on the bridge after a tour, and now others have followed suit. It’s pretty cool to see!

Scott and I will be back for sure. We will pick out a special pair of earbuds and plan to leave our mark sooner than later …

Brooklyn and Manhattan have both already left quite a mark on us. (We heart NY!)

With barking feet, we finally make it back to a train around 8:30 p.m. and enjoyed a quiet rest of the night in once we got home. It was a fun weekend!

 

Weekly Workouts

(June 20 – 26th, 2016)

Since keeping a workout journal has helped inspire me to stay motivated and try new things (and since you guys seem to enjoy reading them), I’ve decided to keep Weekly Workouts around for a bit.

This week, however, I am keeping things short and sweet with a more in-depth description and review of the classes I took (with my ClassPass membership) coming at you in the near future:

• Monday – 30 min. Total Body AMRAP Dumbbell Strength Workout (2 rounds)
• Tuesday – 45 min. Cyc Fitness class (indoor cycling/light upper body weights/dance party)
• Wednesday – REST (with a lot of City walking)
• Thursday – 70 min. Sweat, Stretch & Relax Area Yoga class
• Friday – 60 min. Orangetheory Fitness class (cardio/weights with a fastest mile challenge!)
• Saturday – 4.15 mile walk around the park with Roadie
• Sunday – REST (with lots of walking around, as pictured above)

 

» Linking these Weekend Snapshots with Erin and Katie

 

Questions of the Day

• What was one highlight from your weekend?

• What is one thing you’re looking forward to doing this week?

 

Thanks for checking in. Happy Monday!