Kayaking in the City

Yesterday, we went kayaking right in the Hudson river, yes the Hudson...and for free! Since moving to the Upper West Side, The Husband and I have enjoyed exploring Riverside park and all the cool things it has to offer.

Photo From DowntownBoatHouse.org

The New York City downtown boathouse offers free kayaking at three different locations in NY. We went to the 72nd street pier and within five minutes were paddling beside the sailboats with the Manhattan skyline in the background. As we first started out, I looked back and said, "wow, this is beautiful. The Hudson isn't as dirty as people say - how refreshing and nice. What a great breeze..." You get the picture, I went on and on. Then, The Husband said this: "Look over there...is that a dead rat over there floating? Why yes it is." HA! We started laughing and were quickly brought back to reality that no, the Hudson is not as clean as it looks.

Despite our floating rodent friend, I will go back and kayak again. It's free and fun and is something very different to do on the weekends.

For those that just want to sit and relax and watch the fun on the water, check out the Pier One Cafe. Great views, good food and delicious drinks.

Photo from PierOneCafe.com

Raleigh Denim

I love a good story - especially a story that tells of the little guy making it big, not to mention the little guy (and girl) from Raleigh, NC making it big.

My brother sent me the below video about two aspiring jean designers who founded a company called Raleigh Denim. Victor and Sarah Lytvinenko started a jeans company out of their Raleigh apartment in 2007 - jeans that are now available for purchase in Barneys NY. Pretty cool huh? Yet, they haven't forgotten their roots, as Raleigh Denim's mission is to help revitalize the garment industry in North Carolina. Check out their inspiring story below:

Raleigh Denim: Handcrafted in North Carolina from David Huppert on Vimeo.

The Treats Truck

A funny thing happened on the way home yesterday....as I walked down the subway stairs, I noticed a truck on the street called, "The Treats Truck." You can only imagine my first thought, "cookies? brownies? desserts? oh my!" A long line of treat tasters wrapped around the corner of 18th street in Chelsea. What an amazing idea. Treats to go. Are you intrigued yet?

Well I was, and today I googled "treat truck in nyc" and yes, something did in fact come up. According to their website, "The Treats Truck" is filled with freshly made brownies, cookies, goodies, etc. that are not too fancy but oh so delicious and cheap. They even have something called dessert nachos, which I'm sure The Husband would love. Since the store is a truck, it's constantly moving around so you have to check our their weekly schedule in order to spot them. Here's a pitcure of the truck, appropriately named Sugar.

What a treat!

Some Weekend Fun

This past weekend The Husband's parents were in town. I'm very fortunate to have such great in-laws in addition to a wonderful set of second aunts and uncles over in NJ (don't worry Southerners, most of NJ is nothing like how they portray it on the "Real Housewives" or the "Sopranos"). After work on Friday, I took the double decker train out to Morristown to meet the fam for dinner and relax by the pool. Bailey, of course, enjoyed running around in the "country" too and getting as muddy as a dog could get.

Saturday we traveled back to the city for some art museum time. For those that don't know, my father-in-law is an artist (among many other things). He's created some amazing pieces including "The Rose" which hangs over our kitchen table.

Now, usually my attention span at a museum lasts no longer than 30 minutes, but when we go with the in-laws, I always know I'm going to learn something interesting and appreciate art just a little bit more. We checked out the Charles Burchfield water colors at the Whitney and took a guided tour, which I definitely recommend. The next day we visited the Met and saw the Picasso exhibit (a little too crowded for me) and some Vemeer paintings. My favorite exhibit was the American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity.

Photo from The Met website

The clothes are in excellent condition and to see how women dressed throughout the years is quite fascinating. I couldn't get over how tiny their waists were (I'm sure they would have preferred Spanx to girdles though).

Last stop was the Met roof-top to see the Bamboo exhibit. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the family at the beach...ahhh, the beach. Can't wait!

A Good Southern Summer Read

I'm back with a great book recommendation for the summer. It's a perfect and easy read for the beach. Speaking of beaches, Southern in the City is heading down to OBX two weeks from today. I can't even begin to tell ya'll how excited I am to get away, relax and enjoy the sun and sand...but I digress.

When my friends were here a couple of weeks ago, they left a book for me to try - Little Bitty Lies. The author, Mary Kay Andrews, has written a number of novels all set in the south where her characters get into some sort of trouble, though always entertaining and funny. Little Bitty Lies is set in Atlanta and tells the story of how one woman, Mary Bliss McGowan, finds her way through a messy marriage, raising an out of control teenager and discovering an unexpected new love. It's a humorous and easy read that references southern pleasures like beach music and home-made chicken salad. Yum. You should definitely check out Mary Kay's other novels for your summer reading list. I'm headed to the book store today to pick up Savannah Breeze (sounds great for the summer huh?) just in time for my OBX beach trip!

Eat More Chicken

I've never met anyone who doesn't love Chick-fil-a. Whenever I travel down south, it's on my must-have list during my visit because here in New York City we are not so blessed with this fine establishment.

Today was different. Right smack in the middle of Bryant Park, Chick-fil-a and their infamous cows were giving away chicken sandwiches...for free! Colleagues from work made the trek to the park, but to no avail. It was a madhouse. Who knew that New Yorkers would love Chick-fil-a so much?

Check out some photos from Midtown Lunch here.

Dear Mr. Chick-fil-a man, please come to the city. New Yorkers will embrace you, eat your food and make you money, I promise. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

July 4th Weekend

Sometimes there is nothing better than getting out of the hot city for a long weekend to enjoy some peace and quiet with friends and dogs. Southern in the City, The Husband and Bailey ventured to Vermont this past weekend to visit our friends Matt and Chelsea and their dog, Willow. This was our second trip to VT (our first being for Matt and Chelsea's wedding back in '08). We loved it then and couldn't wait to get back. Check out Chelsea's cute blog about living in VT, here.

Despite the fact that we left the city around 1:45 p.m. on Friday hoping to get to South Burlington by dinnertime, holiday traffic got in the way...big time. Our first bit of traffic started on the West Side Highway, not five minutes from our apartment. Though it didn't phase Bailey one bit.After pulling off in Kingston, NY (near Woodstock) for a quick two-hour dinner to avoid traffic, we were off again. We finally arrived in South Burlington around 11:45 p.m. Yes, that was a long trip. But, it was worth it; we were even able to see our good friends Liz and Aaron who were finishing their week-long vacation in VT.

Chelsea's family has an amazing lake house on Lake Champlain in an area called Long Point. Their view is beautiful. For those sailors out there (hey, dad), it's truly a perfect lake.Bailey and Willow quickly became new best friends as Willow showed her how to swim and retrieve sticks from the water. Though a little hesitant at first, the city girl, er, Bailey quickly warmed-up to the water and actually enjoyed it.
The four of us did a lot of relaxing - reading on the porch (well, just us girls), cooking out, laying out, swimming, boating and chatting. The boys ventured out and went mountain biking both days (The Husband is the proud new owner of a mountain bike that I like to call, Big Red).We also went hiking with the dogs and were able to take them off-leash (Bailey's first time doing so). While I realized how out of shape I am, the dogs loved it and the view was great from the top of the mountain.Bailey slept the entire way back to NYC yesterday (with the exception of a quick dinner break). She woke up this morning looking for Willow and the lake. I did too.
Thanks Matt and Chelsea for an amazing weekend! Ya'll were great hostesses and we really appreciate everything!