Beaver Island Trip

1st Anniversary

It's been 10 days since my last post. Oops! I've been busy.

Sean and I (actually just Sean) forgot to take a camera with us for our anniversary celebration. Therefore, no great photos of the fun weekend we had in NYC.

Since we don't have vacation time left and we are both sick of the airport, we decided that for our anniversary we should just stay in a nice hotel and relax. We stayed at the W Hotel in Union Square and Sean got us a nice room on the 20th floor with a great view of downtown. The room was actually very large which is always nice for New York hotel rooms. I made Sean keep the price a secret from me. There are some things I would rather not know, even if the money is all coming from the same place.

We had a delicious dinner Friday night at the Union Square Cafe which is apparently a NYC institution that we knew nothing about. The food was delicious, our server helped us pick a great bottle of wine and after the salad and pasta we even had room for dessert. I'd love to come back!


Saturday we took a long walk to the west side to try a brunch place recommended by a coworker, Cookshop. The food was great (I had the hueavos rancheros) but the best part was the bloody mary. I am always wary of ordering them in restaurants because they can't compare to the homemade version, but these were perfect. After brunch, we took a walk along the High Line park which Sean has been begging me to do for ages. It's a park that's been made out of an abandoned above ground railroad and it was actually quite nice. I've heard it can get crowded though so the fact that it was a cloudy/threatening to rain day probably made it more enjoyable.


On Saturday we also enjoyed some TV marathons and a shoe shopping trip, then had dinner in the jazz room at the Blue Water Grill. I'd been wanting to try it for a while and it did not dissapoint. The food, from the suhsi to the sea bass to the chocolate chip cookies to go was excellent and the jazz room in the basement provided a romantic space with live music where the tables were not crowded together and you could hear yourself talking. We enjoyed some champagne and a wonderful evening. I'd love to come back, Sean not so much considering the focus is seafood, but he's coming around to different fishes.


(Are kissing photos no longer cute after you're married? Sorry!)

Sunday night thanks to a gift from Mom, we went out and bought some champagne, ordered thai and watched Mad Men on Netflix. It's our latest obsession and we're now on Season 4. The photos are all from then, when I decided we couldn't have our first anniversary without photos!

A toast

Here's to many more years of marriage that are much, much happier than the first one was.

Reflections on Marriage Part 1

The top played song in my itunes library is the song we had our first dance to at our wedding reception, David Gray "The One I Love".

Sean thought this was too cute. I was just surprised it wasn't a Coldplay song.

Harvest Astoria CSA

This Wednesday one of my coworkers who also lives in Astoria asked me to do her a favor and pick up her CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share for her this week since neither she or her boyfriend could make it. We had previously talked about how close I live to the pick-up location so it was an easy sell. Also, she said I could keep whatever I wanted so long as she got her eggs and milk which was really all she needed that week. I was easily convinced that this was a good idea since I've always wanted to try a CSA out but didn't realize there were any so easily accessible.

Fridge full of vegetables!

After getting home from work, I checked the address, Sean and I grabbed some reuseable bags and headed out the door. We were thrilled when we realized the pick up location is the church that is literally at the end of our block (I knew it was close, but not THAT close!). When we arrived we signed in, then picked out our veggies. It took about 15 minutes and we headed home with 3 bags full of food. This week it was squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, greens, napa cabbage, watermelon, and carrots, but the offering changes often.

Mixing a salad with all the great veggies. I only added chickpeas.

It seems like there are some unique aspects to Harvest Astoria. First the share sizes are meant to feed 2-3 people so they are smaller than what other CSAs may offer. Second, you get to select and weigh your own produce. While this takes a little longer and some people might see it as a negative, it helps keep costs down and I can definitely see the perks to choosing your own tomatoes and squashes etc. depending on what you like and what you plan to do with them.


While I was making this delicious salad with all the veggies, I sighed heavily several times thinking about how much I wish I could just pick up amazing organic veggies every week. We are determined to try to get in on this for next summer. It's around $350 for the summer. Can't wait!