Sunday in the City

After a super busy weekend, I am finally getting back into the groove. This weekend went by in a whirl wind.

• Friday night I went to a sweet sixteen party for my twin cousins, which was a lot of fun
• Saturday morning I went to Winter Wonderlark for about an hour with my cousin Liz & Marcie.
• The weather was gorgeous on Saturday (39 degrees in December, I’ll take it), so I decided a long run would be necessary. After Wonderlark I ran a seven mile run outside in 1:08. Not too shabby!
• Saturday night I went to a fun Christmas party with Chris and his friends.

Early Sunday morning we both got up and headed to New York City! Chris is a trooper and an amazing boyfriend for coming with me to the city on this rainy day. (And yes, I will watch some scary movies with you now, Chris. 😉 )

My college has an annual holiday bus trip to the city for $30. I jumped on that since I love going there. The weather was supposed to crappy all day in the city and guess what? It was. It rained the whole time. So, when we got there we decided we wanted to do minimal walking in the rain. We decided to check out which shows would be fun (and cheap) to see. We decided on Memphis, and got tickets for $26.50 each with our student IDs. Awesome if I do say so myself.

After some recommendations, Chris and I decided to get pizza for lunch at John’s Pizzeria, which was on the same street as the theater. Our plan was to eat lunch, buy tickets for 3:00 show, hang out somewhere away from the rain until the show starts, go to the show, and then get dinner afterward.

John’s was pretty awesome! The restaurant looked like it was in an old church or something. There were stained glass windows and a cool looking staircase.

There were pizza ovens in a few places throughout the place, and we happened to be seated next to one so we could watch them make pizza. Pretty neat!

After what seemed like two seconds, our pizza came out! It was so fast. Chris and I ordered a small thin crust whole wheat pizza with spinach and peppers. It was fresh, crispy and delicious.

The pizza looks huge, but it actually wasn’t that big!

The crust was really thin, but not thin enough that it got mushy. We figured out after watching the guy make them that this was because they put the cheese on first, followed by toppings, followed by drizzling the sauce over the entire thing. The sauce on top was an interesting touch and I think made the pizza.

After lunch, we headed over the theater to get our tickets. Success! We were going to see Memphis at 3:00. I had heard good things about it so we were pretty excited. We walked around the corner to Heartland Brewery to get some drinks and get out of the rain! The beers at the restaurant weren’t brewed there, but in fact they are brewed at a facility in Brooklyn. Hurray for local beer brewed in New York City!

I was also pretty excited to read this on their website:

At Heartland Brewery we take pride in doing our part to minimize our impact on the environment and run a sustainable operation. Wherever possible we try to take into consideration the environmental impact of what we do and minimize it while retaining the superb quality of our beer.

• All of our beer is put into kegs, a packaging less impactful on the environment than bottles or cans.
• We strive to use local products (e.g. honey, hops, wildflowers) in all of our beers.
• All of the wort, a byproduct that is left behind after the mashing process when we brew beer, is shipped off to local farms and ranches and used as feed for livestock.
• Deliveries to and from the brewery are consolidated to achieve maximum efficiency.
• All suppliers and partners are asked to show evidence of their environmentally responsible practices, specifically focused on recycling and energy efficiency.
• We make sure our employees recycle materials such as paper, scrap metal, and plastics at the brewery and at our locations throughout Manhattan.

I think that falls in line with my green challenge for sure!

Anyway, I ordered a raspberry blonde–their Harvest Wheat Beer with a shot of raspberry liqueur. Yum.

Chris and I then decided it would be the right thing to order their seasonal sampler, to share of course.

I believe the harvest wheat and oatmeal stout were my favorite!

So we sat at the bar for a while and Chris watched the first half 0f the Steelers game until it was time to go see Memphis.

Our seats were on the left side of stage in the boxed area–an awkward angle but close to the stage. We were very happy with them, for $30. Not bad. The show was incredible!! We both really enjoyed it, and we’re glad we ended up seeing a show instead of walking around miserable in the rain.

It was 5:30 by the time we got out, and we started heading back to the bus pick up location. On the way we stopped for dinner at Le Pain Quotidien. According to their website:

Whenever we can, we source organic ingredients. This way, we not only build lasting and meaningful partnerships with organic farmers, but we also ensure our ingredients are of the highest quality. It’s about finding the very best, in a way that is good for all of us.

This philosophy influences every part of the way we do business, from the food we serve to the design of our stores to the materials we use. We use reclaimed wood and recycled Gypsum in construction, energy-efficient lamps, and environmentally friendly cleaning supplies and packaging.

Win for this place too!

Time for a healthy dinner. And they had lot of vegetarian and vegan options as well. 🙂

I ordered the avocado with chickpeas, alfalfa sprouts and spicy tahini (vegan). Bonus: The calorie counts were posted on the menu! I like this because it helps me choose what to order. My sandwich was only 480 calories. Score.

I also got a fresh pot of mint tea! With actual mint leaves steeping in the hot water.

Chris and I were both happy with our dinners. It was nice to have a meal that was full of fresh veggies. I felt really good about that! We also ended up ordering the mini fruit tarts for dessert, and split them. They were tiny, cute and pretty tasty!

So after dinner we made it just in time to catch the bus back and I even got a quick peek at the tree on the way there.

Its definitely Christmas time in the city!

In other exciting news, I found out last night that I got picked for the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Race in Washington D.C.! Looks like I will be running around our Nation’s Capital come April! I have never been to D.C. before and I’m getting pretty excited!

Anyone know of a good place to stay in DC? I’m clueless. 😉