THE WENDY CITY: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Rest of March in Pictures

3/4/10: Lobster roll from The Lobster Place. MMMM!!!!

3/4/10: Subway Art

3/6/10: Beautiful day in NYC

3/9/10: Chelsea Handler book signing at Barnes & Noble

3/13/10: Crappy day for a race in Central Park (8000M)

3/17/10: St. Patrick's Day Parade

3/18/10: Wafles & Dinges truck and Nutella and whipped cream waffle. Yummo!

3/19/10: Springtime in Central Park

3/20/10: "Beach Day" in Central Park

3/28/10: 15K Race in Central Park

3/28/10: Some guy juggling while running the 15K. Show off!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Another short trip to Paris for work, but this time I had some free time Friday night and Saturday morning. I made a "quick" trip around the 2nd floor of the Louvre, walked 2 miles for a macaron from Pierre Herme, had my fill of moules frites for dinner, and did some window shopping along the Champs Elysees. Also fun is that the hotel gave me the penthouse suite, with a balcony. Now, I definitely wish I could have stayed longer.

Top 6 Pics of My Trip:

My hotel room:

View from my balcony. So French!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Brooklyn Flea

We finally went to check out the Brooklyn Flea Market at the Williamsburgh Savings Bank. It's a beautiful old building with amazing architecture and mosaics covering the ceiling. There were so many vendors with all kinds of jewelry, art and home stuff, and there is a great mix of new and vintage. I only bought 3 things: a pair of earrings, a vintage sweater clip, and a card. The flea market is spread over 3 floors, including the basement, so you can check out the huge vault where they used to store all the money. The money in the vault has been replaced with food stands, which was fine with me. We came specifically for the Milk Truck grilled cheese sandwiches, but I could have spent all day in the vault eating...

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Free Weekend in NY: Pt 2

DAY 2:

It was another beautiful day in NYC and all I wanted to do was be outside today. I had heard of some free walking tours around the city, so I looked online for some going on today. I found a free walking tour of the Lower East Side, and also found a free podcast of the same walking tour so you could do the tour at your own pace. I downloaded the podcast and walked down to LES to start my tour. You can check out the podcast here.

It was such a nice day, and all I could think of was how nice an iced coffee would be while I was walking around...so I did cheat and get a coffee, but it was only $2. Back to the tour: The walk starts out at the Eldridge Street Synagogue on Eldridge between Canal and E Broadway, and continues down Orchard St. The tour tells the history of the people who have lived in LES and how the neighborhood has developed over the years. We spend a lot of time going out in LES and it was great to learn more about it.

Hotspots on the tour:

Eldridge Street Synagogue

Chinatown Fire Department

Guss' Pickles (I cheated again and got 2 pickles for $1, but it was worth it and I want to go back and get more!)

97 Orchard St Museum

Katz's Deli

Russ & Daughters Deli

After the walking tour, it was still so nice outside, I decided to walk across the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn and take the subway back. It was my first time walking across the Williamsburg Bridge and though nothing compares to the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, it was still nice to be outside and see the views.

I probably walked over 8 miles, so I was ready to go home. I spent $3 during the whole weekend, so my weekend wasn't exactly free, but I thought I did a good job :)

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Free Weekend in NY: Pt 1

In an effort to save, I challenged myself to spend a whole weekend in NY and not spend any money. NYC is the most expensive city in the country, so this was going to be no easy task. One of the hardest parts about not spending money, is that two of my favorite activities are shopping and eating, both of which require some or a lot of money. So the question was: How could I deter myself from shopping and eating? The answer: By keeping myself occupied with other things. I could only workout and clean my apartment so much, so I needed to think of some other free things to do.

I did some research and I found that there actually are some great things to do in NY, that are free or very inexpensive. After confirming that I had a subway pass and enough pb&j, pasta and wine to last me through the weekend, I was ready for my challenge.

DAY 1:

To start the day, I volunteered at a children's center in Harlem. I recently joined NY Cares, a non-profit that coordinates volunteer events throughout the city. I took the subway to Harlem and worked with kids on arts & crafts projects and played games for a couple of hours. It was totally fun and it felt good to be volunteering again.

Next I headed to Brooklyn to visit the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Every first Saturday evening of the month the museum is free and they have all kinds of live music events, speakers, tours, etc. This also means that the museum is very crowded, but it was still fun to see. The museum is actually quite large (5 floors) and has a mix of ancient stuff and cultural artifacts, all the way to contemporary and modern art. There was a great exhibit on Egypt with mummies and statues, and an interesting feminist exhibit with some angry/depressing art and a lot of vaginas.

By the time I was done with the museum I was pretty exhausted so I headed home to watch a Golden Girls marathon and get some rest for my busy and free Sunday.

Brooklyn Museum of Art