Weekend Round-Up: Manhattan Triathalon

This weekend in New York completely rocked! I had such a good time. I can’t believe how much we did in just a few days. You can see all the photos online here.

Rob and I landed at 10:30 on Thursday night. We met up with the woman delivering us apartment keys, grabbed some snacks from the neighborhood market and called it a night. Ugg…flying stinks.

A quick note about the apartment: One of our business acquaintances rents this two story pied-a-tier when he’s not in Phoenix or San Francisco. The location is two blocks off Central Park and right around the corner from Barney’s…super swank. Straight out the Royal Tannenbaums/Everyone Says I Love You/Cosby Show. Two bedrooms, three bathrooms, a galley kitchen, pink walls, the works. Like something out of a movie set, it was unreal.

Friday morning, I was up pretty early for my business meetings in the morning. Great crabcake sandwich for lunch at Sidecar @ P.J. Clarks. After I was finished, I met up with Rob who had walked 9 miles around the city. When changing at the apartment we realized the Met was open until 9pm and dashed over around 4. We just wandered around this huge museum, getting lost and finding hidden treasures.

After seeing nearly every wing of the met and hitting the sale in the gift shop, we wandered around 3rd Avenue and went for dinner at Le Steak. Fantastic waiter, steaks, bottle of wine and dessert. On the way back home, we stopped in at a deli to buy breakfast supplies for the next day.

Up way too early the next morning for the first leg of the Manhattan Tri, hangover be dammed. We taxied crosstown to pick up our tandem bike rental at Bike & Roll. The bike was way rickety, a spring loaded cruiser from the 80’s. Nothing like our speedy road tandem back at home. Armed with only a tiny map, we headed toward downtown.

Apparently, Manhattan has invested a lot in developing Greenway paths around the city. I think we were one of the few people who knew about them. We got a lot of questions from curious natives about our plan to bike the entire island. I’ll do a separate post all about our 32 mile bike adventure around the city. Needless to say, it was crazy and completely awesome. When we returned the bike, the employees at the shop could hardly believe our 4 hour bike feat.

Back home around 3:30 to nap, take a hot whirlpool bath and recover. At 7:30, we walked down to 2nd Avenue for an Italian dinner at a place called Meditereneo. Tasty D-lite frozen yogurt for dessert on the way back home.

A quick note about New York: The city is sparkling clean these days and there doesn’t appear to be any crime. This likely has to do with the fact that there are police everywhere. I probably see 4 police officers a week in San Francisco. In New York, we saw 200 in a single day. Totally nuts.

Sunday morning, we grabbed coffee and a paper and headed to a shady spot in Central park for breakfast. It was nice to stretch out a bit.

It was getting pretty warm, so I changed into a dress at home and we set out for the second leg of the Tri: epic walking. Rob and I walked down Madison Avenue to Madison Square and then Union Square. Quick shopping at ABC Carpet and Home and a sporting goods store and then onward to Washington Square.

Amazing cheap lunch of Kosher Hummus and dolmas at Hummus Place. After lunch, we walked around the village and did some shopping. Great sale finds at Darling and Brooklyn Industries. Our final total when we got back to the apartment was 12 miles!

After resting at home, we went out looking for a place to have a light dinner. The neighborhood was pretty empty at 8:30 and we ducked into a place called 212. I love how they seat couples side by side instead of across the table in New York; romantic and all the better for people watching. This restaurant was full of classic New Yorkers: a posh family straight out of Gossip Girl, an ancient dapper gentleman, two overly coiffed ladies…it was perfect.

And the food! Amazing. We started with two salads (thai steak for Rob and warm goat cheese for me) followed with a black truffle pizza that blew my mind. A dessert sampler of nutella crepes, mini donuts and a molten ganache cake. We had such a great time at this restaurant; we lived it up!

Monday morning: there was some time before our 4:45 flight back home and so we went for the third stage in the Manhattan Tri. Rowing! Over to the lake in central park to rent a rowboat for an hour. So fun!

We had a light lunch at the Boathouse. Walked back to the apartment, packed up and said goodbye to our temporary high-society lives on the upper east side.

So, to round up the rules of the Manhattan Tri: start with a 32-mile bike ride around Manhattan. Follow that with 12 miles of walking inside the city. Finish with an hour of rowing in central park. Who’s up for the challenge?!