A Real New Yorker - 10 years Today

Today I celebrate 10 years living in New York City. This is definitely the longest I've ever lived in one city and in one neighborhood.  Its kind of insane especially given I thought I'd only be here 2 years.  

So in honor of my 10 years, I thought I'd share with you some of my most favorite people and times in New York (through pictures only).  I'll let them speak for themselves. They are in no particular order.

Looking back, I wish I had put these into years but that's too much to redo now... Also, there are TONS more so maybe I'll share those with you another day. Alot has happened in my 10 years here.  I look forward to 10 more!

THANK YOU NEW YORK FOR BEING SO GOOD TO ME!

Central Park in the Spring

This summer I will celebrate 10 years in New York City and I still love it like I did when I first arrived.  In NYC, Central Park is one of my favorites!  Especially Central Park in the spring.  Each year I love to see what they will do and what they will plant.  About 2 years ago, I discovered the Conservatory Gardens at the North East part of the park.  They usually have some amazing tulip gardens but this year they had other types of flowers.  They weren't my favorite this year but I still had a great time checking them out. I also love Shakespeare's Garden.  Its in the central part of the park near the west side. This week, I took a walk through the park and explored what Spring had to offer the park.  If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook then you probably got inundated yesterday :)  I thought I'd share with you what I found.  These guys are also available for purchase at my shop, City Girl Creations.

 

 

 

These photos helped me make a dent in 2 of my 13 in 2013 goals.    I not only got to play tourist with my camera, but I am attempting to also build up my photography business.  I am taking it slow but I am at least taking a step.

I hope you enjoy them.  You can purchase a digital copy through my etsy shop. They would be great on many craft projects or framed on your wall.  

GWB

One of my favorite places in NYC is UP UP Uptown Manhattan along the Hudson.  Most of my runs are there and many of my walks.  The GWB (George Washington Bridge) is one of the many landmarks in NYC.  It bridges Uptown with New Jersey.  My roommate/bestest and I decided to take a walk down there a few weeks ago.  I brought my camera with me.

Fall Adventure Day 2011

For the last three years, my best friend and I have had a "Fall Adventure Day".  It started out as a day where we rented a car and just drove north through the pretty rainbow of colors that Fall provides.   We had no real destination, just to drive and find some things to take some pictures of along the way.    We took a GPS so that we could find our way home but we really didn't have any solid destination.  That's where we found little treasures like these.

The first trip was just a few hours, starting right after church and ending when the sun went down.  The next year, we decided to make it a longer event.  We borrowed my sister-in-law's car on a Saturday and then drove for the day, found a place to stay that evening and then drove some more the next day.  Driving and pretty pictures was our main goal but other then that no real destination.

This year, we borrowed a friends car again on Friday.  This year we added a 10K race in Sleepy Hollow, NY.  We decided to drive north as far as we could get and then we'd come back down to stay near where the race would be.

This is my best friend, roommate, sister (in our hearts, not by blood).  She's pretty awesome and I am glad she's my best friend!

We drove north along the Hudson river on the Jersey side.  We watched out amazing city disappear.

And then looked forward to the sights we were about to see.

We met this guy along the way.  

We stopped for the night in Terrytown, grabbing dinner in town.   We had a 10K the next morning that we had not trained well for at all.  

Somewhere in the night, Ashley began to feel bad.  It turned out to be a really bad case of food poisoning which meant she couldn't race.  I went through with the race, feeling awful about leaving her behind. The entire ride to the race and the preparation before, i was contemplating when in the race I could stop and go back to take care of her.  I ended up running the entire race.  The course didn't allow for getting off track.  I have to say it was one of the hardest courses I have ever run.  I swear some of the hills were 45 degree angles.  I had to walk down some of the hills because my knees couldn't take the incline.

The race was the week before Halloween in Sleepy Hallow.  The Headless Horseman was parked throughout the course as were other creatures, figures, etc.

This was on the roadside about 5 miles in.

This was the view during part of the race.  Made the killer hills somewhat bearable... somewhat, I said... 

This was at the beginning of the race. Notice the cow at the front of the line.  There were all sorts of costumes.  I was truly impressed that anyone could run a 10K in a costume.  

I finished the race with a really good time (for me) especially given the hills. I ended up having to walk own about 2 or 3 hills which I was sure would slow down my overall time.  

This was the end of Fall Adventure Day (Take 1). It was definitely an adventure.  Sadly, it was cut short so we could get Ashley home.  No worries,  we finished the trip, just a few weeks later.  Stay tuned.