off to raleigh!

Kurt and I are on a flight to Raleigh today! We are off to visit my friends, Jen and Joey, who reside in the lovely state of North Carolina. They have been fixing up their house down there for a million years, and, the lousy friend that I am, I have not seen it yet! I cannot tell you how much it irks me that Kurt and his brother have been there, but I have not experienced the glory of Casa Fante yet...but that is a story for another day. (Kurt keeps trying to claim Jen and Joey are our friends but I'm not quite ready to give them up yet!)

Any suggestions of what we should do in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area?! All I have on my wish list is visiting Furbish and spending copious amounts of time with Gracie pup! Oh, and maybe we'll fit some yummy food and drink in there along the way :) Wish us luck! Have a great weekend!

storm king road trip

Since Kurt's parents were in town last weekend sans dogs (if you know me, you know I love dogs but those pups are kind of high maintenance), we tried to brainstorm fun things to do outside the city. Kurt and I have been wanting to visit Storm King Art Center for a while, and since his parents always drive in from Ohio, we could get there without having to rent a car.

silvia's garden

A couple Sunday's ago, Kurt, Gui, and I rode our bikes down to Brighton Beach to visit the community garden Silvia has been in charge of at Kingsborough Community College. She works through Project Eats who then sells the produce to local restaurants and engages with the community about urban agriculture.

There had been some sort of composting event earlier in the day with Erik and Grow NYC, but we were fashionably late and missed it. That's ok with me. I like the idea of compost and happy that it's catching on here in the city and all, but I'm not exactly dying to roll around in a pile of it :)

Nice work!

What the school lacks in location, it's makes up by having a beach on campus. We didn't stay long because duty called back in our corner of Brooklyn--only long enough for me to reconsider my choice of university for one of a more coastal variety. Sigh. Maybe in my next lifetime :)

It was great to see what Silvia has been working on and catch up since she had been gone from NYC for a while. I hope to see more of her soon, especially if she brings us fresh veggies from the garden! Hint, hint :)

visiting brazilians

Kurt and Erik recently had a friend in town from Brazil. Gui had been an exchange student in their hometown of Salem, Ohio and went to high school with Erik. Gui stayed with the Martigs in NYC a little over a week before meeting up with his girlfriend (she is in the midst of a 6 month study abroad in South Carolina) to travel around the US. Gui had never been to New York before, so it was great to show him around all our favorite sites.

To give Gui the full NYC experience, there was some brunching on the weekends. Giovanni's in Park Slope has a great brunch deal with unlimited Mimosas or Bloody Mary's (clutch for a brunch spot). Our helpful waitress even found Gui some vegan dishes, so he left just as stuffed as the rest of us.

Thankfully, Gui was game for biking, and we were able to show him more of Brooklyn via our favored mode of transportation. Of course we went to Red Hook and took in the views on Valentino Pier.

There was more skyline ogling at Pier 6 of Brooklyn Bridge Park where we could enjoy a drink, watch the sunset, and catch some beach volleyball.

One day, Kurt and I took Gui to Grand Central Station. Kurt looked it up and it is the sixth most visited tourist attraction in the world and the largest train station by number of platforms! Wow! We were all amazed with the Apple Store, and I made sure to introduce Gui to the Whisper Gallery. It's one of my favorite spots!

After Grand Central, we visited the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They typically have an exhibition on the roof during the summer where you can take in an installation piece and the amazing views over Central Park with a beer or glass of wine.

I'm a sucker for details, so I was sold by the Argentinian beer in honor of artist Tomás Saraceno whose mirrored sculpture was on display.

We had a blast with Gui and hope he swings back through NYC with his girlfriend before heading back to Brazil. And maybe we'll just have to pay his mother land a visit someday. World Cup 2014 anyone?!

{interior shot of Grand Central thanks to Kurt!}

saturdays

Pardon the lack of posting lately. I was trying to be a good student and study for my latest architecture exam.  I took my fourth this Saturday and need to keep on a good study schedule to get all seven in before the end of the year!

After my Saturday morning exam, I met up with Jenn and Pilar for a celebratory/relief-it's-over lunch at Flipster's complete with boozy shakes.

Sadly, Erin and Paul are leaving NYC soon and hosted their final barbecue in their killer Fort Greene backyard. (I was impressed by the array of bicycles in their parking area.) Kurt and I couldn't stay long because we were entertaining his parents who came in town for the weekend. Erin and Paul splurged on a keg, so it pained us to leave early! 

Instead, I got to spend the evening in Staten Island with the Martig clan :) Here are 3/4 of them on the ferry over.

We arrived just in time to see the Staten Island Yankees take on the Brooklyn Cyclones. Can you believe all the seats were sold out?! Minor league baseball, people!! Luckily, we grabbed some standing room tickets and squatted in peoples' seats. No one ever asked us to move!

We briefly watched the game but were more interested in the sunset. We stuck around a couple hours until our dinner reservations at Enoteca Maria. Kurt took me there a couple years ago for my birthday and we ended up ordering half a sheep's head! We were pretty tame with our ordering this time but have plans to go back with adventurous friends :) The food is always delicious and very Italian. 

{thanks to Kurt for several of these images. i've taken to raiding his camera lately! he's quite the photographer!}