Our Tales of Two Cities: Working for the Weekends

I have a little catch up to do on the blog...I know, I know...sorry! So, it's not really spring here yet...we're still wearing our winter coats, scarfs, hats, and even gloves and we're still doing some winter activities. To pass the cold we've spent the past couple weekends having quality visits with friends, family, and a trip to Ireland (full blog post on that next week).

The last weekend in February we headed to southern Vermont for some outdoor fun and skiing! Our good friends, Trace and Natalie rented a ski house with a dozen other people for the winter in Wilmington, VT near the ski resort, Mount Snow. They invited us up and it was such a welcome getaway and definitely delivered some relaxation.

As we drove the 4 hours from NYC to VT the snow was falling and the back roads were getting a little treacherous. Luckily we made it to the house all in one piece and let cole out to run free in the wilderness!

The weekend was spent meeting some cool new people, eating family style meals, relaxing around a fire with beers and skiing two very full days...with no cell reception (loved that!) As for Cole...Natalie made a joke about Cole being at "Camp Vermont" for the weekend because he played with his camp buddies (3 other big dogs who were there for the weekend), enjoyed the great outdoors, and literally had the best time of his life.

We didn't have to put a leash on Cole all weekend...we just let him outside with the other dogs and they went exploring through the snow, wrestled and chased each other, and then came back to lots of love and affection from all the people in the house. He was also taken on a snow-shoe hike and backwoods ski expedition with the other dogs and 3 guys from the house. With deep snow over his head, I can only imagine how much fun he had....I could also tell from how exhausted he was!

Skiing on Saturday and Sunday was great - there was tons of fresh snow on the mountain...6 new inches on Sunday morning! The weather was perfect Sunday, sunny and no wind...plus the mountain was free of crowds. There were a few times when we were the only people on some trails. We caught the last lift of the day as they pulled the rope behind us and made the most of our last run...it felt like the 7 of us (5 snowboarded and nick and I skiing) were the only people there! It was awesome...perfect way to end the weekend.

The weekend was just what the dr ordered for us...away from the stress of work and the city...and there is something about meeting new, interesting, and funny people that is really refreshing.

The next weekend our friends Tracy and Joe came up from DC to visit. It was such a great weekend!! Mostly we just ate really good food while enjoying each other's company...mexican, two yummy brunches (one homecooked where the 4 of squeezed around our balcony table), Pizza, and rustic Italian. We ended up at most of our favorite neighborhood spots, plus a new favorite in Chelsea - Eataly! Eataly is a brand new, open Italian market created by Mario Batali and collaborators. It has tons of authentic foods to buy...pasta, sauce, cheese, wine, bread, meat, fish...plus about 5 open market restaurants. We had pizza and wine at one...DELISH. Click on the food to see the restaurants...sooooo good! Before indulging at Eataly we took a stroll through Central Park.

The 4 of us also got "day of" tickets to the musical, Avenue Q. It was HILARIOUS....we were laughing the entire time. It's definitely some offensive, off color humor...played by puppets! The puppets just make it that much more ridiculous. Ever seen a puppet sex scene?! Well we did, haha! The actors were fantastic and we were really happy we went.

We had such a great visit - thanks for coming guys! It's just so nice to hang out with your best friends and know that some things never change :)

The weekend after that Nick had some of his good friends visit while I went up to Boston to see my family including my cuter than cute niece. Will post some of those pictures soon!

love from the city!

Mount Snow trails