The Best Saturday

I had one of the best days on Saturday. It started in the morning when I had to do my long run of 12 miles for my marathon training. I decided to try a new route because they had a special event going on in Manhattan called Summer Streets where they block off all traffic on Park Avenue from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge and make it available for runners, walkers, bikers, roller bladers, etc. from 7am - 1pm. They even had free bike & skate rentals available throughout the route. It was so awesome! I felt like I was running a New York City race without as many runners. I was able to run on Park Avenue all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge and decided to run across the bridge since I was there and then run back. There are not many days where you can actually run up and down Park Avenue. Usually it is bustling full of cars and taxi cabs and you only have this opportunity a few times. Philip and I are going to run it this Saturday for their last day of Summer Streets. I can't wait.

I also made plans to meet my old college and Omaha friend Chad out for lunch on Saturday after my run. Chad was visiting NYC this week and actually had a really great time here...I was pretty jealous. With some friends he knows here, Chad partied in The Hamptons, went to a Yankees game, got the last foul ball of the game, and even went to the same bar Philip and I went to last weekend - The Joshua Tree. Chad is one my favorite guy friends. I think it's because we have the exact same birthday - December 9th! Here's a photo of us after we had lunch at this cute lunch place called Opal.

On Saturday afternoon Philip's youngest brother, Dave, and his girlfriend, Kayla, flew into town from Iowa. They were coming to drive Philip's truck home on Monday so that he can sell it since neither of us need a car here. But since Dave and Kayla didn't have a long time to stay and neither of them had been to New York, we definitely wanted to show them a good time. So we started by walking around Central Park showing them my favorite spot - the Jackie Onassis Reservoir. I couldn't believe how busy the park was on Saturday - it was a zoo. But I think they had fun just walking around New York and seeing the city. Here's a few photos from around the Reservoir.