Grits in the City - Fitness. Family. Food.

Hope you enjoy all these as much as I do!

experiential dining at the aviary

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I didn’t know where we were going to celebrate my 40th birthday, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to disappoint. T told me to dress nice but not uncomfortably so, and to make sure and wear comfy shoes. We were also going to stay the night in the city since we wouldn’t finish up until later, meaning a trip back to NJ would be too much. I was intrigued. 

When we arrived into Penn, we dropped off our luggage and took a brisk stroll up to Columbus Circle, where I learned we were headed for dinner. Of course it wouldn’t be a proper trip into the city without hitting an unexpected street fair all along 8th Avenue. I joked we should stop for some fried Oreos, but alas, we did not. 

We made our way to the Mandarin Oriental where we went up to the 35th floor to get to our destination, The Aviary. We haven’t been to a more experimental restaurant (that I can recall) since our trip to wd-50 back in February 2012. I was excited to give this new spot a try!

They took us to our table, a perfect one situated by the window. We were able to watch the sunset over Central Park as we made our way through the eight courses, giving the restaurant a different vibe throughout the course of the evening. 

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how to shop the lilly pulitzer after the party sale for your mini me

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I’ve been looking forward to Lilly Pulitzer’s After Party Sale all summer long — plotting which finds would make the cut for me this September. This was my first APS and have to say it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be and managed to score a few fun adds to my wardrobe. 

I found myself with an interesting conundrum this morning. I’ve loved having a few pieces to match with our Baby Girl, so wanted to grab at least something for us during the sale. But how could I start to guess what size to buy her? Sharing the below in case it’s helpful for you, too!

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project mommy + me at project physique

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Having a baby is no joke. It might be the biggest physical task you’ll ever endure — like your own mommy marathon. However once you get on the other side, it’s amazing how weak you feel. How is such a quick shift from your strongest to your weakest physical moment even possible?

During maternity leave I wanted to start to change that. I realized how spoiled I was when we still lived in Manhattan, where we lived during that much discussed fifth trimester with our first child. Options in New Jersey were more limited – even moreso when I tried to find options where baby could come with me to class. 

Thank goodness for Google, where I found mention of Project Mommy + Me, a series offered by Summit, NJ studio Project Physique. I sent them an email. Is this class still a thing? I quickly received a response back from them that it was and that there was space. Did I want to check it out? Obviously the answer was yes. 

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local color nyc

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We’ve been meaning to pay Chrissy a visit for a while at Local Color NYC and we decided our recent trip to Brooklyn was the perfect time! If you live in NYC, the name may sound familiar. She had a mobile store with the same name that she used to move around the city. Within the last year though she set up her first physical store in Brooklyn.

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beyond the streets

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T has been wanting to check out the Beyond the Streets exhibit since it opened back on June 21. If you haven’t been yet yourself, you’re in luck! There are still a few weeks left to grab tickets for yourself before it’s close on September 29th.

Occupying two full floors of the building at 25 Kent, the range of art is impressive. It includes both framed art previously created and artwork artists created within the walls of the space itself specifically for this exhibit. Once the exhibit concludes, the latter pieces will be gone.

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august loves

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How are we almost to September? The summer has totally flown by. I haven’t put my toes in the sand once and we haven’t introduced Baby Girl to the beach yet either. Both things I intend to rectify even if the sun’s heat has faded by the time we get there. I’m starting a new monthly series to share out some of my favorite things and finds from the month, so let’s get down to it before August is g-o-n-e. 

#AmReading 

My current read is “Life Will Be the Death of Me” by Chelsea Handler (shoutout to Theodora who passed her copy on to me). I’ve had an on again / off again relationship with Chelsea Handler. I saw her during her “Bang Bang” tour. Sometimes she amuses me and then I have periods where her humor doesn’t land with me at all. 

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honeymoon: first stop, riomaggiore

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I’ve wanted to visit Cinque Terre since my good friend Rachel went there at the conclusion of our Spain Summer abroad program in 2000. The photos of her time there with her sister looked like post cards. Magical. And T was kind enough to let our honeymoon be the time for us to finally plan to visit.

Booking Accommodations

Finding hotels in Cinque Terre was different from any other international destination I’ve visited. The options are not large hotels. Instead, they’re smaller, locally-owned guest houses. Having fewer rooms that are available meant options by the time we booked (even months in advance) were limited.

I ended up booking our round trip airfare and Genoa hotels on one site and booking the hotels we moved around to during the trip separately on a different site. As we were trying to book, options continued to disappear!

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chef’s table at common lot in milburn

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T and I love to sit at the Chef’s Table. Not only do you get the great meal but you also get to interact with the team and see a bit of the preparation and extreme care that goes into crafting the meal. We hadn’t eaten at one for years, until a few weeks ago when he surprised me with a visit to Common Lot in Milburn.

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honeymoon in cinque terre

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It’s crazy that this year marks four years. Four years since I walked down the aisle in the back of the borrowed Brooklyn brownstone (how I like to instead think of the space now known as Madison May Vanderbilt) to say yes to a lifetime of adventures with T.

One thing I realized this year I’d yet to do is to document our 10 day adventure in Cinque Terre — the trip of a lifetime I’d always dreamed of and one that T so graciously allowed to become our honeymoon.

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