NYC: bikes and parks

After our adventure wandering the High Line, Megan amazed me with her directional skills again and we found a rack of Citi bikes right where we exited the park!

Citi bikes are amazing! You can get unlimited bike usage for 24 hours for a grand total of, drum roll please... $9.95! They have stations all around the city and make such a fun alternative to walking everywhere! The only downside is that you can only keep the bikes for 30 minute intervalls, but with the many stations I just mentioned, it's really no hardship. You can also rent the bikes for longer periods of time with similarly low fares if you're staying in New York for longer than Megan and I were!

NYC has some bike paths along the busy busy roads, but sometimes you have to drive with traffic! Talk about a mixture of terrifying and exhilirating!

This rack wasn't even half filled up! Obviously certain parts of the city are busier than others, it is crazily awesome how many people were on bikes while we were there!

Expressions of joy! We had a blast, riding around!

The bikes were nice in so many ways, including that we were able to create our own wind... although it got even hotter once we stepped off!

Boston has a similar system, which my mom and I have been talking about exploring. I really love the idea of this bike sharing business! It's such a fun way to get around any city! Plus it's so much faster than walking and both easier and more active than taking a car. I see no down sides!

Anyways, back to New York!

We pedaled our little behinds all the way to Central Park (with a detour to the Empire State building before realizing how very expensive it would be to get to the top. Yikes! college kids, here!)

Narnia?

I still can't get over how cool this little tree house is! There are actually trees growing up and around it! Plus, just look at that roof! I'm growing one of these for any and all of my future children, it's already a done deal.

Because of the heat, our appetites remained pretty subdued for most of the day. But, by mid-afternoon it was time to get some food in our bellies! While we were wandering the paths in the park, we stumbled into Le Pain Quotidien, the absolute cutest of all little French bistros!

Perusing the menu!

Actually the classiest "No Smoking" sign that I have ever seen.

When the food arrived we dug in right away, not having realized how hungry we were until right then! I barely remembered to get a picture of our salads before diving back in for more deliciousness!

I got the Grilled Chicken Cobb (without the chicken or the bacon) while Megan got a Chicken Curry salad. We were both pretty darn pleased with our plates, let me tell you!

Of course, like any good French restaurant, our meals came with perfectly crusty baguette!

For dessert, we decided to grab two little cakes and cut them both in half. We chose a raspberry tart and a doubly chocolate cake (milk and white chocolate). They complimented each other so well and we left happily re-energized and re-hydrated!

Non, nous vous disons merci!!!

After our little lunch, we took more of a stroll...

hung out in some trees...

did some people watching...

and made our way over to Central Park's mini amusement park!

Two tickets, please!

We really only had time for one ride, so we giddily made our way to da Vinci's swings!

I've always loved this ride, it feels like flying and there's something so fun about the swoop in your stomach when the ride starts tilting every which way!

 

(Impatiently) waiting for the ride to start, can you feel the anticipation building?

Rising... Up, up, and away!

And we're soaring, flying!

(oh my, my middle school self just started singing High School Musical...)

Roomie Love, what can I say?

We finished off our trip with a must-take picture by one of Robert Indiana's "Love" sculptures, before making mad dashes for our buses home!

Can't wait to see you in a month, Megan!