Nine Years

This may have been my favorite anniversary that we've celebrated yet. Nine Years! I say it every year, but I just can't believe it's been that long.

This year, our anniversary has fallen in the middle of packing for a cross country move (more on that in a later post), so it kind of snuck up on us. We've been otherwise occupied, and we just couldn't think of anything fun and exciting to do to celebrate. We've been in NY for five years, and the city has become mundane for us. It's hard to get excited about a place that you've become accustomed to, already have toured extensively, and that, frankly, is now just a place that we live. But last week Brian sent me a text saying that he had come up with the perfect plan. He tried to draw out the suspense, but he knows how I feel about surprises (I'm the girl that will skip ahead in a book to find out what happens so that I can go back and calmly finish reading it). When he got home that evening, he knew that I'd had enough time trying to figure it out, and was nice enough to tell me.

I know the suspense is killing you too, so here is what we did.

I rode the subway into Manhattan and met Brian at his office building at 1:30pm. He was able to get the afternoon off, which was perfect. We stopped at a food cart right down the block from his building and bought falafels for lunch. Yum!

These falafels will be our last ones here in NY (something that we will definitely miss once we move), and they were so delicious. Note Brian's food face.

After enjoying the falafely goodness, we headed uptown to Central Park. We walked from the subway over to the park and followed its winding paths to the Loeb Boathouse. Technically it's a restaurant, but they have a little booth right outside where you can rent rowboats and go out on the lake that's just right there.

Guys! This was the coolest thing in the whole world! When we first came to NY, I had this on my bucketlist, but I had totally forgotten. I'm SO glad that Brian remembered and suggested it. It was so fun, and not that expensive at all. You have to put down a refundable cash deposit of $20, and then it's only $15 for an hour. Not bad at all. 

We got in the short line, and purchased tickets for one rowboat. Then we headed down the very short gangway, and along the walkway. We had to wait about 5 mins before it was our turn to get in a boat. When someone was finished, they would row their boat up to the edge of the dock, and the worker would pull the boat up into the slot. They would get out and the next riders would get in. 

I got in first and was a little nervous as the boat immediately started to sway (I don't have any experience with boats), so I sat down pretty quickly. Brian got in next and took the rower's position. The worker pushed us back into the water and we were off! It took a little finagling at first to get the boat pointed the right direction. The water right near the dock was quite crowded with other boats. It felt a bit like bumper boats for a few minutes while we made our way out of the crowd.

My handsome rowboat captain.

The day was beautiful -- bright blue skies with fluffy white clouds, sunshine, warm summer weather that wasn't too hot or too humid, and a light breeze. It was a little like heaven as we slowly rowed along. The views of the bank and trees were amazing, everything was so green and pretty.

Bethesda Fountain, one of our favorite parts of the park, sits right against the rowboat lake. We loved getting to see it from a different angle.

Brian and I traded places after awhile so I could try rowing. It made me a bit nervous as we switched places, because it made the boat rock. I wasn't really wanting to get thrown overboard. Brian was laughing at me, because the boat wasn't rocking that much, but to me it felt like we were ready to tip over at any moment. I'm sure I looked ridiculous during my slow-motion, crouched-shuffle over to the other seat. Haha! This was my first time ever rowing a boat, and it was so fun. I don't know how effectual I was at it because we weren't moving very fast at all when I had hold of the paddles. It looks a lot easier than it is.

After a little while, we switched back because we wanted to see how far the lake stretched, and I wasn't get us anywhere very fast.

We got to pass underneath Bow Bridge, the really pretty bridge that we've only visited once before.

It was a bit crowded under the bridge, and we had more than one person bump into us as we passed under, but we made it.

Such a pretty place!

Once we made it past the bridge, we found that the lake opens up and covers quite a large area. I didn't realize we would have the much room to paddle around in...it was great. We got to take in even more awesome views of the city.

There were turtles swimming all over in the lake. We caught sight of more than one little turtle head popped up above the water's surface. At one point, we moved over close to the bank to enjoy some shade from the trees, and got a great view of this little guy.

We switched places again, so I could try my hand at rowing one more time before we headed back. It was still as fun as I'd thought the first time. We had such a great time rowing around the lake, looking at the great views and being with each other. Definitely a romantic activity, and one I would recommend if you're looking for something fun and unique to do in NYC.

Brian took over the rowing on the way back and we passed under the bridge and back to the dock. He is quite skilled at rowing, something I never knew. He was a pro at getting the boat back in position to be pulled up on the dock in the midst of the crowd of boats.

After getting our boat deposit back, we wandered through the park a little bit. We admired Bethesda Fountain for the last time, along with the beautiful stone work of the nearby terrace.

We got to visit the mall, another of our favorite Central Park spots. I'm so glad we got to come here one last time. Just look how beautiful those trees are. 

We wandered south to the Central Park carrousel. I love carrousels, and have always kind of wanted to ride this one, so we just went for it. It's history is kind of fun. According to their website:

The famed Carrousel, with its sweet calliope music and 57 magnificent horses, is the fourth to stand in Central Park since 1871. It is one of Central Park's most popular favorite attractions. It is said that a live mule or a horse, hidden beneath the Carrousel platform, powered the original amusement ride from 1873 until 1924. The animals were taught to start and stop when the operator tapped on the floor.

The next two Carrousels were destroyed by fire, the first in 1924 and its successor in 1950. Searching for a replacement, the Parks Department discovered the current vintage carrousel abandoned in an old trolley terminal on Coney Island. The Brooklyn firm Stein & Goldstein crafted the piece in 1908, and it remains one of the largest carrousels in the United States and finest examples of American folk art. In 1990, Central Park Conservancy restored the Carrousel landscape and surrounding plaza. Each horse is also being restored.

There were a few other couples and small families that rode the same time we did, but it was almost empty. We did take pictures of each other, but they all turned out super blurry. Whoops! So you'll just have to imagine us behind the camera in the one below.

After the carrousel, we wandered through the park some more, taking our time enjoying our surroundings. We turned around and had one last look/said goodbye to the park as we exited into Columbus Circle.

From there, we took the subway down to Greenwich Village.

We ate dinner at John's Pizzeria, by far our favorite pizza place in NYC. After ordering, I tried to get a picture of us together. I was just using my cell phone, because my other camera's batter was just about dead. The quality isn't that great at all because I was using the front facing camera, plus trying to take a selfie with Brian is a bit of an adventure sometimes. He gets bored really easily, so if I need to take more than two, he gets silly and starts making funny faces. It's a bit frustrating when I'm trying to get a really good picture of us, but I love it at the same time. One of the reasons why I love him...he always makes me laugh! 

One of the cool things about this place, is that you can carve your initials into the table top and walls. We didn't have anything sharp with us to carve our initials or we would have. 

We went half sausage and roasted tomatoes and half pepperoni. It was amazing. We ordered a large so that we could have plenty of leftovers to take home with us. We're going to miss this place.

After dinner, we walked over to Dolce Gelateria for some dessert. Their gelato is so delicious. Brian got chocolate and pistachio, and I got peach and salted caramel. It was SO good. The peach tasted just like fresh peaches and the pistachio just like the real deal. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. 

It was so nice to take a day off from all the craziness of sorting and packing and trying to find an new home on the other side of the country. It was a much needed break, and we had a lot of fun celebrating each other. I think the last nine years have been quite successful. We are as happy and as in love as ever.