What I Did This Week: 7/23 - 7/29

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope your week is off to an awesome start.

Last week turned out to be quite the adventure-packed week with a ton of fun new experiences, so I thought I'd recap it all here. Keep reading below to see what I was up to, and hopefully get inspired for your own NYC adventures -- enjoy!

MONDAY, JULY 23RD
Monday is Bachelorette night (duh), but it's also Lara-Get-Your-Life-Together day in general. I successfully completed my routine of picking up my weekly groceries at Trader Joe's (see here for one of my grocery hauls), doing laundry, cleaning my room and making dinner, all while squeezing in our typical Bach viewing party / cheese and wine night. Successful night all around if you ask me. 

TUESDAY, JULY 24TH
On Tuesday, the girls and I went to the Rooftop Cinema Club for the first time to watch one of my all-time favorite movies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. If you haven't seen it yet, I'm seriously questioning whether or not you're human. 

Overall, the experience was amazing -- we got to relax on lawn chairs, eat bottomless popcorn, and sip on movie-themed cocktails all night long, while perched atop a cute little midtown rooftop. They also give you headphones to listen to the movie, which is actually a brilliant idea because people were then free to mix, mingle and order food without disturbing those who were watching the film. All around an A+ evening. There's limited seating on the rooftop, so I'd grab your tickets before they sell out if you're thinking about seeing a film there later this Summer! They have everything from new hits to old classics.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25TH
Wednesday was my day off amongst the crazy, so I spent it eating in and binge watching The Office. Typical, but quite soothing. 

THURSDAY, JULY 26TH
It's Restaurant Week here in NYC, which means you can get some amazing deals at hot spots all over the city (for three whole weeks, not one, as the name might suggest). I took advantage of that on Thursday, which involved date night at Untitled at the Whitney. As a former Meatpacking District regular, I'd often walked by the museum without having gone in, and I had no idea the ground floor contained this cute little restaurant. 

The venue itself was absolutely stunning, with floor-to-ceiling windows that made the space feel open and inviting, especially with the beautiful Summer weather filtering in from outside. The pre-fixe menu options were curated with care, and everything I tried was absolutely delicious. One of my favorite things about Restaurant Week is that it allows you to try new things that you might not try otherwise (whether due to price or just general I-Always-Order-The-Same-Thing syndrome, which I suffer from greatly). This time, I started with the Baby Lettuce Salad (which had the most incredible buttermilk dressing), the Crispy Duck Confit (because A) why not?! and B) it contained my all time fave Shishito peppers), and finally the Caramel Mousse for dessert (which literally melted in my mouth). I paired this all with a few Aperol Spritzes, which added to the Summer ambiance perfectly. 

After dinner, we walked along the waterfront and enjoyed the sunset, which was the perfect ending to the night. If you're thinking about taking advantage of Restaurant Week (which again, I highly recommend), go online and book your faves early!
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FRIDAY, JULY 27TH
We had some of our West Coast team members visit us in NY this week, which of course called for Happy Hour. After work, we all convened at our fave local wine bar Compagnie (which is literally right underneath our office) for some sips and charcuterie. You can never go wrong with the Cacio e Popcorn (covered in the most amazing black pepper and pecorino) or the chef-curated cheese & meat board, and the on-site sommeliers always have the best wine recs. 

After Happy Hour, I jetted uptown to view some apartments (it was raining, and I was leaving free alcohol, so this was quite the feat). More to come on that later!

SATURDAY, JULY 28TH
The weather finally cleared up again on Saturday, so I tried to spend some more time outside. I allowed myself to sleep in, before getting up and heading out to some more apartment showings. 

After that, I headed home for a mid-day Office binge-fest before getting ready for a night out. I had tickets to see Jon Batiste (you may know him from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert) at the brand new Pier 17 rooftop, and it was the perfect Summer night for an outdoor show. 

This was the first performance to have taken place at the rooftop, so it was cool to get in at the ground level. Everything was put together really well, from the show lights and food/bar carts to the general aesthetic of the venue. There's also a sister bar on the ground level that is right out by the docks! If you need me this Summer, you can find me at Pier 17, cocktail and tacos in hand. 

I had an early and jam-packed day planned for Sunday, so I called it a night right after the show.

SUNDAY, JULY 29TH
One of my friends recently celebrated a birthday, so my friend group planned a trip upstate to go rafting along the Delaware River (we rented through Kittatinny). I hadn't been tubing/rafting since college, so I was super excited to get back on the water! 

The starting location was about a 2 hour drive outside of the City, so we all met up in the morning to road trip up there together. Cue collaborative playlist making and Dunkin' Donuts to go. Once we were finally there, it was a pretty easy process of signing wavers, shuttling to the start of the route, and picking up our life vests, oars and raft. 

The route we went on lasted for about 5 hours, and it was the perfect mix of soaring over exciting rapids and floating around in calmer waters where we could hop off and swim for a bit. We even found a spot that we could cliff jump off of, which was a first for me! Hopefully you got to enjoy that little number on my Stories this weekend. All in all, it was the most relaxing + incredible way to spend the day (cellphone free, natch), and I'm already looking forward to doing it again. Preferably, with a floating cooler full of beer, cider and snacks. 

We ended the night with a semi-spontaneous trip to the Sugar Factory for dinner and their famous Goblet drinks, which was a fun way to end the day and overall weekend (even though, it wasn't so much fun when I had to get up early for work this morning, slightly hungover). 

That's it! I hope you enjoyed following along this week, and I'm excited to see what my new week has in store for me. I hope your week is just as exciting!

xoxo,
Lara
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