My trip to NYC --> Boston --> Newport -->NYC --> Atlanta

Now that I've been back home for a couple of days, I wanted to share some photos from my trip over the last 2 weeks.  Traveling is fun, but I really missed sleeping in my bed and being able to control the air conditioner at night.  I can't sleep unless it's 72 degrees or cooler.  Anyone else out there with me on this?  My body generates so much heat when I'm sleeping.

Times Square at night.

Sometimes I do miss NYC, but most of the time I really don't.  One of my biggest complaints is the air pollution.  It's pretty disgusting when you combine the heat, humidity and the cigarette smoke from everyone walking around the streets in the summer.  It actually made my asthma spike along with allergies I get in the northeast.  I'm still recovering from it.

This is my 92 year old grandma.

I love my grandma dearly which is why I go back to New York to visit as often as I do.  She's getting up there in age and at 92 years old, how many more chances will I get?  She's always so super happy to see me and makes sure she feeds me as often as she can.  Which really isn't good for my training.  

For example, here is a pretty typical dinner for her to cook.  Steamed crabs, veggie dish, pork chops (my fave!), soup, minced pork dish with peas and egg.  I'm already licking my chops looking at it.  

While I'm in NYC I also have to make the rounds and see as many of my friends as possible.  Which means even more eating.  Dim sum in Chinatown is the best.  Dumplings galore, Cha Siew Baos, tripe, chicken feet, shrimp in flour rolls (I don't know how else to describe it), shrimp dumplings and more tripe.  

While I'm pigging out almost on a daily basis, I made sure I never missed a workout.  I'm currently following the BBG  (Bikini Body Guide) program. The name is actually quite embarrassing but the workouts are super hard.  I'm sure a lot of you have heard of it.  I started in August and I'm at week 9.    It's 6 days a week and I didn't miss any workouts which I am super proud of.  Maybe I'll do a review of that after I finish the first round which is 12 weeks.

When I had a cardio day, I would go for a walk or run near the Throgs Neck Bridge.

One of the other reasons we went back to NY was for a concert.  We had bought tickets before we moved to Atlanta, or had any plans to move at all.  Lush was amazing to see and hear live.  They exceeded my expectations, and for a band that hasn't done anything in 20 years they sounded great.  

Waiting for the train to see Lush.  

San Gennaro festival before it opened.

Stomping on a Pokemon in Chinatown.

This is the new Westfield Mall in the financial district.  

One of the things I really miss about New York City is the food.  Atlanta doesn't have Lady M or Cronuts.  So of course I had to get one slice of chocolate crepe cake.  The green tea crepe cake is also very popular but my weakness is chocolate.  

Lady M

Then my sister got us tickets for Pie Night at Dominique Ansel's Kitchen.  For one full hour you can eat as much pie as you like.  

The line to get pie!

There was eleven different pies to sample.  My favorite was Chicken Pot Pie.  My sister's favorite was Short Rib Pie.  My husband loved the Tomato Tart with Fresh Ricotta.  There was Key Lime pie, Salted Caramel Apple Pie, Peanut Butter Cream Pie just to name a few.

This is the reason why I made sure I did my workouts even while we were on the road.  I woke up early to go to the gym which was great because it was empty!

Gym Selfie.

So I have a confession.  I like cute creepy dolls.  They often scare the crap out of my husband, but just look at that cute alpaca face!  I recently purchased this doll and took her with me because I have a couple of doll friends who also love cute creepy dolls and they wanted to meet her.

Miss Lilly Spitter.

 Miss Lilly Spitter's creator is Annie Montgomerie.  My good doll friend Melissa has three other dolls by the same creator.  So of course we had to meet up and take an epic photo with all four of them.  One of these days I'm going to work on my coffee table book idea about creepy dolls.

Lef to right: lamb, porcupine, slow loris, alpaca.

One last shot of Miss Lilly Spitter.

We then went to Boston to also see Lush yet again (they are my husband's list of top 10 favorite bands.)  We also needed to pick up stuff in storage.  When we moved to Atlanta we didn't have time to completely pack up all of our stuff into the pod.  So anything we didn't get to pack we put into storage.  So now, we finally have everything back.  

While in Boston we had to stop by our favorite restaurant, Uni.  

They absolutely stuffed us with food, but damn was it amazing.  

After this we were off to Newport to visit my husband's uncle.  It was really nice spending some time along the beach.  I don't think I mentioned this on my blog, but I took up the 22 Push Up Challenge.  It's 22 push ups for 22 days to bring awareness to veteran suicide.  Apparently 22 veterans take their lives everyday.  Here's a video of me doing my 22 push ups in Newport.  

Late celebration of my mom's birthday dinner.

Before we headed back to Atlanta, we had one last family dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday.  

I finally got a decent haircut!

I was sad to leave my family and friends, but I hope to be back soon.  My parents are coming to visit in the first week of November.  That should be interesting.  

The End.