Just a Walk in the Park & Another Cupcake

Last week was sort of a whirlwind because like I said before, we've been trying to do everything outside while the weather is still nice, and starting Nov 1st, life is about to get crazy! Zack is flying home to Utah the first weekend, I'm flying to Chicago the second weekend, my very oldest friends are coming up the third weekend, and Thanksgiving is the fourth weekend!! Then of course December is like the craziest month of the year as always! But, I've been missing family and friends so this craziness is definitely welcomed!

Zack decided we needed to get the unlimited metro card (to ride busses and subways as many times as we want), and I finally agreed. So, now that we've spent the money I feel like I need to put it to good use and use it everyday! We bought it last Wednesday, so Thursday I was going to go meet Zack for lunch after his morning class and then we were going to go to the Central Park Zoo. We have been dying to take Gunner to the zoo (I don't know why. He probably could care less about animals right now.) This was my first time traveling downtown all by myself so I was pretty nervous!

Usually we walk about a mile to the subway stop, but now that I have an unlimited metro card, why wouldn't I take the bus right from my apartment?!? The only problem with that is I have to collapse my stroller to take it on the bus (which we don't do on the subway). So I strapped Gunner to my chest in the baby bjorn and pushed my stroller down to the bus stop and then tried to collapse it and carry it on with all my other stuff. (I couldn't carry my real camera all pics are from our cell phones! :( ) I was quite a sight. Luckily, a very kind woman saw my struggle and carried my stroller for me. Once I got to the subway stop, I realized there were no Manhattan bound trains stopping at our station all week long because of construction. What the heck!?!? So I had to get on the North Bound train ride it all the way up passed the construction, then get on a Manhattan bound train. It was very confusing and too eventful for my first day traveling solo!

The hardest part about traveling alone is having to get my stroller up the stairs when a subway station doesn't have an elevator. I had put Gunner in his stroller for the subway ride, but was regretting it as I jerked the him up, one stair at a time! Another nice soul took pity on me and helped me carry the stroller up the stairs. (Who says New Yorkers are mean?!?) Hahaha I was a little embarrassed, but I'll get this all figured out one day!

Zack had invited a friend to lunch, so it ended up lasting a bit longer than expected, but it was fun to get to know one of Zack's school friends! We didn't get to central park until almost 4 and the zoo closed at 5 so we decided to try again another day. But, with the sun still up we had plenty more of the park to explore (after all the park doesn't close until 1 am).

We walked over towards the Bethesda fountain and terrace. This is probably one of the most recognizable places in the city! They say it's the most filmed part of Central Park. It's really beautiful, but they were setting up a haunted house while we were there so there was all sorts of junk in the way! But the fountain and terrace sit right on the edge of the lake where you can rent row boats and take gondola rides. We'll definitely be doing that in the spring time! 

As we walked through the park the fall leaves took my breath away! I'm sad we didn't get up north to see the New England country side, but Central Park will do! 

I was sort of obsessed with this tree!!!

On our walk back to the subway we decided to take a quick detour to Crumbs Bakery! They are super famous for their big giant yummy cupcakes! I got the pumpkin and Zack got the Thin Mint (omg!!!!) We devoured them! Those cupcakes didn't stand a chance. We found out the next day that Crumbs doesn't even bake their own cupcakes.... What a let down... But they sure were yummy! Do you remember the last time we got a cupcake and I was so excited to share it with Gunner... and he slept through it? Well this time he was wide awake, and he LOVED IT!!!

It ended up just being a laid back, stroll through the park, kind of day! But the pictures with the leaves and he fountain are priceless. We are not going to know what to do with ourselves once the winter hits! We spend 90% of our time outside when we're downtown. We need some good indoor ideas to add to our bucket list! 

I'm in heaven.
Xoxo 

SD