One of my favorite places in the fall is Central Park. I can actually say that about most seasons. The calm, serenity in the park is a short walk away to escape the city bustle. Add in fall colors and mild temperatures and you can start to understand why fall is one of the best times to be in the park.

One thing I love about Central Park is there is not one way to walk through. With varied and winding paths, your path is undefined, which lends some mystery. I try and take a different path each time I walk through so that I can explore another piece of the city time and time again. 

This trip, we decided to cross paths with the Belvedere Castle. If you’ve seen the new Smurfs movie, you might know the castle because it is Gargamel’s hideout. The castle in the park dates back to 1865, when it was build for no actual purpose other than a viewpoint and stunning backdrop. In 1919 the National Weather Service decided the castle was a perfect location for weather research and data collection, and it is still used for this purpose today.

Enjoy some photos, because now that the leaves are on the ground snow is just around the corner. 

Work has been a whirlwind the last month! We had two of our bigger clients with an event and launch on the same day. After months of planning, our event was ready to go and I was off to Chicago for a quick business trip with a my boss and another co-worker. 

When I say a quick business trip.. I should also note that of the 48 hours we were there we probably slept 8 hours and worked most of the others! It was a fast-paced, but very successful trip.

We took off from working straight all day from the office around 8 and after our flight was delayed, ended up getting out of New York around 11. Luckily, Chicago is only a 2 hour flight and one time zone away so that bought us an extra hour on our way there.

By the time we drove from the airport and to our hotel we finally got to bed around 2:30 a.m. of which, we had a 6 a.m. wake-up call for day 1 of our trip. Like I said, the trip really was a whirlwind, one that didn’t include much sleep.. but I still managed to snap some photos of the TAGIE awards dinner and ChiTAG Toy Fair. In the short 48 hours I did get to squeeze in two things from my bucket list though… Chicago deep-dish pizza and a Chicago hotdog. Yum!