Did you guys have a nice holiday weekend? I sure hope so! Can I start by saying I think every weekend should be a 3-day weekend?! Am I right or am I right? Personally I think it's the perfect break off for the work week!

I had a lot of fun this weekend! It was the perfect combination of having some fun, getting some things taken care of and adventure :)

I kicked off the weekend by heading to a Yankees game with my friend Lynette and Chris. Chris had an extra ticket so he was nice enough to let me bring a friend and get this is was her first Yankees game! Which wouldn't be that unheard of but she grew up on Long Island so it was really awesome she got to come along. And of course... I tried to give her the full baseball game experience complete with garlic cheesies and some other fabulous stadium food.

Saturday was a little bit more of a chill day. Cue apartment errands, lots of cleaning and other unphotographable moments... they had to get done though! All in preparation for Saturday night which was another sports moment... The first Oregon Ducks football game! To celebrate, Chris and I had a nice little BBQ on the balcony and relaxed while watching the late-night (PST times are killer on the east coast) game.

On Sunday we added some adventure to the weekend by heading out to Long Island and to the beach! One of Chris' friends got a new boat so we got to take it for a spin and head over to Fire Island to Davis Park. Once we made it towards the beach I had my first wade to the beach experience of hopping out of the boat and walking up to the shore. I've never done that before so I can check that off my bucket list!

I hadn't been to the Davis part of Fire Island before either so another something that was new! 

It was a really nice and relaxing day at the beach. We met up with some of Chris' family and friends at the beach too so we had a lot of fun! I may have gotten a little lobster status, but it's nothing a little aloe can't clear up!

We waded back to the boat with some other friends on the way back. There was a couple of feisty crabs along the way so note to self.. be careful where you walk when you do that! 

For the rest of the evening we enjoyed some downtime with Chris' parents and headed out for another Long Island treat, rum buckets! In true Anna fashion I was the slowest to finish my drink, but they sure were tasty! The bar was right along the water which was pretty cool too. 

Before we headed back into the city on Monday we stopped by the most adorable little ice cream parlor in Bellport called Carla Marla's.

They had some seriously awesome looking flavors and their cuteness factor was definitely on point ;-) I went for a malt with their cannoli ice cream! Definitely recommend. They even had a cute little place to park your pooch and doggie ice cream!

And that's a wrap! Can I stay in vacation mode forever?

I'm a little behind on writing this series, but my life kind of exploded last week, almost literally so I had to tend to some other things before making it back. That's for another post though.. #PositiveVibesOnly

The good news is Little Duck and I had the BEST time together in the city during her visit. So much fun it's going to take me alllll week to talk about all of the stuff we did! So let's get to it!

Fresh off a red-eye flight, Little Duck and I reunited at the airpot and wasted no adventure time making it back into the city. I tried to play it a little low-key on the first day -- she did fly across the country all night and all -- but because I had to work during the week while she was here I wanted to make the most of the weekend. Spoiler alert, there was definitely a lot of walking that happened. Visitors beware, I'll make you walk.. a lot!

After dropping her bags it was off  for a delicious treat at Alice's Tea Cup and off to Central Park! There was a big water fight happening which started quite the controversy earlier in the week, which ended up getting me featured in the amNewYork and on TV! Yep, really! You can watch that right here --> NBC New York "Planned Water Gun Fight at Central Park Moved After 64,000 People RSVP"

And once you've been quoted in the media about something obviously you have to go! And so we did just that! We made it to the park a little early to enjoy the sunshine a little, eat some of the treats we picked before the crazy started to unfold. 

A little bit before the fight was set to start people started going at it outside of the Great Lawn. The Central Park Twitter account had vowed that the event would get shut down and well, after about 5-10 minutes, the Parks Department showed up to crash the party. "Vacate the premises the water fight is now over" was broadcasted through their megaphones.

Just as soon as the Parks Department shut down the first fight you could see a crowd of people walking in the Great Lawn from the north. Then just like a movie scene all of the people who had been broken up rushed the Great Lawn and headed towards the middle.

I don't think the Parks Department was very pleased, but as soon as everyone made it into the center of the lawn there was no shutting it down. Now that is a water fight! Besides, the grass needed some watering on that hot day anyways!

"Look moms, we didn't get arrested at the water fight!" Our parents' one request for our first adventure.

After the water fight, we spent some more time in the park walking around and seeing some of the different views.

By the mid-afternoon we figured it was time to start to wrap up our day adventures and we headed through a food festival to pick up one of Little Duck's favorites, mozzarepas. I don't know what it is about those little cheesy delicious guys but you definitely don't see them in the PNW so it was definitely a NYC trip bucket list item. From there we made one more stop at the Union Square Farmer's Market and then it was back uptown for a low-key evening of BBQing on the balcony and getting off our feet. I know I said it was a chill day but while I wasn't wearing my Fitbit there's no doubt that we walked at least 10 miles. Little Duck is a trooper though and even after traveling all night she made it all the way until like 10:30pm! 

The next day we headed back to the park for a different adventure.. brunch at the Loeb's Boathouse. If you're looking for a very New York brunch, I totally suggest going to the Boathouse. Sometimes the wait can get a little long, but the view is so pretty and it totally gets me in the mood to watch some of my favorite chick flicks that it's featured in. 

I'm a big fan of their macaroni and cheese too. Definitely a solid choice if you check it out!

Oh heyyy duckies! Thought this was kind of perfect for our #DucksTakeNYC trip ;-)

Post brunch we headed out of the park to be extra touristy and hop on a double decker bus. I had actually never done one here so I thought it would be a fun thing to do and you totally always learn cool things about the city on them. Plus I thought it would be a good way for Little Duck to get a little bit more familiar with the neighborhoods. I told her by the end of the week she was totally going to be a NYC pro and I think she'd agree that she made the rounds on her trip! We ended up getting tickets for the Go NY Bus Tour and had a really great time! We took the downtown loop that took us through most of the high-trafficked neighborhoods with most of the notable landmarks. 

Our tour was a hop-on hop-off but we just ended up staying along for the ride to get the full tour. If you were looking for a tour that offers good transportation options though I'd definitely recommend them. Our second tour guide was super awesome too! Some of those guys are so entertaining!

Once we did a loop and a half, we decided it was time to cool off a little. So we headed to the East Village for some Big Gay Ice Cream. When you're visiting you have to make the most of every meal!

Stay tuned tomorrow for where our #DucksTakeNYC adventures took us next!

I have been busy all week getting ready for a very special arrival tomorrow... Little Duck! I've been looking forward to her trip all summer and I cannot wait for some of the fun we're going to have! I'd spill some of the beans, but some things need to be kept a surprise! Now hopefully the weather will cooperate with us... I'm going to be busy playing tour guide so I probably will be taking a little break from blogging for the week but stay tuned for some highlights from our fun. You can also follow along to some of our #DucksTakeNYC adventures on Instagram!