I love NYC

After work on Friday, my sister and I headed up to NYC for a short, but fun filled weekend in the worlds greatest city. The drive up there was pretty uneventful and we managed to escape without hitting too much beach traffic- lucky us :)
Saturday we drove out to Long Island to the beach, where we spent many of our childhood summers.  My mom grew up in Valley Stream which is located on Long Island and I remember taking many, many trips up there to visit our grandparents.  Each and every summer my mom would pack up the car and up to Long Island we would head.  During the summer, she would pack a cooler filled with snacks, pack the van filled to the brim with beach toys, boogie boards, beach towels and umbrellas and we would head to Long Beach for the day. It was magnificent. On our way to the beach, we took a quick little detour through Valley Stream and stopped by my grandparents old house.

The only thing that is different about the house, is that it used to have a white picket fence along the edge that was so adorable and a rose rush.  And my grandfather standing on the front porch waving at us of course :) But otherwise, it looks exactly the same.  It was so nice to see that whoever bought it has keep such good care of it. It's such a cute little house. My Pops would be so happy at how green and perfect his lawn looks.  He even used to let us have our own little garden in the backyard we would take of when we would come up.  Anyways, off to the beach we went.  Long Beach is a beautiful beach. I know, a beach in New York? But it's true, and it's gorgeous.  It was a beautiful day to just relax on the beach with a good book, which is exactly what we did.  Doesn't this just look perfect?

After the beach we grabbed dinner and headed over to quite possibly the best ice cream on earth, Itgen's.  Another childhood memory. We used to go here all the time when we were little.  It was every bit as fabulous as I remembered.  Across the street from Itgen's is a pizza place called Ancona's, which has the most delicious pizza I have ever tasted, and I've tasted a lot of pizza. My grandfather would always get it for us the day which we drove up to New York.  If you ever get a chance to visit Long Island, I would highly recommend visiting this two places.  They are well worth the drive up. How can you resist these absolutely huge, fantastic worth every calorie ice cream sundae? Delicious!

Sunday morning it was time for our 5K in YANKEE STADIUM! wahoooo!! We were excited to say the least! Now, this wasn't lets run around the warning track 12 times and call it a day type of 5k.  This was run through the entire stadium, including the basement, stairs, ramps, type of 5k.  Yes, we ran around the warning track twice but it was so much fun. I can't wait to go back and do it again next year.  It was such a blast! And, 100% of the proceeds that were raised went to cancer research, which was even more amazing. 

Before our race

Running our race

Wahooo! We made it :)

What a beautiful field

Amen to that.

On a sad note, when I was in seventh grade, I had broken my wrist; my first break since I broke it in second grade (which unknown to me, this would not be my last break) my mom walked home from work one day with a box and gave it to me.  Inside the box was a tiny little kitten.  He was only a couple weeks ago, so small that we actually had to feed him with a bottle and keep in the box at night so he wouldn't get stuck under any furniture or get lost in the house. We quickly named him Tigger and I grew to love that little guy. He was a playful striped, short haired cat with a ton of personality.  While I moved out my father's house to go to college, Tigger stayed there and always loved on me whenever I went to my dad's house and grew rather attached to my father.  He was the friendliest little cat ever, he was a mush.  Such a mush in fact that he snuggled with my dad's American Eskimo dog, and by snuggle I literally mean cuddle buddies.  He would love on anyone and even people who don't love cats would love Tigger.  Well upon returning from New York last night, I learned that Tigger had been hit by a car and died Sunday morning.  This news hit me hard and deeply saddened me.  I hate the thought of my little Tigger dying such a terrible death, all alone in the road like that. He was such a good little cat and I really did love him with all my heart.  I know he's in kitty heaven, but it breaks my heart to think that he was all alone when he passed away instead of  with people who loved him.  But little Tig Tig, I love you and i hope you're in a peaceful place little guy.