Sarah and I spent Wednesday and Thursday in cold-recovery mode. We have a lot to do before we leave, but we took advantage of my mom's delicious home cooking, slept through our alarms and tried to knock off the least strenuous activities from our to-do list.
By Thursday (my birthday, by the way!), we were both feeling well enough to take a long walk through the woods of Madison. The weather was perfect for a fall day in New Jersey - and the mild exercise was probably good for our colds too!
Strolling through the woods.
Lots of colorful leaves, though most had fallen off the trees at this point!
After our walk we were treated to a delicious home cooked meal to celebrate my birthday. My brother, Nick, and his girlfriend, Michelle, made the trek out from the city to join us and my Aunt Jill and Uncle Dave drove up from southern Jersey as well. It was great to catch up with the family, especially because this is the only time along our whole year-long journey that we'll get to see Nick, Michelle, Jill and Dave!
Family shot before dinner.
And we even had a proper birthday cake.
Feeling rested (and almost over our colds) we drove into New York City on Friday to tackle some of our remaining to-dos. I bought a coat and boat shoes; Sarah got some pants and make-up (among other things). After running around the city all day, we split up for dinner: Sarah met up with our friend Dana and I got together with another friend Brendan. It's always great to catch up after being gone for so long!
On Saturday we had brunch with our friends Ally and Hayden at Sweet Chick, which turned out to be amazing. Sarah always says there's not much high quality southern food in the city - but Sweet Chick definitely filled that void for her!
Our afternoon / evening on Saturday revolved around our last wedding of the year - my good friend Dan and his fiancée Ali got married in The Green Building in Brooklyn. The venue was very cool - and very appropriate for Dan and Ali! - plus it wasn't a far drive from our hosts' apartment in Williamsburg (thanks again Sam and Nicole!).
Pre-wedding photo at Sam and Nicole's place.
The happy couple's first kiss! (Also, Dan puts my beard to SHAME.)
Doing our best imitation of the bride and groom in their photobooth.
Today we headed over to our friends' Ali and Caleb's place to watch the NYC Marathon. Fortunately we had an extra hour to sleep due to Daylight Savings Time (especially after the late night on Saturday!). We had a great time watching the runners go by Ali and Caleb's living room window, but not long after the race was over it was time to say goodbye to all our friends.
It's been a great weekend here in NYC but we need to head back to NJ to finalize our preparations for the longest leg of our trip. We're very excited to see Japan on Wednesday but sad to be away from our friends and family for eight months!