"completely smitten" unveiled

Here it goes...get comfy, this is a long one!

This past weekend, I took a late night flight from Birmingham to LaGuardia. Got there, and first things first...dinner. I was hungry, but that is not a problem in NYC because restaurants are abundant. We went to Warren 77 , and I had the grilled cheese soldiers with tomato soup . Maybe I chose this because grilled cheeses remind me of summer lunches by the pool at the country club. Dinner=bedtime so that I could be rejuvenated for a BIG day on Friday!

The sun rises, and I got up and had breakfast with a friend at:

Breakfast was followed by a meeting at the Architectural League NY. Their mission is the advance the art of architecture. They also have a tangent organization/project Urban Omnibus that strives to create conversation about design and NYC. I met with one of the directors of the project to talk about their mission, work, and website design. They do lots of interesting interdisciplinary work, and offer lots of opportunities for young designers. Following the meeting, I was walking back to Stan's apartment in Tribeca and passed by this storefront,

and the bright green sign really caught my eye, plus the fact that it said "yoga". FUN! I went in. Next thing I know, I got a free first time class at Yogaworks. So I signed up, got a mat, and for the next hour I did a yoga/pilates class in the most uniquely designed space I have ever seen. It was full of sleek detail, and awesome finishes! 

My mom and sister were up in the city too. They were going to a Broadway show, so I ventured over to Jersey to see Stan's new office building. The office just moved from Lower Manhattan to Jersey, but it is just a PATH ride away. It was well worth the visit to see 30 Hudson , a LEED Platinum building designed by Argentine architect Cesar Pelli.

The view across the Hudson of Lower Manhattan is beautiful, the lights at just after sunset are stunning. Sorry I do not have a picture to share, but they are on my other camera which my sister has borrowed. Not only was the view from the ground breathtaking, but the view from the interior was amazing as well. As far as the design of the building, green practices were definitely followed. It as funny, right when we walked in, and I saw the LEED plaque on the wall I told Stan, "wow that is pretty cool, and at least all the hours you spend at work will now not be detrimental to your well-being." He laughed, not understanding that in fact unsustainable buildings can be harmful to our health. Not this one, the building materials promote employee health. Sustainably-harvested wood (sycamore) flanks the walls of the interior, all paints and carpet contain low levels of VOCs, and most all of the building materials are of high-recycled content. It was really fun to go up and explore the building {after clearing some pretty heavy security}

After my design fix, a bunch of Auburn people, that live in the city, met up at Freeman's for dinner. The best way to describe this East Village restaurant is an old southern hunting lodge with an urban twist. Can you picture that, I do not have a picture so close your eyes and use your imagination. The food was delicious, and I hear they have a super weekend brunch too. Anybody been?

The day was lots of fun, I must also mention that I was throughly entertained by live advertisements at Bloomingdales,

baskets of produce, flowers, and pumpkins at Dean and Deluca ,

and how easy things, {relatively speaking}like disposing of dead landscaping, gets done in a BIG city

With that Friday comes to a close. Sun goes down, sun comes back up. It's Saturday.

Saturday morning Mom, Andrea, and I go to Balthazar's for breakfast. The coffee was super good, and the food was yummy as well. The restaurant is renowned for it's rather exceptional design. The building is a converted leather wholesaler warehouse space. The space is, for lack of a better adjective, amazing! Then the best part yet, we met up with...

a sweet friend of mine, Ashley! She hung out with us all morning. It was a blast. Her and I had good catch up "talk" time. Her presence always makes, with out a doubt, for a fun time! As you can tell we were intrigued by the Nespresso bar.  The "N" in the espresso is Nestle discrete way of letting the consumer know that they are in fact the parent company.

After all of us girls parted our ways, I met up with Stan, and we headed on the train to Princeton to see our friends Ben and Karen. I was completely bursting out of my skin with excitement because YES IT IS FALL AND THE LEAVES ARE CHANGING! Let me show you why this so excites me:

Yeap, completely smitten by the fiery color of fall on Princeton’s campus. Leaving me in total awe of God’s amazing creation, and the fact that He does not overlook the beauty in one single detail.

The campus is in a neo-gothic collegiate style of architecture, full of character at every level.

Except for maybe the architecture school building:

Not one detail overlooked in terms of materiality, from the gutters

to the authentic slate roofs

All I can say is wow!

Not only did we tour through the main campus, but Ben drove us around town as well. We saw the seminary part of campus which he attends, the location of where Washington crossed the Delaware, the home that Eistein spent his last years, and even some local favorites. Local favorites like, the “WaWa” Grocery {which Ben informed us had a great chip selection} and the campus eating clubs {equivalent to the south’s sorority/fraternity scene}.

Before I get to lost in the all the fun things we did, I must share with you one precious memory that flooded my head when we drove across the canal. All I could think about was my precious Mom, and the childhood stories she shared with me of her early years growing up in Bucks County, PA and "The Canal”, yes you read it right Mom, “The Canal”. New Jersey on one side, Pennsylvania on the other. Mom has the most precious stories of how exciting it was, come wintertime when the canal would freeze over. Not only did her backyard become a huge skating rink, but her New Jersey friends were no longer a 45 minute drive away, but a hop, skip, and 50 yard skate away. This was so special to me to see in real life the canal that brought my sweet Mom so much excitement as a child. The canal is not only beautiful; it is flanked by old tug paths that have become running/walking/biking trails. What a truly amazing way to exercise amidst God’s beauty!

Back on track now, Princeton by night took us four to dinner at Mezzaluna, right off Nassau Street, the main drag through downtown Princeton. The food was delicious. I had a fusili pasta in a basil-tomato sauce, finished with fresh mozzarella and eggplant. To follow that up, we enjoyed organic ice-cream from The Bent Spoon . It was so good, words do not exactly do it justice, and I am not even an ice cream type of girl! After that we managed to catch a little bit of the AU vs. LSU game before heading to Ben and Karen's home right near downtown.

Sunday morning, we woke up to the smell of yummy french-pressed coffee. And we even persuaded Karen to falunt her talent for us, and play a little Bach on her harp. Yea play the harp, easy right? She is super talented, even has professional, graduate training, and one is one of the top harpist. I do not know if you have ever watched anyone (up close and personal) play the harp before, but it is the most graceful thing to watch. The way she was moving her arms/hands was like watching a ballerina dance. {beautiful metaphor!} And all that music makes you hungry right? So off to the LONG line at PJ's Pancake House, a famous Sunday breakfast spot in the heart of it all.

Following that STICKY breakfast, a walk through downtown. The weather forecast, crisp and cool! The only thing missing was the smell of pumpkin spice cake {but I took care of that tonight, I BAKED pumpkin spice cake!}. Time flew way to quickly, and we zipped out of town to catch our 1:45 train back to the city. Unfortunately we were a little slowed down by a huge collegiate rowing event.

Back in the city, Mom and Andrea left earlier than me for a flight to Atlanta, so Stan and I spent the afternoon walking around Tribeca. We even stumbled upon an open house for a 3 bedroom apartment. Yes, Yes, Yes we went right on in. It was sleek and BEAUTIFUL! European granite, Miele appliances, wood floors, herringbone pattern tile embedded among white marble bathroom floors, German designed double hinged/triple pane windows, double height ceilings, desginer fixtures, and a sensational natural light! A perfect ending to a NYC visit because I was then quickly swift away in the rather poorly designed interior of an ordinary yellow taxi cab to LaGuardia, and as for tonight...I'm off to bed.