a taste of summer

Lest I give the impression that it was all work and no fun, I want to share a few highlights from July! First, I ran my first race in New York City! It was a four-miler in Central Park, and it was Julie's first race ever. Even in the July heat, she did an amazing job!

Triumphant at the finish line!

The fun group of girls we ran with. After the race, we had a relaxed picnic in the park on a perfect afternoon.

A few weeks later, S. came to visit, and we had a busy NYC-LI weekend. We tried out a trendy restaurant run by a friend from her youth group, Contra. It was delicious, but not so filling that we didn't want to go for gourmet ice cream sandwiches afterwards:

 

Then we went out to North Fork to taste Long Island wines! It was fun to try different wines and learn some of the lingo, and it was very beautiful and peaceful out there.

 We had a seafood dinner by the bay:

And the next day, squeezed in some beach time:

One of the big reasons I'm glad I returned to the east coast is the opportunity to see my dear friends more frequently. Here's to more good times in New York!